niina announces debut album, honestly, does this smell off to you?

The track serves as celebration of women as niina explains: “I just want to really celebrate women – there’s so much incredibleness to being a woman and any opportunity I can take to empower myself or others is a good thing. I made the song last year and I actually envisaged the video for it really early on. It’s about getting fire in your tummy and just letting loose, going out and feeling limitless. It’s a moment of not questioning the world and blocking out anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.”

An empowering, confessional album, honestly, does this smell off to you? was written, recorded and produced entirely by niina from her bedroom and celebrates self-acceptance, creating a space for people to sing, dance, cry and not take life too seriously.

The album is niina’s most personal to date and explores, with searing honesty, struggles she’s had with her mental health. “For the last four years I’ve been on a real journey of real bad lows at times, but those moments taught me a lot about myself,” she explains.

On the album’s visuals and videos, there is a furry recurring figure called ‘Patrick’, who niina describes as a kind of “harrowing yet curious monster” who represents the problems we’re all running from. She adds: “But those moments, as dark as they were, gave me new ways to tackle life and I ended up feeling more empowered about how I approach the world after going through that.” A big lesson she learned was to live in the moment and accept “that everything will be fine in the end. I want to give people permission to say, ‘hey, I’m so fucking lost, but let’s have a dance and enjoy life anyway".

niina has also announced her debut headline show at Rae’s on 8 August.