CATCH NIA ARCHIVES THIS MAY IN LEEDS AND LONDON!

With Special Guests Tailtiu

“To be an Emotional Junglist is to feel everything and nothing all at once,” says Nia. “It’s to becalm yet chaotic, sane yet manic – up, down and sideways. The emotional spectrum I experience is vast, and I think this album reflects that depth completely.”

Ever since releasing her debut single Sober Feels in 2020 (self-funded by her student loan), Nia has become a poster girl for jungle’s revival. Growing up in Leeds, her musical in doc trination was a family affair with introductions to production software, gospel at church, and soon discovering everything from jungle to R&B on local pirate radio. From her pre-teen years, Nia would geek out over breakbeats in her bedroom, but as an artist she pushed the mould by bringing an unexpected vulnerability to the bangers. With her new album, Emotional Junglist, Archives seeks to double down even further. Like the legacy of the punk movement, Nia’s interest lies not just in jungle’s sound, but in its spirit. “People know my rave girl era; this album is for the post-rave experience. I want to feminise junglism and celebrate the female gaze. I hope that other women and girls find parts of themselves in it.”

Emotional Junglist marks Nia’s biggest sonic leap to date. In “Dance With Me 2Nite”, she flirts with dewy-eyed indie pop while a psyched, syncopated beat nods to her roots. Her vocals marry romantic strings as, lusting over a crush, she asks “hesitation [to] sit this one out”. Written with Ethan P. Flynn (FKA Twigs, David Byrne) and Julia Michaels (Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter),Nia finished the song with Blur and Arctic Monkey’s collaborator James Ford. In another lead single, “Vertical”, skittering hi-hats underscore a honeymoon period of romantic infatuation. “There’s this one synth that kind of beeps, and it just makes you feel a bit dissociative,” she says. “That’s what I enjoy about production – how can you say something without the lyrics? ”She cites Madonna’s Ray of Light era and Björk as inspiration for the reduced BPM and nods to Nineties electronica. “I wanted it to feel like December in London.” While the record plays with genre, jungle purists will find satisfaction in the thudding basslines of “Feelingz Go Numb” and “Get Me Down”, featuring Jorja Smith – a collaboration she describes as “creative harmony”.