Billboard R&B Up-and-Comer Threetwenty Offers a Fresh Genre Perspective

Threetwenty is like a breathe of fresh air.

I came across the fully independent married singer-producer duo on social media and their nostalgic ’90s sound immediately took me back to an era of knitted sweaters, leather jackets and heavy earthtone garments. Their music has the ability to change your mood and feels like a warm hug on a cloudy day from your favorite person.

While talking with them over Zoom, I joked that they make the perfect house cleaning music, but I was being serious. When my future kids hear that threetwenty come on during a Saturday morning, they’re gonna know what time it is, as they hear Ivana’s soft, angelic voice touch on topics such as love, faith and hope.

Based in Sweden (for now) and named after the day they met, the globetrotting, nomadic couple didn’t just came out of nowhere, though. Ivana Nwokike was in VanJess, a fairly successful R&B group alongside her sister Jessica, and Filip Hunter made a name for himself as a producer in the Swedish hip-hop scene, and has writing credits on Mariah the Scientist ‘s “Impalas & Air Force 1s.” The pair eventually decided to form a group after a chance meeting in L.A. back in 2018, when they realized the music that they were making over FaceTime during the pandemic was too good not to share with the rest of the world. They jumped in faith, posting their songs on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, and here we are.

They dropped their impressive debut album separate from the noise in December of last year and followed that up with a side B last month in August. While I was told that they were in Cyprus when I first reached out, the couple had just relocated to Filip’s native Sweden by the time we were able to figure out a good time to talk over Zoom a couple weeks back. We talked about how they met, their nostalgic sound and how they were able to restart their respective careers from scratch.

Check out our conversation below.

When I reached out, your team said you guys were based in Cyprus. Why is that?

Filip Hunter: Well, now we’re actually in Sweden. Funny enough. [ Laughs. ]

Ivana Nwokike : Yeah, as of yesterday.

F: So we’re constantly on the move, you could say. We’re still navigating where we belong in the world, so we’ve just been embracing the season of traveling and seeing different places, and it’s been really rewarding. Also, having quality time, and just giving back to the music — because everywhere we are, we’re always creating. It’s like journaling.

I: Finding new inspiration.

How does traveling inform the music you guys are making?

I: It informs it a lot, I think. When you get to see new places, it definitely has an effect on how it’s inspiring you. Sometimes we’re in Thailand and just being in that energy… we’re always so inspired there. Especially Thailand. We always feel really good when we’re there, eating good food, and there’s a way that you just kind of immerse yourself in the culture, in what’s going on there — almost like an isolated feeling. But, I guess, that’s how you really tap into wherever you are in life in that particular moment. So, it does help us to lock in and write what it is that we’re feeling and thinking in that moment.

F: If you’re in the same place, seeing the same things, I think you need to find a way to be content with your situation in life, make the most out of it. But for me personally, I just been feeling like traveling helps a lot with perspective. Coming from Sweden, for an example, where most of the days — funny enough, it’s sunny today, but like most of the days is rainy and cloudy, you know? And when you get to a place where it’s sunny, you just change the perspective. But then also, Thailand has this sort of chaotic feeling to it that I just love so much.

I was gonna bring faith up. I’ve seen stuff online where some fans described your music as gospel. I don’t feel that way, but when you really listen, you can hear those themes. How does your faith reflect in your music?

I: That’s a good question. We don’t consider the music we make to be gospel. I think that it’s okay to put yourself in a box if you’d like to, but we like to just make music that’s a reflection of who we are. We’re writing music that is directly reflecting what we’re going through and how we’ve overcome it and God is a very big part of our lives because — again — going back to what I’ve been through, what Filip has gone through in life, there’s definitely a foundation that was set through having strong faith after going through so many trials.

So, I found myself in a lot of discovery of who I’m supposed to be, what I’m supposed to do, how am I gonna do this, and I really had to hold on to faith, and found myself writing a lot about faith, struggles, trying to figure it out, trying to come out of it, being hopeful. And so over time, I realized that this music isn’t about me. It’s not. I’m not trying to be the star. Like, on’t idolize me, you know? I’m just trying to be a servant to the people, to help them in a way that I’ve been helped. If they’re going through something that I’ve gone through, maybe I can be of service since I figured out something.

There’s Christian R&B, there’s gospel R&B, and then there’s secular R&B or whatever, but we never wanted to be defined like that. because I just don’t think that that’s representative of what it is that we’re trying to say.

F: The music is for everyone, not just one group. We’re hoping to leave the music without any sort of prejudgments and just be people, and represent the people. That’s super important to us.

Do you guys write and produce the music together? How’s the collaborative process? Especially when you guys were in a long distance relationship.

F: It’s funny when you talk about long distance. We were long distance during COVID while Ivana was losing her father. There was a lot going on, but we kept in touch. That’s really what kept us sane. And on top of that, the music is like therapy for us. So, whatever we’re going through, we’re gonna put it down in the music. The distance wasn’t really holding us back.

There were moments where I was making a beat while we’re on FaceTime, and then I send it to her and she starts writing. I’m like, “Babe, record this on a memo…” She then sends me the memo super-raw, I chop it up in the program, and we made music like that. Not even like a real recording, but we’re still painting the world — and then eventually when we when we see each other, we record it properly, mix it, make it sound good. It was always this sort of unconditional love with the music, in terms of it’s always really just being an outlet for us.

I: Yeah, it’s very collaborative between us. During those early days when we were long distance, it was almost like we were practicing, and then when we finally were able to see each other and lay all that down, it continued to be natural. I’m writing, Filip is creating the beat and he’s singing a melody, and I’m like, “Oh, that’s dope.”Then I’m riffing off of him writing, and then we’re talking about what it is that we’re going through, and then we just…

F: And then boom, we got a song… Just like that. Very sort of natural and effortless. And like I said, we never put the pressure on it. It was never about us wanting to be famous. It was actually us undoing and redoing the music again, no pun intended. As young people stepping into the music business, you start getting validated through this stuff, and you start making it about yourself. And I think the moment we start making it about ourselves, the music loses essence. If we’re not feeling like saying something today, then we’re not gonna make a song today. We’re super intentional about that.

I might make a beat, but we might not have the lyrics. We might have a melody, but the the song is not happening today, and we’re cool with that. There’s not a feeling of, “Oh, we need to make this happen, now because we’re losing the opportunity.” I think in today’s climate, considering how fast everything is going and how much the music industry is changing, it’s so easy for you to be pressured to rush the process or change your pace or change your rhythm, but we’ve always been super-protective over our creative sort of space, so that has helped a lot.

I: And the truth is, without what we’re going through, we can’t write anything anyway. Without life, we can’t we can’t say anything. So, we understand that there’s moments where it might be silent, and we’re just gonna have to deal with whatever noise is going on. But that noise is also inspiration, because you gotta believe that hopefully what we I’m doing is what God wants me to do, you know? I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do on this Earth. If it reaches one person, that’s enough, and being cool with that. And honestly, I think that’s what we’ve had to practice, to surrender to and accept for like the two years before we even shared the music. Just being okay with being Filip and Ivana without…

F: The validation…

I: …Being artists that are constantly told, “Oh, you’re so good” and “You’re famous, dah, dah, dah, dah.”

F : When we dropped our first threetwenty song “Faith is Substance” in 2024, we were already accomplished separately, especially Ivana. It was like starting over from scratch, and there was no quick gratification — but we kept going because it was for the love of it, it’s supposed to be unconditional. We just kept going, and we’re gonna keep that same posture as we continue to climb. And as the business starts to grow, we still have to remind ourselves of that posture that we need to, to keep in order to do this for the long run. We ain’t gotta rush.

When you guys met, was the connection immediate? Was it like a love at first sight kind of thing? The way you guys met is like an R&B song. It’s like a whirlwind romance. You guys mets in 2018 and were married a couple year later.

F: [ Laughs. ] Yeah, man, it’s actually an R&B song. It was immediate, man.

I: Yeah.

F: To be completely transparent, I was already in a relationship when we met, but when we bumped into each other, it was undeniable. I was caught off guard. I felt like our world just shifted. Everything needed to be orchestrated around this now.

I: Yeah, the world definitely shifted when we met. I felt it. I felt it when we hugged. It was crazy. I don’t know how to explain that. Like, how do you hug somebody and… It was like a movie. It was nuts. And we both felt it. That’s what shocked me more. I felt this, and he did. Like, “Oh, snap! Can’t let this go.”

F: It was truly special. I didn’t know then, but l met my wife. That was a life-changing moment, for sure.

What made you guys want to make a side B to accompany the debut album that you dropped in December of last year? I think “Such Is Life” was the first single.

I: The journey continues. We make a lot of music. That’s one thing. And so we’re honestly just trying to continue to develop the story. And “Such Is Life” is one of those songs that was part of a group of tracks that we wrote together that included “The Light,” so we kind of knew that we wanted to share “Such Is Life” sooner than later. Separate From the Noise is really just continuing the discussion of us choosing the narrow path, doing things not like everyone else. We’re just continuing that story through all these songs, and going more in depth into what I was feeling around 2021-2022, feeling like I was giving up a lot of myself — and just trying to let people know that, you don’t really know what I was really facing, when you have all of these different conversations and narratives about me, about who we might be. So, just developing that story.

F: I think also with each project, it’s an opportunity for us to show people who we are. We never really want to be boxed in for one thing, even though you might know us for one thing. It’s still about showing a new side with each project, so we can always keep our creative freedom and continue being us effortlessly without feeli

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/three-twenty-billboard-up-and-comer-rb-september-1236344615/)._