Meet the Rising Alt-Pop Duo Nox Holloway

If you love alt-pop and immersive lyrical content then Nox Holloway is for you. The duo first met each other while attending Clemson University and bonded over their shared interest in creating music. Over the course of four years, the two honed their individual crafts, with one half focusing on production and the other tackling the lyrics and vocals. Fast forward to 2021 and the music duo have released two tracks – including their brand new single ‘Audrey.’

Taking inspiration from the movie starlet, Audrey Hepburn, the two have crafted an ode to the sophistication and glamour of old Hollywood. With more music releases on the horizon and a growing fan base, Nox Holloway is ready to set the music world on fire. We were able to chat with Nox Holloway about everything from their brand new track Audrey, creating music during quarantine, and so much more. Read the full interview below.

Thank’s for sitting down with SPINDLE! How’s are you two doing? 

We’re doing pretty well, appreciate you talking with us

Can you believe 2021 is halfway over? How’s the year been treating you so far? 

Yeah, I mean obviously it can’t hold a candle to the craziness of last year but it’s still been wild. Graduated college, moved out to Nashville, and just had our first release in about a year. Just excited to be transitioning into what feels like the next stage of everything. 

Let’s dive into the music. How did you two end up forming Nox Holloway?

We actually met on both of our first days at Clemson. I think we started talking to a mutual friend after a class, brought up how we’re both into the same music and make some ourselves, then hung out soon after and kind of went through and showed each other a lot of our music (which at the time was pretty much just Soundcloud). We’d both been doing the bedroom producer thing since high school so we didn’t really know anything about the industry. We just knew we both loved music and had similar aspirations, and it was cool finding someone with that same mindset in somewhere like Clemson. At a certain point, we just decided to release some stuff on SoundCloud as a duo since we were working together anyway, and kept doing that for the next couple of years under a different name. Eventually, actually at the beginning of the pandemic, one of our songs got in front of our now manager and we wanted to start fresh with a clean slate, so we took down all the old music and changed our name to Nox Holloway. 

As college seniors did you two always have music aspirations after graduation?

The timing of it was actually insane because we finally started getting some traction the summer before our senior year. The dreams we had since the beginning of college seemed to be more tangible and realistic, so we shifted our focus from kind of just making music for fun to really sharpening the craft and honing in on what Nox Holloway was going to be. I forget at which point we knew Nashville was probably going to be where we went after graduation, but having spent a couple of summers here in past years helped us build a small network that made that transition a bit easier. 

The pandemic has been an intense time for everyone around the world. How did you two navigate starting your music career while being quarantined? What was your creative process like?

One of us was actually in London for study abroad at the start of the pandemic and had to fly home at the beginning of March, so once it settled in that we really were going to be stuck in houses for a while, we started working on a few things over Facetime. At first, it was more of an “out of necessity” type of thing, but after about a month we really started to get into a groove. Because our dynamic is very much puzzle piece-esque already, getting on Facetime, muting when working on our respective parts of a song, unmuting to exchange ideas, then sending files back and forth started to feel supernatural. It also allowed us to keep improving our individual crafts while still working together constantly. We honestly credit a lot of our current process to that period of time, because it forced us to find how we work best, and as much as we enjoy being in the studio together, we can feel just as confident when we aren’t.

We have to talk about your latest track ‘Audrey’, absolutely fantastic! We hear that it was inspired by the iconic actress Audrey Hepburn? 

I appreciate that, it will always be a special one for us. Yeah, one of us actually got a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” poster in London before we ever even saw the movie because we like keeping our walls covered with posters, and we sat down to write one day and suddenly became super inspired by just looking at it. We obviously knew who Audrey Hepburn was, but it wasn’t until after we wrote the chorus that we became obsessed with her. Started watching all her movies and learning more about her and her life and became mesmerized by the fact that she was as kind, elegant, and philanthropic as she was timelessly beautiful. Hopefully, it can serve as somewhat of an ode to that legacy.

Each one of your tracks has such a dynamic sound to them. How would you two personally describe your sound? 

We always have to hesitate when asked to describe our sound, which we think is a good thing. We come from very different musical backgrounds and have different tastes in current music as well, so the influences for our songs come from a lot of different places. You could describe it as “alt-pop”, but we really just enjoy making music we like and think sounds good. Whatever any one person thinks it is when they listen, that’s what it is to them, so we can’t really box it.

What can music listeners expect from Nox Holloway in the coming months? 

More music, more music, more music. We’ve been working nonstop for the past year, been sitting on some things for a while and are also very excited about what we’re making now, so Nox Holloway is about to be in full swing.

Looking ahead what are three career goals you want to achieve as a music duo? 

We just want the world to hear us and to be able to inspire people. Hopefully, accolades and objective accomplishments will come, but our main goal is to affect people the way our favourite artists affected us when we were younger. When we feel like that impact is being made, that’s when I think we’ll really feel successful. 

Thanks for chatting with us Nox Holloway! 

Make sure to listen to Nox Holloway’s latest record ‘Audrey’ below.