When 26-year-old Niia Bertino, known mononymously as Niia, was a child her family a classical pianist mother, opera singer grandmother, Juilliard-educated aunts, jazz piano prodigy for a cousin and so on would hold family concerts. Often Niia would sing with her back to them, crippled by shyness and intimidated by her musical lineage. Thats why there are singers who I admire who just own their extroverted behaviour, she says on the phone from Los Angeles, where she is preparing for the release of her debut EP Generation Blue, a suite of intricately crafted, swooning pop that brings to mind a more symphonic Jessie Ware (its first single, Body, has had more than 30,000 Soundcloud plays in two weeks). I started singing because it made me feel better but I didnt realise people would want to see me do that.
Raised in Massachusetts and educated in a strict Catholic school, Niia describes her younger self as a weird 13-year-old listening to Sarah Vaughan whod spend lonely summers at big band jazz camp. Inspired by Vaughans vocal dexterity she fell in love with female jazz singers, eventually winning a place at New Yorks New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. In New York I realised I could be comfortable being a bit more extroverted with my strangeness, she says. Suddenly Im with these kids who have green hair and theyre 18 and Im like your mum let you dye your hair green? and theyre all I dont care what my mum thinks. I embraced that freedom. So much so that she dropped out after a year, spending her time organising and performing at Bond-themed pop-up gigs and paying the bills by singing advertising jingles.
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by Michael Cragg via Electronic music | The Guardian
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