"Kissing The Wind" Promo Photos

Press Kit Comments "At last," says the singer, pointing to her new record as she break into a smile that electrifies the room. "This is the real me!" Nia Peeples is excited. Her enthusiasm is contagious. You sense it in her voice; you hear it in her music. Her mind moves quickly, words flow freely; she let's you know what she's feeling. "From the mid- eighties when I appeared in Fame until now," she explains, "I've been dabbling, dipping my toes in the water, tasting a little of this, sampling a bit of that. It's been fine, it's been wonderful, but I've been looking for a project that expresses my energy and my values, realizes my rhythms and the rites of passage that I've lived through. This is it." This is Nia Peeples, her debut Charisma release, a smoldering package of ten powerful songs, five of which were co-written by Nia. "I'd like to think," adds the artist, her dark eyes dancing, "that I've caught lightning in a bottle." To catch Nia in a self-analytical mode is a treat. To see her- her delicate facial features, her supple dancers body, her model-like poise-can be misleading. There's more than meets the eye. She's articulate, thoughtful, eager to reflect not simply on the appeal of her songs but the meaning behind them. In the past half-decade, Nia's made her mark on music, television and movies. Her 1988 album spawned "Trouble," a #1 dance hit. She's hosted the American hookup of the British "Top of the Pops," the most viewed music program in the world; "Street Party" for MTV; and a hundred segments of "The Party Machine" on syndicated television. Peeples appeared on Fame for three seasons. As an actress, her theatrical films include I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore, Deep Star Six, and North Shore. "It was all gratifying," she remembers, "but never completely satisfying. With this record I've been able to break through. I've put myself into the grooves and inside the lyrics. I've made it a personal statement and I'm thrilled with the results." No wonder. The first single- "Street Of Dreams"- is just a taste of what's to come. "It's an anthem of hope," Nia explicates. "The fact that it's also a slammin' groove is extra added ammunition. Like the song says, Chasin rainbows in the sky Got to have the nerve to try." Nia has the nerve. She has, in her words, "always followed the applause." The path, however, has not been without detours. "Being told you're multitalented," Nia relates, "can be distracting. There are so many things you can do as opposed to the one thing you should do. "What I've tried to do on this project is simple: share my life. Ventilate my feelings. What I'm singing about all boils down to- Here I am! It's like painting pictures of my moods. Or staying up all night with a close friend who tells you just what's on her mind. If people relate - as I hope and trust they will- then I'm ecstatic!" Nia's take-me-as-I-am approach has an intimate and natural magnetism. "On any given day," she confides, "I can experience all the feelings on the record, whether they're mental, physical or spiritual. 'Hurricane,' for example, is a number about pure, physical passion. But for sex to be truly fulfilling, it must be linked to spirituality. That's the point of 'The Entity (Sex),' a song with deep gospel overtones that represented a tremendous vocal stretch for me. 'King of Cool' is a jazz-tinged profile of male insensitivity hooked to an especially enticing groove. 'Shut Up and Fix It' is about self-reliance; 'Heaven Help Me' about responsibility and conviction. 'You Make Me Wanna' revolves around glorious desire. "They're all part of being a woman. That's my point. They all require expression. They're all okay. And in the right time and space, they're better than okay- they're incredible, they're fantastic, they're life. All things in their season. My emotional landscape has been translated into a musical landscape, and I'm happy; I'm overjoyed to have it all out there." Nia's musical roots are as varied as her ethnic roots. Her father is Italian-Scottish-Irish- Native American Indian; her mother is Filipino-Grench-German-Spanish. In high school, where she started performing musical theater and singing with a Top 40 band, Nia recalls listening to anything that felt good- the Eagles, the Carpenters, Barbara Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Heart, Janis Siegal of Manhattan Transfer, Pat Benatar, Tina Turner...the list goes on. "From the start," she remembers, "I wanted to do everything. I was academically inclines and convinced I'd make a great surgeon. But then I won a scholarship to UCLA, and suddenly I was a voice major, and then even more suddenly the real world came calling- I was winning auditions, getting parts, earning money. Fame was the culmination of it all, the perfect first step because it allowed me to sing, dance and act in stories offering wonderful moral lessons. The show had substance." Substance seems to be Nia's guiding principal. "Fans want spirit on their music," she says. "They want to celebrate life. They want to lose their inhibitions and get up and jam. But I believe they're also tired of superficiality. That's why I threw myself so completely into this project. I wanted to go deep. Everyone's looking for meaning. And the meaning has to be sincere, soulful. These days a great record has to have it all - it has to make you move, make you feel and make you think." NIA PEEPLES does just that - and then some.

"Gavin Report" interview soon.