Norii, courtesy.

When San Diego singer-songwriter Norii goes out on her regular distance run, she’ll envision the future she dreams of for herself.

“When I run, all I do is play pop music that I wish I wrote, and then picture myself doing that,” said Norii, whose name is Ana Richards. “I’m, like, performing this Marina and the Diamonds song at my own concert except it’s not her, it’s me.”

It was those same touring dreams that led Norii down the path to music in the first place. A Cage the Elephant concert specifically in ignited that flame.

“I saw the energy of the whole room and how everyone connected,” Norii said. “That’s what made me want to cause that, I wanted to be the source of that.”

She’s been releasing tracks throughout the year, each showing off a different side of the singer’s eclectic influences. She considered packaging the initial four-song release as an EP, but opted against it for now, though she’s waiting the opportunity to release a collection.

“We definitely have enough songs in the vault to do that,” she said. “We just haven’t picked out a date on the calendar yet.”

Norii fuses the worlds of pop and alternative music, but it’s not alt-pop. Her biggest influences are as a cross-section of alt-rock like Muse, Ratatat and Roar while looking up to pop stars like Ariana Grande as vocal inspiration.

“I learned how to sing by listening to [Grande] sing,” she said.

Norii taps into that energy on her latest track, “I Don’t Love You Anymore,” a slick pop ballad with a mid-tempo groove. Her complex vocal runs echo those of Grande.

“It’s this anthemic, almost filmy-scorey indie pop song,” Norii said of the track written, which was produced by duo Supper Club.

“It’s about a breakup that I instigated and suddenly falling out of love with someone without any explainable reason,” she said. “It’s very sad for all involved.”

While an official video is in the works, Norii went to a beach for a very unconventional DIY version fort he time being.

“I was on family vacation and while everyone was boogie-boarding I snuck away,” she said. “I had these surfer people walking behind me, and it was so awkward while I had to try and look hot, I hated it!”

She also got a little assist from her family along the way.

“There’s clips where I’m running and looking behind and it’s my mom having the time of her life [filming],” she said. “It was very Regina George.”

While the rollout of Norii’s songs was pushed back a year because of the pandemic, she’s grateful that it allowed her a little extra time to listen to the tracks to make sure they were exactly how she wanted them.

“I’m so eager to just drop everything that I’ve ever written because we’ve been living in limbo so long,” she said.

She also had more time to dig more into writing and creativity. As a student working primarily online, writing was an alternative to the isolation of virtual classes. She also livestreamed a performance of the latest cover songs she’d been working on at the time.

“It definitely triggered something,” Norii said. “Online school was so difficult to compartmentalize everything in my brain, so it really provided a great distraction for that.”

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.