New York, NY (Top40 Charts) She's been called a "vintage songstress" by Broadway World, has sung on over 200 songs for Hal Leonard Publishing, BMI Publishing, Sony, and Universal, has performed with The
National Symphony Orchestra conducted by the late Marvin Hamlisch, and with Grammy® Award-winning composer/arranger Patrick Williams (Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra), has starred in Buzzfeed comedy videos, and she's been the voice of Odette, The Swan Princess, from Sony Animation's "The Swan Princess" since 2018. Now, it's finally her turn for time in the spotlight singing her own songs.
Ladies and gentlemen...NINA HERZOG.
The Los Angeles singer/songwriter's long-awaited six-song debut EP, TOGETHER AWAY, will be released February 12, 2021 via Label Logic, as distributed by Ingrooves. Pre-orders will be available in the coming weeks. A video for the EP's first single, "Changing Seasons," can now be seen on her official YouTube page. The song can now be streamed and downloaded via Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer.
"Changing Seasons" opens with warm acoustic guitar strums, a sprinkling of high piano notes and a mellow R&B backbeat. HERZOG's soft vocal is full of yearning as she faces the coming of winter alone. "The desire to experience the changing seasons is a metaphor for experiencing love and life fully," she said.
TOGETHER AWAY is a six-song EP, full of touching melodies and honest emotions, a journey that explores the landscape of unconditional love and profound loss with an open heart. The songs unfold like a romantic novel, moving through longing, infatuation, intimacy and on to separation. "I wanted to express the ways lovers and loved ones retain the sensation of being eternally present in each other's lives, the ways in which humans are able to feel deeply connected - despite death or great distances."
It was recorded with producer and multi-instrumentalist Phillip Peterson (Lorde, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey) at his Seattle studio, House of Breaking Glass. "We both share an appreciation for cinematic storytelling," HERZOG said. "I'd sent him a demo of 'Lover's Lullaby' that I made in Los Angeles. When I heard his arrangement for it, we settled in and knocked out the EP in a week, working from sunrise to sunset every day."
NINA HERZOG became a star for her work as the singing and speaking voice of Odette, The Swan Princess, in Sony Animation's "The Swan Princess" series. The role was the culmination of a singing career that started in grammar school. "In first grade, I enrolled in our local talent show and sang 'Blue Moon,'" Herzog recalled. "I was also singing on a cable TV show when I was 12-years-old. My dad was a doctor, so I was going to study medicine in college, but when I was 17, I got a chance to sing with the
National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. The thrill of performing in front of a packed house made me decide to pursue a musical career."
While studying music and voice at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, she began a career as a session singer and voice actor, recording hundreds of demos and commercials for Universal, Sony and Broadway shows. She also added her presence to a series of Buzzfeed.com videos that have gotten millions of hits. Shortly after graduating at the top of the Dean's List, she auditioned to become the speaking voice of Odette. She got the job. At one of her first voice over sessions, she was told the producers were looking for a woman to become Odette's singing voice. She told them she was a singer, too. After another audition, HERZOG became the embodiment of The Swan Princess.
Before the pandemic hit, HERZOG maintained an ambitious schedule singing with symphony orchestras, teaching voice, doing voice over work, working as a session singer for jingles and film scores, recording demos for other songwriters, acting and singing in plays, and working with a small non-profit organization that helps families with essential needs, provides educational opportunities, and focuses on community building.
"Up until now, I had mostly used my voice to sing other people's songs, playing characters other than myself, telling stories that were not my own, hidden behind a costume or an animated figure." A few years ago, HERZOG began writing her own songs. She's now ready to share them with the world.
