Niki’s Early Music Makes Her Cringe. Her Emotional Pop Is Growing Up.
The musician, 25, has paired raw honesty with synth-pop and R&B. On her third album, “Buzz,” she moves toward West Coast folk-rock and explores fresh heartbreak.Niki — the Indonesian pop songwriter Nicole Zefanya — was 11 years old when she saw a Taylor Swift documentary that changed her life. “That memory is just a core memory of mine,” she said.Swift’s 2010 “E! True Hollywood Story” pointed Niki toward the kind of career she could have herself, one that now encompasses songs that have been streamed hundreds of millions of times and concerts that turn into fervent singalongs. Her third full-length album, “Buzz,” will be released Friday, followed by a world tour that comes to Central Park SummerStage on Sept. 13.“I’m from Jakarta and somehow I’ve made it all the way here,” Niki said via video from her Los Angeles apartment. “Sometimes it is just mind-boggling how this is the story I get to tell.”Niki, 25, casual in a pale-gray sweatshirt with blond streaks in her dark hair, was speaking from a room that held electric and acoustic guitars, ring lights for video shoots, a high-quality vocal microphone and a stolid upright piano. One of its creaky pedals is heard on “Paths,” a gracious, low-fi post-breakup song on “Buzz” that muses, “Though it didn’t last, I hope our paths cross again.”There’s now an entire songwriting generation of Swift disciples — among them Olivia Rodrigo, Clairo, Sabrina Carpenter and Gracie Abrams — who have learned to conjoin self-expression, craftsmanship, ambition and diligence while navigating studios, stages and social media. What these musical progeny have in common — even those from half a world away — are both an artistic spark and a firm work ethic.Many of the songs on “Buzz” are about turning endings into new beginnings.Justin J Wee for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
