Premiere: Nia Archives channels Faithless in the visual to soulful d&b roller ‘Crossroads’

For Nia Archives, representation has always been important. As often one of the few young Black women at jungle raves growing up, she now wants to carve out a space in the genre for herself and other Black people. “It’s not just for little white boys, gun fingers in the air,” she says. “It’s for all types of people, all sexualities, whatever gender you identify as.”

With influences ranging from Erykah Badu, Angela Davies, Nina Simone, Burial and more, Nia Archives is a 20 year-old producer, singer-songwriter, visual artist, hailing from Manchester but based in London.

Today she releases ‘Headz Gone West’, an EP that brings those aforementioned influences to the surface, fitting skittering d&b and old skool jungle next to indie sounds and R&B. It was recorded at her bedroom studio in the early hours of the morning, and the result is a soulful, wide-eyed offering.

We’re premiering the visual to EP single ‘Crossroads’, a track that was inspired by a time when “I felt like I was at a literal crossroads and I didn’t know where to go next,” Nia Archives explains. “In the track I am talking about being stuck in a repetitive spiral that I kept finding myself in. The crossroads, represents what I see as the pathways of life, and the choices I had to make about where I was going.”

“For the video I was inspired by the films Groundhog Day and Happy Death Day,” she continues. “I liked the concept of me going on different journeys that kept ending back at the same crossroads. I knew I wanted this video to be in black and white as a homage to Faithless’ ‘Insomnia’ – a personal fave of mine.

“Presenting and working with Delphino Productions on the idea was wicked, I love the visual art that they create and working together is always a vibe. They were able to visualise the vision I had in my head in a magical way. The track is quite dark, for styling I wanted to emulate that punk ’90s look and Millie Wonk did a buzzing job on that!”

Watch the video for ‘Crossroads’ above.