written by Annie Barber
photos by Annie Feng
Starting out in the music industry as a journalist interviewing some of the biggest names in dance music, Niamh is now embarking on a music and broadcasting career. She is already showing signs of becoming a complete sensation, having shared lineups with Mall Grab and Kettama, and having been played on ‘BBC Introducing’. Karma! had the chance to sit down with Niamh and chat about her unusual career journey, as well as her physical and mental health.
Niamh previously spent three years as Weekend Editor at Mixmag, and worked as a freelance journalist, interviewing the likes of Anetha and Anfisa Letyago. She has a Substack called ‘Into The Deep’, and a radio show by the same name, with Reprezent Radio. So, has speaking to successful artists made her more driven to create her own music? “Oh absolutely! I learn so much from so many amazing people, and it gives me so much creative inspiration.”
Her first original song, ‘The Golden Ratio’, was played on Radio 1’s ‘BBC Introducing’ in January this year. However, Niamh has been writing since a young age: “I’ve actually been making music for years, even before I first started in journalism. I played the violin from the age of four and was always messing around making my own things inspired by that and just generally [experimenting]. I remember vividly having a notebook when I was about 10 that I’d take everywhere and write and compose songs in.”
Her podcast Belta aims to spotlight Northern club culture. She reveals why she started the podcast, saying “I started Belta because where I was based, I essentially had no ‘way in’ to radio or the likes and I wanted to a) develop my skills and b) get some experience in [broadcasting] and develop a bit of a portfolio of broadcasting-related skills. And that has paid off now with my ‘Into The Deep’ show on Reprezent Radio and bi-monthly residency on Crop Radio.”
When studying digital media at Leeds University, Niamh learned and wrote about social media and algorithms. She says that, despite algorithms being a massive part of everyone’s lives, “there’s such a lack of visibility slash information about them and how they disproportionately affect people’s lives.” She explains the type of research she did, saying “there’s no real way to utilise or work algorithms ‘effectively’ – although you can definitely try to interpret patterns of how they operate – it’s more about understanding the nuances of algorithms and platforms and where they actually stem from [or] how they develop over time.”
It’s clear that she likes to keep busy and that she has a range of talents. She candidly admits that she gets bored of doing the same thing after a while, adding, “everything I do scratches my brain [equally] so I just enjoy every second!”
While Niamh keeps a busy schedule, behind the scenes she grapples with physical and mental health issues. She has been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), a group of disorders which affect connective tissues. She says that it’s difficult to quantify the impact that it has on her career, but one of the most difficult things is that it is an invisible condition: “It’s very difficult when day-to-day I look ‘fine’, wear a full face of makeup, nice outfit and have my big hoop earrings in. It was already tricky pre-pandemic, because if I had a flare up of the condition I’d have to be bedbound for a few days and everyone would get super confused about it because you were ‘fine’ the day before.”
“Unfortunately I got Covid and because I had an underlying health condition (EDS) things spiralled a bit and I developed a severe form of a condition called POTS which made my once invisible disability a little more visible as I was passing out most days and going through a plethora of other things. I couldn’t do anything at that point, but now I’m on heart treatment to get the POTS under control, I’m back to looking absolutely fine again so definitely sometimes you have to deal with the whole narrative of people saying ‘but you don’t look sick’”.
“Now I’m kinda versed in living life with chronic illness though, as it’s been all I’ve ever known, so within work I’m just always prepared.” She adds that she makes sure she has certain things with her: “If I’m DJing, I make sure I’ve always got plenty of water with electrolytes to help with my fluid intake levels and electrolyte levels, which is super important for POTS. And if I need things such as a stool or a fan, I’m at a point where I feel confident to ask for that and I’ve never ran into any tricky responses to that. Then with my day job – I work in marketing at The Warehouse Project – I’m surrounded by such lovely people who if I were ever to need something, or even need a day WFH, it wouldn’t be an issue.”
High-profile celebrities like Jameela Jamil have been very open about their experiences with EDS. Does Niamh think that it’s important for celebrities to use their platform in this way? “For sure. It’s always super important to spread awareness about things such as EDS, which is actually a super common condition that can have such limiting impacts yet the condition isn’t that widely known. As long as the person who is talking about what they’re going through feels comfortable to do so, I think any form of awareness is brilliant.”
She admits that she relies on routine in her life, and that her health can make this difficult: “Honestly I think the unpredictability of never knowing when there might be a flare up is tricky. Being derailed is something I hate the most in this world, and as someone with OCD it’s something I’m actively working on managing.”
Niamh spent almost 2 years completely sober. She speaks about the experience, saying “it was brilliant for so many reasons, firstly because I just didn’t feel as cloudy generally, but also because it saved me money! Sobriety is brilliant and I recommend it to anyone, there is no better feeling than going to a dance and being focused on nothing but the music for hours.”
For 2025, Niamh has big plans: “Channelling and actually sharing all my creativity! All the usual artist and broadcaster business. More radio on my two residencies, more writing and sharing music and more DJ gigs. I’m trying to document more of what I do online across Instagram and TikTok, so take me saying this as a form of accountability to myself!” Keep up to date with her on her socials here to see this goal come to life.
If she had to pick a colour which fits her aesthetic and music, she says “Pink! Always pink. Vibrant and eye catching and people have associations with it, but there’s more to it when you dig deeper”. Niamh recommends two songs to the Karma! readers: ZiGGY by HAAi for dance music fans and Risk by Deftones for everyone else.
Niamh is one of a kind: knowledgeable, strong and incredibly hard-working. Despite following an unconventional route into the music industry, her desire to spotlight talent from the North and her passion for music are sure to propel her to success.
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