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Niko Rubio is a girl whose energy can turn your whole day around. She arrived wearing the cutest pink dress, with clips in her hair like she had just finished getting ready 5 minutes ago. An earl grey iced coffee in hand that she insisted I try (which I’m glad I did, since it was one of the best coffees I’ve ever had), brought us closer before the interview even started. There’s sunshine in her wake, completely embodying the spirit of her culture and hometown of sparkling Los Angeles. Upon learning more about her artist journey, I discovered the free-spirited nature I was immediately taken by has not always been the case. Her first few projects were dedicated to her family roots, but this one is all for her. She has the look of someone who’s been up to no good and having pure fun, and it’s infused through her newest project, the Sunday Girl EP.  

OnesToWatch: I went to the beach 3 times last week and I listened to “Ride It” every time.

Niko Rubio: Oh my god. That's so cute. 

And now that I've heard the rest of the EP too, I can't wait to bump it all summer.

I definitely live in the dreamscape world of the California ocean and am always trying to find ways to diversify and show all sides of that. There are so many facets of beach music in California, especially being Latina. There’s reggae, Latin, indie rock…but it's always a dreamscape. I have some songs that are daytime at the beach and then songs that are nighttime. That's what I'll play with for the rest of my career.

There’s endless inspiration!

Unless I move to London or something, then I'll be inspired by that. That'll be another era, but for now the era is going to be here. 

What was your process for making these songs? Were they all created together or throughout a long period of time?

The first song that I wrote on the EP was “Ride It.” I had written the first verse about one guy and then I had this idea…I was reading a lot of Eve Babitz and LA storyteller books. Eve Babitz is probably the most iconic, in my opinion, LA writer. You know, there's the whole Joan Didion versus Eve Babitz conversation. For me, it's Eve all the way. 

You don't seem very Joan Didion…

She is not giving my vibes, but I do love her. Sometimes she's subdued. I like reading it, but I have to read it again. I was reading that Eve Babitz book about the Chateau and I was also going to the Chateau a lot in that year, hooking up with boys and doing whatever. I was very much having an Eve Babitz summer. Everything she predicted ended up happening in my own life. I was single for the first time as a grown woman and feeling like I could just go and explore and date these guys and have my heart broken, make bad decisions and good decisions. It was becoming a songwriter perspective kind of EP, which is very different for me. My last 2 projects were in Spanish, and they were specifically for my grandparents and for my mom. They were very traditional, based in Mexican tradition. They were both thank you’s to my family. Which is amazing, but they weren't for me. This EP, I just wanted to be a songwriter that talks about the boys that she's hooking up with and being a single girl in LA. So, after I had written all of these songs, I was like, “Okay, what is she?” That’s when I wrote “Sunday Girl.” That one was pivotal. I felt like I had never spoken about sex in songs, at least not in English. It's almost like I've been a nun my whole life and now I'm like going to a lounge, taking off the nun habit and performing these songs. So, that was the process. I started with “Ride It”, and then embarked on explorative little moments that inspired the rest of the songs.

Maybe you wouldn't have been able to get to a place where you would feel as free without paying homage first.

And I did that the first time. I loved my first record, but there were parts of my identity that weren't in there. I mean, I was 20 when I wrote that. I just turned 25. I was like, “Maybe I'll find myself if I do this for Grandma and Grandpa, maybe I'll find myself if I do this for my mom.” But I guess that's the Mexican Catholic guilt. [Laughs]

It’s almost like you earned being completely free spirited in this new music.

And I'm just older. 

How do you start writing a song? Voice memos? Notes App? 

It depends. A lot of times it's the sound. I start with production normally, and then storytelling. For this whole project, it started with a feeling. Even when I did “Sunday Girl” with Andrew Wells and Romans, we talked for hours. It took us probably 10 sessions to get a song that we loved. I'm also a writer for other artists. So whilst I'm doing this project, I am pitching other songs too.

How do you differentiate?

That's what going to Mexico and finding myself was for. Because I equally want to be as much of a writer as I am an artist. They're both so important to me. 

I’m sure you learn so much about yourself by doing both. 

100%. Taking the time to differentiate between trying to prove myself as a writer or trying to prove myself as an artist? That's so different. Because there's an amazing hook that may be perfect for Dua Lipa, but it's not perfect for my project. I love being a writer, it's my favorite thing in the world.

That is so cool.

One of the reasons I did reggae was because I wrote on Gwen Stefani’s last album. She plays a huge part in this. She would go on Kiss FM and say “I have a writer, Niko Rubo, she's amazing.” She's the sweetest. So, when I went to Mexico and wrote “Ring Ring” I sent it to her and she was like, “Oh, my God, my princess. It's amazing.” That's why Zuri Marley ended up on it. 

You’ve obviously touched on it, but what were the main inspirations for this EP? 

Eve Babitz, Solange, Gwen Stefani, Sublime…”Exodus” is my favorite Bob Marley album. Barrington Levy, old reggae like Sister Nancy. All of the southern Californians together. A little bit of the Strokes or whatever my indie world was that day. Probably the Sundays or the Cardigans or something. 

It’s cool how you keep mentioning the indie rock influence, because you can hear it so much, but maybe sometimes it conflicts with the other genres you’re incorporating?

They're all from the same place. It's anything that feels like it's supposed to be listened to in a car driving by the ocean. That is the genre. I never want to limit myself. Even “Pink Starburst” is a moody, almost trip hop, dreamscape song.

So many people are talking about trip hop right now. 

And I made that song two years ago!

You're on the pulse. I love seeing the connection between the origin of trip hop and how it’s resurging today.

Dylan Brady and I have been working on trip hop records since we met. It's amazing being a songwriter, because I don't have to go into working with someone like Dylan and being like, “Okay, this has to be for you or for me.” We can just be like, “What do you want to make?” I don't ever want to be in one genre. The genre is: what does the beach look like for me that day? But I don't want to be confusing, so I am going to try to keep honing it in a little bit more. Honing in and limiting yourself don't have to be the same.

Let’s go track by track for the new ones, starting with “Mine”:

“Mine” is one of my favorite songs of all time. I wrote it with Olivia Bond, who is Remy Bond's sister. I love Remy and Olivia, they’re my sisters. Olivia and I get along so well and we were just smoking a cigarette and playing on the Omnicord. I was like, “Can you just send it to me? I hear something on this song and I want to produce it out.” 

Sometimes if I don't write part of a song until months later, the first half is one story and the second half transforms it. If I decide that the story is done, I'll normally finish it on day one. But if I don't think the story is over, I won't write the second verse yet. I wait until I finish the production and redo how I hear it in my head. This one started as my boyfriend and I being super in love, then we broke up. It's cool that you get to see two sides of it in one song. You can hear the heartbreak throughout, when I'm saying “you're mine”, the notes aren't perfect and I did that on purpose. I wanted it to feel heartbreaking and a little bit out of tune and fucked up. You're slowly realizing that it's all gonna end and it's gonna be really sad.

“Pink Starburst”:

"Pink Starburst" is one of my favorites ever. I wrote it with Mikky Ekko, who’s iconic. He's one of my favorite co-writers ever. I just wanted something sexy. I was eating pink Starbursts in the studio and I sang about it. Mickey was like, “That's hot. Let’s go with that.” I have videos from that day of us making it, which are really fun. I can’t wait to post them.

Watch the "Pink Starburst" music video below: 

“Savior Complex”: 

I was talking to a boy who, well…he was a man who acted like a boy. He's actually very funny, but it ended so horribly. He watches my story every day, so he'll see this. He's a loyal one. He was crazy and in the beginning, I thought it was fun. And then I thought, do I just like him because we go out all the time? And that's what we've called love? I was in the studio and I was like, “I just feel like I have a savior complex for all these boys.” I wrote it down and just sang the melody. We couldn't figure it out. We started one thing and then tried again. And then Jesse played me something else and then the hook just came out immediately. Normally that's how it works. I know that I will like a song if the hook comes to me first. 

If you're a fan and you're going to press play on this for the first time, what's the best atmosphere? Driving by the beach? 

I guess, in the car. You can be alone in your room. You can also put headphones on, shoes off at the beach at nighttime. With your friends. It doesn't even matter. With your lover, or a guy that shouldn't be your lover. 

You did a release show for “Ride It”, where you partnered with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. What did it mean for you to be able to do that?

The release party was so beautiful. I posted about it two days before, so it was really cool to see that fans that drove in from Tijuana, San Diego, San Francisco, etc.. It wasn't even like there were too many people, it was just a perfect vibe. Cutie girls and cutie boys, some older men who were like, “I know I'm not your demographic, but I just love your music.” Anyone can show up! I don't fucking care. Being able to shake everyone's hand and see them was so special. And partnering with CHIRLA was sick. I feel so lucky to be able to raise money for an organization that is helping create change in Los Angeles and all over America. Being able to support that is very important to me. 

You're going on your first headline tour and some festivals. How are you feeling? How are you putting the set together? 

It's the Sunday Girl tour, so she starts in the story. She's a bad girl nun that goes on these dates at night. She goes to her little lounge and she sings her little song. When you enter the show, you're entering her confessional. It's exciting to have a story and a through line. I've been trying really hard for a long time to find a story that felt real for me. Nuns have been done forever and girls have been doing them in pop culture for ages, but for my fans specifically, they were just like “Yes.” One of my fans told me she can't even tell her dad that she was at the release party. This is gonna be a record that some kids are gonna have to hide under their covers. You know what I mean? 

I'm sure you had those. 

I had plenty of those. That was my Lana Del Rey. I hid her under my covers and she was my everything. I think that a lot of young Latina girls feel the same way I do. So, the tour will be really fun. There's so much to play with. We sold out LA in 24 hours. Last year I did a show in November and it didn’t sell out. It's really cool to see the growth happen in real time. I'm sure there's going to be shows where so few people show up but who fucking cares? 

It's so cool to even see 10 people in a room, there for your music.

It's just a part of the story. For a long time, I was always very afraid of now being good enough yet. Thinking I just didn’t know myself or the story well enough yet. Now, I feel that even if the story's wrong and whatever, I love it right now. So I'm just gonna go do it. 

Your whole life is for figuring that out. No one figures it out. That's the whole point. 

Exactly. Just do it right now and laugh at it later. 

Who are your Ones To Watch? Who are you listening to? 

The Two Lips! I opened for them and I love them. 54 Ultra, I just love him. Acopia, I just found them and I DM'd them and I was like, “I think you're fantastic.” I really love Olivia O'Brien's new single called “Icarus.” Dylan Brady's solo project was so amazing. I really respect producers that can do the shit that he does. It's a sound experience more than anything.

I love that you’re such a fan of people you work with. 

Oh, yeah. They’re all amazing. 

Listen to Sunday Girl below: