Niia Walks Us Through Bobby Deerfield Track By Track

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Niia evokes a once-in-a-blue-moon type of musical prowess. Her work is all-at-once thoughtful, sensual and hypnotizing—as she perfectly blends indie folk and chart-topping pop sensibilities. Her new project Bobby Deerfield is meticulous and brilliant in that way, and it conjures similar moods and intricacies that her album If I Should Die did two years ago. From lead single “Idk what to tell my friends,” it was immediately clear that this direction that Niia has taken is one that should vault her into an unparalleled stratosphere.

If the name Bobby Deerfield sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Inspired and titled after the 1974 Al Pacino film of the same name, Niia uses Formula 1 imagery and motifs to write about sexuality, family relationships and romance in ways that are richer and more complex within her catalog than ever before. The songs do not hinge themselves on buoyant, explosive pop melodies. Rather, they are reserved and patient, opting to achieve sonic climax through well-layered and subtle arrangements. To celebrate today’s release of Bobby Deerfield, Niia sat down with Paste and gave a breakdown of each track on the album. Listen to it as you go, and order your copy of the record here.

A Star for A Star
I’m too in love with this song. When all my fears and worries that cast a shadow over me that at times feel too heavy to swat away. I again look to nature for guidance, answers, or just strength to keep going. I drove one night and sat on the top of the car and looked at the stars.. That is where I wrote the lyrics. I wanted it to feel majestic and haunting in the same way the night sky lit up with stars makes me feel

Idk what to tell my friends
The title says it all. I don’t know what to tell my friends. I didn’t want to share bad news or even good news with them anymore. Realizing it hard, more to do with my sense of self and less about them in the end. “I had to go and find god” is a metaphor for finding my truth, as cliché as it sounds. Finding why I hate myself and dealing with it.

Night Ride
“Night Ride” is a play on words. An outward judgement or question to ask why don’t we have any fun anymore? Let’s go for a night ride, forget about the world outside. Perhaps I just want to have sex with the windows down while driving too fast…

Sick In My Mind
My attachment to lust and love. Talking about this subject on the same album that was so influenced by my father felt strange but also fitting. We’ve spent so much time sharing similar vices, desires and mistakes.

Heaven Has No Favorites
“Fuck the future fuck the past / What you do now / It doesn’t matter when you’re dead / Have your fun, that’s what my daddy said.” The title is pulled from the book by Erich Maria Remarque that the film Bobby Deerfield was adapted from. This song feels like I’m finding my footing and [I’m] going to make my own choices and own them. It’s fun to exaggerate and raise the stakes, of course, saying Angels will not judge us.

I wanna feel you
“I’m holding hope that I can make the most of this endless never enough time.” A fleeting feeling I don’t appreciate enough, but when it hits, it re-centers my entire body and sometimes stays with me forever. Driving with the window down while my hair blows in the wind, feeling close to someone inside or outside of my body, smelling the ocean air, taking mushrooms in the forest, always needing more time to feel something real and pure. I wanted this song to sound like summer while driving around the canyons towards the ocean.

Targa
Targa top, or targa for short, is a semi-convertible car body style with a removable roof section and a full-width roll bar behind the seats. “Targa” became a symbol of escapism and fun. A trippy escape, a drug infused drive hoping that reality never comes back to make us cry. “Are the tears gonna fall? In the back of the targa?”

Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo was the team Bobby Deerfield raced for in the film. Alfa Romeo, the old car, is a metaphor for my father. This song is about what I needed to say to evolve and forgive. “I don’t need no Alfa Romeo, don’t need your okay. I’m my own daddy.” The stages of healing, being accepted, confrontation and forgiving. All the other songs feel like they’ve been building to this moment. Owning my identity. Choosing who I want to be in my future and letting go of my past.

A Shadow of my past
This is my father’s apology I had him record and send to me. It was extremely emotional to hear this and it felt important to include. Initially I wanted Al Pacino speaking but it felt more honest coming from my father. Our relationship is slowly growing for the better through me making this record.

If we don’t make it
The fear of risking it all again. “Whatever happens I’ll be alright.. Right?” This song reads as a love song, but I don’t necessarily think it’s meant to be. It feels like the risk could be anything, not just falling in love, maybe even just betting on myself.

Bobby Deerfield
An instrumental journey that scores my emotional ride with this album and also acts as a score for a trailer.

The Moon Is a Lonely Beautiful Woman
For most of my life I’ve felt like an anachronism. An anachronism is referring to someone as being an anomaly in time. They don’t belong in our current period and they must have gotten lost somewhere in the past. I’ve always felt this way in my personal life and in my music career. However, the one constant compass has always been the moon for me. I am a water sign. A cancer sign, to be exact. Cancer is the only sign ruled by the Moon. There is a special connection to this magical cosmic body. The moon reminds me that my identity is defined by only myself.

“How can they feel me
But never hold me
How can they love me
But never know me
I know I’m human
I know I’m holy
Yeah it’s a special, beautiful, kind of lonely”