Yannick Ilunga, popularly known as Petite Noir, has always identified as creative even as a young child. “My biggest dream was always music,” he tells Industrie Africa, speaking from Nairobi, Kenya, where he’s currently working on his forthcoming sophomore album. As a youngster, he found his voice playing the guitar and singing backup vocals in church. The church played a vital role in his personal and musical growth as the youngest of six siblings looking to adjust to a new life and culture when his family went into exile in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1996.
Adele Dejak. Photo: Courtesy of Adele Dejak
Adjusting to his new reality in Cape Town proved challenging for Ilunga, who found comfort in the church. “It was my home away from home,” he reveals, recalling that he often felt “small, angry, and out of place.” However, being in the church allowed him to build an intimate community and express himself more openly. As he grew older and developed a stronger passion for music, he struggled to balance his ‘worldly’ ambitions with the values of his religion. “I had these inner conflicts like if I made this type of music or said these words, could I still be a church person?” he remembers. When he realized that he couldn’t do both, he chose the “artist life.” During high school, he began immersing himself in musical subcultures and the art world. “I started listening to music as art rather than just a hobby,” he explains. After experimenting with being part of different bands and then a short-lived duo, he eventually went solo because of conflicting career goals and released his debut single in 2012. Alongside his wife and creative collaborator Rochelle “Rharha” Nembhard, who has been instrumental in crafting his adventurous style and unique visuals, he called his sound ‘Noirwave’. The couple describe it as a borderless and non-conforming cultural movement driven by pan-African creatives and a music genre that sees him combine different styles like kwaito, post-punk, and rock.In the six years since releasing his genre-bending debut album ‘La Vie Est Belle/ Life Is Beautiful’, Petite Noir has gone through some life-changing moments, including quitting alcohol. His decision to stop drinking has become part of a spiritual and physical reawakening that has transformed his music-making approach.After releasing some clothing merchandise over the years, the multi-hyphenate creative has refined his sartorial aesthetic and solidified his interest in fashion with the launch of No Borders, his new clothing label, which he refers to as literally being about “breaking down barriers.”
Petite Noir photographed by Tyrone Bradley. Photo: via @petitenoirkvlt
Adjusting to his new reality in Cape Town proved challenging for Ilunga, who found comfort in the church. “It was my home away from home,” he reveals, recalling that he often felt “small, angry, and out of place.” However, being in the church allowed him to build an intimate community and express himself more openly. As he grew older and developed a stronger passion for music, he struggled to balance his ‘worldly’ ambitions with the values of his religion. “I had these inner conflicts like if I made this type of music or said these words, could I still be a church person?” he remembers. When he realized that he couldn’t do both, he chose the “artist life.” During high school, he began immersing himself in musical subcultures and the art world. “I started listening to music as art rather than just a hobby,” he explains. After experimenting with being part of different bands and then a short-lived duo, he eventually went solo because of conflicting career goals and released his debut single in 2012. Alongside his wife and creative collaborator Rochelle “Rharha” Nembhard, who has been instrumental in crafting his adventurous style and unique visuals, he called his sound ‘Noirwave’. The couple describe it as a borderless and non-conforming cultural movement driven by pan-African creatives and a music genre that sees him combine different styles like kwaito, post-punk, and rock.
In the six years since releasing his genre-bending debut album ‘La Vie Est Belle/ Life Is Beautiful’, Petite Noir has gone through some life-changing moments, including quitting alcohol. His decision to stop drinking has become part of a spiritual and physical reawakening that has transformed his music-making approach.
After releasing some clothing merchandise over the years, the multi-hyphenate creative has refined his sartorial aesthetic and solidified his interest in fashion with the launch of No Borders, his new clothing label, which he refers to as literally being about “breaking down barriers.”
As he puts the final touches on his new untitled album in early 2022, Petite Noir talks to Industrie Africa about his musical journey, childhood struggles, and the importance of individuality.
1. How did your musical journey evolve from singing backing vocals in the church to starting the noirwave movement?
The church allowed me to play on stage and learn how the whole band situation works. It also taught me what God means in my life. The church is intended to power you up spiritually but sometimes what happens is that it becomes a place where we become ignorant to certain things. After some time, I realized a few things that I wasn’t happy with. Sometimes religion can put you in conflict with life outside the church. I started to feel imprisoned and realized that I wanted to be out there in the world.
2. How did you come up with your stage name, Petite Noir?
It means little black [in French]. I’m the youngest in my family, and I always hang out with older people who would always refer to me as the youngest. But it’s also a way [for me] to reach my inner child. There are certain things that I let go of when I was younger and things that happened to me that were traumatic.
3. What kind of things did you let go of?
Travelling from one place to another quickly and then landing in South Africa forced me to change my lifestyle and language. I felt like I had left my life behind. It was a weird time growing up in the 1990s when South Africa was coming out of apartheid, and everyone was rediscovering their identity. As a musician, I’ve realized that my experiences of being bullied, typecast, or judged heavily influenced my work.
4. So you’re currently working on your second album, and you’ve described it as a “crazy process.” How long have you been working on it?
It’s been seven years of work-in-progress, and it’s a milestone for me. It’s the result of what I’ve been going through [over the years].
A look from Petite Noir clothing label, No Borders. Photo: via @petitenoirkvlt
Petite Noir photographed by Imraan Chrstian. Photo: via @petitenoirkvlt
A look from Petite Noir clothing label, No Borders. Photo: via @petitenoirkvlt
5. How is your process different this time around?
For the first album, I was 21, and I was thinking more about sales. I was caught up in making money and buying clothes. I came in wanting to live out my dreams, and now it’s more like I’m here, I’m settled, and I know my vibes.
The process started with making decisions that were based on what was good for me. Now that I’m older, I can hear myself a little clearer. I stopped drinking [for example], so I’m different in my spirit, body, and soul. [Recording] this album was more intense, and it took longer for me to get the songs that I wanted. I went through a lot of self-doubt and confusion about what direction to take.
6. Tell us more about the album
I’m in a happy place; new me, new sound. It’s a big album, and it’s incredible. I think it’s my best work to date.
7. How does fashion influence your music?
For me, clothing is a passion project. It opens up things in my mind when I think about a t-shirt or shoes. Fashion has helped me discover different parts of myself that I don’t put into my music.
7. What made 2021 the right time to launch your clothing label No Borders?
It was about listening to myself. At the beginning of the pandemic, I received some money and asked myself how to invest it. I’ve always wanted to create a clothing label representing noirwave’s values, which are all about pushing the limits.
8. What has been your favorite part of the process so far?
I feel like it’s less of my active thoughts going into it and more of my subconscious. The Novita 1, my debut shoe, is based on the tabi (a thick Japanese sock that separates the big toe and is worn with sandals). We wanted to make it a basic silhouette and then expand the idea from there.
9. What inspires your designs?
A lot of my influences are video games. Colors also play a significant role in what I do, especially when making music. Sometimes I look for songs that give me specific colors. So as I’m listening back [to my music], I see the colors. I associate a light sound [for example] with a happy color.
9. Are there any fashion designers that you look up to?
I look up to Wanda Lephoto, Rick Owens, Sindiso Khumalo, Yohji Yamamoto, and Lukhanyo Mdingi. Rick Owens is dope, and his aesthetic is pretty minimal too. I admire him because he gets the point that you can’t separate spirituality from art.
10. We’ve seen pictures of you with people like Sam Lambert from Art Comes First, Rick Owens, and Samuel Ross, who founded A-COLD-WALL. What lessons have they taught you about the industry?
They’ve taught me individuality. If you look at every single one of them, they are like individual systems and schools in their own right. Their ideas are big enough to live in, and there’s no one else like them. You can get into A-COLD-WALL’s world; he’s more than just a designer. Noirwave itself is an institution, just like Rick Owens—he’s not just a designer or a clothing label.
11. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about life?
Many of us get pressured to be like other people [but I say] be yourself and don’t be ashamed of who you are.
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