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Pink neon spills across the blinds at Bloody Angle Dougen Tong. Down in Dogenzaka, the café and record bar is a Shibuya fixture for fashion kids and music heads. It borrows the comforts of an old-school Japanese kissaten, with coffee and nostalgic café food alongside vinyl to browse, then carries on into the night over drinks. It’s the sort of place where an afternoon catch-up can turn into a much later one.
Beneath the glow, Nia Archives lounges in a red vinyl chair. On her third visit to Japan, the UK producer has a growing audience here and a few familiar haunts of her own – though it’s her first time at Bloody. Over a few cigarettes and a parfait, we get to talking.
She’s brought Emotional Junglist, her Mercury-nominated second album, to live shows at Osaka’s Yogibo Meta Valley and Tokyo’s Zepp Shinjuku, before returning to the decks at Unit for the first Japanese edition of Up Ya Archives x Attic. Her ties to the city extend to Harajuku’s Domicile, where she teamed up with local creative I Fuck Tokyo for a collaborative pop-up alongside the photographer’s solo exhibition, ‘Cuz I’m the Outcast’.
Before digging into the café’s banana split, we settle in with Nia to talk about taking her music live, the ’90s Japanese magazines she turns to for style inspiration and finding familiar faces so far from home. The conversation takes a few detours through Tokyo after dark, with late nights at Lion and a karaoke rotation with a very British streak.
For someone hearing you for the first time, how would you describe your sound?
I would definitely describe my sound as emotional junglism. Emotional dance music, for sure.
And what makes someone an emotional junglist?
It’s not necessarily just listening to jungle music. It’s just a vibe, aura, a way of being, I guess. It could be a religion, you know.
Emotional Junglist has had some time to settle since its release. Has anything about the reception surprised you?
The most unexpected moment was the Mercury nomination, which was quite crazy, just because it had only just come out. For me, the Mercury is the one that I really admire, so I was really happy to be on the shortlist this year.
Was moving from behind the decks to performing with a live band always the plan?
No. I’ve been hiding away from going live for quite a few years, because it’s quite easy to hide behind DJ decks. I forced myself to go live by making an album at lots of different BPMs so that I couldn’t DJ it. So I forced myself into a corner of, ‘Okay, I’m going to try something new.’
Do you have any rituals before a show?
I like to be chill before a show, listen to some music, just chill with my band and my crew. I’m really enjoying doing the band stuff a lot more than DJing at the moment. But then I think doing the band stuff makes me enjoy DJing more as well.
Which song would you give someone as their first introduction to your music?
Maybe check out ‘There Goes Ma Head’. I feel like it’s a really great example of emotional jungle music.
This is your third visit to Japan. What keeps bringing you back?
I really love the audience that I’m building here. I love being in lots of different countries around the world, and I really love the culture here, the food, the vibes, the people. It’s always great to come and connect with my audience so far away from home, which feels kind of surreal. It’s really cool that people listen to my music in Japan.
Do you find inspiration here, whether in music, fashion or anime?
Yeah, all of that I really love. I also really love the fashion here and the hair.
Are there any particular brands you look to?
There’s a lot of brands I like to shop out here, but for me it’s more that I like looking at all the ’90s Japanese magazines for style inspo. Because I wear a lot of vintage clothing, I’m more looking at how people put their fits together.
What do you get up to in Tokyo when you’re not performing?
We’ve done a lot of karaoke, a lot of late nights. We went to Lion Bar last night, which was really fun. I kind of go there every year. I like that bar. Just hang out, really. I’m always with a big group of friends out here, so I’m just hanging out with my friends.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Usually it’s Jamelia, ‘Superstar’, but they don’t have it in Japan, so I’ve been doing other songs. What have I been doing instead? We did Franz Ferdinand, ‘Take Me Out’, which is a very British kind of song.
Since we’re in a record café, what would be your pick for a vinyl set?
I can’t actually DJ vinyl, but if I was going to choose a record that I would play forever, it would probably be Burial, Untrue. That’s one of my favourite albums of all time.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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