Exclusive Interview [New Artist Find]: Nina Del Rio Embracing Creative Contradictions & Community Through Music

I first heard Nina at a collective creative gathering hosted by A Great Day in Boston, held in a Harvard University house. My friend Yaz had coordinated the event and shared her excitement online, which fueled my own anticipation. In a city where creative gatherings feel rare, this was a chance to connect with like-minded people—a welcome side quest.

The house buzzed with energy: flash tattoos, crafted drinks, live poetry, handmade art, and pottery stalls filled every corner. But it was the performance room that felt magical. Colonial woodwork framed the space, faded Persian rugs lined the floor, and a three-panel window revealed Cambridge and Boston's twinkling skyline. Shoulder to shoulder, the crowd swayed and laughed as the Argentinian, New Yorker Nina Del Rio took the stage. With a self-made crochet hat, a gemmed smile, and her talented band, she delivered a mesmerizing 30-minute set. Her angelic croons filled every inch of that vintage room, leaving us spellbound and inspiring me to learn more about this rising singer-songwriter.

Today, I’m reviewing Nina Del Rio’s latest single, “amor fantasma,” released in November. This track marks a new chapter for the artist as she evolves post-graduation from Berklee College of Music. While her previous songs often carry joyful, uplifting melodies, “amor fantasma”—translating to “ghost love”—feels enigmatic, elegant, and hypnotic.

The song transports listeners to a whimsical, dreamlike world. Nina’s angelic voice glides through the track like an ethereal breeze, creating an intimate, almost hypnotic experience. There is a magic to her music that feels otherworldly as her croons and whispers through the air waves. Whether or not you understand Spanish, her music conveys the universal feeling of a love so intense it keeps you awake at night, haunting you in every hour, much like an erotic lullaby. Her music gives you the sincere feeling of spiraling for an infatuating love, thus, we are taken on a poetic journey of sweet sonic disposition. This single offers a poetic glimpse into her upcoming project, leaving me eagerly anticipating what’s next.

I had the honor of interviewing the young artist while she is back home in Argentina to hear more about her story, her plans musically, and her detours. Read below to see our conversation.

Nina del rio X Neelu:

[Neelu Mohaghegh]: Take it away please! Introduce yourself and explain how you got into music and why you got into music. I would love to hear that.

[Nina Del Rio]: I've known that I wanted to do music for as long as I can remember. I think my parents played a really big role in it. My parents are both visual artists, and they immigrated to New York from Argentina in the 90s. Neither of them are musicians, but culturally, music has played such a big role in their lives they made it play a big role in my life when I was growing up. So, I came up around a lot of different types of music, and I always knew that it was kind of my way of feeling connected to the many worlds that I was living in as a kid. I grew up on a lot of The Beatles because that was really big in Argentina when they were growing up. I also grew up on a lot of Argentinian rock, a lot of Argentinian folkloric music, a lot of Brazilian music too, because my my dad loves Brazil, and so I think those were kind of the things that really informed my wanting to do music as a kid. I wanted to be a ballerina when I was six, but then right after that, I was like, “I want to be a rock star”. 

My parents were very supportive of me from the very beginning, and they took me very seriously with it, which was a really big blessing. I did chorus and stuff when I was six, and ever since then, it’s been the main thing in my life. 

The biggest thing that happened when I was a kid was that I went to a performing arts high school in New York called LaGuardia, which was a really cool, interesting, intense space to be in as a teenager. That was kind of the moment where I was finally surrounded by other people that were as serious about it as I was. I think for a lot of people, that's kind of like a make or break moment where you start to realize that dedicating your life to your passion can be very stressful and can be very competitive. I think having that reality check at a young age was really hard, but also really useful, because I realized, despite all of this, this is still what I want to do, and this is still what I love, and it was definitely a challenge, but ultimately LaGuardia became the place where I met a lot of people that are now my favorite people, and are a huge part of my community in New York. It taught me a lot about collaborating with other people, you know, writing music or playing in a band with other people—sharing space with other people who are making music.

After that, I took a gap year and came to Argentina and spent my year here taking workshops and classes with musicians that I really like over here. Then the pandemic happened, and then I was kind of stuck here, but then being stuck here turned into me staying here longer and longer because I love it a lot here. Then I went back to to the US for college, and then I finished college, and now here I am. 

[NM]: Would you say that Berklee was more impactful in your growth as a musician or was high school?

[NDR]: That’s a good question. I think that when I got to Berklee, I had a way stronger sense of self. I think when I was at LaGuardia, you know, I was like 14, 15, 16, and I was navigating a lot of identity things. I think because I grew up between New York and Argentina, I've always been kind of good at adapting to my environment. That is a good thing, and it means that I feel very connected to a lot of different things, but it also means that I've had to do a lot of work to understand what is actually a part of me, and what is me adapting to the environment that I'm in. I think at LaGuardia, I was doing a lot of that—adapting to the environment that I was in, and then I came here and away from some of the social pressures that I felt in high school and surrounded by my family and surrounded by all these people that I was meeting as a young adult.

I came into Berklee understanding who I was a lot more, and that was more formative in the sense that I started growing in a really authentic way career wise, and the opportunities that started happening started becoming bigger. But I think LaGuardia was definitely a very raw musical experience. It’s like you're an adolescent with all these crazy hormones and emotions surrounded by a bunch of people who are in the same exact boat.

[NM]: Absolutely. Those years are the years that you're finding self, and then as you get older, you obviously have a better sense of it, and the sound comes out more too, as well as your voice.

[NDR]: Totally. I would say Berklee was really special for continuing to find my voice once I knew kind of the path I wanted to take. I would also say that Berklee was very important for community building for me, because there is such a beautiful Latin American student community at Berklee that I didn't really have so much of in high school—like people who are making music in Spanish, writing music in Spanish, studying music in Spanish. You know, there was so much of that in Berklee that I think I met people that will be a part of my life forever.

[NM]: Speaking of Spanish music, I love “amor fantasma”. It seems like it takes a different kind of sound than what you're usually used to, and I'd love to hear more about what led you in that direction, and is this something that you're looking to keep exploring?

[NDR]: Yeah, I've been working with my friend Andrés Gonzalez-Cardona. He produced the last two singles that I put out, and he's producing most of the songs for an album that I'm working on right now. It's been really fun. These singles that I've been putting out have been the first music that I've released in a couple years. Everything that was out that I released on my own before was pre-Berklee, pre-soul search. The second EP I put out I recorded while I was living in Argentina, and then there’s the one I recorded while I was wrapping up high school…It’s definitely just a natural evolution over time. I really love collaborating one-on-one with others, because he brings an outside perspective to the project that I've never had before. I’m usually kind of the one who's in control of everything that's happening, and so now that this kind of a collaboration is happening we're doing a lot of digging and soul searching and vision boarding and figuring out exactly who it is that I feel I am in this moment. I think that's kind of the natural progression of the music that I'm writing. It’s kind of this interesting transition, because I think it still has a lot of what I was interested in doing before, but I think I'm less afraid to put everything into one project—to be all of the people that I want to be in one project.

[NM]: I think that ties into kind of what we're seeing in music right now, where everyone is genre bending, and everyone's becoming proud of the fact that they're bilingual, or trilingual, or whatever it is that they are. Why I got into music too is for community. Music is such a communal thing, and it's its own language. So, it is really special to collaborate. I think it’s a really cool direction for this track—it’s a little bit more airy and it's a little bit more whimsical and dreamy, but it's also got the electronic punch to it.

[NDR]: Thank you, thank you. Definitely, whimsical and dreamy are words that have been at the forefront of what I've been excited about recently.

[NM]: And is that something to expect for the project too?

[NDR]: Yeah, I think this project is a lot about contradictions. And like you said, music is its own language. I think that is always kind of what drew me to music, because as a kid, I was very confused about language and about who I was and how to communicate that to people. I definitely was an over thinker from a very young age, and I think that was part of what made me attracted to music—you don't have to think about it as much as you do other types of communication.

This next project is a lot about contradictions within a person. What you mentioned about how a lot of people are genre bending, a lot of people are refusing to be put into one box, one way of being, and so I think a lot of what I've been thinking about is that I think musical and dreamy and introspective are definitely words that can describe how I like to do things in general. But I also think a lot of it is oscillating between being anxious and feeling like a bad bitch, or being introspective or saying screw everything. I just want to go out and have a good time. I think you can expect to be a little surprised with a few of the things that might pop out.

[NM]: No, I love that. That's human nature, right? I think that's the multi-faceted parts of our personalities, but it's going to be fun to hear that in a project. Is there a new artist that you're obsessed with right now?

[NDR]: That’s a good question. Honestly, I just really love what my friends are doing. A lot of my friends who are out here in Argentina: my friend Bianca Cabili and my friend Chaiah, …and my friend Ava, her artist name is Avangelia. She just dropped the craziest album. I'm so proud of her, and I want it to blow up ASAP, because it should. 

[NM]: What would be your “detour” that maybe fans don't know about you, but something that isn't related to the music, but some fun fact, another side quest, hobby you're into, whatever it be.

[NDR]: My biggest side quest, that's actually kind of becoming part of my music too, is that I love to knit and crochet. It’s the other big thing in my life that I feel very connected to—I feel like I don't have to think about it—I'm just creating something. Outside of artsy stuff, I was a camp counselor for a really long time, not a music camp, just a regular camp, and that was a huge part of my life, almost in like a cult-y way haha. That's my favorite place in the world, just chilling in the woods all summer with my friends. It’s also a very community oriented thing. It was a lot about living in community and taking care of the nature that we live on. So I'd say, definitely a side quest. I would love to one day escape to the woods and live on the farm.

[NM]: Yeah. We should. We should all come to Camp Nina. 

[NDR]: Honestly, I would love to do something like that, that’d be awesome. Even if it’s an artist residency or something like that. That's another thing I think about a lot—I’m definitely a city kid and I love the city, but I get really antsy if I don't touch grass. I think all of us need more touching grass in our lives. 

[NM]: I think that it all ties in really well with the fact that you mentioned contradictions, it's just parts of who we are that need nurturing. We have the city side of us that loves to hustle and bustle and the creativity and inspiration that comes from those places. But you also need the calm and the quiet and the rest that comes from the beauty of being out in the burbs and in the mountains, the forests, the ocean…

[NDR]: Yeah, I would love to make an album of camp fire songs. 

[NM]: That would be incredible. Now, before we sign off, is there anything you wanted to share with your listeners? Whether it's about the music, what to expect in the new year, or even what are you excited for in the new year?

[NDR]: Yeah, I think that's something I'm really excited about. I'm starting to think a lot more about the visual worlds that come with the music. I think that's obviously, in this ecosystem, very necessary. I just graduated school in May, so I've been taking it step by step, but that's definitely, a big goal for the year. So I'm really excited about that. And I think it's going to be really cool and really freeing to explore everything—all of these contradictions and all of these identity, city, nature, river kind of things—to explore them visually. I mean, I'm just looking forward to when I go back to New York in March to keep organizing these little songwriter circles, just to continue existing and figure out the best way to exist in the world right now. That's kind of my journey right now. 

[NM]: Well, I think you're doing a great job of it. I love that you're exploring visuals, because I do think that's a huge part of the art. But I also realize, the community building that you're doing that's also a massive part of the essence of music. 

[NDR]: I feel like everything that's digital that's happening, the way I'm looking at it is that is my tool to be able to create actual, tangible experiences with people. Ultimately, I've realized I don't really care if I’m looking at the Spotify app and the numbers are going up, if it doesn't mean that I can have a show and see new faces there. So, I think that my wish for the new year is to grow those live experiences. The things I've been doing have been small, but they've been really meaningful. I've been hosting also these songwriter nights. I hosted also a craft night. That's kind of — that’s my why — to be able to create experiences that happen in real life and not just on our screens. Someone who I really admire who does a really good job of that is Raveena. I really love her way of doing things. She hosts her meditation circles, and her visuals are incredible. But then she also does all these really cool in-person kind of experiences.

[NM]: Ok, last one. If you had to describe yourself to somebody when they first meet you how would you say it?

[NDR]: I would say, “aspiring superstar who likes to knit hats”.

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Thank you, Nina, for your time and your beautiful work! I am so excited for the music to come and for everyone to hear. Follow her on Instagram and Spotify to hear when new releases arrive.