Singer, songwriter and guitarist, Nina Rivera is from New York, raised in Florida, planted in the middle of the D.C.’s (the DMV’s) musical renaissance. Her songwriting is flirtatious and vulnerable with infectious hooks. Her sound is a hybrid of R&B, Funk, House music, Indie pop, and her Caribbean music influences. She’s played the guitar since 13 with inspiration such as Santana, Tom Morello, and Corinne Bailey Rae.
Nina’s professional music career started in 2014 and since then, her artistry has evolved from collaborating with producers to self-producing her music.
Too, a creative director and aesthete, Nina specializes in coordinating looks. Her taste and art direction really shine through in her newest self-produced music video for her single, “Dive” from her debut project “Rivers”.
Nina on “Dive”:
“Dive was written during a time when, as a poly, pansexual femme, I was in a monogamous relationship that I didn’t want to be in. I wanted an outsider to save me from it, and initially my lyrical muse was this Capricorn guy. A man. But later, even while conceiving video concepts, my muses came to be all the women surrounding me making things happen for me. Down to my hair girl!”
“Shooting the video, it was really beautiful, the last minute cast change of having my artist associate, Yanju @nuyanju play my “dream crush” or what have you. They are non-binary and dark-skin, and an amazing singer and guitarist themSELVES and literally stunning in person. As a fluid, but femme leaning, light-skin Black artist, I have a lot of privilege, and with that, I aim to prioritize making room for all of us in my works and art as much as possible. I hope people viewing the video find it as beautiful and romantic as I do.”
“Rivers itself is part one to a two-part project. Water historically, has been a metaphor for emotion right? Well “Rivers” for me represents my personal scope of me winding through the narrow, rapid currents of my emotions, as affected by others. Every song on Rivers is titled after a type of body of water, relative to the ‘feeling’ or emotion of each song. It’s very personal and very conceptual. NOW… I DONT wanna give too much away lol but, I initially wrote an album worth of songs that I split in half for this project. Rivers, by nature, lead to Oceans. But that’s all imma say on that ;)”
Credits
Starring: Nina Rivera @itsninarivera & Yànjú @nuyanju
Producer: Nina Rivera @itsninarivera
Director/Videographer: Jazzlyn @jpulchritude
Asst Director/Videographer: Slack Barrett @slackbarrett
Creative Director: Nina Rivera @itsninarivera
Asst Creative Director: Melani B @iam.melani.b
Director of Photography: Ja’Mon Jackson @jgyszn
Prop Design: Victoria @floorplants & Jay Cousteau @jaycousteau
Makeup Artist: Jae Alexandra @jae.alexandra
Hairstylists: Shakeeta Carter @hair_by_keeta & Monisade @her.work
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