Ria recently released her new single “I’m Good”

MO – Lets start from the beginning – How did you get into singing and who are your biggest influences so far?
RIA – I started singing when I was 7 years old mainly through singing competitions. I also had a vocal coach to help me out. My father always told me about new contests and where I would need to audition. I would always get involved with competition, events and audition and kind of continued from there to where I am today.

MO – Were you focusing on any particular genre when you started?
RIA – When I was younger the focus was mainly on the “Pop” genre. As I got older my style evolved into a mix of pop and R n B. I understood myself more as an artist as I got older. I started at a very young age and didn’t really understand myself right away and as I got older in the last couple of years, I started understanding what genre speaks to me the most and who I am as an artist.

MO – Who are your favorite R n B artists and inspirations currently? 
RIA – There are so many – Daniel Caesar (he is also from Toronto!), Ella mai, SZA, Chris Brown the list goes on !! 

MO – Tell us about the new single “I am Good”?
RIA – When we (Ria along with writer and producer a.n.g.e.l) used to have conversations about what was going on in our lives including bad experiences with friends and other circumstances that don’t always work out the way we want to –  I realized how passionate I am about friendships and thought it would be great if we wrote a song about it. We worked together, he wrote the song and we recorded the song together. This song is very powerful to me as it talks about specific relationships with my friends, how some of them are not always genuine, some are always competing. We can all learn from these experiences. Anyone who is going through relationships or friendships that are not always 100% genuine will understand.

MO – Are your parents a big influence in your life?
RIA – YES !! My dad drives me everywhere – to shows, singing lessons, piano lessons – basically he drives me everywhere. They are super involved in my music.

MO- I understand your first stage appearance was when you were 7 years old? What was that like?
RIA – That was the scariest thing in the world! I was so scared. It was a song called “Fly to your heart” by Selena Gomez. When I first performed that song I couldn’t move and I was completely still. I asked my parents to sit all the way at the back so they wouldn’t look me while I was performing and freak me out because there would be a lot of people watching me perform. It took me a long time to get comfortable to be on stage.

MO- What are your plans going forward?
RIA – Making music and writing as much music as I can. My biggest thing is sharing with the world what I have to say and write music that people can relate to. I am very honest about who I am and what I have been through so far and sharing that with people.

MO- Album coming up?
RIA – There is an album coming out in the summer. So far it has been going very well. I cannot talk too much about it but it has 90’s R n B vibe and I am very excited!