Born to an African doctor with a passion for his U.N. work with AIDS and HIV awareness, San Francisco based singer/songwriter
Nya Jade spent her childhood traveling throughout the world. After living in places like The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Canada, among others, Nya developed a very eclectic taste in music. Following first in her dear dad's footsteps, Nya began attending Stanford on a pre-med track. Although she was formally trained in traditional, jazz, and gospel music, Nya kept singing on the backburner as she endured a grueling academic course load. She was torn between her two loves for a long time, but in the winter of her junior year a speeding car changed everything. Nya was struck while crossing the street and her head smashed into the windshield. With a second chance at life and a long recovery ahead of her, Nya really got the chance to put things into perspective. Her music became her top priority from then on, and after graduation she hit the studios to make her debut album
My Denial. Her sudden change of heart has truly paid off, and as she enjoys the success of her first album, she often reflects on all it took to get there. This (extraordinarily talented) young woman is
so not in denial about who she really is anymore. Check her out!
When it comes to your album and its success, what are you most proud of?
The journey. Some of those songs were written at different times and it was interesting to go through and pick out what songs I felt were necessary to be heard in the particular packaging. On my album, there are upbeat rocker songs. (Which are always really fun to do live on stage.) People get really into them. And then you have the more introspective songs you can kind of get lost in on stage, like "My Denial."
That must have been tough! How did you choose 'em?
I had a catalog of songs to choose from. It's like picking from your kids. With the ones I picked, it all seemed to just flow together. You know? They made sense. I tried to make a science out of it.
