Name: Nikka Costa
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current Release: Nikka Costa's Dirty Disco is out via Go Funk Yourself.

If you enjoyed this Nikka Costa interview and would like to know more about her music, current live dates and upcoming releases, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and tiktok.  



Dirty Disco is all about spreading joy. After years of not being able to perform live and restricted contact - where did you draw the joy from?

It took a minute for sure. Not really until we were coming out of the COVID haze did I start to get a clearer picture of what the album was about, what the point of it was.

I just really felt that what everyone the world over needed was an alternative to the heaviness living in our hands with the phones 24/7 and the isolation we all got kind of used to. Even just mentally, being timid to get back out in the world was another thing to try and overcome.

Our trust was broken in a way and I tuned into what I needed for myself and just went with that creatively.

In another interview, you said that this focus on joy "sounds so kindergarten." I was wondering whether in these times, the simple and "mundame things" might actually be more meaningful than the supposedly deep ones.

I 100% agree with that. It always comes back to the simple things in life. Ask anyone over 70 (laughs).

I think there is a cynicism to singing about being happy or promoting positivity, that there is no depth to it but I believe there’s incredible self awareness and calm that has to be accessed to feel comfortable making art about happiness. Probably because in our culture it's kind of like the dork at the party but to be comfortable being that person and not trying to be cool says a lot.

This record really was about community, bringing people together in a good time, no cares kind of vibe which we really needed at the end of COVID. Coming together for something as simple as having a dance or having a cup of coffee is about connection at the end of the day.

There were always elements of disco on your previous albums, but on this release, they are more prominent than ever. What makes this music so remarkably timeless do you feel? What are the qualities that you personally appreciate about it?

I really do love music that makes you want to move and be carefree or uninhibited. I grew up in the 70s/80s and was rollerskating before I could even get into a nightclub and it was the best time ever. The lyrics were about love and lust and dancing and all coated with these sounds of gritty synths and deep funk mixed with sparkle dust on the top …

I don’t remember a certain point or time when it happened but it was the soundtrack to my childhood so it was everywhere around me. I loved the sounds of the beats and the instrumentation, lots of strings which were familiar having grown up surrounded by orchestras but they were used in a new way not so conventional … plus the singing was awesome. Big beautiful soulful voices which I loved and still do!

It was cool and also you could express yourself in it with how you danced or skated, there was a style to it that resonated with me as a kid. And so when I went into making this record I just went back to those times in my mind and tried to create from that place.

And then there's the fashion aspect of it, of course.

Well I just can’t stay away from sequins! Even if I did a rock record I'd be wearing something shiny and glam haha ...

The fashion part for me comes later when I'm trying to put the sound in an outfit in my mind … what does this record look like? How can I convey its world to people who will listen to it?

I love fashion and how much it can express, I love dressing up to be on stage and figuring out how to marry the two. The mood of the songs dictate the colors I may wear. I always see music in colors. I’ll say to my husband / producer, “Justin, maybe the track should sound more blue and purple?”

Ha, I think by now he gets what I mean.


Nikka Costa Interview Image by Bobbi Rich

I was under the impression that your personal vision of 2024 disco leans more towards the roots rather than the future – which is part of what makes this album unique! Are there nonetheless any artists or producers from the current wave of disco that do you personally appreciate as well?

I've always made music heavily attached to roots. Blues, soul, jazz etc. I think the late 60s and 70s was the most inspired and inspiring time for music:  cultural commentary and self-expression, personal freedoms so many things I can’t help but take from it since it moved me so much and still does so man-years later. I'm not sure we’ll see such artists again, at least in my lifetime.

Having said that I do listen to a lot of current music and like the challenge of marrying my influences with what Im hearing today. I have been listening a lot to Khruangbin and I love Daniel Caesar … not disco artists I know but I listen to all sorts of different music and often NOT what Im currently writing …



And then I throw everything out the window and just make sure I dig the song and how it sounds in the end.

When writing songs, for example for an album like Dirty Disco, where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For this record I was really inspired by the act of being released from the isolation we experienced and the feeling that the world needed some good happy jams ;)

It had been a while since my last record so I was done marinating and ready to just finally sit down and write. For so long I was just momming and coping with the pandemic. But once that lifted a bit, I was feeling like I had something to say and the intention behind it was clear.

I started meditating and I think that influenced my writing as well and I thought a lot about the people around me, my family, my friends and the world of strangers who experienced the same thing at the same time. How extraordinary that was and I felt moved by people I imagined that had no-one to face time with or no family to take care of, not all the many distractions I had.

It was such a time to go inward and by force. But also, for me, I was focused very much outward.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I do usually start with an inspiration or intention for the vibe of the record or perhaps the instrumentation.

For example, with Everybody Got Their Something I knew I wanted to mesh rock, soul and hip hop and with this record I knew it lived in the world of synths and 80’s sounds I was surrounded with as a kid. And then I let it go and left the rest to chance.



Records take on a life of themselves once you get started and I feel like you hit lots of roadblocks creatively along the way if you try to dictate too much or put too many limitations on the outcome.

I love the element of surprise at the end. I look forward to it.

Many songs these days tend to be written “by committee” with many chefs in the studio kitchen to to speak. Comparatively, your process on Dirty Disco seems to be more intimate. How do you see the pros and cons of small and large teams, of collaborating on a song versus writing it on your own?

There are so many ways to write a song, so many approaches and at the end of the day I feel my best songs have been written alone or with one or two other people tops. 95% of the my lyrics and melodies I've written alone because I've learned over the years I like space to marinate and follow the unfolding of the idea in my head.

When I have written in groups it's always been a good time but it's usually been for other artists than myself. I think collaboration is such a beautiful thing, to be able to speak the same language with other people and get to know them through their musicianship. Its' really special but there it can go either way - for example, the idea might get watered down with a lot of cooks weighing in or it could get pulled sharply into focus when people are throwing lines and ideas into the pile.

There’s either magic in the room or not. No matter how many people are involved, there’s no science to it.


Nikka Costa Interview Image by Bobbi Rich

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I think both! I have a starting point for sure. A vibe or a title, an idea, a line or many times just the track inspires me and I’ll kind of go down the roads that pop up in my head and keep things that kind of vibrate my gut. Then I know I'm onto something.

But there is an aspect of letting go because if the original ideas spark doesn’t last, you have to be willing to scrap it and re-approach it from another angle until it feels right.

People have been low to say “the song wrote itself” and I believe can happen. But more often than not there’s a starting spark and then it  just depends at what point you take the training wheels off of it in the process.

When did the lyrics for Dirty Disco enter the picture? Where did they come from? Generally speaking, do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

The title Dirty Disco popped in my head and I just loved it. I have no idea where it came from but I loved the immediate pictures I got in my head when I tried to make sense of it.

Justin came home one night with a track and I just felt like the track really matched the vibe of that title. I came up with the chorus lyrics and melody first quite quickly and then dove into the verses which took longer. I was grappling with it as far as is it an “actual” disco or is it a vibe, a headspace or both? And once I figured that out I just wrote tons of verses until the ones I liked the best presented themselves.

And the line “penising and clitting” was actually a joke, it just flew out of my mouth and we were laughing so hard at first when I came up with it. I think I imagined it as just a place holder and then it just felt like I couldn’t have said it better any other way.



What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

Oh I think it's such a personal preference. I love all kinds of lyrics for various reasons, depending on what mood I'm in or how they marry with the music to me. I love metaphor, I love hearing a universal feeling described in a new way. But I also love simplicity and not trying to be too clever. It's a fine line.

I like keeping a positive hold on a song even when the song might be sad or heavy content. I don’t like bringing the listener on a journey and just leaving them there and perhaps I am the listener at the end of the day. But I like to find the light or the lesson and explore that a little in a sad or heavy song because Im not a doom and gloom person and I usually process things quickly. I don’t like to dwell on the negative. So that shows up in my writing.

I always feel challenged not to repeat myself. And also to be more narrative which is not usually my style. It's a good exercise to try and write out of your comfort zone just to see what happens.

A great disco piece needs to find the balance between songwriting and groove. Many pieces on Dirty Disco get that balance perfectly right, especially so my favourite tune, “Keep it High.” What did this process of fleshing out the arrangements of this album look like in practise for you?

Cool thank you! Kaveh and I were at my kitchen table with a very special guitar and his laptop. He starting playing the kind of main line and we made a quick simple beat to it and went from there.

It took me ages to find the chorus melody and lyric. I knew what I wanted the message to be, about energy and people exchange of it in a day but I couldn’t land on it for a while.like a month or two. Meanwhile we were working on other songs and trying different approaches. Then Justin started adding to what we had and it grew from there …

We always like to keep initial tracks and vibes if we can. Sometimes we end up replaying bits but if we can keep the initial vibe of it that’s great because it has an essence that’s usually hard to re create.

The chorus melody took the longest for me. I had one million melodies but none felt exactly right until I finally landed on it … it was a search for sure!



When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

I've always been more focused on performance and imperfection than getting it to a place where it's so “perfect” there is zero soul left to be felt.

I don’t use autotune or melodyne to “fix” vocals, I just sing it again if it's not right. I love using effects and enhancing with different sounds but it's more like icing on the cake after the performance is there.

That’s the main aim - it's the heart of the interpreting the song for me.

Many artists compensated for the Covid restrictions by going online and doing streaming performances. These seem to continue, albeit at a lower level, until today. How does this experience compare to performing in the same space with the audience and how do you see the future of the concert format?

I have no crystal ball regarding the future of concert especially now with AI. But I do believe that humans like human connection and actually seeing artists in the flesh performing and being in a room with other fans enjoying their favorite artist together.

There is an energy that is lost on-line. It can still be great to watch a performance, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day, the possibilities of spontaneity can’t be matched with a live performance. Anything can happen and that is palpable. Plus the audience really adds the energy of the room obviously, they are like the extra member of the band in a way. Nothing beats it.

I think the online concert is great for people who can’t get to shows or can’t afford tickets especially now as prices are shooting up crazy. So they can still enjoy their fave artist.

I believe it fills a gap for fans but I'll always pick going to a show over watching one on my phone (laughs).