An interview with Nia CC

It’s funny because my real, legal, full name is actually “Nia C. C. Williams,” so Nia C. C. is my artist name, but it’s also just literally my name, which was something that a lot of school teachers thought I was lying about growing up. But my parents really wanted to name my middle name after my grandmothers whose names both start with C, Claudie and Constance, but they didn’t want there to be arguments over whose name was first. So to make things fair, they just put two C’s there in honor of them, and of course we always change the order of whose name comes first depending on which house we’re at. So that’s what the C. C. stands for. Or, as I told a lot of my classmates when I was younger, “The C. C. Stands for my favorite food, cotton candy.” Which of course was only believed for so long, but that’s something I still like to joke about to this day. I also grew up the youngest of 3 and really close to my siblings: my sister Kiara who is 10 years older and my brother Sanford who is 8 years older. Both of them love music and I thought they were the coolest people in the world, so I listened to a lot of what they listened to growing up: Ciara, Usher, Alicia Keys, TLC and so many more. I’ve also been a pretty big Taylor Swift fan since I was about 7 years old, so she really had an influence on my journey as an artist and a songwriter. She was someone who inspired me to not just play the piano, but to pick up the guitar too. That said, growing up in Northern Virginia I listened to a mix of music from Imagine Dragons, one of my favorite bands, to Drake, to Carrie Underwood, to Ed Sheeran, to Corinne Bailey. For a while, I even struggled with a bit of a genre crisis because every song I wrote was so different. Was I a country artist? An R&B artist? Did I want to get into Rock? Maybe pop music? It was something I was so insecure about for awhile until I ultimately decided to see my diversity in sound as a strength, and find the through line in the stories I tell with my music and who I am as an artist.

I like to describe my music as a diary that fell into my guitar and started telling stories. I consider myself an American alt pop singer songwriter, although I also like to dabble a bit in R&B. As a Black Woman, this was always a bit scary and even a bit of a sore spot for me, because I’m an artist who constantly sings with my guitar, and there weren’t many Black mainstream pop artists doing that as I grew up. I always felt like people were pressuring me to switch genres or didn’t take me as seriously when I first started out playing the guitar and writing country songs. Since then, I’ve gained more confidence in the music I write and the genres I typically sing in, and I’m happy to see that Black woman singing with guitars is a space that’s only growing, and I’m excited to be a part of it. That’s why I write the sort of music I do. It’s what I’m passionate about and who I am. 

I have a lot of goals for 2021 that I’m really excited about. I’m moving to Los Angeles soon so that will be a really fun transition, and I’m excited to dive into the music industry there. I’m also planning on releasing a lot of new music whether it be recorded singles, or just acoustic videos. I always say that writing is like a diary for me and I have so many songs that I’ve written that people haven’t even heard yet so I’m excited to catch people up to speed. I’m also really excited to begin performing live again, that’s something I really missed over the pandemic. I’m excited to be back on the stage with my guitar and in front of a live audience and rocking together. Lastly, like most artists and songwriters I’m just excited to keep writing and singing music in general and building a following and making more connections with people, doing what I love. That’s really what it’s all about.