From a young age, Ninali has been fascinated by music and started singing and writing songs when she was a teenager. At just 18 in 2011, she signed with an indie label and released her first single “Lovedrunk” in Belgium, which was played on multiple radio stations around he country. It appeared on a compilation album from Radio 2 - one of the biggest Belgian radio stations. The following year, she released the breezy pop song “Millionaire”, which reached number 34 in the Ultratip charts in Belgium. She has performed at multiple venues, including as an opening act for a few local bands in Belgium and has done various performances in Rotterdam during her studies.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Ninali, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Hi Kamil, thanks for having me! I got into music very young. I started playing piano when I was around 7 years old. Then I started singing at around 13 years old and writing songs around that age too! At 18 I got my first indie label contract and released my first single in Belgium at 19.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
I actually have a “muggle” job as a Customer experience consultant so that is taking most of my time during the week. On the side I work on my music. I always make sure to save some time for my music either in the weekend or on my ‘off’ day on Friday, as I work part-time. In the weekend I try to hang out with friends, do sports etc.
It’s hard though, sometimes I just want to lock myself in my studio and just work on my music!
Your latest song is 'Smooth'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
“Smooth” was written relatively fast actually. It took me maybe just a few hours. It’s that rare and special moment as a songwriter when everything comes together! Also creating the first demo and first version of Smooth went smooth (yes, pun intended!). So nothing unusual happened really - maybe that everything came together so fast? I would say that is definitely not the norm!
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
I actually got started very young in the industry, when I was just a teenager and I got my first record deal. It was quite tough to be honest, because it seemed whatever I wrote was not good enough for the label, and in the pictures I wasn’t ‘sexy’ enough. While my very first single “Lovedrunk” was played in many stations in Belgium it did not quite receive the momentum to get me further in my career. It was after a few years that I decided to focus on something else and pursue music purely as a hobby. Now I am back and hoping to change that again at some point, but I am honestly just happy to make music again and putting it out there. The music industry is a very tough industry and I think actually that starting out too young in this kind of industry is pretty hard on your mental health. The music industry is a business, and at the end of the day a business cares about money to survive. For many musicians, including me when I was younger, it can be very difficult to reconcile your creative spirit with this business world.
What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
Maybe if I wouldn’t be into music I would be a NASA engineer or scientist or something, because I am a huge science fiction nerd! But I don’t have the brains unfortunately..
How do you know when a work is finished?
A work is never really finished in my opinion. For me it’s really hard to know when a song is finished, you just have to go with your gut feeling!
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
I love traveling, so that’s probably my biggest passion other than music! I am also a huge foodie and love to try out new restaurants and cafes.
What is it about music that makes you feel passionate?
Like for many other fellow songwriters, music is like therapy for me. The best way for me to deal with something in my life is writing a song about it. And the best feeling in the world for me is sitting at the piano and finding the perfect melody or writing that perfect lyric.
Who is your favourite musician?
I don’t really have one favourite musician, they keep changing as well! But nowadays I really admire Charlie Puth and his genius music making. Another artist and singer-songwriter I love is Malaysian artist Yuna. I also absolutely adore jazz singer Melody Gardot.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to release more music! Also, I would like to get better at music production. So definitely stay tuned for more music ;)