Following the release of her latest single Diamond Heart, we sat down with songwriter and artist Mia Noni, to find out more about the music, the inspiration behind the style, and what the future may hold. Here’s how it went.
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Hi Mia – thanks so much for the interview, loving how unique and atmospheric your sound is! For those new to your work, when did you first release original music, and what inspired you to start?
Hey, thanks for the love. I made my first release last year in October, I released my song called Inside Your Mind. I was just really motivated to create and make something unique.
Where are you from, and did you grow up in a musical or creative family?
I’m from The Bahamas, and genres like reggae, soca, and dancehall are really popular there, so I grew up listening to that a lot. But I didn’t come from a musical family necessarily, I just explored music on my own in a way.
Tell me about Diamond Heart – how did the song come to you, and what do you hope that listeners take away from it?
It’s hard to explain how it came to me, it was kind of just a natural process where I was just being creative and it just happened, and I hope people enjoy it 🙂
Will there be a video to follow, and if so, what can you tell us about that?
I don’t have anything in the works right now, but if there is ever a demand for one, I’m definitely down for it.
Do you produce your own music, and how do you get started with a new piece – also how do you know when something is finished and ready to be shared?
Yeah, I do produce my own music. Before I start the creative process, I always make sure to get inspired by something, whether that’s a song, an artist, a movie, anything I can utilize as a muse basically. And from that, I create my atmosphere for the song.
I mean this is a really simple answer, but I just share my music when I feel like it’s ready, and there’s nothing more I need to add. For me, I’ll know I’m done creating a song when I just get that feeling.
This atmospheric sound is quite distinct to your style, reverb and distant vocals, intimate RnB threads of melody. How did you come to decide upon this approach?
Well, it just came to me after being inspired by many different things to be honest. When it comes to music I don’t like to box myself into a certain category, I like to stay open-minded so that I can keep my songs from sounding stale or sounding like they’re copying another artist. I think being original is what makes it fun, and I just remind myself to have fun when I create, and not to take it so seriously.
How does your sound translate in the live setting, and is there a potential for unplugged, acoustic versions?
I don’t know if I can see myself doing an acoustic version, but I’m not closed off to the idea of it…
You’ve amassed hundreds of thousands of streams across your repertoire – what do you think it is about your music that connects with so many listeners?
I think people just like it because it’s unique and it’s fresh. I’ve gotten a lot of support, and yeah I’m definitely grateful.
How do you maintain your natural creativity without succumbing to the pressure of what a growing audience wants to hear?
I mean I just try to remember that there’s an audience for literally everything, it doesn’t matter what you put out, you can always find your crowd. So, I like to keep that in mind.
Do you plan on submitting your music to TV, film and other media, or do you aspire to tour, collaborate with other artists – what’s your biggest ambition?
Right now my biggest ambition is just to get my music out there more. As for the future, yeah I would definitely love to have my music in TV and films, I think that would be really cool. Doing other things like touring and collaborating, I would love to do those too, but right now I really just want to focus on developing and pushing my sound further.
What’s something about you that fans might be surprised to hear?
Probably that I fell into this whole path pretty randomly. I didn’t really have a plan at first, I just started creating out of boredom really.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I just want to say thank you to anyone that likes my music and supports me, it means a lot!
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Find Mia Noni on Instagram & YouTube.
