Artist Spotlight: Nia Archives

Shot by @jakwob_

Producer, singer, visual artist and all-round creative Nia Archives stops by to celebrate the launch of her debut EP ‘Headz Gone West’.

Cutting classic jungle breaks and shooting camcorder visuals, Nia’s DIY ethos carries through her image and sound, merging old school rave styles with modern life. Tunes like ‘Sober Feels’ and ‘Don’t Kid Urself’ have blown up online, on radio and on livestream sets, but it won’t be ‘til summer when we get to hear them live. Yet, as we go on to discuss, Nia’s music has the energy of a festival and the introspection of the journey home. 

We also learn what it’s like under the wing of V Recordings, as EQ50 continue to champion womxn in drum and bass. This is all amid talk of imperfections, Underground trains and Hospital Records. Catch the full convo below plus news of what’s to come.

Headz Gone West will be out this time next week, how are you feeling for the drop and what does this project represent for you?

"I'm really excited just to release the project. I've put so much time into it, working on developing the production and working with all the different visual artists to create this project that's sonically on a vibe but then visually has its own aesthetic as well. So I'm really excited to drop it. It's a bit of an emotional project but the jungle beats make it more of a kinda club vibe too.'“

Yeah your tunes work for a party and alone time. Both lyrically and musically you often counterbalance the positives of partying with the tougher truths and mental toles that many experience. What emotions and moods did you channel here?

"Yeah it's a bit of both really: the come-up and the comedown of the party experience. I'm talking a lot about highs and lows and tryna find the balance, experiences I've been through, relationships, all that kinda stuff."

It features your instant classics ‘Headz Gone West’, ‘Sober Feels’ and ‘Don’t Kid Urself’, plus two new tracks. Can you tell us a bit about ‘(Over)Thinking’ and ‘Crossroads’?

"I wrote 'Crossroads' when I was like 17. I originally wrote it on a hip hop beat because when I started producing that's what I started making. But as I got into jungle, I thought 'I really love these lyrics, let me make it a 170 beat'. Then '(Over)Thinking’, that's my favourite song on the project because it really represents where I'm at in my life right now. That's my favourite one for sure."

Though ‘gone west’ can mean ‘messed up’, I like how in the video you go west on Central from Stratford to Notting Hill. Looked like a fun one to film!

"Yeah it was so fun! I made it with my friend Delphino, Luca and Charly who are really fun to work with. I've also worked with them on the 'Crossroads' video. Like you said, ‘heads gone west' for me means like 'I've gone mental', but I wanted to play on the words. I had the idea: 'OK, I'm in East London, let me travel from east to west'. Then it was us going on the Underground because I'm obsessed with trains, (I love all the trains in London I'm not gunna lie). It was me and my friend Lucile on the Underground and Delphino was filming us, then when we got to west it's like, 'Oh my god we finally made it'. But it was super fun to film and I love the fact that it's come out really trippy and there's loads of purple, loads of colours. It's my kinda vibe, so yeah, I'm really happy with that video."

So you say you love trains... is that your favourite line on the Underground?

"No surprisingly no, I'd say my favourite is the District line just because there's loads of space and it's a really new train. But I do love how in London you can just see a train go past. It makes me feel like I'm in the city and connected."

With your use of vintage breakbeats and classic hardware, why are you so drawn to reworking and repurposing?

"For me, all the music that I love comes from that era of early-90s-early-jungle-early-electronic music. I love the vibe that they had. I'm obsessed with watching old school music documentaries and stuff like that. So I love to take that vibe because I love how back in the day it wasn't 4K. Everything wasn't perfectly cut, it was so imperfect with so many flaws and I feel like that gives things character. The same with making jungle with the breaks. I like to use the old ones because they have imperfections and I just love that. So when I first started making music I was really into filming things around me, documenting what was going on, making little videos for fun on my Sony camcorder. Same with making beats. Everything I do is just my own fun and leisure, you know?"

I guess that’s where your name comes from? The whole archiving and documenting.

"Yeah literally. It started off before I released any music. It was more about my archive: what I was visually archiving for when I'm older. Then I thought it could be a visual archive and a sonic archive too with the music. So yeah, it just tied in really nicely."

There’s your visual side, production side and vocal side, but if you could only do one for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

"That is difficult. I would say, I love making beats but then I do love to use my vocals as an instrument on the beats, so if we could cross over them two I'd be happy [laughs]. But yeah, I'd love to make beats. I find it so much fun it's like playing a video game for me."

On that, your remix of P-rallel & Lauren Faith’s ‘Blue Denim Jeans’ just landed. Can we expect more remixes from you then?

"Yeah there's a couple on the way so I'm really excited about the ones I've done. I've worked with some really sick artists whose music I love, so it's a really big honour for me to be able to remix and change their tracks into some madness. So I'm excited to share some other remixes deffo."

Big congrats on being picked to work alongside V Recordings in EQ50’s mentorship scheme supporting womxn in Dnb. How’ve you found that experience?

"Thank you, it's been amazing. For me, I've literally got a poster of Roni Size on my wall - I'm such a big V Recordings fan. One of my favourite producers, Lemon D, he was on that label, Roni and loads of people. So for me to be able to work with them but also work with EQ50 is amazing. I think what EQ50 is doing is great because at the moment in the scene there is an inequality of women in drum and bass, so it's really important for me not to just work with the label but also to have that sisterhood and that community of being around women who are really passionate about the same sound as me. Even just being around DJ Flight has been amazing for me because she's been my mentor. She's a black woman who's been in this scene from the start so it's really good for me to have someone to be able to speak to and get advice from. She's amazing and Bryan Gee is sick as well so it's been really good."

Movements like EQ50 are so cool because they themselves are run by womxn, whereas many labels are just male dominated structures themselves. Do you aim to stay independent or are you looking to sign?

"I think for now I'm just enjoying making music and just doing me. I dunno, maybe in five years I might decide to go a different direction, but for now I'm really just happy with making tunes and putting it out there. If people like it, they like it. If they don't then at least I like it."

Who do you see stepping into your shoes for the class of 2021?

"[Laughs] I don't know, there's loads of people. There's this one DnB DJ who's started producing called Sheba Q so she might go for it next year. She's really sick, another black woman in the scene. She's wicked, hopefully she can apply for it next year. There's Anz from Manchester, she's very sick. I like what she's doing, like breakbeat kinda stuff. In terms of women in music, I really love TaliaBle. I think she's really cool. I like her rap flow, her visual aesthetic, everything she's doing I think is sick so big up Tali."

You’ve also just appeared on another legendary label, Hospital Records, for their Future Symptoms project. What’s the story behind that and your collaboration with Zeitgeist?

"Yeah so he reached out to me with this beat and I really vibed to it. The lyrics kinda came to me so it was very quick. I just kinda vocalled it and then Hospital really liked the tune so they put it on Future Symptoms, which was sick. So yeah, that was a really fun little summer tune that we made and it was sick to work with Hospital who are a great independent label, so yeah, that was really cool."

What’s next for Nia Archives?

"So much. I'm really excited to get my EP out cos it's my first EP I've ever done, fully-produced by me, mixed and mastered by my friends IZCU and JKarri. Then after that I'm hopefully going to release a couple of remixes, a couple singles and then I'm going to be working on the next project for sure. That's my motive this summer so I'm very excited to just keep working. I've got a couple of events coming up too: a couple of gigs, a couple of festivals. So a very exciting year definitely.”

Yeah it was cool to see you billed on City Splash in London.

"Yeah a reggae festival! I can't believe I'm gunna be sharing a stage with Barrington Levy. He's a legend so that's mad to me. Then got Hospitality the week after in the same park so it's all very exciting."