Born in late Soviet-era Uzbekistan and relocated to Chicago in her infancy, Nika Nemirovsky has kept the culture, language, and traditions of her Eastern European heritage at a creative core. About halfway through her arts education degree, Nemirovsky opted out of becoming a teacher in favor of continuing her own artistic output, and after learning the guitar at 21 she began writing mononymously as NIIKA.
2017’s Honest Dancing EP showcased NIIKA’s airy voice and graceful guitar over an Eastern-evoking four-track blend of late ’60s psychedelia and mid-2010s R&B, setting the stage for her upcoming debut full-length. You can expect a bit more of modern soul and eclectic indie rock in the art pop mix on Close But Not Too Close with NIIKA’s inherent warmth, vocal proficiency, and lyrical backbone of connectedness and grounding at the forefront. Keeping in Nemirovsky’s Soviet-Chicagoan character, Close But Not Too Close is out on May Day, and just last week NIIKA shared a new lead single alongside one of the artsiest music videos 2020 has offered so far, “Blue Smoke”!
–Jack Anderson
Photo: Maren Celest
