Robin Nievera

Roberto Martin Fernandez Nievera (born November30, 1986) is a Filipino singer-songwriter and record producer.

He is a former VJ for the music channel Myx and radio DJ at Wish 107.5.

Roberto Martin Fernandez Nievera was born on November30, 1986 to singers Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez.

He was named for his paternal grandfather (Roberto "Bert" Nievera) and his father.

He has a younger brother named Martin Ramon (nicknamed "Ram").

Nievera made brief appearances in his parents' concerts as a child.

He began singing and playing in church when he was around fourteen years old, although he had been trying to deviate from music.

When he was under ten, Nievera had no intentions of becoming "a singer or anything in music".

When he was twelve, he learned to play the guitar as a school requirement: "I picked [the guitar] out of laziness. In my school, you had to take either voice lessons, which meant reading notes – I didn't know how to do that – or learn piano, which looks very complicated because there are so many little keys."

He also learned to play by observing other musicians.

He became friends with the guitarists and other musicians in his church, who helped him master the instrument.

Nievera joined a band at eighteen, during which he started to realize that "I want to do this. I really thought music was the one thing that I wanted to be better at."

Nievera began writing the songs for his debut album in 2008.

The eldest child of singers Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez, he began his own professional career as a VJ after winning Myx VJ Search 2010.

At the time of this success, he was studying music production at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and serving as the vocalist and guitarist of an indie rock band.

Nievera tried deviating from his musical parents as a child, but eventually became interested in music after learning to play the guitar in school.

He contributed one of these songs, "Smile", to Regine Velasquez's 2010 album, Fantasy.

While studying music production at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and serving as the vocalist and guitarist of an indie rock band called Wagyu, Nievera won Myx VJ Search 2010 by the music channel Myx.

He said he joined the competition because "I love talking. I love to talk besides making music [because] I like making people laugh. I like doing things with the camera."

He stated that as a VJ, "I'm gonna give whatever I can give, which is my randomness and my dad's wit and my mom's quick mouth whatever that means."

Nievera said of the start of his career, "Before I was just busy. I was just wasting time. Now, I'm busy, with a purpose."

In 2012, Nievera signed with PolyEast Records and released his debut album, the blues rock-influenced Overwait, for which he won New Male Recording Artist of the Year at the PMPC Star Awards for Music.

He was the producer for No More Words (2012), a duet album by his parents.

Nievera has since self-produced his subsequent albums.

Nievera signed with PolyEast Records and launched Overwait on March14, 2012.

Discussing the album, he said: "The concept... was to make original music and to sound different but not to sound like too foreign."

A Philippine Daily Inquirer writer commented, "Robin Nievera is one fine blues guitar player. The evidence is on all ten tracks on this debut album, whose title, Overwait, is rich with self-deprecating wit."

Nievera composed the entire album.

He titled it as such because he said "I have been planning this album since I was fifteen."

He initially presented only seven of his songs to PolyEast, which agreed to produce the six; the company soon decided to add four more.

The album lead single is "In 3's", which was followed by "Smile".

The music video for "In 3's" premiered on Myx in April 2012 and hit the Pinoy Myx Countdown for weeks, while "Smile" made into Magic 89.9's Top 30 charts.

Nievera performed songs from Overwait as he opened for the American pop rock band Hanson on its Shout It Out World Tour in Manila on March30, 2012.

During this period, he was also producing his parents' duet album titled No More Words.

It became available in May 2012 and also included "Smile" sung by the two.

About this experience, he said: "I had so much fun producing for my parents and I'd like to produce for other people too."

He has stated that he would rather choose to become a producer in the long run: "My mom and dad have been singing for thirty years and counting. I don't see myself singing for the next 30 years."

He mounted his first solo concert in 2013, in support of his second album, Nightmares (2012), which he had independently made available a few months prior.

He signed with Homeworkz and released Dare, his third album which explored alternative pop, in stages throughout 2016, during which he ventured into radio, hosting The Roadshow at Wish 107.5 until 2018.

Nievera is currently based in Los Angeles, California.