A perfect musical partnership, one half of the duo is a producer, while the other is a songwriter, lyricist, and vocalist who is as likely to find inspiration strumming his ukulele as he’s in the flow of hip hop by his idols. It is the perfect blend for them to create music. It was formed as two college friends in their senior year. The two-piece turned their focus full-time to their music and established themselves as Nox Holloway, a name that is a special tribute to time lost elsewhere. 

The name Nox Holloway is a combination of the Latin word for ‘night’ and the street in London where they found inspiration.

Their new single ‘Sapphire’ is out now and you can watch the video below!

Hi Nox, thanks for talking to ReVamp, how do you think lockdown has helped you in terms of your music?

Hello! Glad to be here. We credit the pandemic and ensuing lockdown with really allowing us to find and shape our sound. Working remotely meant we also worked alone at different times on these songs, so it really made each of us focus hard on our respective contributions and grow as musicians and creators.

When you were both growing up, did you always want to pursue this career in music and who were your inspirations when you were growing up?

Actually, for the both of us, the dream of a music career came later on. We were both big into sports growing up; we both love competition and witnessing greatness. I think late high school/early college is when we both set our sights on being musicians, and creating the duo just made it that much more tangible. At that point, our biggest inspirations were Jon Bellion, twenty one pilots, Eminem, Kanye, and probably The Chainsmokers.

You released a song called ‘Audrey’ in an ode to Audrey Hepburn, what made you decide to write a song about Audrey Hepburn?

One of us had gotten a Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster in London and that sparked an interest in Audrey Hepburn pretty quickly. The poster hanging on the wall was sort of a beacon of inspiration until the song just came out. We love Hepburn’s elegance and class, and really the song triggered a deeper dive into her work and life.

What was the feedback to this song and do you think your sound has changed since you first started out in the music world?

The feedback to Audrey has been great! I think one thing that stands out is how nostalgic everyone says the song feels, which is exactly the intention with the instrumentation and lyric delivery. It’s nice to have people notice the specific feeling we wanted to convey, and we feel like we’re finally making songs that do that. Our sound has certainly evolved since our musical beginnings, but mostly in a way that streamlines the process to get from vision to completion. We feel like we’re making truer music than ever.

With your newest single ‘Sapphire’ how did you plan for a release of a new single?

We’ve had plenty of discussions with our management and marketing team about Sapphire and making sure it lands correctly. This is one of the first songs that our team heard and immediately jumped all over, so we’re excited for it to be out for everyone to enjoy. We look forward to the video premiere/Q&As on YouTube that has become a staple of our release day, and just seeing what people think of the song.

How did you record and write this single and what did you enjoy the most?

We started writing “Sapphire” the night before a photoshoot in Nashville. We had the chord progression/sample playing on a loop and first came up with “Sapphire” as the hook. From there, we split up to go back home and nail down the imagery and feelings this song needed to feel right, which led us to images of a 1920’s masquerade ball and one of our favorite shows, “Peaky Blinders”. This inspiration carried the song to the finish, but I think our favorite part of the process was the initial excitement hearing “Sapphire” sung over just the piano and drums on that night in Nashville.

The visuals of the music video for ‘Sapphire’, is very artistic and reflects the song perfectly. How did you prepare & visualise for the music video?

Thank you! The film crew was really great about listening to our ideas of classier style and imaging, while we also wanted to bring a modern, high-energy feeling to the video. Once we saw the visuals for the LED screens behind us, I think we knew that we hit the nail on the head. We were pretty intentional in post-production about making sure pacing and the speed of each shot felt right for the song, and we love the final product.

What do you want the listeners to feel when they’re listening to ‘Sapphire’ ?

Hopefully it’s an immersive experience of love, excitement and enthrallment. Sapphire to us is such a feel-good song with added depth lyrically and musically, and we hope everything comes together just right for the listener.

What is next for Nox Holloway?

We have some big plans coming up for August and September – ones we wish we could talk more about! In the meantime, we’re always writing and recording more songs and planning ahead. Thanks for these questions! We enjoyed answering them. 

Listen to 'Sapphire' by Nox Holloway here.  Also check out their official video below!