UK singer-songwriter and producer Nia Archives emerged onto the British electronic music scene in the early 2020s with a style self-described as "future classic," a vibrant amalgamation of jungle, drum'n'bass, and neo-soul. Born into a music-loving household in Bradford, West Yorkshire in September 1999, she was exposed to a wide array of genres from a very young age by her Jamaican-born father, who was also a rapper and a producer. After relocating to Manchester during her teens, she became infatuated with the city's longstanding rave culture and later began producing her own beats. Her earliest experiments fusing jungle music and neo-soul date back to 2019 when she moved to London to pursue a career as a full-time musician. Preceded by the 2020 singles "Sober Feels" and "Don't Kid Urself," her debut EP Headz Gone West appeared in 2021 and was followed a year later by a second extended play titled Forbidden Feelingz," which earned her considerable praise from critics as well as several accolades. That year, Nia Archives scored her first couple of charting efforts through the non-album singles "Baianá," which entered the Top 40 on the UK Dance charts, and "So Tell Me..." a frantic drum'n'bass track that hit number 68 on Japan's Tokyo Hot 100. She bagged her first Number 1 on the UK dance chart with the Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall EP in 2023, which was followed by her eagerly anticipated full-length: Silence Is Loud. Released in April 2024 on Hijinxx, the LP examined loneliness, relationships, family, and more topics, reaching number 16 in the UK and spawning several singles including 2024's "Unfinished Business." Silence Is Loud was subsequently shortlisted for the 2024 Mercury Prize and supported by the international Junglists World Tour. In 2025, Nia Archives founded the Up Ya Archives record label to champion a new generation of jungle producers, launching it with âGet Loose,â a collaboration with Cheetah, and an accompanying NTS Radio residency. She also remixed PinkPantheressâ âIllegalâ and reunited with CLIPZ for âMaia Maia.â She returned in 2026 with âDanger,â followed by âBoys in Blue,â âVerticalâ and the Jorja Smith collaboration âGet Me Down.â Her second album, Emotional Junglist, arrived in July 2026. Written during a year in which she fell in and out of love, the 15-track record paired jungle breakbeats with alternative rock, trip-hop, R&B and live instrumentation, while Sampha appeared on âTender.â
Read All
Read Less