Last Saturday I sat down with J one half of NorthSkull.com, the brainchild of two long time friends, for some this may be the first time they have heard of Northskull, and some may know of their all black Jesus piece made most famous by Tinchy Stryder in his "in my system" video, Stryders influence has quickly turned this piece into a fashion must have.



So why did you get into the fashion accessory/ jewellery game?



"We wanted to make jewellery that was provocative, a breaker of ice, sparker of conversion, for example someone could look at someone on the street wearing the NorthSkull black Jesus piece and say. Is Jesus white or black? Topman and all the big companies are scared to do that, im not even sure if it would be politically correct for a major UK store to release an all BLACK jesus piece. Women love the pieces its definately a topic of conversation in a room which"



Whats makes your products unique?


"We believe there was a gap for us, no one had done this before, affordable jesus pieces that werent fake bling, not many can afford to wear £10,000 on their necks. This was our gap. I love it when i see someone wearing one of our pieces in a night club, or walking into a barbershop on a saturday and I can see the confidence the piece has given them"



That makes sense thats probably one of the reason why its caught on, do you not think?


"Yes thats exactly why we think its caught on."





So what is the mindset of the company were are you coming from and what seperates you from the big companies producing jewellery ?



"We are strong individuals we wanted to make jewellery to reflect that. We are Both against the grainers we were not content with just bringing out a t-shirt line because everyone has one so we thought how can we flip the game completely and draw up on our strengths. The big boys are limited in what they can do, we are making blogosphere stuff nothing is run of the mill."






Your signature piece the black jesus piece which featured in Tinchy Stryders In My System Video has been your best success but some people may see you as a fad, what is your response to that?



"no we are here to stay, we are going to contine to freak different styles and will continue to turn up, we have crazy blue prints of products we could drop products one a week for 5 years straight with the designs we have already but we want to keep our customers wondering whats next."



I have seen a lot of celebs wearing your products, its great to see the UK standing together helping to push each other.



"Yes we get a lot of support from our brothers in the industry, Big up to Tinchy Stryder 1 of the best in the game. The whole RUFF squad, Shadez The Misfit, Mercston, Stutta and CHIPMUNK. The response across the atlantic is just as good big up to Royce DA 5'9, D4L (laffy taffy). As far as UK goes I cant even tell all the celebs that have purchased because they didnt contact us on a network tip, we have had celebs come through as regular customers and we cant really disclose those but theres a whole bunch of uk grime artists that have come through to purchase from our website."



So howcomes the UK major stores havent picked up on Northskull yet, whats the deal with them?



When we entered the game we wanted to control our products in the UK closely, i wasnt going to jump through hoops for a big company we are rebel with causes by nature, We had the website and we knew we get our product out through that. We approached independent stores and a few chains UK wise. We toured the whole of london, and to be honest a lot of the independent london stores were lacklustre we only felt happy putting our product in a few stores, if your store is selling fake bling jewellery and fake clothing we dont want to be a part of it, that would be missing the point of what Northskull is about. For the most part the independent stores saw the vision and what the product ment. The only major store I would of like to have made a deal with was MASH (oxford st) but these large companies you cant get to speak with anyone. But our brand is out there, maybe one day we will get to sit down Northskull and MASH because i think that would be a great combination and that would be good for the fans. Id like Mash to reach out to us.



Where do you draw your inspiration from?


O man Everything life is the biggest inspiration, but we collect african and aztec art, and were into egyptology, and hip hop so i guess thats all part of what inspires us in what we do.



Whats the ambition with NorthSkull the brand?


NorthSkull is new its a baby, we know were we came from and were not going to be a ho in the industry we will always keep it a certain standard. Spring 2011 the inaugural sunglass line and possibly.. possibly a tshirt line for spring/summer 2011 just keep plugged in NorthSkull.com