The standard industry practice on the Internet is to hope for a viral video hit, or wait until a couple of blogosphere heavy hitters stumble onto your Bandcamp page. The downside of that, of course, is that—hello, Kreayshawn—it usually takes about 9.3 seconds for the ADHD generation to move on to the next big thing.

In contrast, 28-year-old singer Adia Victoria has chosen to take an old-school approach to her career, maintaining a web presence that’s decidedly low-key. The best you’ll get on YouTube is the occasional live video. Her recorded output, meanwhile, has been limited to a couple of web-only singles, the deconstructed country-blues numbers “Stuck in the South” and “Sea of Sand”. That those songs have now been discovered by high-profile outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR hasn’t changed Victoria’s attitude towards her career.

“As far as my output on the Internet, it’s not the way that I’ve wanted to introduce my artistic self to people,” the Nashville-based singer says, speaking on her cell from Music City. “Maybe it’s because of my background in the performing arts, which was very strict. I studied dance and was always taught that there was a respect that needs to be shown towards performances. I would much rather people come to a show of mine and really not know what to expect because there are just two official songs out there. It leads to a more informed opinion, rather than ‘I saw this video of her Bandcamp session.’ ”

In conversation, Victoria is funny, engaging, and smart, talking intelligently on everything from race relations in America (“It’s something that’s never been dealt with”) to her love of French literature.

She was heavy into dance before teaching herself how to play guitar, and that’s only one part of a fascinating background. She was raised as a Seventh Day Adventist in the American South, which made for a difficult transition when she ended up in the regular school system as a teen. Often friendless in her younger years, Victoria got used to being alone, something that didn’t bother her as she bounced from city to city, spending time finding herself in New York, Atlanta, Paris, and finally Nashville.

“My natural state is isolation,” she says candidly. “When I’m around a lot of people, I get very depressed and very angry. But I live at home with my mom and my sister, and that kind of keeps me from spiralling too far out of control. And luckily, I’ve picked a career where I get to do all the talking.”

While you can file her under DIY Americana, Victoria has opened for indie faves like Deer Tick and Those Darlins. Those who’ve championed her also include long-time Yo La Tengo producer Roger Moutenot, who was behind the board for “Stuck in the South”.

One doesn’t have to be a Matador Records board member to figure out why indie rockers have embraced Victoria. While she might be working under the umbrella of Americana, her spirit is entirely punk rock, starting with the confrontational aggressiveness of her live shows.

“Black people are so stereotyped in our media—especially black women,” she says. “We’re not portrayed as particularly multifaceted creatures. Sexy has to underline everything—you can be angry-sexy, or you can be sad-sexy, but the sexiness has got to be there. And that’s just not something that I’m particularly interested in doing as an artist. So my art is kind of a challenge to that—of saying I’m a black woman who is going to express herself in ways that you might not be comfortable with.”

All this sets the table for a full-length, which Victoria expects to begin working on after she’s wrapped up her spring touring commitments.

“This is all coming together very naturally and organically,” Victoria says. “And for that I feel really privileged, because I’ve heard some real horror stories about this town.”

Adia Victoria opens for Hurray for the Riff Raff at Electric Owl on Saturday (March 21).