Nikka Costa. Bobbi Rich
From the pandemic to her personal life, a lot has changed for Nikka Costa while she has been on musical hiatus the past six years. Yet Costa, 52, is ready to leave the past behind and have some fun.
“We’re always in our phones and we’re being bombarded with news and drama and trauma,” she told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting her new album, Dirty Disco. “I really wanted to make a record that is gonna be really fun to play live, just really positive and vibey.”
Nikka — who is the daughter of the late Don Costa, the legendary music producer who worked with the likes of Frank Sinatra — has a unique, funky sound that infuses the joyful, dancey feeling of ‘70s and ‘80s music into the 21st century.
One song in particular, “Dance N Forget,” has the kind of beat that makes you want to go dance in the street — which is exactly what Nikka did in the song’s music video.
“We totally went rogue for this video,” she told Us. “Me and Justin [Stanley, her husband] just drove around the city over a few days and filmed on the iPhone and edited it together and it’s so great.”
Nikka added that her son, Suede, who she describes as “a daredevil sports skater dude,” made a cameo in the video as well.
“He’s definitely in the music video, him and his skate buddies. It was so fun,” she said, adding that while he is only 11 years old, he helps her with some of the editing, too.
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Nikka also shares daughter Sugar, 17, with Stanley, who she collaborates with on a lot of her music.
“We have always worked together, even from the beginning of our relationship,” Nikka said of her husband, whom she married in 1992. “We know each other’s boundaries and we have really high respect for each other’s talents. And trust. He pushes me more than any other producer I’ve ever worked with.”
Another standout track on the album is the first single, “It’s Just Love.” Just in time for Pride Month, the song emphasizes the universal nature of love, and Nikka told Us it was actually written based on an experience she had with a relative.
“I know [homophobia] exists, obviously we all know it exists, but when it was so close to home … it really surprised me,” she told Us. “It was just so cruel and I got real fired up about it. It just pissed me off. I’ve always been, like, ‘Live your life, do your thing, don’t care what other people think,’ but this [song] was in particular kind of directed at this person and that moment.”
In the chorus of the song, Nikka sings, “It’s just love / Don’t make it a big deal / We all need it to heal / Don’t matter what kind of love.”
“It’s one of my favorites,” she noted.
The “Dance N Forget” music video is out now and Dirty Disco will be released on August 16.