自从2018 年发行的EP《Zephyr》取得重大突破后，NIKI 便在流行音乐界留下了她的专属印记。她成为有史以来第一位在 Coachella 演出的印尼艺术家。当NIKI推出广受好评的首张专辑《MOONCHILD》后，这位住在洛杉矶的歌手兼创作人觉得有必要彻底重新审视她的艺术创作过程——这一举动使得NIKI回头去寻找她在高中时所创作的大量未经过滤，且具有独立民谣风格的作品。于是在充分运用她创作生涯初期的意识流创作法后，NIKI很快就完成了她的第二张专辑《Nicole》，一部完全由她个人编写的作品，比以往任何时候都更加充分地突出了她精巧的故事讲述和热情洋溢的歌声。 　　《Nicole 》体现了另类流行音乐的低调却复杂的风格特点。作为每首曲目的联合制作人，NIKI 将华丽的合成器音色和奇妙的伴奏与优美的吉他融合在一起，塑造了这张专辑的独特声音。NIKI还与 Ethan Gruska（Phoebe Bridgers、Remi Wolf）、Tim Anderson（Halsey、BANKS）、Jacob Reske（Vince Staples、Trippie Redd）和 Jacob Ray（Alison Wonderland、Evan Giia）等制片人合作，使得《Nicole 》最终提供了一个迷人的背景，充分展现了NIKI 的抒情与倾诉。 “我在这张专辑上进行了一些前所未有的尝试，”NIKI说道， “我们和合作人一起在他的车库和客厅里制作完成了大部分歌曲，整个过程的感觉是如此地无忧无虑，就像个孩子一样在操场上随时充满活力。” 　　《Nicole》引用了NIKI出生时的名字。整张专辑由一系列成长中的故事展开，讲述了NIKI所说的“我第一次惊天动地的心碎”。在这张专辑中，NIKI 为她的歌曲注入了一种生活中的特殊情感，这种情感能够将听众与他们自己的初恋经历重新连结起来。 　　正如NIKI所揭示的那样，挖掘这些根深蒂固的情感的能力与专辑制作过程的直觉之间有着一定程度的联系。“过去，我总是认为自己应该去成为某种类型的艺术家，可这样反而为自己创造了精神上的限制，”NIKI说道，“但对于这张专辑，我并没有试图去模仿某种美学，或者营造出某种特定的氛围。我只想成为我自己，去创作属于自己的音乐作品。我学会了相信自己的直觉，相信自己能够胜任词曲作者和制作人的工作，这让我非常自由，也变得更加有趣。” 　　Since breaking through with her 2018 EP Zephyr, NIKI has made a powerful imprint on the pop scene, amassing a devoted global fanbase and making history as the first Indonesian artist ever to perform at Coachella. But after delivering her critically acclaimed debut album MOONCHILD, the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter felt compelled to completely reexamine her artistic process—a move that found her revisiting the vast catalog of unfiltered and indie-folk-leaning songs she’d created in high school. As she returned to the stream-of-consciousness approach to songwriting that defined her earliest material, the 23-year-old musician soon arrived at her sophomore album Nicole: a boldly self-possessed body of work written entirely by NIKI, spotlighting her finespun storytelling and warmly expressive vocals more fully than ever before. 　　Nicole embodies an understated yet intricately textured form of alt-pop. As co-producer on every track, NIKI shaped the album’s singular sound by merging lush synth tones and fantastically glitchy beats with the graceful guitar work she first began honing in fourth grade. Also made with producers like Ethan Gruska (Phoebe Bridgers, Remi Wolf), Tim Anderson (Halsey, BANKS), Jacob Reske (Vince Staples, Trippie Redd), and Jacob Ray (Alison Wonderland, Evan Giia), Nicole ultimately provides a mesmerizing backdrop to NIKI’s lyrical outpouring. “I’ve never allowed myself to experiment as much as I did with this album,” she notes. “We made most of the songs in my collaborators’ garages and living rooms, and the whole process felt so carefree and energizing, like being a kid at the playground.” 　　With its title referencing her birth name, Nicole unfolds in a coming-of-age narrative centered on what she refers to as “my first-ever earth-shattering heartbreak.” All throughout Nicole, NIKI imbues her songs with the kind of lived-in specificity that immediately reconnects the listener with the rush and devastation of their own first love. 　　As she reveals, the ability to unearth those deep-rooted emotions has much to do with the highly intuitive nature of the album-making process. “In the past I created mental confines for myself, based on the type of artist I thought I should be,” she says. “But with this record I wasn’t trying to emulate a certain aesthetic or vibe; I wasn’t trying to be anything but myself. I learned to trust my gut and have real confidence in myself as a songwriter and producer, and it was so freeing and so much more fun.”