Nina Archer has been a recording artist for three days. She’s 16, still in high school, and she just released her first-ever single, “Homecoming.” But while this may be the first time most people are hearing her name, Nina didn’t arrive here overnight.
She spent the last two summers performing and touring through School of Rock, getting an unusually early education in what it means to perform night after night, and continued developing her voice through a cappella training, including a camp with a Pentatonix arranger.
Then a connection close to home put Nina in the orbit of songwriter, producer, and artist developer Jeffery David.
Jeffery has spent decades writing, producing, and developing artists. He co-wrote and produced Echosmith’s billion-streaming global breakout “Cool Kids” and multi-platinum “Bright,” with credits and collaborations that include for KING & COUNTRY, Goo Goo Dolls, Gabriella Rose, Zedd, Seal, Mat Kearney, Jon Foreman, Ally Brooke, Steve Aoki and many others.
He’s heard thousands of singers. Nina made him stop.
“I’ve worked with so many incredible singers throughout my career, and Nina is genuinely one of the most unique and special vocalists I’ve ever heard. The first thing was the voice. At her young age, she already has this incredible instrument and this amazing ability to do almost anything she hears in her head. We can throw an idea at her, and she can execute it, but the really exciting moments are when she takes it somewhere none of us expected. You can develop an artist. You can help someone find great songs and build a world around them. But there are certain things you just can’t manufacture. Nina has that.”
And the more time Jeffery spent with her, the more interesting the picture became.
“She’s musical. She writes. She has a point of view. She’s bubbly and funny, but there’s real depth there too. She works hard, and she has an incredible family supporting her. We saw something really unique in Nina. All the pieces are there. Our job isn’t to turn her into somebody else. It’s to help her discover exactly who she already is and then build a world around that. That’s the exciting part.”
This summer, everything accelerated. Nina traveled to Los Angeles for an intensive writing camp with Jeffery and songwriters including Shari Short, Karissa Bone, and Taylor Buono. For a teen who had spent years learning how to use her voice, the next question became even more important: What does she want to say with it?
The writing sessions became songs. The songs became records.
Jeffery and producer Brandon Paddock spent the summer producing Nina’s first body of music, with “Homecoming” becoming the first glimpse into the world they’ve been building together.
Nina remains completely independent. More music is finished. More is being made. And after spending years performing other people’s songs, she’s getting ready to walk onto a stage and sing her own. But that’s what makes this moment so interesting.
Right now, Nina Archer is still 16. She still goes to high school, her first single has been in the world for three days, and almost everything about her story is still ahead of her. We caught up with Nina right at the beginning.
Your first song has officially been out for three days. Has it sunk in yet that people you’ve never met are listening to your music?
Not really. It’s one of those things that feels like it only happens to other people, so now that it’s my reality, it’s crazy to imagine other people in the shoes of the listener. My voice could be playing in someone’s car or bedroom. Or on the best or worst day of someone’s life. We don’t even know each other and we each are going through a life that the other knows nothing about. And they can take whatever they want from my song. I love it.
Before “Homecoming,” when did singing go from something you loved doing to something you thought might actually become your life?
I actually never thought of singing as a hobby. It honestly always felt like a career to me since I was 5 years old. I started doing it because I loved it, then I started performing, writing, recording, and suddenly this huge part of my life was built around music. Eventually there were enough pieces of my life pointing in the same direction that ignoring it would’ve felt more stupid than admitting I wanted it. Even from the beginning, before I really understood what having a career in music meant, I could never see myself doing anything else, as impossible as achieving it used to feel.
You spent the last two summers touring and performing through School of Rock. What did getting onstage that young teach you?
Touring and performing with such amazing people solidified how much I just love being on stage. I always liked performing, and didn’t get too nervous about it, but having the good and bad experiences of touring and performing made me realize I care about all parts of it and I like even the bad and mundane stuff. There’s something about performing that I don’t get from anything else. I like getting ready, I like hearing the crowd, I like the energy of the room, and I even like the nerves before I walk on. Once I’m up there, I genuinely just have fun. This is my drug. I think doing it young made it become something I was accustomed to instead of something I had to work up the courage to do. And now that I get to perform my own music, I’m even more excited.
You’ve also spent years developing your voice. When did you first realize there might be something unusual about what your voice could do?
That’s hard to answer because I don’t experience my voice the way that other people do. I’ve spent so many years hearing it and critiquing it and analyzing it that it’s difficult to step outside of that and be like, “Oh, that’s not a usual thing.” I think I started gradually realizing because other people were pointing things out. That's also when it occurred to me that the things I perceive as flaws were actually what gave my voice character and made it unique. Hearing someone say that my voice made them feel something is the most meaningful sentiment in the world to me.
There’s a pretty great story behind how you and Jeffery ended up meeting. How did it happen?
We met at the end of last school year. At that time, I had been spending most of my time songwriting and researching production in an attempt to start from scratch and do everything myself. My parents and I were at such a loss when it came to progressing my career. It started to feel very hopeless, but I kept doing it even though the end result was going to sound pretty amateur because I didn’t know what else to do. I had great lyrics and melodies, but I couldn’t do anything with them. I actually had this crazy long Google Doc about music production and the steps leading up to release, branding, all of it. It was insane looking back. Then, I decided to meet with my amazing neighbor who taught me guitar when I was younger to talk about what I could do to get started. We had a great discussion and he offered to help in many ways, including mentioning me to someone in his band who has a son that produces music. That’s how I got in touch with Brandon. Then Brandon told Jeffery about me and Jeffery reached out saying he would be interested in working with me. Part of me was excited and part of me was terrified because I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I couldn’t help it since this was the closest I had come to making stuff happen. After that, my mom, my neighbor, and I had a 2-hour video call with Jeffery talking about potential steps going forward. My mom literally cried afterwards. And it all kicked off from there.
What do you remember about the first time you really sang for him?
I remember singing melodies and riffs in our weekly meetings, but the first time I really sang was at the writing camp in June. The moment that stands out the most to me was the first ballad we worked on. I was talking about my ideas for the song, and once we had it mapped out, I sang it with the piano, and everyone had a really positive reaction. It felt unbelievably nice, especially since I was hyperaware of everyone’s reactions to me.
Jeffery has worked with singers for decades, and he’s calling you one of the most unique and special vocalists he’s ever heard. What goes through your head when you hear that?
It’s incredibly flattering, especially considering his experience. I think I’m deserving of a singing career, but sometimes I do doubt if my talent is special. It’s really gratifying hearing it come from someone so familiar with the industry. Compliments regarding my potential make me want to work even harder, and I’m grateful that I get the chance to develop myself as an artist with someone who already has faith in me.
Then suddenly you’re 16 and flying to Los Angeles for a writing camp. What did that experience feel like the first day you walked into the room?
I was pretty nervous. I immediately wanted to prove myself. I felt this weird sense of guilt when I walked into a room with people who had much more experience than I did. I kind of felt like everyone was drinking coffee and making jokes like they were human beings like me, but they felt a little bit mythical. At first, I was observing more than anything. I wanted to understand people’s instincts and methods. But thankfully, it didn’t take long before I realized that nobody expected me to come in like a wrecking ball, and everyone there was, in fact, a person. That helped me recalibrate pretty quickly.
You were writing with Jeffery, Shari Short, Karissa Bone and Tayler Buono. What surprised you most about writing songs at that level?
I was surprised by how much of the process was conversation. Before I started doing this, I largely imagined professional songwriting as people with established, clear ideas that they execute perfectly. It’s much messier and more spontaneous. Someone says something that reminds you of something else, someone changes one word, someone plays one chord, and suddenly you’re going in a completely different direction with a song. Also, as cliché as it sounds, it was important for me to abandon the notion of stupid ideas. Even at that level, songwriting sounds unfinished until it’s finished. I think that grappling with that is something I can only get better at.
Was there a song or moment during the camp when you thought, “Wait, this actually sounds like me”?
Yep, during the second ballad we wrote in particular. We were at the tail end of the writing camp and were becoming lyrically worn out and a little bit stuck. Someone said something that made me think of this poem I wrote in my Notes app a couple years ago, and I talked about it with everyone. We pretty much turned that directly into the song. It sounded pretty close to me having a conversation with my parents. That moment felt rewarding for me because I don’t want Nina to become a character I have to perform. I love my artistic persona, but there’s a distinction between that and a manufactured personality. That will become exhausting real fast and probably won’t feel as authentic for the audience.
You’re writing songs while you’re still living through all of this in real time. What can a 16-year-old say honestly that someone ten or twenty years older might have already forgotten how to say?
I don’t usually experience things in the same way people my age do, but I do think my proximity to the experience sets me apart from someone older. I can say that, right now, I’m not able to look back at some period of my life because I’m literally in the middle of my origin story. I’m writing about things that haven’t finished happening to me yet and I don’t know what will change in the future. I don’t have the benefit of hindsight for a lot of things. I honestly feel like I haven’t changed since I was 6 years old, but maybe 10 years from now the person who wrote “Homecoming” will feel very distant from me. Someone who’s been doing this for ten or twenty years might know how it feels from the other side, but I’m in it. I haven’t learned how to separate my life from the art I make from it yet. And that is part of the reason why I’m so highly impacted by everything that happens to me. While I don’t think someone older loses that, I think experience naturally gives you more distance from it. I don’t have that yet. I’m a kid, my first song came out three days ago, and I truly have no idea what gives me the right to assume this is the beginning of anything. Maybe someone older might have forgotten how insane it feels to take your own work seriously before the world has decided you’re serious. All I know is I care enough to make whatever can happen happen.
What does being 16 actually feel like in 2026? What do adults misunderstand about being a teenager right now?
I don’t know if I’m qualified to speak on behalf of being 16 because I’ve never felt representative of my age group. But I can say that it feels contradictory. My generation is probably the most informed and connected teenagers in history, but also the most isolated. We’re growing up with an enormous amount of resources and awareness, and it’s pretty tiring. You’re not just figuring out who you are in real life; you’re doing it while being exposed to millions of people who are considered more successful, funnier, hotter, whatever, and being pushed to become something. Teenagers are told to “just be young” and enjoy things, but in the same breath, are expected to have serious opinions and defined plans for their future. We are old enough to know everything, but young enough to be dismissed. I think adults misunderstand inconsistencies like that.
Which brings us to “Homecoming.” Be honest: do you even like homecoming?
I like the idea of homecoming. I like that there’s a night that all the kids look forward to and get dressed up for. In another world, I think my impression of a homecoming dance could’ve been genuine and sweet. But I felt this absurd amount of pressure on experiences like these to be perfect. Like I’m supposed to have the perfect body, the perfect face, the perfect outfit, the perfect date, the perfect pictures, and the perfect night that all my friends will talk about forever? That’s a lot of significance to place on one night. There’s something inherently artificial about it, which can very easily become performative. And a large part of it is good company, which many people aren’t gifted with. When you’re 16, it matters who you talked to, who you didn’t talk to, who looked at you, who didn’t look at you–you can turn it all into a referendum on yourself. In that way, events like homecoming can be extremely hurtful. Also, I’m not a Solo-cup afterparty girl.
Where did the idea for the song actually come from?
I wanted a song that expressed the feeling of trying so hard to get other people to want you around and humiliating yourself trying to earn something that should’ve been freely given. I tied that kind of loneliness back to my own experience with homecoming. And how I kept auditioning to be people’s friends. That kind of desperation and pursuit of people who will never validate you can really change how someone feels about themselves. I wanted to write a song that other people would hear and realize that sometimes you won’t fit in and that’s not your fault.
Is there a lyric in “Homecoming” that feels especially personal to you?
“Maybe one night could fix all of 14” is probably my favorite lyric in the song. It’s such an unreasonable thing to say but it’s a normal human thought. After being put through some personal and social stuff my freshman year, part of me thought this one night could repair everything and make it feel worth it. I know how badly I want endings to justify what came before them. Sometimes a year was just a year that happened to you. I had to come to terms with that. I also liked the juvenile mindset of attaching an enormous amount of meaning to something impossible because you want to be hopeful. I think that fits with how, musically, it’s a happy and upbeat-sounding song as opposed to a ballad about being excluded.
There’s something unusual about releasing music about high school while you’re literally still living it. What is it like knowing someone can discover “Homecoming” online and then you can walk into class the next morning?
Sadly, you won’t catch me walking into class because I’ve done online school since sophomore year. And because of my unconventional high school experience, I haven’t totally thought about that. But old friends have messaged me saying they liked the song, and I realized, “Whoa, they were in my actual life, and now they’ve seen this.” It makes me feel exposed, but I’m okay with that. I love that both strangers and old friends can find this piece of artwork I worked on.
After the writing camp, you started making records with Jeffery and Brandon Paddock. Do you remember the first time you heard one of those songs coming through the speakers and thought, “Wait, that’s me”?
One time, I walked into the studio, and there was this tiny radio playing Bruno Mars. They gave it to me, and I turned the dial, and it started playing one of my songs. I was excited, thinking about the fact that people could be dancing along to random ideas I had in my head last month. There was definitely a moment of yay, it’s me.
What have Jeffery and Brandon pulled out of you as a singer that you hadn’t discovered yet?
NINA: They’ve noticed a few times when I’m trying too hard. Sometimes I’ll do something without thinking about it, and they’ll think that was great or better than the other thing I did. They made me realize that my instincts are good enough to relax a bit sometimes, which has also gotten me to be less afraid of bad takes or ideas. Instinct and technique aren’t opposites. You can develop the technique and still trust the instinct.
Jeffery talks about discovering who you already are instead of manufacturing an artist around you. So who is Nina Archer becoming?
I think I’m becoming less of what I think a female artist is supposed to sound like and more of whatever I want. I’m still the same person with the same hunger, but I’m becoming someone who trusts herself a lot more and is a little less concerned with whether people interpret me or my songs correctly all the time. I think creative autonomy is partly being able to stop asking whether something will make sense for the version of yourself you think other people are expecting.
You’re independent right now, your first song has only been out for a few days, and there’s already more music finished behind it. Does it feel like everything is suddenly moving very fast?
A little. Having a song out is obviously new. But my blood, sweat, and tears have been here before this opportunity, so I’m also like, “Yesssss, finally. Let's keep it moving.” It does feel fast, but not in a bad way. I want to be busy. I’m taking it all in the best way I can while also looking forward to the next song. There’s a lot of momentum right now. It feels good that there’s always another thing coming.
Without giving too much away, if someone thinks they understand Nina Archer after hearing “Homecoming,” will the next few songs change their mind?
Definitely. I would say “Homecoming” probably represents me the least out of everything made so far because it’s very different from the others. I think it fits very well as a debut single, but no one’s got me figured out from it alone. The next few songs are quite a variety, so I think people will get a better idea of my taste, which I’m super excited about. Maybe I’ll even get my dance on soon.
You already know what performing feels like. How different will it feel when you walk onstage, and the songs are finally yours?
That moment will feel soooo good. Being able to sing songs that are literally tailored to my voice and my experience will be awesome. I think the weirdest and coolest part will be hearing someone sing words I wrote. It’s so personal and amazing. It’ll probably be emotional for me as well, hearing people have their own relationship with something that came from me. And live, I can do whatever I want with them. I can't wait to have fun with it.
A year from now, you’ll only be 17. What would you love to be able to look back and say happened during this year?
In a perfect world, Nina Archer gets on a big stage this year. But even if the releases are all that happens I’ll be happy that I can look back and feel like I’m part of the world now and my life is finally not just not waiting for something to happen. I want to release more songs, perform, meet people, be intimidated, and get emotional. And if I’m making and sharing music I’m proud of and bettering myself as an artist and person, I’ll look back on the year feeling like I used it well.
Last question. Someone reading this has never heard Nina Archer. They press play on “Homecoming.” What do you hope makes them want to hear song number two?
I hope they’re a little curious about me. Like, okay, I want to hear what else she has to say or what else she can do. Or maybe the song reminds them of something or someone. If someone gets a feeling from a song I wrote, I think that’s good enough for me. I hope they can tell how much I care about my music and want to know what else I have. If they finish the song and immediately want to know what I’m going to do next, that’s probably the best compliment I could get.
Listen to “Homecoming” and connect with Nina Archer on Instagram and TikTok.
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