Riya and DJ Spinback at China Doll - Aug 7
Riya has been making waves on the underground circuit by singing backing vocals and MCing for DJs
When DJ Spinback, one half of drum ’n’ bass legends Total Science, comes to Beijing this month, he will be accompanied by an unusual partner – a singer/MC called Riya, also known as Laura Pacheco, who’s been making a splash on the underground circuit.
‘My background is as a singer, and I’ve been singing since I was eight,’ Riya tells Time Out over the phone from London. ‘I’ve developed my MCing so I can take the singing on the road – over some sets and certain tunes, an MC has a better chance of getting the crowd hyped. I still do a lot of singing over certain songs, though. I was bought up around music so I can literally freestyle it with the singing; I hear melodies straight away. When MCing I have a vault of about 40 or 50 raps I can dip in to, and I’m constantly writing more.’
Riya broke into drum ’n’ bass after doing PR for Hospital Records and Dogs On Acid, one of the most popular dance music forums on the internet. From there she made some good contacts and has since sung on tracks for the likes of Klute, Bungle, Zero Tolerance and, of course, Total Science.
‘When I’m making a tune for a label, I get sent an unfinished cut of the track. I usually get any ideas I have straight away,’ she explains. ‘If I don’t then that’s usually a good sign that the track isn’t going to work for me. If it’s working then I’ll write some lyrics and record them in my home studio. I’ll send them back to the producer and they’ll fit the vocals into the track.’
Most of her vocal work in the studio has so far been of the singing variety, but she’s now expanding her repertoire. ‘I’ve recently been recording a few spoken word bits for tracks. I’m very interested in conspiracy theories and that’s been a major subject for me so far.’
What sort of theories? That 9/11 was an inside job? That the moon landing was faked? That there was another gunman on the grassy knoll?
‘No, not things like that,’ says Riya. ‘I’m very into the theory that the world will end in 2012. The Mayans famously predicted it, and so have the Tibetans, Sumerians and Egyptians. The polarity of the Earth is going to flip to the opposite side, and there’ll be an alignment of the planets that hasn’t happened before. People think I’m mental, but I do actually believe in it.’
Riya and DJ Spinback play China Doll on Friday, August 7.
Ross Goulding