Earlier this month, Nia Archives organised a day rave with a line-up of feminine and non-binary DJs, selling inclusivity within the rave scene. The award-winning DJ and producer spoke to NME in regards to the occasion alongside a few of the acts on the invoice.
The Dangerous Gyalz rave befell in East London on August 6 and featured a set from Nia Archives, in addition to her mentor and UK dance legend DJ Flight, Pxssy Palace (Nadine Door and Mya Mehmi), Sim0ne, Izzy Bossy and Saint Lude.
“I’ve at all times needed to do a Dangerous Gyalz rave,” Nia instructed NME after taking up a transport dock with a few of London’s immense DJ expertise. “I’ve been working ‘Up Ya Archives’ occasions for almost a yr and surprisingly these events are filled with younger girls beneath the age of 25. So I actually needed to do a celebration for all of the baddies.”
Identified for championing the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood within the clubbing house, Pxssy Palace’s Door and Mehmi stated it was “regular” for them to be on a solely feminine and queer line-up. They added that they “like to be in that bubble” of consolation such environments create for them.
Noor defined that the very fact they “just about DJ with different girls, trans and non-binary folks”, or at occasions to honour initiatives like South Asian Heritage Month, generally making them really feel like “tokens” on different, much less inclusive line-ups. “[Just because they DJ on predominantly LGBTQIA+ line-ups] doesn’t imply boys shouldn’t e-book us,” they stated. “We don’t simply play for the girlies. We’re severe DJs.”
Their musical accomplice Mehmi added that it’s “arduous to actually gauge how a lot issues have modified” as a result of she largely seems on line-ups that champion inclusivity. “I’ll be like, ‘Oh my God! that is superb,” she defined, “The music scene is superb. Development.’ After which I’ll get booked for one thing the place there are extra males on the line-up or men-ran and I’m like, ‘Oh.’”
“I used to be excited to be requested,” stated Scottish DJ Sim0ne, who’s now based mostly in London. “Particularly after I came upon that the lineup was, like, predominantly feminine and only a protected house.” Coming to music from the modelling and content-creating worlds, she defined she anticipated “a number of misogyny when [she] made this shift right into a extra male-dominated house”, however had been stunned by what she discovered.
“We’re not there but,” she stated of progress made in equality for girls within the DJ scene. “However I do assume there’s a number of good folks making a number of good strikes. There’s a sluggish shift, however so long as everybody’s form of wanting in the direction of the identical path, we must always hopefully get there.”
thx 2 all tha baddies who got here via 2 da rave on sunday <3 pic.twitter.com/OqsVuGlYRj
— Nia Archives (@archives_nia) August 8, 2023
Uplifting different feminine and non-binary DJs was a part of the intention behind the Dangerous Gyalz rave – a theme that may be felt in Nia’s newest single ‘Dangerous Gyalz’, which was launched on August 3. “Large like to all mi impolite gyal / Let me see you come via gyal,” the lo-fi jungle observe goes, uplifting girls and non-binary folks and exhibiting that there’s sisterhood within the digital and dance music areas.
“I believe sisterhood in dance areas is so vital,” Nia instructed NME. “It makes folks really feel extra welcome in these areas.”
“It’s the explanation I’m nonetheless in it,” Mehmi agreed. “The world treats us with an absence of care and an absence of thought and, inside our circle, we’ve created an atmosphere the place we not solely admire one another’s expertise but additionally handle one another’s psychological well being and one another’s common capability and maintain a number of house for one another in that regard.”
“Our DJ-musician neighborhood and the folks round us, they’re so unbelievably superb and supportive and as we’re to them,” Noor added. “However then once more, on the flip facet of that, we’re simply passing the identical 20 kilos to one another.”
Talking in regards to the assist she’s acquired from different girls, Sim0ne stated: “There’s undoubtedly sufficient house for all the boys, that’s confirmed. So there’s sufficient house for girls. So we must always all be lifting one another up and going to the highest collectively.” The DJ added that, as a result of a number of digital and dance music has been created by queer folks of color, “it’s actually vital to incorporate” these artists on line-ups and “spotlight and shine upon” them.
In her NME cowl story final yr, Nia spoke about her experiences as a DJ, together with the viral “horrible” second when a safety guard stopped her headline Boiler Room set by reaching over the decks and shutting off the music. “Individuals can see that intimidation nonetheless occurs, and when folks complain in regards to the points inside the dance neighborhood, it’s not simply them moaning,” she defined. “Dance music has had sort of an issue with making a protected house for girls.”
On the Dangerous Gyalz rave, although, Nia and the line-up she curated proved that didn’t need to be the case. “We had a sick line-up filled with baddies who completely killed it overlaying a spread of genres and music,” she instructed NME. “It was total such a enjoyable occasion and introduced in a cool crowd.”
Final March, Nia dropped her third EP ‘Dawn Bang Ur Head In opposition to Tha Wall’. In a four-star assessment, NME wrote, “… It’s her songwriting that actually takes the highlight on this EP. Much less reliant on beats to get you transferring, its toned-down really feel makes you sit with Nia’s tales and see the individual behind the tunes she spins.
“With the ability to present a lot humanity and flexibility so early in her profession is extremely respectable and if it is a glimpse of the long run, Nia Archives seems to be set to turn into an unstoppable generational expertise.”
In June, the NME Award winner launched ‘Off Wiv Ya Headz’, a flip of A-Trak’s legendary rendition of Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ ‘Heads Will Roll’. In the meantime, she DJed at Glastonbury and Coachella this yr.
