Nia Archives is making soft-hearted lo-fi jungle forintroverted extroverts. Her first memories of music are deeply rooted in her Jamaican heritage; after moving out at 16, she relocated to Manchester, where her way of getting to know people was through raves and house parties.
Her music channels influences like Roots Manuva, Burial, Amy Winehouse, Radiohead, Erykah Badu, Kelis, Lemon D, Jennifer Lara and her jungle hero Roni Size. Her heartfelt, melodic take on jungle is a hark back to the genre’s origins in the 90s, moving away from the big foghorn basslines of contemporary DnB for a chilled out, sun-soaked vibe.
It’s important to Nia to take up space in jungle as a young Black woman, representing her Jamaican roots
and carving out space for other Black women to see themselves in the genre. When she started raving, Nia
was often one of the few young Black women at jungle raves. Her mentorship under DJ Flight as part of EQ50 has shown her that it’s possible to not just succeed but thrive as a Black British woman in music: something she in turn hopes to show to others looking to start making music.
