Through the Lens of noxz

“I’m having my second glass of tea this morning,” shared noxz on our early Monday call. The Sunday scaries were nowhere in sight but I still recoiled to ask, “Glass of tea?” to which he explained he was wanting to be fancy.

While some of us were perfecting our sourdough recipes, playing Animal Crossing, or taking advantage of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, the Nigerian-born, London-based artist spent the 2020 lockdown perfecting his skills in music production and content creation. Through uploading his music to the internet, noxz garnered a community of over 800,000 listeners and moved his tea from mugs to glasses.

Growing up in church, music always surrounded him. It was the uncles in the church who encouraged him to play multiple instruments. “Everything [I play has been] self-taught. I think just taking in all the instruments is one of the best ways to learn. I feel like if I did go to uni to learn it, I wouldn’t be as expressive as I am now with music now.”

Old-school Kenwood speakers adorned parts of his family home, with vinyls and cassette players also dotting around. His family knew it was time to clean his house when his mum decided to play Etta James, Aretha Franklin or Sam Cooke over their soundsystem. “I grew up in a musical family, my granddad was a drummer, my sisters can sing, my dad thinks that he can sing, but he’s just like the best tamer.”

But it was his cousins who influenced who put him on to what would eventually become his musical palette. “[My cousins] put me on Kirk Franklin [back] when he was revolutionising gospel, R&B, in a way that made gospel sound cool. I think that’s where my curiosity of merging two different genres and just going for the feeling kind of started.”

“I wasn’t at the age where I could have my own record or cassette player. I had my Walkman when I was 11 or 12. I’m actually quite shocked that the first CD I bought was a Will Smith one.”

When he wasn’t listening to R&B, Afro-fusion, or Will Smith, it was jazz soundscapes that were rocking his world, but as he got older, architectural landscapes were where noxz found his feet as a visionary.

Being the lead designer of architecture firm Zara Hadid Architects gave him the creativity and nine-to-five discipline to create and live a stable income. However, the artist’s passion for music and content creation continued to co-exist with his architectural projects. The growing interest from listeners encouraged him to pursue music full-time, “I started receiving messages that were like ‘I was stressed all day and I listened to your music and it made me relax.’ ‘I was so anxious before a date and I listened to your music and it calmed me down’ and it made me [want to] shift my focus on music more.”

“It was scary but the minute I did it, it was like the weight of the world was just off my shoulders and I could just focus on being creative in a different way.”

noxz talks about his upcoming album ‘Safe To Be _,’ after finishing his glass of tea.

Congratulations on ‘Safe To Be _’! How did you approach this album compared to ‘Tones + Silhouettes’?

With ‘Tones + Silhouettes,’ I wanted people to play music that they would want to listen to when the sun’s setting, when they’ve come back from a night out and they want something on they’re just debriefing, or they’re getting ready and needed something to get them in the mood kind of thing.

Whereas with ‘Safe To Be _’ it was more of a ‘let me put together something that people can actually sit with and decompress with.’ I think when I was able to hone in on the feeling, that’s when I was able to just expand on the project.

I read before that you like adding texture to tracks and that you approach music almost like a structure. How do you know when a song is complete as a producer?

I don’t think a song is ever complete. I’ll listen to something that I’ve done that’s been out and I think, “Oh, I could’ve removed that there,” “I could have put something else in there.” I think songs are complete in the moment, when you have a certain feeling and you play the song and it gives you whatever that feeling is repetitively. But the thing is, feelings evolve, feelings change, so I don’t think songs ever will get to a point where they will be complete.

One of my favourite compliments is when people say that they can hear or feel things in the track that aren’t necessarily there. The whole essence of me is to kind of create this bedrock where when you’re listening to (my music), you can start imagining sounds that are not there. It’s like challenging your ear palette, you are part of the process in a way, you’re developing your own sonic palette while listening to something that I’ve put out there for people to vibe with.

‘Safe To Be _’ seems to be very immersive with its jazz and percussive rhythms, I thought listeners would be able to take it and just really feel it. Is there a song on the album that resonates more with the original idea of what you wanted the album to sound like?

‘Dreaming Wide Awake’ is what set the whole thing off in a way. When we wrote that song with Sipprell a year or two ago, she wanted to write the song so that it would inspire her daughter when she got older. I started becoming more intentional with other songs and made sure that they also fit into a certain bracket. I didn’t even come up with the name until after I had done all of the four vocal tracks.

I was looking at the lyrics and I was like, they’re all trying to explain to people that it’s okay to be wherever you’re at, you’re confused? That’s good. You’re in love? That’s great. That’s why I came up with the name ‘Safe To Be _’ for the album. It’s safe to be vulnerable, it’s safe to be secure, it’s safe to be happy, it’s safe to be sure. That’s the idea of the whole project.

When I was listening to the record, it reminded me a lot of the film Waiting to Exhale. ‘Take It In’ in particular has this very warm, intimate, dreamlike atmosphere to it. When producing, do visuals, places or images ever play a role in how you create?

100%. I don’t have synesthesia but I’d like to think I’m close to it. When I hear certain frequencies, I can imagine how the visuals should kind of go. I’m a holistic producer, if you want to call it that.

Whenever I start making a track, I’m already thinking about how it’s going to look, where it’s going to sit, how it’s going to translate visually which then also affects the sonic choices and the way I structure it. The architect side of me always works in a visual way, I tend to remember faces more than I remember names.

You began as an architect. What was that transition between that and deciding that you wanted to pursue music?

I think that was like the scariest part of my career. Going from something that is stable to something that was more uncertain was scary. It took me a whole year to be able to send my resignation letter.

I think for me it wasn’t just about the money, I didn’t want to leave architecture and the stability from that but I also wanted to be true to my outlet and to my purpose. I started receiving messages that were like, “I was stressed all day and I listened to your music and it made me relax,” and I thought that I need to hone in and shift my focus onto music a little bit more.

It was scary, but the minute I did it, it was like the weight of the world was just off my shoulders and I could just focus on being creative in a different way. But the part that I didn’t realise is that even though you’re doing something creative, there needs to still be some form of structure. You still need to treat it like a business, you need to understand the ins and outs.

Were you self taught with music, content creation and production?

I’ve been making music since I was three apparently. My mum was telling me that I was banging on pots and pans in the kitchen making rhythms. They just bought me loads of instruments and I just started playing it by myself and then I grew up in a church environment. When I was playing it in church, it’s more about how we need to hit a certain feeling, so when I’m producing tracks now for me it’s just more about what am I trying to make people feel and sort of reverse engineering the process.

Besides music, what brings you closer to other people?

I think I’m quite competitive and I like to bring that out in people. Anything team sports where I can rage bait you into bringing that demon out. I love playing basketball, so whenever I do that with my friends we bond over that because it’s a good way to disengage with being creative.

If you could work on a project with another artist, who would it be and why? Would it be architectural or musical?

It’s weird, I’m already thinking about my next project even though this one hasn’t been released yet. I already have a name for it. I’m already targeting artists for that. I’m still exploring where that’s going to go but it’s going to be pure R&B and I want to focus on UK talents.

(Noctis did get a spoiler but we’ll let Safe To Be _ land first.)

What is something you want listeners to take away from this album?

I want people to be in their feelings, whatever they may be, and to find a song that resonates with that feeling they’re in. If they’ve had a long day from work and they just want to unwind, if they’re going for a walk and have a pep in your step – Shae (Universe)’s ‘Can’t Phase Me’ will give you that vibe.

I want people to listen to it with an open mind and to take it all in and be expressive with it. Whether it’s in the background, foreground, it’s that kind of music that is in a way almost like a soundtrack to your life.