Phina Asa’s first time singing to a large audience was at the age of 10 in Cameroon at boarding school, music has always been her inspiration and a means of communicating her thoughts and feelings to the world.

For Phina, music is a place of commonality and is her unique way of providing light to those in the dark. The Nigerian vocalist has joined &friends– the musical concept and brainchild of New York-based Sean Thomas- on two releases, one on their own imprint Hidden Hands, and their forthcoming Armada Music debut with “This Is What It Feels Like”. Phina sits down with SIX AM to talk about her own project and her collabs with &friends.

 

Hi Phina! Welcome to SIX AM, it’s nice to meet you! How does it feel to officially be a part of the &friends project?

Since I’ve joined &friends I’ve felt extremely loved and happy, and at the same time, busy! We’re creating new melodies, and recording new ideas every single day to build beautiful, bold sounds for this project.

 

With your real name being Nanga Rophina Asa, we can see where you got your stage name ‘Phina’ from. Has this been something you’ve been called your whole life? Or did you claim this moniker down the line as you got into your stride as an artist?

Many people knew me as Nanga, but when I went to university and was performing on stage, people started calling me Phina. Now when I perform, people know me as Phina, so I took that on as my official stage name, and I use it across all of my projects.

You’ve been singing in front of large audiences since you were a young 10 years old, do you still get the same pre-show feelings now as you did back then? Or do they fade away with years of experience?

It’s different now because back then, at the age of 10, I had so much stage fright. It was scary whenever I climbed on stage to sing, I felt like I trembled with the mic. You could even hear it when I used to sing, but now it feels different – as I approach a new age, I continue to get more confident, and every time I step on stage to sing to the crowd, it feels different. Now when I sing live, I feel love, I feel happy, I feel confident, and I feel stronger than when I did when I was 10.

Your first release with &friends, “Dangerous”, just came out recently on April 7th and you also have another release slated for May 12th. How did you get connected with &friends and how has the collaboration process been?

I first got connected to Sean through through Oluwadamvic. I was working with Damvic on music, and one day he told me about this crazy guy he met online from New York that had all of these big ideas and visions. At first, I was honestly a bit skeptical, but with one record after another, it all started to become a reality of what was being created; at first, I was singing and getting paid for my vocals and songwriting, but very quickly we became not only a team, but a family, and have been working together every day since.

What was the inspiration behind your debut songs with the collective? What else can we expect from you in the future with &friends?

Through “Dangerous” and “This Is What It Feels Like” I wanted to pass a message through my music to the world; music is how I express myself, and I am passionate about communicating true stories and true feelings, good or bad, through my songs. We have a beautiful, long list of tracks coming out soon as well as the live show. I’m also very excited to share that we’ve been working on my own personal album that &friends is producing. We’ve also got a few secrets up our sleeve that the world will know soon.

Thank you so much for your time Phina! Is there anything else you would like to share?

I want to give a shout-out to &friends, all of my fans, and everybody showing me love. I’m so happy and so grateful for everyone’s support on “Dangerous”, I didn’t expect such a strong response! Thank you, and I’m so excited for you to hear what else we have coming out this year.

Presave “This Is What It Feels Like” 

Connect with Phina: Spotify 

Connect with &friends: SoundCloud | Website | Twitter | Instagram