Get To Know: threetwenty

Relationships sparked online are part and parcel with living in the digital age. Looking to dating Apps for love has become the norm and a profitable business, and before that, Facebook and Twitter, the OGs were a way of seeing what’s beyond the borders of your own country.

Love is limitless. Bondless. And forever reaching. It is also one of the main topics of discussions when New Wave Magazine spoke to Three Twenty, initially regarding their debut album, Separate From The Noise, and our favourite 90s R&B classics, but the discussion soon turned to matters of the heart.

Ivana Nwokike and Filip Hunter, the former a Nigerian-American singer/songwriter, the latter, a Swedish producer, make up the group threetwenty. They are also happily married.

When they first met in 2018, then got married in 2022. Before that, Ivana was one-half of acclaimed R&B duo VanJess and Filip as an essential member of Sweden’s hip-hop scene.

“We want people to feel warm” says Ivana, when speaking about what type of feelings they wanted people to feel when listening to the album.

“We also definitely want people to feel the love. To be honest, in the process we have just been living our life, and as we have been living, we have just been writing it down.”

There is also the hope that people understand the “purpose” behind the words and the sounds, and that it resonates. Speaking about the album further, Ivana says, “a lot of it is coming through a lot of experiences we have been facing over the years. It’s an album of victory, of overcoming, so I hope that people also feel hopeful.”

The name of the album, Separate From The Noise, has many meanings for both of them, but the main one is to be “set apart” and “embracing” being “comfortable uncomfortable”, whilst maintaining their faith through religion and drawing strength amongst themselves.

The album itself is like a hug. Warm, deliberate, snug and purposeful. It is sunk in the soft sounds of R&B, effervescent funk, soul and jazz.

From the very start of the first track ‘The Light (I need You)’ it gives the authentic impression of late 90s and early 2000s R&B, which isn’t surprising considering that both are 90s babies.

Filip grew up hearing everything that their older siblings would play in the home which included Destiny’s Child, Spice Girls, Aaliyah, Boyz II Men, Donnell Jones, Euro Dance and Dr Dre.

“For me it was the same”, says Ivana. “I grew up in Nigeria until the age of 10, and all that was on the TV was music videos. I remember watching TLC and Aaliyah. Even when my parents throw me birthday parties, I can still remember ‘Back and Forth’ and for some reason that became a very big core memory for me as I got older.

“There was so much in the 200s also. I mean, NSYNC, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera – I think me and Filip have a pretty eclectic range of things we have been inspired by over time.”

“Yeah, it’s not just R&B. Soulful music has different shapes of it. It’s just music that you feel in your soul you know?”, adds Filip.

In a chronically digitally online time, international dating on a global scale shouldn’t be all that surprising, or falling in love with said person. But it isn’t talked about nearly enough

It was something Ivana and Filip had to “navigate through”, to their own admission, that there is a “certain tone” some people take when talking about long distance relationships.

“It’s almost like it’s not being taken serious”, he said. “You have to deal with people’s opinions of it – their doubts on what’s possible.

“For me and Ivana we knew we were for each other, so it wasn’t like we had a choice. We just navigated through it. If anything, it just taught us good communication and unconditional love.”

He felt that the experiences they went through prepared them for married life. He said: “In a long-distance relationship, all you have is communication, and you get the intimacy from the communication.

“On top of that you don’t get to receive as much for yourself and your selfish needs. You focus on how you can serve that other person.”

But like everything, it wasn’t perfect. “I do want to say it’s very challenging and not for the weak. We had to really push through some difficult times.”

There is also the downside to living in the times we live it. “There is so much going on in the world”, Ivanna explains. “It can get pretty overwhelming. Pretty overstimulating, even in the digital space, but we like to do our very best to stay focused on what we are called to do and keep in mind that everyone is here is for a specific reason.

"In this life, you will be tested, and you are doing your very best each day to stand for something. Every day you are trying.

It also impacted their lifestyle in certain ways. “We call ourselves nomads in a way”, explains Filip. “We are still trying to navigate the world and find our place. We travel and record our lives through music.

Parts of the album were made in Sweden and Thailand, as well as in the three months that they spent in Cyprus.

“It’s a privilege to be nomadic because obviously we get to create music, which gives us the freedom to have that lifestyle, but it’s not necessarily by choice”, Ivana said. “It has to do with our situation of my husband being Swedish, and I’m American.

Filip adds: “We were separated for many years in the beginning. We were having a long-distance relationship, probably up until the point where we got married. From 2023, we pretty much did everything in our power to make sure that we were not separated.

“When you have different citizenships like we do and you haven’t really decided where you belong yet, we saw it as an opportunity to explore.” “To get inspiration”, interjects Ivana, and Filip readily agrees: “It’s really cliché, but home is where the heart is.”

2025 has, however, to their own admission, been more strategic. “In the sense that we have more music and need to place it in the right scenario.

We have more ideas”,  assures Filip, as we enjoy the current phase that Three Twenty is currently in, but with an eye on what is on the horizon for them in 2026, sharing their hope that they find their “place”, and continue to “enjoy” building their family business.

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