The British singer and producer Nia Archives already has fans in Beyoncé and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as well as scores of young people drawn to the 23-year-old musician’s emotive dance tunes — a sound she describes as “crying in the club” music. In the past few years, she’s toured around the world, played Coachella, and released two EPs, each a clear statement of growth as an artist. In April, she played a sold-out show in New York City, only a few months after coming to the States for the first time to perform in front of a decidedly smaller crowd. Last week, she opened for Beyoncé at her Renaissance tour stop in London.
The pace of exposure doesn’t seem to be getting to Nia, who expressed nothing but gratitude when she spoke to Rolling Stone via Zoom this week. Just before she locks into album mode, she’s releasing an official edit of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ hit “Heads Will Roll,” aptly titled “Off Wiv Ya Headz.” Her edit of the track has already made for blistering dance floor moments around the globe, but now thanks to an official blessing from the band, she’s able to drop the single for all of us to skank to this summer. Ahead of her upcoming tour dates, Nia Archives talked to Rolling Stone about everything from meeting Beyoncé to her writing process and current inspirations.
I saw you opened for Beyoncé last week.
Yeah, last Thursday. It was an amazing opportunity, I’m still processing it, but it was just super amazing, and I’m just very grateful for the experience, you know.
What was that like?
I mean, it was just wicked. She found out about me in the New York Times cause I had a little interview with them, and she reached out a while ago, but I didn’t know if it was going to happen. I just thought it was so surreal. And obviously, she’s just done the Renaissance album, which is like a dance music project, so she wanted to have acts to support that represented dance music from those territories. So obviously, I do jungle, which is black British dance music. So I felt really honored to represent my community and my scene at the Renaissance London Show, which is quite crazy.
So is Beyoncé a junglist?
I think she is. I hope so.
That’s really cool. Last year, we had a story about the drum and bass resurgence in dance music, and Goldie described it as the British version of Motown
Yeah. Definitely. I definitely agree with Goldie on that one. It’s the blueprint for everything in the U.K. The lineage is insane.
How did you get your start making this type of music?
It all kind of started in lockdown. I was super bored and making loads of stuff locked up in my room. And then I put out my first song, a song called “Sober Feels” in 2020. And then that just kind of started everything for me. I made my first EP, Headz Gone West. I completely self-produced and made all the videos and stuff like that, and then put out my second project. It’s just kind of been a nice gradual progression in every project I’ve made, and my production is getting a lot better compared to what I was making three years ago, which is nice to see the growth and hear the sound evolving.
And thinking about that Jungle lineage, your music has a lot of elements of R&B and you’re singing on it. What inspired you to tap into that sound?
Well, yeah, I kind of write songs and a lot of my songs are quite depressing and sad, and I don’t want people to cry to my music. I don’t want to cry to my music. So by putting a dance beat, a jungle beat underneath, it kind of disguises a lot of the emotions. And a great inspiration for that is probably Amy Winehouse because a lot of her songs, the production was so up, upbeat and jazzy, and happy. But she was singing about real-life issues that she was dealing with. And I don’t know, I kind of like that. I like when music enhances what people are feeling rather than telling them how to feel. I basically just wanted to dance to my music. It’s kind of like crying in the club music, and I don’t know, selfishly, that’s just what I wanted to get out of it when I’m listening to it.
I definitely think the lyrics are something that stands out the most. Jungle is obviously a big genre, but your music is kind of distinct in how it hits emotionally.
Yeah, definitely.
And what part of the UK are you from?
I’m from Bradford originally, but I lived in Manchester, and I live in London now.
When you were coming up, were you connecting to some of the elders of the jungle scene?
Yeah, I mean, I’m like half Jamaican, so I kind of grew up with sound system culture and always heard jungle carnival and stuff like that, but I didn’t know what the name was till I was in my teens, and I was like, oh, it’s got a name. It’s called jungle. And when I was in Manchester, I used to go out quite a lot, and especially when I moved to London, that’s when my world just became jungle because I was just in the place where it was kind of born. And I’ve been really lucky to meet people that I looked up to for years. You’ve got like Goldie, DJ Storm, Bryan Gee, and so many other people. I feel like I’m really lucky to meet them because they’re kind of living legends to me.
A lot of jungle or drum and bass artists often sample female vocals. But I feel like there haven’t been that many women at the front doing the vocals and the production.
Yeah, no, sadly not. But I think hopefully there’ll be a change. But I think historically Jungle was quite a boys club, and there were women like DJ Storm and Kemistry who were pioneers for women and obviously DJ Flight, people like that, but there weren’t as many women in the forefront back in the day. So it’s nice that 30 years later, it’s kind of changing. And I think it’s all about representation. And if people see themselves doing something, see someone like myself. I’m a black woman producing; I’m singing. You are more likely to be encouraged to do that. And I’m definitely seeing at my shows it’s like 80% women, which is really cool. Cause it’s definitely not the norm at most jungle raves. It’s usually a lot of men. So it’s nice that more women feel comfortable in those spaces and are having fun with it.
Are you a part of the EQ 50 crew in London?
Yeah, I actually, I did their mentorship three years ago. I think that what they’re doing is really cool and really important.
Tell me about the single you just dropped
I basically made this edit of “Heads Will Roll” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and I played it, and everyone’s like, what’s the track ID? I don’t usually release my edits, but the Yeah Yeah Yeahs heard it, and they liked it, and now we’re allowed to release it. So I’m super excited. It’s definitely a summer banger for festival season, which is going to be really fun. I’ve been seeing it going off quite a lot at my shows.
So in the past few years, you’ve had the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Beyoncé hearing your music?
Yeah, it’s quite insane.
For you, just on a personal level, how have you managed with the speed of all of this since you said you started around the pandemic?
Yeah, I guess I feel like this is my dream. I’ve always wanted to do music, so I just feel really grateful that I get to do this. And obviously, things do move quite quickly and stuff. But I think that’s just part of the journey, and I think I deal with it quite well by having a separation of work mode and trying to have more of an offline mode kind of thing. And I think I’ve got some really amazing friends and a really great manager. So it all feels quite fun and exciting, and I feel more gratitude than I feel stressed about anything, which is nice.
What’s the songwriting process like for you? Since some of these songs are pretty personal.
Yeah, most of them, I’m talking about my life in some way or another, but I kind of like to talk about how I’m feeling as a release for myself. But then I like to disguise that so it’s not so black and white. If I write about myself and then take myself out of it, it’s a bit more relatable to other people, and then other people can listen to it, and it could be about any situation in anybody’s life. So, that’s how I approach writing. I try to write how I would say things. Like “Headz Gone West” is something that I would actually say to some of my friends because it’s a Manchester saying. So I just try to put those little Easter eggs in my writing, and usually, most of the time, I just make the beats first and then write. But there are some songs that kind of wrote themselves, and then I’ve had to build around it.
And as you’ve gotten more notoriety, has anyone from your past reemerged in your life in any kind of way?
That’s so funny. That’s such a funny question. Literally this morning, my ex-boyfriend, who I broke up with, well, he broke up with me actually four years ago, messaged me. I was just like, that’s so funny that you mentioned that. Yeah, so that has happened to me actually literally today, which is quite funny.
But it seems like you have a good attitude about it. It’s like you. You’re kind of above any feelings, or maybe not.
Oh yeah, definitely over it 100%. Yeah.
Yeah I guess that’s an interesting idea because I think the appeal of your music kind of immediately is the emotional sensibility. And I always wonder this from artists who are good at writing sad songs. What happens once you’re happier?
Yeah, it’s tough, isn’t it? It’s tough. I think, to be honest, I will say I’m a lot happier now compared to when I wrote my first EP. I’m just the same as everyone else in a sense that people always going to have things that they battle with internally and things that conflicts that might not be able to be resolved and stuff like that. Also, just being 23, I can’t lie this has been the toughest year of my life. Not as in tragedy, just as in genuine personal self-growth and learning about myself, learning about my identity. So there’s so much to talk about in that. And it might not be distraught mental breakdown songwriting, but it’s a lot of learning about myself and kind of exploring that in my writing. But I do, yeah, it sometimes it is hard when you get happy to write a sad song, but I think I kind of draw inspiration from the past quite a lot. So there’s always stuff to talk about and unpack.
Out of all the experiences that you’ve had in these past few years releasing music, what’s the one thing that sticks out the most to you?
Oh gosh, that’s so difficult. There’s so many amazing things. Even going to America, all that, I never left Europe before doing music.
Oh, Really? That was your first time in the U.S.?
Yeah, I came in August there, and I’ve been to Australia, I guess traveling has been amazing. One of my favorite personal moments probably was winning a MOBO award. Just because it meant a lot to me at the time. It still does. But there’s just so many things that I’m so grateful for. It’s kind of hard to be that one thing.
I mean for something like that, you must have been, what, 22 or so?
This happened literally in December. So same age, but I actually wrote an open letter to the MOBOs and kind of called them out a year before. So I never thought that the MOBOs would give me an award. So I was very shocked and also just very happy because they basically brought back the dance music category to that award show, which wasn’t actually about me. It was more about what that meant to the future generations of young black people. So it was very emotional cause it felt like I’d been one of the people involved in a change that was definitely bigger than myself. So yeah, that was a nice thing.
And it’s interesting, I think as much as your music is clearly kind of jungle and drum and bass inspired, it does seem like you are bringing a different nuance to it.
Yeah, I’ve got a very eclectic music taste. I love jungle, definitely hardcore junglists. But I also love soul R&B. I love old-school hip hop and weird electronic music. So it is all over the place. And I think that’s how I make my sound. It’s a fusion of all my loves on top of a jungle break beat.
Have you seen kids on maybe TikTok calling it breakcore? How do you feel about that?
Oh, Gosh. I mean, I don’t get pressed about it, but it does make me giggle a little bit. But everyone calls it breakcore. But I think the people calling it breakcore just don’t know that, actually, this wasn’t invented in 2022. This existed for 30 years. So I don’t get mad. It is just kind of funny.
It is kind of an interesting dynamic where on one hand, drum n’ bass is having this big resurgence, but then it seems like kids don’t really know where it’s from.
If you are 18, I wouldn’t expect you to know about Blue Note in the nineties and Metalheadz and all this different stuff. I think those people that are interested in breakcore kind of discovered all this magic that was created in the nineties because they were making sort of futuristic, amazing music 30 years ago that was ahead of the time. They probably have their minds blown because there’s something about that time that nobody can recreate now. So when I see the breakcore kids, I’m like, that’s cute. I’m excited for them to discover and get a bit deeper into it.
And when you came to the U.S., did you find that people got it? Was there a big difference between the audiences in maybe the U.K. and the U.S. or Australia?
I do think the American audience is different generally, but I do feel like I had a lot of fun. I can’t lie, my New York show was so much fun because I played in New York at Elsewhere in 2022 in August, and I literally played in a small room, I played to a hundred people, and I was just buzzing that I got to do that. And then this time, literally in April, I played at Elsewhere in the big room, sold it out, sold 1400 tickets, and it was just so cool to see that many people, so diverse men, and women, black and white, just skanking Jungle. It was just really fun. And then the response to jungle music at Coachella was insane. I think a lot of people were discovering it for the first time. I felt really happy to be introducing people to it and kind of educating people through my set. But yeah, I think every time I come back to America, it feels like the vibes, everyone’s starting to understand it a bit more.
What kind of music are you inspired by these days?
That’s a good question. So much, actually. I’m weirdly, I’m kind of like, I’ve been listening to, what’s it like nineties, kind of R&B. I really enjoy listening to good pop music. The other day I was listening to Nelly Furtado. Cause I just thought that the writing on it was really good, and I listened to a lot of Jamaican music and Jamaican drill. But to be honest, the biggest inspiration for me is actually just life. And I kind of just make music around that. But it’s nice to have these different soundtracks whilst going through your life you know?
So, you’ve got Beyonce, you’ve got the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Is there anyone in particular who you’d be the most excited to meet or work with at this point?
Oh, that is a good question. So many people, I mean, I’d love to do something with A$AP Rocky because I just love his whole vibe and his creative is just amazing. I’ve actually done a few sessions with different people in America, but some of my favorite people that I’ve worked with is Sounwave. I really enjoy working with him. He’s really cool. And also I did the session with Sudan Archives. I actually saw her over the weekend. And obviously we share the archive name and I really love her and her music, so I’d love to do some collabs with her for sure.
Are you working on a debut? What’s the next plan for you?
At the moment, I’m kind of just starting album mode, which is fun and exciting. Also a bit nerve-wracking because you only get one chance at a debut album. But I’m excited to explore what jungle is to me and what that could sound like. Because I don’t think it has to be one specific thing. I feel like club tunes are fun, but people live with songs. Like the songs I listened to 10 years ago that I will always have in my rotation. So I’m just trying to write songs about my life, about the past, the present, the future. I’m excited. I already started to get a vision in my head of how an album will look like for me. It’s a fun challenge to get into over the next few months.