The Bradford-born junglist chats to Watch The Ride about the scene, her NMEs win, and their collaborative banger, 'Mash Up The Dance'.
With a hit single and an NME award for best producer under her belt already, Bradford-born junglist Nia Archives is having a 2022 to remember. For the latest chapter in her fast-blossoming career, she has teamed up with drum and bass trio Watch The Ride (a dance music powerhouse showcasing UK rave culture heritage, made up of DJ Die, Dismantle and Randall) for intergenerational jungle banger ‘Mash Up The Dance’, released in collaboration with Rinse FM.
With a video co-directed by Nia and Rinse founder Geeneus, the song is already making waves, gaining the rare and much-coveted accolade of a spot on each of the three significant BBC Radio playlists. The hat-trick is almost inevitable though. The song is an an instant classic, ready-made for summer festivals and shubzes.
We sat down with Nia and 2/3 of Watch The Ride (“Randall couldn’t be here, but he sends his love!”) to discuss the state of the scene right now, the NME awards, and jungle music getting the institutional recognition it deserves.


FLB: Well, firstly, congrats on the song – it’s doing bits and it bangs, so well done. And the video’s sick as well. So I guess I just wanted to ask how this whole thing came about, and also what each of your first or existing impressions were of each other and each other’s music?
Dismantle: We were going up to a Rinse recording week. We’d heard of Nia prior to that; I think my mates showed me a video of her playing the D Double track up in Manchester, and that’s where I first heard of you, Nia. Then, a couple months later, we got in the Rinse studio.
DJ Die: They gave us a list of people to potentially work with, so we were going through the people we liked and Nia popped out. We were instantly taken in, just by the raw production and general vibe. And yeah, no expectations, went up to the Rinse studios on a Monday – was it Monday?
Dismantle: Yeh, Monday.
DJ Die: On a Monday! And it was just instant, wasn’t it?
Dismantle: Yeah, we hit off straightaway. We built the track pretty much in a few few hours.
FLB: The first time you all met?
Nia: Yeah! I mean, I obviously knew about you guys from time, like I heard like the Watch The Ride x D Double track which I still play all the time. I love that tune. Obviously I love all you guys individually, I was just a big fan – I am a fan! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. I like working with people whose music I love and listen to already before getting in the studio with them.
Dismantle: It’s very important. I think there’s definitely that mutual thing of both loving what we’re both doing, and that is just such good foundation to start a track.
DJ Die: It was dead spontaneous, wasn’t it Nia? Nia turned up with a laptop and then some drums that she’d made on the train, right?
Nia: Yeah [laughs]
DJ Die: With any track you’re making, you just need a good start point, something that catches it. So you played the break, and it was like ‘yeah, this groove’s running, this groove’s running.’ Will [Dismantle] basically got on the bass, got some keys in. It was literally the first thing that you played, and it was that thing of, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s it!’ Then you went, ‘yeah, I love that,’ and started writing.
Nia: I think we wanted to come on a bit soulful, but like a Ragga Tip with it. It was fun to make that tune. To be honest, often you make something and you don’t really deep it that much when you make it. But when I listen to it now, I’m like, it’s not actually a bad tune! It’s pretty good [laughs]
Dismantle: Geeneus [Rinse FM’s founder] came in and sat down on the arm of the sofa. And he’s like, ‘go on then, play us what you got.’ And we played it, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s a banger – we’re gonna run with this one!’
DJ Die: ‘That’s enough!’ [laughs] Yeah. When Nia went in there and did the vocals, we didn’t know what she were gonna do at that moment of anticipation, and it just went. It felt good.


FLB: It kind of reminds me of the story of when Eminem walked into Dre’s studio, and he played him the Labi Siffre instrumental on ‘My Name Is’, and they came up with the hook within 5 minutes of meeting eachother.
Dismantle: That’s how the best music’s made!
DJ Die: We had our Dre moment, for sure [laughs]
FLB: Obviously this song was released with Rinse FM, how pivotal do you feel Rinse has been to the rise and maintenance of drum and bass and jungle in the UK over the last couple of decades?
DJ Die: I actually didn’t know this, because I found out about Rinse a bit later in the game. But they’d already been doing it for some time, and started out primarily as a jungle station. And Geeneus and all the MCs that were part of it in the early days – they’re all original junglists. Geeneus said he used to travel up and down the country to buy certain tunes, you know, he’d go to Manchester just to get a promo. That really made it all make sense to us when we started working with them; they just had such a good knowledge and understanding of the culture and the music. It definitely let us know that they knew what they were doing with it.
Dismantle: I grew up with the dubstep era. I mean, I got into jungle and drum and bass when I was about 13 or 14. So with dubstep, house, even garage – the way I found out about all those genres was through Rinse.
Nia: I guess, because I’m from The North, I didn’t really know too much about Rinse as a label until I moved to London. But I knew loads of the tunes that had come out on the label, because they’ve got so many massive ones on there. And I knew about Geeneus and loads of those people. Then I obviously moved to London and did my research, met G, and he’s since given me the whole history of Rinse, how they pioneered like pirate radio. Some of the stuff he told me, I’d be like ‘wow, that’s a mad story,’ and he’s just like ‘yeah, I lived it, that’s my life.’ It’s wild. But I have to big up Rinse because they’ve done a lot for the culture and dance and underground music. I feel like it was a perfect tune for us to collaborate and come out with on Rinse; it just all made a lot of sense.
FLB: Nia, you mentioned not having heard of Rinse till you moved to London. As someone not form London who has broken into the scene, how much do you think the industry is centralised within London? Do you think more can be done to decentralise it across the UK? This goes for all of music, I guess…
Nia: I think the industry stuff is London-centric and there is a lot of London-centric music. But I also think that there’s a lot of culture outside of London. I was born in Bradford and grew up in Leeds. I’ve come from a proper working class background, and I feel like that shapes you as a person, your character. Sometimes a lot of the London-centric things don’t have as much depth, because there’s a lot of real life going on outside of London. Obviously there is in London as well, but there’s a lot of hardship and struggle in The North, and poverty. And I think out of those situations, people are really creative and they make amazing music. Like Bristol. The jungle that come out of Bristol is insane. There was a mad jungle scene in Manchester – L Double’s from, like, Wakefield. All the raves in the ’90s on the M62…everyone used to go up north to rave. So there’s always been this connection. I’m proud of being from The North. I think it keeps me quite humble, because all my northern mates don’t give a fuck about what I do. They’re just like, whatever. In London it’s a bit like, ‘who are you? What do you do?’ Like, they don’t give a fuck.
FLB: You’ve said that this is going to be the summer of jungle, and there is an undeniable mainstream movement towards jungle now in the wake of Covid and everyone craving real-life stuff. What do you all think about where the jungle and drum and bass scenes are at right now?
Nia: I do think it is the summer of jungle! Jungle is literally massive, but also jungle didn’t really go anywhere. There’s a bit of this conversation right now, like ‘jungle’s back’, but as a jungle fan and a junglist, I don’t think it’s ever really gone anywhere. People have been listening to jungle and playing jungle and going to jungle raves. Now it’s having a bit of a commercial moment, but with that, sometimes things can get a bit diluted. There’s people now who are not from the scene that are making this music and becoming the faces of it. But yeah, I do think this music is here, I don’t think it’s going anywhere, and people should really research the people that made it so that now you have singers singing on these tunes and getting played on Radio 1 and Capital. People like GQ, and Skibadee who passed away this year. If there was no Skibadee you would have no, like, Skepta or Dizzee, do you know what I mean? But with every commercial moment, people always focus on the pop stars rather than the underground artists that paved the way and pioneered it to be where it is. I’m even noticing it myself with my sound! I’ve been making this kind of sober feels, singer/junglist sound, and look, I’m not the first person to sing on jungle. But I have definitely noticed over the past few years how now everybody’s doing it, and it’s been difficult I can’t lie. I made this music because this is my pain, my emotional expression. I’ve gone through all the stuff in life and that’s the outcome. And so, for someone to kind of take the outcome and then jump on that is confusing to me.


DJ Die: Even since back in the day, jungle has always been about coming up with authentic true artists, that people feel. It’s not an act, you know, it’s not a t-shirt – it’s way of life. It’s a way of thinking almost, a way to navigate through life and growing up in the inner city.
Nia: It comes from the street, and it’s kind of ghetto in a way. Something about jungle that I particularly love is that it’s not perfect. My favorite jungle tunes, if you listen to them, they sound a bit fucked. Loads of the old tunes are not really mixed properly, but I like that distorted bass, and I like the fact that the snare’s a bit off. It gives it character. Sometimes there’s beauty in imperfections, and I like that the jungle scene is a bit raggo. In a good way!
FLB: Nia, you wrote a letter to the MOBOs about their disregard for the diverse range of Black music beyond rap and r&b, which I think struck a chord with a lot of people both on the listener side and the artist side of the industry. Had you been thinking about that a while?
Nia: Yeah, I mean, I’ve thought about it for a few years, to be honest with you. Obviously I’m coming from a generation that hasn’t really had much representation in those spaces, and that’s one of the things that’s really important to me. So I thought about it for a while, and I even contacted them before I went public about it.
FLB: That’s interesting. How have you found the reception to it? Did you get any response back from the MOBOs?
Nia: To be honest, I was shocked at how many people agreed with me about the fact that there is no dance category. Like, there’s so many different genres — house, jungle, garage, dubstep — and I feel like it’s important to have representation in those spaces. It definitely started a conversation which I found really interesting and, to be honest, the MOBOs have actually been really receptive. I’ve actually got a meeting with them next week, so hopefully we get some solutions in there. It’s not even about me winning an award, like, I really don’t care. It’s more about that younger generation having the opportunity and thinking, ‘you know what, I can see myself making this music and being acknowledged by a big institution like the MOBOS.’ Feel celebrated in those spaces. I’m excited to speak to them and hear what they have to say, and hopefully they’ll take on some of my feedback about how we can improve.
Dismantle: You can’t change things if you don’t speak up. Big ups to you Nia, it’s sick.
DJ Die: I think everybody just resonated with what you were saying, and it was really well put.
FLB: Just calling out institutions is so important as well. Obviously, you mentioned Goldie in the letter, and I saw like a really sweet video of you guys at Gala where he came up and hugged you while you were playing.
Nia: I didn’t even see him because I was just playing, then he just came up behind me and, like, picked me up. It was mad. And then I stayed for his set, and he played a mash-up of ‘Mash Up The Dance’, like this mad Metalheadz version. And I was just…it was mental. It was. Then he rang me the next day, and he told me that Fabio had done that to him, with I think it was ‘Terminator’, when he was my age. It’s like a kind of respect thing.
FLB: That’s so sick.
Nia: I was ready to die. I was like, I’m complete. I don’t really know what more I can get from life. That was amazing. I was on a high. I look up to him and everything is done; I look up to all of the originals. I’m coming from a bit of a naive perspective, because I’m from the younger gen, but I just have a lot of respect for them. Because if all of these guys didn’t do what they did, they would be no Nia Archives. There’d be no new gen. So you have to respect them, you know, and, and you have to mention them; you can’t act like they didn’t do what they did.


DJ Die: It’s a full circle moment as well. It’s breathing life, you know, and kind of making us feel like everything we did back then has sort of paid off and come into something, and you guys have now got it and are taking it to that next stage. It’s a proud moment, I’m not gonna lie. It really is. It’s all about the music, and finding the right balance and the right representation is really important as well. There’s always been different styles. It’s a big melting pot, you know, everyone’s put a piece in and taken a piece out.
FLB: Nia, you obviously co-produced the track, vocalled it, co-directed the visuals and so on, and it definitely feels in keeping with creatives today’s tendency to wear lots of different hats, and take control of many elements of their art. I remember going to Houston a few years ago for the launch of Solange’s album When I Get Home, and speaking to her about her frustrations at ‘just’ being seen as a singer, when she spent 18 hours on the production of the album perfecting a drum beat, or repeating a guitar lick until absolutely perfect. How affirming was it for you and your work as a producer to win the NME award for best producer, especially beating out some heavy hitters like Arca and Fred Again?
Nia: I’m so grateful, and it was a massive moment for me. Before that, my first EP was more singing, and a lot of songs and stuff, but with the last EP I put my producer hat on; it was less about the vocals. I wanted to prove to people that I can do it, because a lot of people always ask me ‘who’s producing this, who produced this track’, but it’s literally just me and my laptop. I just wanted to have the opportunity to show that with my music, so to be recognised by the NMEs was really emotional because I used to buy NME when I was a kid. I’ve been through a lot in my life, so to be at a point where I’m able to go into award ceremonies and get seen as a producer, being a Black woman and coming from Bradford and Leeds is…you know. It’s crazy.

FLB: How was it for you guys seeing Nia win that, beating out other producers from other genres that are having maybe more commercial success? Was that quite satisfying for you guys to see as well?
Dismantle: We got the news the next day, I think Geeneus or our manager called us. Yeah. Amazing. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure who was up for the awards and stuff either. So to get it told to us like that, and that Nia won, it was incredible.
DJ Die: It’s a massive look. It’s good to see that people recognise raw talent and give it a chance, because that’s what it takes sometimes to really get to the next stage. It’s helpful. But after the awards it’s back to work, right?
Nia: Yeah, literally,
DJ Die: You celebrate, and then you get back to the grind. And what you were saying about not being understood and represented – I’ve seen Alicia Keys talk about the same thing. She produces as well, and she was saying that people come into and ask who produces the stuff, and she’s like ‘me motherfucker!’
FLB: Exactly! How did you celebrate, Nia?
Nia: I cried for two days! [laughs] I cried so much just thinking about my life. I’ve got two little brothers, so for them to see me be able to do that, knowing where we come, really means a lot to me. It’s not just like, ‘oh, yeah, thanks’ – I’m very grateful. I didn’t let it go to my head, though! It’s like, it’s happened. It’s cool. But I am very grateful.
Photography
Amy Peskett
Fashion
Maria Maleh
Production
Francesco Loy Bell
Makeup
Tasnim Nahar