Looking for your new favorite artist? Look no further than Bella Rios! Bella Rios is one of our current musical obsessions! Ever since hearing Bella Rios’s EP, Sincerely, given the acoustic treatment, we have been hooked! Throughout her most recent project, you can hear such vulnerability, which takes three of the already incredible tracks off the EP, and helps them reach their rawest potential. We were lucky enough to get to chat with Bella Rios all about Sincerely, picking the songs to get the acoustic treatment, and so much more! Let’s dive in!
Listen to Bella Rios’s EP Sincerely, here!
Hi Bella! Welcome to The Honey POP! To kick us off, how would you describe your music to someone who is tuning in for the first time?
Hi! Thank you so much for having me. Hmmm – I would say, genre-wise, that my music could be described as alt/rock pop and ballads. It’s Olivia Rodrigo or Adele… or at least that’s who I dream of it being compared to.
Sincerely, has been living with listeners since May, what has it been like seeing how people have connected with this body of work?
Amazing. I mean, I love, and feel so lucky, just being able to put my music out there. Regardless of how many people hear it, my favorite part of making music is sharing it. That being said – hearing from people who it has touched feels especially good.
We know Sincerely, was your first multi-song project, what emotions go into putting that out into the world?
As with really any release, it was exciting, but really vulnerable at the same time. The songs mean a lot to me and many are very honest reflections of difficult experiences, so putting them out there for the world to hear, and frankly, judge, is definitely a bit scary. That being said, I go into each release knowing that is a possibility – I make efforts to consciously remind myself of how much growth, healing, and joy making and listening to this music has given me – and how that makes any negativity it encounters well worth it.
With Sincerely, you’ve given the acoustic treatment to three of the five songs, is the plan to do the same with the other two tracks on the record?
Just those three – I wanted to be very intentional with them. Each was motivated by the fact that an acoustic version highlighted some special element of the song or revealed an alternate interpretation of it.
‘Ever After’ is the only song that was actually released before the EP, what went into the decision to have that be the taste you gave listeners?
To me, every project I release feels like a new introduction to listeners – an opportunity to share how I have grown as a person and musician. Even in its most vulnerable tracks, this project reflected a more honest, confident version of myself. I wanted the single to really embody that – to say “This is me right now and I am proud of this music that I love.” I feel like ‘Ever After’ kinda smacks you in the face with that haha.
We want to circle back to the acoustic tracks for a minute, what new life do you feel stripping a track down in that way gives to it? What do you feel the song gains from that process?
I think it depends on the song. For ‘Ever After,’ a very aggressive, sassy breakup anthem in its original form, it offers up a different stage of reflection in that emotional moment – a more sweetly sarcastic reminiscing on a silly ex. For ‘Walking in the Rain,’ a more emotional, almost confessional, song by nature, it gives it a more intimate feel. It lets listeners in, so they can hear what that song is at its core – an emotional stream of consciousness with lyrics that make my voice shake every time I play it on the piano. For ‘In the Dark,’ my favorite of the songs to perform in acoustic sets, it gives it the sense of freedom that I feel when playing it live.
We know ‘Walking in the Rain’ is a really personal song to you, can you tell us a bit about that writing process and what inspired this track?
I wrote ‘Walking in the Rain’ during a pretty low point, mental health-wise, my sophomore year of college I think it was. One day on my typical rainy morning walk to class, I go to school in New Jersey after all, I realized that the one thing getting me through the toughest days was listening to my “happi” playlist. I wrote down that general idea in my notes app before class, and when I sat down to write next I realized, hey that imagery is kinda fitting isn’t it, and the rest flowed from there.
In a way, to us, Sincerely, feels like a coming-of-age EP. Like a true journey through music. When you look at the body of work as a whole, how do you view it?
I would agree. I mean, the EP is a collection of songs that spans from as early as my sophomore year of high school to my junior year of college. When I listen to it, I, of course, can recount the exact moments that inspired each of them, but I think they speak to fairly universal, developmental experiences – a tough breakup, mental health frustrations, finding yourself. That was intentional – I wanted the entire project to share who I am today and the experiences that made me that way, knowing that most listeners would be able to relate to those experiences and hopefully find company in them.
Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! To finish us off, what can fans look forward to as we finish out 2024?
Of course! And thank you for having me. I am so so so excited to share – plenty of performances, new music, and more to come. I share absolutely everything that’s on its way on my socials @iambellarios if anyone wants to keep up!
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