Ngonda was born in the town of Wheaton, near Washington DC, in 1994. He can pinpoint the exact lightning bolt moment when he discovered soul music. It was the late 1990s and he was watching a TV biopic about The Temptations. The tune eludes Ngonda today although his neighbour did record it on his Nokia phone (deep in a drawer in Maryland could lurk a lost classic). Around this time Ngonda’s mother caught him singing You Keep Me Hangin’ On by The Supremes in his bedroom.