So where are you from ?
I’m originally from London but currently reside in Kent (England). Both of my parents are Nigerian. I like to call myself an African man a lot more than calling myself British though because I feel like being African is so cool and has taught me a lot about life. I already know my future wikipedia page is going to say ‘Kingnoahly is a British man’ but I will make sure they change it to ‘Nigerian’, gotta put on for my people.
How long have you been making music? What would you say is your favorite release so far ?
I have been making music since 2017 but never took it seriously until 2020 due to the pandemic and me being bored at home, after coming back from France I was really inspired to make music so I decided to build a home studio. which is when I dropped my first album ‘Indigo Child’ which was produced by my friend 15am, (ever since I dropped that)
What inspired sanctum and for those who don’t know can you tell us a little bit about it?
Sanctum is a clothing brand that myself and my friend Bertie created due to us being bored of most brands in the UK. My circle of friends are into things that most people our age in the UK aren’t into so when it comes to our designs and our brand it’s nothing like the other brands you see in the UK, we have a different vibe. Myself and Bertie have been talking about creating a brand ever since we met each other which was early 2017, we’ve always been different and were into brands such as Bape, Palace, Alyx, Supreme and all those ‘hyped’ brands now before they were seen as cool. Some people used to clown the way we dressed because they didn’t see and understand the vision but now they see their favourite ‘influencer’ in Bape and all of a sudden they wanna get some.
I’m your eyes, where would you say the fashion and music world meet?
Music and fashion compliment each other way more than people know it. The fact I’m into fashion and making music. Normally if people listen to a certain artist and that artist keeps mentioning the same brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Alyx, Sanctum or whatever, the more they hear it in their favourite artists song, the more they’ll be interested in those brands and potentially buy something from them. A lot of artists have birthed and killed a lot of brands, music holds a lot of power.
Would you say you “ thrived” in the pandemic ?
Most definitely, during the pandemic I was making around 10 songs each day with my friends 15am, fimiguerrero, my cousin Divine and more people. I feel like I stayed active during the pandemic because me and my friends were finding ways to stay active by watching films on Netflix Party each night, playing minecraft, making music and finding other random things we could do together online.
What’s the goal for sanctum ? What message do you want the people to feel from you?
We have a lot of goals for Sanctum but the main goal myself and Bertie want is walking past people wearing Sanctum without them realizing we’re the people that make the clothes they’re wearing. We also want Sanctum to feel like a family which we are practising right now with the way we talk to our customers, if they message us on Instagram or email us we make sure to talk how we would normally talk to our friends and leave the ‘formal way of talking’ out of the conversation since we want them to feel like they know us personally.
Tell me about this new sanctum tee song, it’s already getting so much love
SANCTUM ALL ON THE TEE, SHE WANNA F*CK WITH A SANCTUM G. Myself and 15 just finished eating hella food and decided to sit on a rooftop with his laptop and my speaker whilst freestyling to beats, after freestyling to around 10 beats we came across the ‘Sanctum Tee’ beat and freestyled the whole song, thought it was fire then I recorded on the beat later that night and sent it to 15am so he can lay his vocals down. I just wanted a Sanctum Anthem that I could listen to whilst wearing my Sanctum T-Shirt.
Last but never least, what does the phrase foolish ambition mean to you ?
Don’t let anybody tell you that your ambition is foolish because once that ambition turns into a reality the same people telling you it was foolish will be the same people trying to join you in your journey. Watch out for people like that, keep your circle tight.
Check out @kingnoahly & @shatteredsanctum on IG!
kingnoahly pictured here.
