NERIAH on being brutally honest and learning how to fall in love

I found it interesting how you were saying being an independent artist is very important for you. I feel like everyone has different opinions on the topic. What do you think are the pros and cons of being independent versus signed? And how does that all work out for you? 

For me, there are a lot of pros. I can’t really say that there are a lot of cons from what I’ve experienced. Being a girl in the industry, when I first started, I remember everyone [told me], “You’re never going to get on playlists on Spotify. You’re never going to break 500,000 monthlies. It’s impossible. You can’t get on the cover of anything.” [But I decided], you know what, I don’t want to sign. I graduated a year early. I went to college and I got a marketing business degree, I did the whole thing. I’m very hands on in my career when it comes to my creative process. I hustle and I love working hard, and my music and my brand and my career means the most to me. Honestly, out of selfishness, I was worried that I would lose that [by] signing to a label. I like to be sitting there. I choose the order of everything, I choose when these songs come out. 

I have such an amazing team around me. We all really push each other and my producer [and I] do everything [with basically] just the two of us. He’s an absolute genius. Everyone on the team really believes in the project, which is really nice. The biggest pro of being independent is being able to pick. If I was with a major label, there’s no way I would be able to release a song every month. There’s just no way. And there’s no way I would be able to drop a twenty-four track album. I know how to market a brand. I know how to market myself. I went to school for this, and that’s another one of my passions. [I decided to] see what I [could] do. I’m still so new to this, and I’ve only been releasing for a little over a year. If I’m ever going to sign, I want to make sure that me and everyone around me knows my brand already so I’m not being pushed into anything. That was definitely something that was important to me. 

[For] cons, labels are these huge, huge companies, and they have so many connections. You get access to a bigger budget, so obviously that helps. But right now, TikTok is winning the game, if you can get a song on there [to go viral]. We had almost every song [on my first EP] go viral. My biggest song right now just hit 22 million, and that felt really good. We were all so proud of it, because there’s no label here, but we just worked hard and we believed in it. You don’t stop working until it makes sense, until it happens. We’re all very passionate, and I really owe it to my team. They’re absolutely incredible, and to be able to work [alongside] people that I love and care about so much, and that are so passionate about the project and believe in me has been really nice. I owe a lot of that to them.

I was interviewing an artist yesterday who has been in the music industry for thirty to forty years. We were talking about the evolution of social media and streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. You don’t have to rely on other people to push you, if you’re really good at taking advantage of the algorithm.

A hundred percent. It is [taking advantage of the algorithm]. I was posting thirty times a day on TikTok every day, and it worked.

It definitely has. Now you can tell the people who said you wouldn’t make it that you have over a million and a half Spotify listeners, and you are going to be on the cover of a magazine.

Yes, which is amazing. But I think that’s something too. I really want to teach young girls and anyone [who] wants to get in the industry that you can do it. There are going to be challenges, but don’t let anyone get in your way. It’s possible.

Definitely. Going back to your upcoming album, when that comes out, what impression do you want it to leave on people, since it’ll be your first big debut album? And in general, what impression do you want to leave on people when they hear your music for the first time?

A few things. [My] main message [across] the entire [album] is that sometimes, being in the wrong relationship doesn’t feel like you’re in the wrong relationship. Sometimes you can be in love with the wrong person and totally not know. I’m definitely this hopeless romantic who thinks I’m going to marry every single person I’m with. I’m not going to waste my time with someone. I’ve had serious relationships my whole entire life. That’s a big thing for me. 

You’re going to move on, and sometimes beautiful things can happen when you do. The album really focuses on me learning how to fall in love for the first time, which was something that was such a crazy experience and happened while I was writing it. It was this beautiful story that we were able to get in songs. 

Another thing that’s really important for me to tell everyone and for everyone to know listening to my music is how honest and open I am. When you read the lyrics, and when you hear the songs, they’re pretty brutally honest, which I think is a good thing. That’s something that I’ve always [valued], especially as an artist and when I’m writing, because I can’t write about something that didn’t happen, and I have to write about it the exact way it happened. I hope people can understand that they’re not alone and that we all go through the same things. Hopefully they will be able to find a song that helps them.