Niia took her time to find her own voice

It took the celebrated singer several years to get used to the idea that music could be a way of connecting to other people

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      Many artists struggle for years to meet someone who can give them their big break. For Niia Bertino, a trained jazz singer from Needham, Massachusetts, her introduction to the music industry was a happy accident.

      “I was moonlighting in New York as a jingle singer, and I got booked for a job,” the artist, who performs under her first name, tells the Straight, on the line from a tour stop in Chicago. “By chance, the session was at Wyclef Jean’s studio. The engineer for the jingle company forgot about the booking, so when Wyclef was walking by, he saw me and said, ‘Who are you? What are you doing in my studio?’ I ended up singing him a song on the piano, and he said that he wanted me to be his artist. He took me under his wing and showed me how the music business worked, and said, ‘Hey—you could do this for your job.’ ”

      The road to becoming a solo musician has been a long one for Bertino. A self-described introvert, the performer grew up in an exuberant musical family. She was schooled by her mother in classical piano and voice. Her grandmother was an Italian opera singer, and her extended family includes vocalists trained at the Juilliard School. Surrounded by so much talent, it took her a long time to recognize her own.

      “I never got into music to share or perform it,” Bertino says. “I always found that funny, because that’s the reason most people do. Everyone I knew was musical, so I thought everyone could do it, and that everyone was good at it. Even on Christmas Eve, when everybody sings in my house, I would turn my back to my family. I didn’t love being in the spotlight. Music has always been my personal outlet—it’s a very selfish thing for me.”

      It took years of soul-searching for Bertino to find her voice. Spending her days after university singing jazz classics—a pursuit she enjoyed because it allowed her to hide behind the lyrics of others—she was eventually talked into performing James Bond theme songs for a New York show dubbed Best of 007. The production, which featured a 14-piece orchestra, was a resounding success. Her friends began to ask when she would write her own songs, and, with their encouragement, Bertino started exploring her identity as a solo artist. Four years later, she released her debut album, I—a timeless R&B record marked by sultry vocals, high-end production, and original classical interludes.

      “I took a long time writing this record because I wanted to make it a full body of work,” Bertino says. “I wanted to define my sonic palette, not just my vocal style. As a new artist, you can get forced into sessions with a lot of different kinds of producers, and you sing in a lot of different styles—Rihanna can put out a reggae track one week, and a dubstep track the next, for example. I wanted to focus on creating a cohesive sound. I think that’s why so many people are resonating with it, because it feels authentic, and—in a market that’s so singles-based—I’ve tried to define myself with a full collection of songs.

      “It’s taken a long time to get to this point,” she continues. “When people started saying that I moved others when I sang, I found it intimidating at first, rather than exciting. I was really scared by that pressure, and also that power—especially the power I would have on-stage when I was looking down at people. A couple of years ago, though, I started realizing that performing was a really amazing connection that I was making with a bunch of people that I didn’t know. I’m able to relate to them, and help them go through things. The perception of being a solo artist changed for me—it made me really happy to be able to affect people in a positive way. Now, I’m excited to get up on-stage.”

      Niia, "Last Night in Los Feliz"

      Niia plays at the Biltmore on Friday (April 27).

      Follow Kate Wilson on Twitter @KateWilsonSays

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