Bella Rios Interview

With single “Calm Down” hot off the presses, 18 year old Bella Rios is hitting her musical stride. Tongue Tied got the exclusive opportunity to catch up with Bella about her music journey so far and what comes next!

Bella may be currently finding her sound within the pop rock genre, but artistically she has explored almost every sound possible. As a child, she began as a classical pianist like her mother and fell in love with classic rock like her father. She began learning how to read sheet music so she could play a variety of genres, enrolled in vocal lessons, and started playing gigs with cover bands. 

As she was telling me about her musical history, I could see the smile growing on her face before she burst out laughing and stated, “My very first gig with a band my mom told me afterwards that she didn’t invite anyone because she was afraid I would suck. She clearly had lots of faith in me!” Rios began to thrive on the cover band scene as young as age eleven, and she quickly became a fantastic imitator of a variety of artists. After a few years it became apparent, however, that while she enjoyed singing covers, Bella knew she needed more to satisfy her musical hunger and began writing her own songs at 14.

“Instead of channeling my emotions through cover songs, I wanted the words to be mine.” - Bella Rios, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Her musical inspirations include Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin, Freddy Mercury, Maggie Rogers, as well as emlyn, who she credits as an inspiration that is around her age and thriving. With so many diverse genres in her arsenal, however, Bella found herself lost in imitation and without the same passion, resulting in a brief hiatus from creating music.

“I took about four months not writing or creating anything. After that, I decided I needed to revisit my music because there was something inside me that just needed to continue. I connected with a producer in Chicago and told them my situation. We created a list of 30 different songs from different genres and varieties and then went through each one and tried to create a song that sounded like it. I would demo the song and if it didn’t fit for me, we would scrap it. I had to learn by process of elimination that while I can listen to all these genres and I can write all of these genres, they’re not all the sound that would come out of me authentically. Without that break, I really would not be able to be so confident in myself and my writing now.” - Bella Rios, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Her confidence in her new sound is apparent with recent releases of “Bitter”, “Reveries”, and “Calm Down” all shining in genuine and powerful pop rock. Her latest release, “Calm Down”, offers a bright and fun pop track that holds an incredibly important story for Bella. The end of Bella’s junior year of high school found her moving from Chicago to Tennessee, and with this move she came to a variety of new revelations about her life.

“There was a loss of a lot of relationships at that time. I wasn’t my full and complete self in Chicago for whatever reason, and moving gave me the opportunity to let a lot of that go without having to awkwardly end relationships. “Calm Down” is about letting go of those relationships where you feel like you have to minimize yourself or your expression for the sake of others, and not being afraid to say enough is enough.” - Bella Rios, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Bella’s writing process has evolved tremendously throughout her move to Tennessee, leaving behind the producers and songwriters she had been comfortable with in Chicago. This move gave her newfound independence in her songwriting process, as well as stripped down her creations to just her, a notebook, and a guitar.

“I’ve changed a lot, and my songwriting changes day by day. For “Calm Down”, we started by laying down some chords with a guitar, and the songwriter I was working with at the time was always way more confident in me than I was. I would tell her a story and she would help me turn it into lyrics, and then the melody would come more naturally to me. It's definitely become more haphazard and independent since then.” - Bella Rios, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Looking forward, Bella has a lot of ideas and dreams for the future of her music career. While she’s currently a full-time student, she is always writing new music, even hinting at some new releases coming out in the next few months. Bella even went as far as to tell me that her next release is a ballad, stating, “I always love a good and emotional cry-your-eyes-out song that’s also a bit angry, and that’s what this next one is. I love it.” The ultimate goal for Bella, however, is to be able to fully commit herself to just her music career and performing, and she hopes that as people continue to connect with her music, she can take some time off of school to do just that.

With such a long musical history in the industry thus far, Bella definitely has learned a lesson or two about success as an artist. As a self-labeled type A personality, Rios has had to learn to show herself some grace about her own growth and journey without comparing herself to others. 

“You may think there is something you should be producing or you should sound like, but even if you achieve that level of imitation… if it doesn’t feel genuine to you it will not translate. No matter how hard you try to fake it, it won’t work. People can sense if it is not authentically you. The things that have resonated the most that I've released have also been the things I've been the most proud to put out and felt the most myself to release. Also, I genuinely feel like the only way for you to succeed in this industry is through persistence, as well as kindness and patience with yourself. I've spent a long time beating myself up about how much time I am spending and my success levels, but that doesn’t help at all. Not losing faith in yourself and in the industry is so important.” - Bella Rios, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Another measure for Bella to not measure success by comparing to others, she has also become an advocate for supporting the work you enjoy publicly. She laughed earnestly as she told me, “I always get scared to be awkward and comment on other people’s work, but it means so much to me when anyone does it to me. Receiving response and positivity about what I am creating is the most rewarding and motivating thing. So, yeah, let people know when you like what they’re making!” 

She may be young, but Bella Rios has explored so many avenues of the music industry and truly settled into her groove. You can check out “Calm Down” now on Spotify, and be sure to follow Bella on Instagram to keep up to date with what comes next for the upcoming star!