Name: NIIA Bertino
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current Release: NIIA's new album V is out October 10th 2025 via Candid.
Topics I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: I’m really passionate about great danes. Well, I guess I called a song “Pianos and Great Danes.” I just love the breed and can’t wait to rescue one soon. I also am really invested in mental health and it’s something I think we all need to work on.

If you enjoyed this NIIA interview and would like to know more about her music and upcoming live dates, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and tiktok.



When did you first consciously start getting interested in singing? What was your first performance as a singer on stage or in the studio and what was the experience like?

I always remember singing to myself when I was a kid. I didn’t want anyone to really know I could sing because I was painfully shy and introverted growing up.

Eventually it got out and my first performance was in middle school for the Variety Show where I was the only kid that sang a song live. Everyone else lip synched.

I threw up before and after the show. I remember it being so visceral and terrifying but also the first time I experienced pure bliss.

If you’re also playing other instruments, how does the expressive potential of these compare to your own voice?

I think sometimes instruments can say things voices can’t.

My song “Maria In Blue” (from my new album V) or “I left my Juul in Monterey” from my ambient record showcase more instrumentation in the forefront than voices. I’ve always put one song with no vocals on my records for this reason.

“Maria in blue” has a spoken word type of sing song poem.

Singing is an integral part of all cultures, and traditions. Which of these do you draw from – and why?

I’d choose jazz as the form I draw from most deeply with singing. Jazz for me, isn't just a style, it's a language of freedom, vulnerability and reinvention. It grew out of resilience and community, and it has always carried both beauty and bruises at once. I connect with that duality.

My own singing is rooted in jazz tradition, but I bend it into something modern and personal - bringing the past with what I feel now. It lets me honor where the music comes from while also creating space for my own story.

“Dice” is a good example of me bending traditional jazz with modern influences.

What were some of the main challenges in your development as a singer/vocalist? Which practices, exercises, or teachers were most helpful in reaching your goals – were there also “harmful” ones?

I think just trusting myself no matter where I was in the process. I am a bit of a perfectionist and if you mix that with being introverted it can be self harming to the development.

I’m grateful for my mom, teachers and muses in artists I admire who supported me along my journey.

I also love a cigarette every blue moon which is pretty harmful ... I hate to admit.

What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers?

I don’t really know how to name it. I guess it’s just that I have to feel something.

How would you describe the physical sensation of singing? [Where do you feel the voice, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or tension etc …]

It’s a drug.

It’s proven to help with anxiety and depression, so singing saves my life everyday. There is nothing more releasing than singing.

We have a speaking voice and a singing voice. Do these feel like they are natural extensions of each other, ends on a spectrum or different in kind?

I have been told based on my speaking voice people would think I have a decent singing voice. I think it’s interesting to hear the difference.

I have some friends with speaking voices I dislike but their singing voice is incredible. Always very surprising to me.

How do you see the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody? Do you feel that honing your sense of rhythm and groove has an effect on your singing skills?

I think it’s all relative and subjective really. I am a recovering jazz conservatory kid. I’m also a jazz conservatory drop out.

I think it's really important to learn as much as you can about everything. The second you think you think you know everything about music or anything is the day your work starts to suffer.

I do also think it's how you apply these skills and use them. Sometimes the simple choices are the most impactful.

What are the potentials and limits of your voice? How much of your vocal performance can and do you want to control?

I want to control all of it and I’ve worked pretty hard to say I have pretty good control. If I feel like I might miss a note I will change the melody to explore other options..

As I get older and sneak more cigs though, I worry my range will go ...

As a singer, it is possible to whisper at the audience, scream at the audience, reveal deep secrets or confront them with uncomfortable truths. Tell me about the sense of freedom that singing allows you to express yourself and how you perceive and build the relation with the audience.

Music has saved my life. It has also been a difficult mirror at times.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve been hiding in plain sight. My music is all truth and sometimes in my other life I’m not being my authentic self or I’m in denial, blaming others.

But my lyrics and that raw vulnerability I get to record and share on stage are not lost on me. It’s where I get to be my true self and nobody judges me and nobody cares how fucked up I am.  

“Again with feeling,” or “fucking happ,” or “found the resturants” - I'm really singing my truths out here.

I’d love to know more about the vocal performances for your latest release, please, and the qualities of your voice that you wanted to bring to the fore.

I really wanted to pull from traditional jazz voice and just some of my own habits, or styles I’ve mutated along the way.

You’ll hear some vibrato, some belting, some head voice which aren’t always present with jazz voice. Jazz voice traditionally is a blended scale vocal range where you can't hear the break in your voice ... Should all sound like butter!

I wanted to explore all of the options with the voice!  It was important to showcase the voice but also know when to be quiet and let the musicians speak too.

When you’re writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words?

Yeah, I usually have to live or feel them so deeply that I need to get them out of my mouth.

Sometimes they feel so bad I have to write them down to get them out.

What’s your perspective in this regard of singing someone else’s songs versus your own?

If I wish I wrote it, I would sing it.

Strain is a particularly serious issue for many vocalists. How do you take care of your voice? Are the recipes or techniques to get a damaged voice back in shape?

I've become a  witch over the last few years in order to understand what my voice needs. I have so many potions and spend a good chunk of my time at my vocal doctors to get updates on the health of my vocal chords.

I also don’t do too many shows in a row. It’s learning the voice and thinking about yourself as an athlete. Knowing your limitations and setting boundaries - which can be hard but also gotta allow yourself some fun.

How has technology, such as autotune or effect processing, impacted singing? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach?

Not really to be honest.

For recording engineers, the human voice remains a tricky element to capture. What are some of the favourite recordings of your own voice so far and what makes voices sound great on record and in a live setting?

This has been a real challenge for me. Capturing my voice in a recording studio has never really got the magic of when I’m singing live.

My new record is the closest I’ve gotten to how I feel I sound live. This album … I wanted it to feel live but also controlled in a way.

"Again with feeling" - perfectly imperfect.
"Fucking happy" - you can hear me comma splice phrases and breathe.



Motherese may have been the origin of music, and singing is possibly the earliest form of musical expression, and culture in general. How connected is the human voice to your own sense of wellbeing, your creativity, and society as a whole?

It’s saved my life again again and again. I’m grateful.