I want to make timeless music. I want to sell out arenas. I want to travel and connect with people that are connecting with the music.
What advice would you give to women who are constantly being told like you're too much, or you've got too much energy, or too much of this too much for Naika is a French Haitian global artist. She exudes confidence, femininity, and power. Her music celebrates identity, freedom and self expression, and she has been on my Spotify playlist every single day.
I love that journey of tapping into my femininity, my woman. It's something that has always fascinated to me. Female sensuality is something that I always loved and connected with from a very young age. I think also, we live in a world that wants to dim that and make us
feel embarrassed or too much. When I'm at my shows and I see the audience and I see the people, and it's such a diverse crowd, and people from all walks of life, from all different cultures like religions racist, to me, that's such a big accomplishment.
What do you feel like your definition of lovers or your expectations of what a relationship for you feels like I'm Rasi Wukah and on my podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy and the beautiful, providing a space for raw, un filtered conversations that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn, connect and find comfort together. Naiga, I am so so excited. Don't think you understand how excited I am that you are sitting on the sofa right now.
I feel like I'm.
Honored by the way I watched you and Jay's videos all the time, oh the time.
That makes me so happy.
I feel like we definitely manifested this because I have been listening to your music every single day since I heard about you, so that's at least over a year, and you were on my Spotify rap.
So really, yes, of course you were. Are you kidding? I'm not joking when I say I'm obsessed.
I just admire you so much, not just your music, but honestly the way that you are. You show up with confidence and femininity and lean into that so beautifully.
I felt.
That's why, honestly, I wanted to have you on, because there's such an incredible conversation to be had around how to lean into your feminine and make it something that's so powerful. And every time I watch you perform, and every time that I see you on stage, and I mean I saw you yesterday and you were absolutely incredible, but you make other women feel that way about themselves. So yeah, I want to start off by asking you
tell me how it all started. We always musical, We always interested in what you do.
Now.
Yeah, yeah, it's been my obsessions since I was a kid. Really, yeah, my mom used to seem to me to do anything as a baby, you know, for me to shower, for you, for me to do anything. And she told me that the first time that they saw me smile was after she gave birth to me and they were in the car and they put the radio on and then the music started playing and then I smiled for the first time.
So it's always been my big love. And I just feel so grateful that I get to do this today, even though there was no other way, because I was like, this is right, this is what I'm meant to do, so pushed through.
Until Yeah, how are your parents in this whole journey watching you become who you are now? Like, were they always really confident about it or you know, did they have the reservations.
No, they definitely had reservation They definitely had reservations. My dad, my dad loves music. My mom My mom sings or lot. She expresses herself with music. My dad loves like he used to play guitar when I was a kid, and he would sing to me. And sometimes I wouldn't go to sleep without him playing and singing to me, you know. But it definitely took them a minute to trust this path,
and I had to. I had to swim against the current for a while, you know, and eventually, I think it's like now, like two years or yeah, two years ago, my mom started being like, Okay, it's working.
It's very fine.
Okay, fine, you can.
Do this, even though they had no choice in it. But now that you can do it. So where have you lived all your life? Where were you born? And what brought you to where you are now?
Yeah? So I grew up very like normal lifestyle. For my dad's job, so every four years we had to move, change countries for his work. So I had a privilege to grow up, you know, in different corners of the world. When I was born, my parents were living in the Caribbean, in Guadaloupe, but my mom gave birth to me in Miami, and then I lived in guadaloup until I was two
years old. Then we moved to this little island called Vanuatu in the South Pacific and I lived there for four years, and I moved to Nairobi in Kenya for four years. I lived in France for three years and then South Africa for another three years, and then my dad really unexpectedly lost his job. So my parents were, you know, like our whole lives dependent on my dad's jobs.
So when that happened, my parents decided to start their life over in the US, so they moved to Miami and then I finished my high school in the United States.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, my parents actually born and raised in Uganda. Wow, I've got so much African influence in Swahili in the house, and yeah, African influencing the food that we ate as well.
Wow.
Do you feel like your culture and your tradition, like how much of a role does it play and what you do and the music that you create.
I think that's been a big internal struggle for me, is finding my place in the world and where I belong. And it's something that is like a very push and pull, you know, like sometimes I feel really whole in the fact that I am a piece of multiple different things, and then sometimes it's a bit ostracizing, I guess, you know, to feel like you're never fully one thing and accepted in one place. But I think embracing the multi cultural and multifaceted you know, yeah.
All the different parts of yeah, yeah.
And I think what's brought me so much comfort too is seeing how many peop will relate to that. And I dropped a song called Layers last year, and the response to that song brought me so much like warmth to see how many people relate. And I think there's so many of us out there that feel, you know, in between, and feel like we're not fully accepted or
belonging anywhere. I always feel like my sense of home is in other people, you know, and as well, like scattered, and I think there's a lot of beauty behind that too, And it's like everything there's like good and bad about it.
So I feel like most people in the world, whether they're even part of one culture or not, there's always a part of you that feels like you don't belong. Yeah, Like whether it's in friends, circles, whether it's in culture, whether it's in the place that you used to live and don't live anymore, Like so many of us feel like we.
Don't belong in so many different circles.
But having the ability to use that and create something like you have created your music that helps people feel like they belong.
So I hope.
Yeah, I really do think you do that.
I actually was asking my friend who loves you, and she was like, I asked her, what would you want to know and what would you want me to ask? And she said that she is also from different backgrounds, and how do you manage not feeling like you belong? So I feel like that really resonates with so many people.
Yeah, you have to see like the the perks of it, you know, Like I think people that have this experience were very adaptable, We get along with so many different types of people, were not like closed off, and we're very open minded.
Yeah, exactly.
She's beautiful and I think that brings a lot of healing to the world.
It does.
Do you feel like you carried a lot of values and things from your parents into the way that you live now. I'd love to hear were you raised from in a specific religion or yeah, what did your parents follow as you as you were growing up.
My parents are very like free spirited.
My mom is.
My mom is a character like really, I can't wait on counter? Yeah we should, it's incredible. And obviously my dad too. She's just inspired me so much in so many different ways. And I didn't grow up necessarily religious, even though like sometimes I went to Catholic schools and I grew up you know, with like experience, going to maths and stuff like that. But I didn't grow up in like a very like religious structure. But I did grow up with spirituality through my mom. My dad is atheist,
he doesn't believe in anything. But my mom is very connected to a higher power that she has always transmitted to me as a kid, and I feel very connected to the universe and to that energy. So yeah, so I have that connection through my mom.
I feel like when we carry different parts of our parents through what we do, it's just it carries you in a different way. It's like they're literally passing you. You don't realize how much of them that.
You carry it through what you do.
Yeah, of course, do.
You feel like people romanticize parts of your journey or your life after obviously being in the public eye and you obviously see how much hard work it takes and all the things that you have to do in the background. Do you feel since you've been in the public eye and since you've been doing this has been difficult to kind of manage that judgment all the way that people perceive you.
It's so weird when people have an opinion of you and they don't know you. Yeah, it's crazy. And when that started happening to me, I was like I had my clauset. I was ready to try and be like wait, what, like you don't know me like that? But yeah, having to navigate, you know, just letting that be and it's like, Okay, these people don't know you, you know, and so you can't say to heart the different opinions or full on stories that people will make up about you. So that's
been interesting and navigating that has been interesting. The first time it happened to me was when I had a viral video for this verse that I did on Don't Rush in twenty twenty during pandemic, And that's when I like really first started putting myself out there in the Internet and stuff and that video went really really viral.
Like I was kind of having anxiety when this was happening because I'm like, from one day to the next, there's two million people one video and so many opinions, you know, And but yeah, I mean it's just something you have to Yeah. I used to be around yourself and just just like let it be the Yeah.
I used to be one of those online warriors where I would just want to respond back to everything.
Yeah. Same.
I then you just realize it is just like you drop in the ocean, you know.
And you know what, I would never take the time to like type something out to bring someone else down. That's like trying to make something out of themselves. So the minute that you're a person that does that, I have no, You're just not even my type of person, you know. So it's like I'm not even going to give you that type of energy.
It also valutes your energy, Like when you're coming from a place of creativity and expansion and trying to build and then you're you're channeling into the energy of someone who's trying to bring you down, it's a completely different frequency.
That you're tuning into.
So it's so great that you've realized that in your journey already rather than trying to Ye.
Yeah, sometimes I'm like about to cuss people out and then I'm like, you know what, let me for a second, swimmer, and then I'm like, no, I'm not going to do it.
Do you feel like your idea of you know, you've been in this world for such a long time. Do you feel like your idea of what success looks like for you has changed from when you started being seasoned in it for a while now.
M No, because I guess I I'm very ambitious and I know what I want to build, but I also am very aware that, like where I am up to this point, even though I know where I want to take it, I'm already successful in what I've built and what I've done and to be able to me, there's
different ways of looking at success. Obviously, there's like the numbers and the accolades or whatever, and the recognition, but there's also like, I'm successful because I get to do what I love and even if it's something that's seen by the world, or if it's something that's seen by small community people, as long as I can put food on my plate doing what I love. To me that's so I'm rich. You know, what's the dream?
Like? What is if we were all out here wanting to manifest your dream life all year and the dream of.
What all of this could become. What is that for you? Like? What do you dream about every day?
I want my music to reach the world. I want to. I really want to get a Grammy one day.
Yes, it's Grammy season.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah, we're thinking about it.
And that's something that's on my vision board. Just unlike, yeah, this is like a big I made it moment. Yeah, Gray, I want to make timeless music, music that will stay through that doesn't age. You know, that's a big one. I want to sell out arenas. I want to travel and connect with people that are connecting with the music. And I think a big one too is just bringing
people together. Like when I'm at my shows and I see the audience and I see the people and it's such a diverse crowd and people from all walks of life, from all different cultures like religions, races. To me, that's such a big accomplishment. It's not an accomplishment, but like it brings me a lot of joy and makes me This is why I do it, Yeah, and bringing people together in that way is something that is really special to me, Like it's something that is very relevant in
my life. You know. I have a very diverse group of friends, Like I have family from so many places around the world, you know, and that's just like my life is made up of that. And for it to show up like that in my career and the music that I make is really special to me.
It is an accomplishment because if you think about the world is so divisive, like everything in the world ends up being so divisive. So to have a talent that can actually create unity and harmony between people. And I was thinking that yesterday when we came to a show. There was just people from so many different places and you could tell that they definitely live different types of lives.
And I was looking around.
When we were waiting in the queue, and I was like, Wow, it must feel so surreal coming out and when you came out to meet people and thinking, gosh, all these people from completely different walks of life are connecting to my music, Like it is such a superpower and it is a beautiful accomplishment.
Thank you so much. Yeah, I feel Yeah, it makes it makes my heart superful. It's really happy.
I feel like your music is so emotionally intimate, like you feel your emotions through when you sing. How do you kind of choose between and what you share of yourself and what you keep close to you or are you someone who just kind of feels like you have to spill it all through your music?
To me, it's how I express myself. Yeah, the way you see me now and like doing interviews and stuff. It's it's new for me to be able to not have that blockage. I feel like I was. I am now unpacking my communication blockages, if you will. And music has always been my safety in the way I express myself. So I am very vulnerable in my music and it's where I get to fully be me and express myself.
What do you feel like all the songs that you've done, what was the hardest one to write? All the one that felt the most, the most exposing of yourself or of your inner world.
There's different answers to that.
Yeah, it doesn't have to be one. We can get through them all. Let's go through the.
There's a song on No Let Me Start. I think the first one that came to mind when you asked me this maybe it's not an evident one, but it's a song that is all in Frenchhi's called Bell. And the reason why that song made me very emotional when writing it because that song is it talks about the relationship women have to experience with beauty and how so much of our worth is dependent on how we look.
And that song has made me cry, even though it's a beautiful song, it's very uplifting and everything, but it came out of that frustration of that pressure that we're faced, you know, and this like competition off of something that we don't have control over, and that should you know, what matters should be who we are inside. So that one and there's a song on the album called what a Day where I talk about different world topics that frustrate me and like it just injustice in the world,
and I love that song. And that one was a bit not that it was challenging to write, but there's just so much going on in the world and to fit every you know, we had to like be intentional with what. You can't fit all of the troubles in the world in a song, you know, And so in that sense it was a bit tricky because if you're like, damn, I'm leaving this out. I'm leaving this out, And I honestly the song could keep going on for hours, you know, but I loved I'm excited for the world to hear.
What's your creative process?
I'm seve intrigued, Like, do you ever feel like you run out of inspiration?
Do you ever feel like you get a block?
And in those times, for anyone who's creative, what do you do to get yourself out of that?
Twenty twenty three was a really weird year for me because I found myself having to restructure my whole team, so I ended up basically teamless. It's funny because the EP that came out just before that period of time, it's called Transitions, and I dropped and I named it Transitions because I knew that it was going to be a moment in my life where I transitioned from like
the beginnings of like dropping EPs too. I knew that after that project, I was going to drop my album, and I had a feeling that this was going to be like a moment. Also in that project, I'm like exploring different sounds in different worlds and stuff like that, and so I had a feeling that it was going to be a transition period of my life. But I had God was like, oh, you wanted to unders be. So that year was it was weird for me because
I was creating a lot. I was making a lot of music, but nothing that I was connected to, nothing that I wanted to put out. And then I found myself without a team and having to fully restructure my life and my business and everything. So when you asked me that, I think that's the first thing that comes up is that year when there was and I dropped some songs. I managed to stay you know, putting myself out there. But but yeah, no, of course I think. I think it's normal to go through ebs and flows
and creative process. But my creative process I love melodies. So when I go into the studio and I play like either a beat or an instrument or whatever, I'll usually lead with melodies right and see what feels good and what sits right. But sometimes I do come in with like a topic or something that I want to talk about, or like a lyric or even a song title. But usually I'm a melody. I love hearing it before you. I just if you don't stop me, I'll just keep
going going on. I love spinning out melodies and freestyling in that way.
Where do you get your confidence from?
I really need to ee this because I feel like that's something I admire about you so much. And mixture between your confidence and also have you always felt that you can be as in your feminine as you are?
Have you always been that way.
Throughout my life in ebbs and flows. I think when I reached when I got to college, I had a period where I was like so out of touch with myself and very lost and very insecure and yager. I remember I was completely like out of touch with my body and my just extremely anxious. And I think also in that I was facing a lot of questions about my identity and who I am and very confused about like we were saying, where I fit into the world. And I think for me, it's been about strengthening my
relationship with myself. And I think that's the best thing we can do, is like get to know ourselves really to a tea And it's not a linear journey, you know, just becoming besties with yourself, yeah, and knowing that you you got your own back, I think is the most powerful thing you can do. Definitely.
I feel like sometimes people have a stage person where they feel so confident on stage, and then when they come off stage it's a different person. But I feel like you carry it through who you are when you meet you like this and on stage as well, which I think takes so much of like you said, getting to know yourself, it takes.
Yeah, you have to love yourself deeply and then love to do that.
It's of yourself, the perston that you don't understand, like you have to. You have to be comfortable with being alone and not run away from that, and you have to learn to love being alone, and yeah, getting to know yourself fully.
What does your day look like?
Do you have any daily practices that you do that you love doing morning tonight? Is anything that stays consistent in your day apart from singing and finding melodies in your mind?
No, my days are not consistent. I don't have a routine, which is probably not the most like inspiring thing to share, but I don't have a routine. I have a lot of I know that you're a morning person and that you're really good with your morning routines.
Now I am, but I used to love a sporadi. I used to love a spontaneous day. I used to live in spontaneity until I kind of had to create structure in my life.
Yeah, I thrive on that, on spontaneity. It depends on the day and what I have to do. Yeah, but I'm really happy when I get to wake up late.
Yeah, you're like you are you a late sleeper as well?
Do you drive in the evening so much?
I'm such a night so many creatives I like that where you get so much of your inspiration at night.
Girl, you can catch me deep cleaning my house up four it. I love like the nighttime for some reason. It brings me a lot of energy. The morning, on the other hands, like a slow morning.
Yeah, but I do.
Appreciate it when I wake up early and I have the whole day and you know, but I prefer sleeping in. Yeah, fair, Yeah, we like that. Yeah. Maybe it's soon, like in a couple of years, I'll have a more you know, structured routine. But as of right now, I'm not gonna lie. I don't. I feel like for a.
Lot of creatives and artists as well. Though, when you're traveling, you have to be on such a schedule that when you don't have that, you kind of need that space and time to Like, I get that when I go back home, I'm like, I don't want to.
Look at a clock. Yeah, I don't want to know what time it is.
I don't want to have appointments and plans because you need that in your life after having structure.
If you're on tour and things like that.
It feels good too, it does.
It was so good.
I'm like that.
When I go back to my mum's I sleep like I have never slept before. Yeah, I am a full bear when I go back, just hibernate in.
The same room that I grew up in.
It's just yes, it's a different but like different feeling when.
You get back in the same room that you grew the.
Same room that I grew up in, same house.
That's something that I wish I had. Oh yeah, the same room and the same house that I grew up in. That's so cute.
But now you go back to Miami, right for where your family's based. Yeah, yeah, I know it is.
It's but you know what, it makes you go back to your childhood so much. I feel like a child when I go back to that room. Yeah, yeah, it's good. I wanted to ask you what your inspiration is in terms of artists, Who do you listen to right now or what did you grow up listening to.
I grew up listening to very varied music at home. My parents listen to like world music, depending on like when we lived in South Africa, we listened to Maria i'm ok At, Brenda Facie and discovering different artists from from the regions. Listen to obviously a lot of like Haitian music. I grew up on on on On Kompai and on the sounds from Haiti and the West Indies, and also Latin music, a lot of cave Verdian music as well. My mom really loved listening to cave Verdian music.
And then I grew up on Sesaia Ivora, who's one of my favorite artists and she's an artist out of out of Cape Verdi. But I discovered my love for pop music at seven years old.
Oh really, and it changed my life. Okay, who was it? Brittany Yeah, legend icon.
Yeah, big time. I just wanted to be Britney Spears when I was a kid, and and Beyonce as well Shakira too. Yeah. My parents would put me like, think I'm asleep, and I would be in my room, like I put my pajamas like this, and I showed my stomach and I was like practicing, you know. So those were my like as a kid. These women just completely changed my brain chemistry, you know, and I wanted to be like them and so yeah, I discovered that WORLDS and R and B as well when I was around
seven years old. Yeah.
The great thing is that when you're saying all these people, I'm like, yeah, I feel little drops of all these people in the music that you're doing.
Thank you all of that.
Yeah, it's so great.
What would you say throughout your journey and all the things that you've been through, what's been the hardest lesson you've had to learn?
And the best lesson?
Girl, that's a great question. I take your time. Let me start with maybe the best. The best lesson I think is perseverance and whatever you do and staying a students. Yeah, I think it is so vital and perseverance and always try to grow and evolve while staying authentic to yourself, you know, always staying rooted and trying to honor who you are and not trying to be someone that you're not. The hardest lesson that I had to learn. I guess not to trust everyone.
Such a hard lesson to learn, isn't it, especially when you want you to keep your heart open to everyone and everything.
Yeah. Yeah, especially when you have a lot of hope and faith in people. So I think, yeah, you can't trust you can't. You have to be careful with who you trust.
Yeah, what advice would you give to women who are constantly being told like you're too much or you've got too much energy or too much of this? And what kind of advice would you give to girls that feel that way or that are being told that too.
Much for who?
Yeah, exactly too much for her?
For who? You're just around the wrong person if they're telling you too much. But I will say, also, it's good to like I'm a person that I'm very open to feedback and criticism because I'm always trying to do better. You know, I need the best version of myself. Yeah, So if I get feedback or criticism or whatever, I don't take it in a way that it breaks me or destabilizes me. I'm like, Okay, what if this is true.
What is for sure not that I know is like just somebody else maybe is projecting onto me, and it's it's good. It's important to always grow and try to strive to be the best version of yourself and take things with a grain of salt, but also yeah too much for who.
Have you dealt with disappointment and in places in your life, whether it's in your personal life or in professional life, have you found it difficult to keep moving forward or is it something that you've really managed to deal with quite quite well.
I'm very stubborn.
Oh yeah, yeah, wait, what's your star sign?
I'm a price okay, yeah, yeah.
That's nice. That's you know, a creative emotions.
Very pricey, very emotional. But I'm very stubborn and when I want something, I will won't stop until I get it. I take it like a passing wave. I suk. Yeah, I definitely feel it. I'm very emotional. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so feel a lot more. That's stressful, but I feel it. I let myself feel it. I process it, but I don't let it define me. I don't let it define my career, my life, and I figure out how to what's the best way to move past it?
And again, I think when when you have your own back, yeah, it helps you a lot because you're you're like, okay, let's go. Yeah, how do we move forward? So yeah, just just pushing through.
I also think if you know exactly what you want in your life and you have this I always called it delusional optimism, like you are sure that this is what's going to happen in your life and you're going to make it happen. Every disappointment, Yeah, you feel it, and of course you're gonna.
Yeah, you feel it, but you also know that it's part of it. Exactly everything can go smoothly. You have to face these challenges, you know, but you have to know that that's part of the bigger plan, the bigger plan, and it's literally there is part of it. And I think I've always known that, even when I've experienced failure or setback or criticism or whatever, I know that it's part of the journey that I'm on. I know that it's it doesn't exist without these hurdles, you know, or obstacles.
So I don't take it. I don't take it as a block. I take it as something that I have to part of the process, part of the process that I have to overcome, you know.
I feel like that's also where this feeling of something higher than yourself comes in, where you know that there is something bigger than you that's also creating that path for you, Like it sees your desires, it sees your intention, and you have this trust in something that you may not be able to control, but you believe that your desires are being had.
That was in Porton And I think also having you know, family and friends around you and a good support system is everything.
You've Obviously we're in some beautiful love songs. One plus one such a beautiful song. What do you feel like your definition of lover is or your expectations of what relationship for you?
Feels like my definition of love includes sacrifice and compromise, And I think it's like putting yourself aside for the other person, being able to be there for the other person in the good and in the bad.
Yeah, I feel like navigating relationships are already so difficult, But then obviously sometimes if you're someone who's in the public eye, trying to navigate a relationship with all eyes on you is even so much harder, Like, did you find the balance of trying to do what you want in a relationship versus having other people's opinions or obsessions with your relationship difficult to balance at all?
I don't think so.
Yeah.
I think it was healthy as healthy as it could have been. Yeah. And it was also a really beautiful the way that people you know supported Yeah, they really did, And like I found it really touchy. And I think we did a good job at you know, keeping our world to ourselves and our connection and what we had to ourselves and the balance in the way that we kept our privacy but also what was shown so the
public I think was a healthy balance too. But it's not like we were trying to be different people or we were just doing our things.
Yeah, totally.
And if we felt that you felt like you were who you were in that and he was who he was, but you really felt the connection there too.
Yeah.
Sometimes I find it so it's interesting when people are also romanticizing a relationship and putting it on a pedestal sometimes of feeling.
Like this is exactly what I want.
And I've experienced that with Jay sometimes where I'm like, Okay, this sometimes feels like a lot.
Yeah, and it feels like I'm like, I need you guys to know that we fight.
And I need you guys to know that it's not all amazing. But I also think it just comes with the territory. If they love you, they're gonna love your love as well.
At the same time, and it was really sweet, really sweet, and yeah, overall it was it was beautiful.
Yeah, it really was. Did you with your femininity? I have to ask you some more questions about this, because whenever I was asking my friends, I were like, can you ask how she does that? How is she so in her feminine? How does she lean into that so deeply? And is that something that just comes naturally to you or do you feel like you really nature that side of you?
You know, It's something that I got connected with within myself at a very young age, and I think when I was growing into like a young adult, like like I said, in college or in my late teens, I definitely lost touch with myself and my femininity, and it was something that I really wanted to nurture and rediscover and connect with because she was there when I was younger growing up, and it's something that I felt very free in and connected with. I lost her for a
bit in my in a period of time. I feel like with the years and the work that I've done on myself to be the woman that i want to be, do you feel.
Like a movement has helped in that? Because I feel like when I you know, whenever I do that, I'm not a great answer, But whenever I do dance, I feel like, oh, yeah, there's so much that is unlocked and unleash when you move your body.
Yeah, it's true. I think as women too, we have so much women. I'm in awe of women. I just think that women are just pure works of art and so much to explore, so much grace, so much power, so much.
Just so much, that much, not too much, that much.
So and yeah, I love that journey of tapping into my femininity in my womanhood and something that has always fascinated to me, like female sensuality is something that I always loved and connected with from a very young age. And I think also we live in a world that wants to dim that and make us feel embarrassed or or too much.
When you're feeling anxious, when you're feeling low, when you're feeling you know, any negative emotions do you have, like something in your head that you say to yourself, like other words of encouragement that you just have in the back of your mind, or like a mantra that you say, where where you to get yourself and get yourself up and out of that even before you get on stage.
I feel like, yeah, stages is different. For stage, I do like I always do a prayer, and I do one by myself. I do one with my with my band, with the team. My intention is always for people to live with their cup full and feeling you know, andized that you know, moved by the frequencies and energy that only music can can bring. Yeah, but girl, I'm anxious all the time. Oh yeah, I're gonna lie to you.
I'm a very anxious person. But I found, like I was saying this recently in interview, like I found that journaling has helped me a lot to clear my thoughts. I'm trying to be more intentional with meditation and take like I recently discovered the concept of having like our inner childs and connecting with our inner child And I find that so beautiful because we all have the baby versions of ourselves that still exists within us, and a lot of times, like anxiety or stress or fear is
that baby version of you that's scared. So you know, taking a second and connecting with that version of you and letting it know that you got there back and everything is going to be okay. It's something that I've been putting into practice, and just taking a moment to meditate and be still and breathe has been really helpful.
Yeah. I've started doing a lot of journaling in the morning too, because I wake up randomly with a lot of anxiety, and so doing that early in the morning to just get everything out. Yeah, because I'll be in my meditation I'm thinking about all these other things and instead of it just staying in my head, I just keep a pen and paper next to me, yeah, and just write down the randomest things that come out.
It helps.
Yeah, when I look at it after, I'm.
Like, how was I thinking about all those different things within the last five minutes. It's but it makes such a difference because your mind tries to hold onto so much and when you put pen to paper, there's something about just the release of it, just getting it out.
Yeah, and you can clearly, you know, put your thoughts in order. Yeah, in your head, it's like everywhere. Yeah, it's all at once. It's very overwarming.
I'm going to ask you some quick five questions.
Okay, okay.
What makes you feel the most confident?
My first think this is to say when I listen to music that makes me feel confident? And then also, I don't know when I look good?
Yeah, favorite song right now apart from you, right.
My favorite song right now? Can I look at my Spotify?
Yeah? Oh my god? Can you? Actually that's a good question.
What is on your most recently played Spotify lest right now?
Okay, right now? Let alone the one you love Olivia Dean let her Man by Justin Bieber Samson and Delilah Cke and Maira and Married Girl by Sincerely Suave Brothers shout Outs and some zen music and then Freedom by Dum Dumb and George Smith.
Okay, oh yeah, oh great artists.
I like that your favorite makeup product right now that you're using every day lipstains amazing everything I know.
I can't get an for me too.
What are you.
Most looking forward to in this year twenty twenty six? Were at the start of it, so much coming It's the Year of the Horse.
Yes, it is. We've got things to be doing.
Friends were like, whoo whole year. I'm like, it's the Year of the Horse. Baby, my album coming out, my debut album, and then the tour tour.
Everyone Nika is coming on tour. If you have not got your tickets.
Get them now if they're available, because she's selling out every time she posts something, it's selling out fast.
So I'm going to be there.
I know I can wait for this.
I will be hopefully.
Every every concert. I will somehow find a way I'll be that super.
Behind the buzz with us.
Yes, let me say that. I'll pack my bag right now.
It will be fun.
Thanks Nika, Thank you so lovely getting to know you like this. We actually have not spent time together. This is I always find such a beautiful way to spend time together because I get to ask questions that I don't know. We get to have a hot heart connection and conversation. So thank you for sharing everything you have, you think and thanks for your me. I told you this already, but get lost in your eyes.
Oh my god, does what makes you shy?
By the way, what makes me shy?
That was gonna all my other questions. Is there anything that makes you feel shy?
Yeah, I have my shy sides. I think when I'm first getting to know people, I'm a little bit shy. Yeah, sometimes, but also I don't know, sometimes I'm not at all. I used to be more shy as a kid.
Yeah, I feel like they may just come into yourself. Anyway, back to it, thank you so much.
I appreciate you, love you, and so excited to continue this friendship and adoration that I have for you.
My Kay. Likewise, thank you