FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
PHOTO CREDIT: Arthur René Walwin
Part Sixty-Eight: Nova Twins
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THIS outing of Modern Heroines…
features a duo who are hugely inspiring and will be icons of the future. Nova Twins are an incredible force who everyone should know about. They are a Rock duo formed in London in 2014, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Amy Love and bassist Georgia South. In addition to bringing in a review of their debut album, Who Are the Girls?, it is worth collating some interviews so that we can learn more about a duo who are primed for a huge career and legacy. It is a little heartbreaking that Nova Twins’ rise started to happen just before the pandemic kicked in. I think they had a few huge tour dates in the book that had to be cancelled. I can only imagine how they felt knowing they would travel the world and had this moment to connect with fans, only for it to be halted! They will definitely make up for that. Even though Nova Twins have released one album, I am confident they are going to go very far and become legends. The first interview I want to illustrate is from Upset. They discuss the momentum of the duo, in addition to the quality and importance of Who Are the Girls?:
“Nova Twins have been steadily gaining momentum on the underground circuit for a number of years. With an amorphous signature that fleets between gritty punk, riotous grime, and a sound that often is so raucous that it denies all definition, there's a sense of exploring the unknown which the flows through their naturally unhinged noise. Riotous bass lines that simultaneously soothe and assault the senses, blurred with ravaging vocals that oscillate between saccharine and murderous; Nova Twins are carving their own path in the music industry and since they're pretty much the first of their kind; they get to make the rules.
"When we first did music, we were doing it for ourselves simply because we wanted to make music together. Then when you realise how it can affect [people] and how it can be a political thing, you're suddenly more woke and aware of what you're doing. You feel more precious about things," vocalist and guitarist Amy Love explains of their inception.
After being introduced to their music by a member of Nothing But Thieves, producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Kasabian) got in touch with Nova Twins about whether they'd be up for working with him. The timing couldn't have been more spot-on, as they had just finished up writing songs with an album in mind.
Let it be said that 'Who Are The Girls?' is one hell of a debut. From the Tim Burton-esque 'Ivory Tower' to the industrial rave à la The Prodigy in 'Taxi'. Amy and Georgia are masters at what they do, and their high expectations bring along a kind of perfectionism to it all. So much so that ten minutes before having to submit the album, they were trying to make changes. Thematically, 'Who Are The Girls?' is an introduction to the world of Nova. It is about the pair delving into their craft and seeing how far they can go with conjuring up new sounds. "We're in our own bubble a lot of the time," says Amy of how serious they can be with their gear and the way that they do things. "It would definitely be interesting to show people the inner workings."
With a sound so unique, it would be nothing short of crazy not to be secretive about it. Both Amy and Georgia are very specific about the kind of gear they use since it makes up their signature colossal wall of noise. So, then. What is the secret ingredient to Nova? God loves a trier, but they're not giving it up that easily! Speaking of why she's so protective over her pedalboard Georgia says, "People at the beginning used to just take pictures of it. I'd get so annoyed, I felt like it was theft! You don't even know how many years I took to build it. It's like you can't just take it, buy it, and do it! So, somebody did that a few times and I just duct-taped the shit out of it."
It's this idea of reclaiming what is yours and not allowing somebody to step into your lane without permission that bleeds throughout the songs on the album. 'Bullet' is an unwavering, unapologetic response on behalf of all of the women who have been subject to catcalling, but there is also more depth to it as Amy explains: "'Bullet' was touching more onto sexuality. We know that women are under so much more scrutiny and everything; we're expected to get criticised 24/7, to be strong and just take it. It was just a hit back at saying we're taking our power back, and you know what? Fuck everyone else who has tried to come between that."
Nova Twins are flying the flag for anyone sick of having to change themselves to please the patriarchy. 'Not My Day' is in Amy's words, "about how sometimes you can have a really shitty day and you don't have to put on a brave face all the time. A little bit of vulnerability is sometimes a good thing. I think a problem we have in this society is, everyone is posting what they want everyone to think, and nothing is tangible or real anymore, and sometimes it's a case of aggression. Sometimes you act out, and it might not be appropriate, or it's appropriate for that moment, but then you get over it."
If you are a person of colour who feels like they have no faces to relate to in the music industry, then Nova Twins are part of a wave of musicians that are trying to create a sense of community for you to exist in. "The underground is starting to catch-up and being more open and more inclusive to the LGBT community, people of colour and everyone on that scene. The mainstream is not having it at all, so that's where we still have to keep fighting to push through. We haven't got there yet."
Looking back to four or five years ago when the underground scene was opening up and being more inclusive; while the progress was good, it was still biased. "If you sounded like The Slits, Bikini Kill or L7, and if you were blonde it was great because you could fit into that kind of market. We didn't fit into that, so we didn't start getting picked up until a couple of years in. It's amazing because you see people like Big Joanie and Fuck You, Pay Us coming through and Skinny Girl Diet who are like the main ones in the UK representing at that particular time, and it was kind of scarce for women of colour in live music in the rock world. [In] the rock world you've just got white skin, and there's no place for people like us, so we had to create our own lane”.
This interview from LOUDER from early last year focuses on Nova Twins before they immersed themselves in a wave of tour dates – well, that was the plan! Whilst it is sad many of the dates never came to fruition, hearing them speak about their friendship and their debut album is wonderfully illuminating:
“Jim Abbiss – mastermind producer behind the big debut albums from Arctic Monkeys, Adele, and Kasabian – was so excited by the prospect of producing such an album that he jumped on board when the opportunity to work with the duo arose. Together, Abbiss, Love and South took time to play around with sounds from their pedalboards, finding glitches within different pedal and instruments to give tracks depth and an innovative, challenging sound.
Before they were ever thinking about their debut album, though, the duo frequented infamous London venues – Camden’s The Stables and the Amersham Arms in New Cross – playing to whoever was listening. Eventually, they started building a following around the live London scene.
The pair assert they couldn’t have started anywhere better: “Although it is quite savage at times, it was probably a great thing,” bassist South tells us. While it might have taken “resilience” to break such a tough scene, it clearly paid off.
From then on they started playing UK festivals, from 2000trees to the Great Escape, Brighton. It was here that they met Jean-Louis, a French promoter known for running Trans Musicales, a festival held once a year in Brittany, France. The festival is famous for showcasing ‘the next big thing’, with previous up-and-comers including Nirvana, Bjork, Daft Punk and Lenny Kravitz. Amy described the festival as nothing she had ever seen before: “It’s these huge massive warehouses in this industrial estate, four thousand capacity for each venue where there is so much world music," she told us.
“Jean-Louis invited us down and we didn’t realise how big it was going to be. When we arrived, there was a curtain behind the stage where you could see [into the crowd], so our first gig out in France ended up being at a 4000 capacity venue.”
From then on, the girls played all around the world, travelling from France, to New York, to Kazakhstan, playing a range of different venues to completely different audiences and supporting everyone from Prophets Of Rage to Little Simz. Fitting, considering their defiant approach to musical categorisation.
The pair are about to set off on their most important and extensive tour yet in support of their debut. But they don’t seem the slightest bit scared, which could be down to their tight bond and lifelong friendship. As South describes it: “We’re always together – it’s like a holiday instead of a tour.”
They also believe their friendship is the foundation of their music and success. “We move together and think the same way together." says South. "I think that’s the formula to our music. It’s got its own little quirks to it because our personalities work so well together, it’s really important.”
The duo’s DIY approach – their music consists of vocals, bass and guitar, as well as a drummer who joins them for live gigs – extends further than just their music. The pair make and direct their own music videos, as well as making their own sets and designing and creating their own clothes. It may seem a lot, but it’s clear how much they enjoy it.
Georgia claims even if they get more people in their team, they’ll always be a part of the behind the scenes process within the band. “It just might not be us always hand sewing each thing,” laughs South.
Before I come to a recent NME interview, it is time to highlight a review of Who Are the Girls? CLASH had some positive things to say about a hugely important debut from last year. If you have not checked out the album, then make sure that you do:
“Nova Twins, perhaps more so than any of their peers, look well placed to kick this dull status quo right between the legs. Over the four years since the release of their ear-catching, if a little ropey, debut EP, the duo have been gathering their strength and honing their style, readying themselves for the release of their full-scale manifesto. Love has become infinitely more assured as a vocalist, her shit-talking snarl combining some of Little Simz’ commanding drawl, a hint of Brody Dalle’s roar, and a hefty dose of Luciana’s braggadocio from Bodyrox’s ‘Yeah Yeah’. It’s a voice that kicks down doors and takes names, never allowing itself to get lost behind the sonic wall built up by her guitar and South’s bass.
Nova Twins’ pedalboards have also grown exponentially since 2016, when their reputation for grotty, pitch-shifted assaults of distortion earned them the label ‘grime-punk’. It’s not an unfair description. South’s basslines are what supercharge the songs, leading from the bottom with a dirty, street-gutter rumble that attains absolute perfection on lead single ‘Taxi’. When paired with Love’s delivery, the music can resemble the heavier cuts from Skepta and Tempa T, but they just as often deviate into the realms of UK garage, or rave, or even dubstep.
Both ‘Play Fair’ and ‘Bullet’ end with full-on wub-a-dub freakouts that owe a debt to the likes of Caspa and Rusko, while ‘Undertaker’ genuinely sounds like it could have been painstakingly pieced together out of re-pitched Rage Against The Machine tracks by The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett.
While their peers are busy taking on board smooth-edged American influences and trying to become the next Imagine Dragons, Nova Twins’ sound remains 100% homegrown British beefiness. There are many people out there from across the rap-rock spectrum who will despise this album (for reasons both fair and foul), but there are many more who will appreciate the lack of compromise in this rollicking call to arms. You have never heard two women have this much fun with a metric fucktonne of distortion pedals, but if you do in the future, then the way will have been paved by Nova Twins”.
Things have changed over the past year. Though Nova Twins couldn’t fulfil some of their touring commitments, they have played some really important gigs this year. They played Reading & Leeds recently. NME spoke with Nova Twins earlier this month. Love and South reflected on playing the festival, them being independent, in addition to looking ahead to their second album:
“Love is a little older than South, and both are mixed-race – Love half-Nigerian and Iranian, South Jamaican-British – supporting each other through the awkward transition from being teenagers to their 20s. South cringes: “I remember having this massive afro emo fringe, and Amy would always be like, ‘Just get it out of your face!” She shakes out her enviably enormous mass of red curls. “I used to hate it because people would always pull it or touch it or try and put pins in it, but now I think the bigger the better, honestly.”
Though the pair gigged and worked relentlessly, the barriers of racial stereotype did come into play. Both recall feeling overlooked or discriminated against as a new band, and dismissed by those who couldn’t seem to understand why they weren’t performing straight hip-hop or R&B.
“We really noticed that when we first came on the scene there was this whole new wave of feminist punk,” says Love. “A lot of magazines were picking and choosing. NME actually did cover us when we first came out, but even though we were playing the same shows as a lot of our peers, we weren’t getting included or seen as riot grrrls. It was really strange. I’m not gonna mention names, but certain magazines would cover a full event day stage and they still wouldn’t write about us. It was almost like they couldn’t comprehend that two Black women could be seen as riot grrrls, you know? Or maybe the type of music we were doing was a little bit different.
“We don’t feel that isolation so much any more now the ball is starting to roll, but I do remember us thinking to ourselves, ‘What’s wrong with us?’”
“I’ve definitely seen the growth, recognising how many things we’ve achieved that we used to long for,” says South. “We always used to love watching award shows; the BRITS, the Mercury’s, the MTV awards. We’d watch them all, just being like ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be amazing to host an award?’ Tonight we’re doing it at the Heavy Music Awards, and we’re shitting it!”
Nova Twins don’t just talk a good game. Committed ambassadors for their scene, the duo can be frequently found getting properly stuck in, hanging out with fans after shows and – in the last year alone – working with Love Music Hate Racism and The Music Venue Trust; Dr Martens on the curation of an underrepresented POC playlist (which raised funds to The Black Curriculum); and volunteering as mentors for Rip It Up, a bursary programme that offers support for a new generation of diverse music talent.
South and Love are vocal about their racialized position in rock, but have never minded laying down their boundaries – see their very first 2016 single ‘Bassline Bitch’, which layers an interpolation of the iconic festival chant “Papa’s got a brand new pigbag”’ over a no-nonsense message of their arrival: “We’ll blow your mind with it / We’ll slap that look right off your face.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Nathan Roach for NME
“There’s not many people in the alt-field that look like us, so we were just like, ‘God, we’re going to have to really go at this’,” says South. “Just think of more ways to be as powerful as possible and slay it in ways that other bands might not.”
There is also the small matter of a second Nova Twins album. Having entered a new partnership with Marshall Records, they are five songs into recording on a deal that will maintain their artistic rights with no possibility of, in Love’s words, “giving away album after album and getting stuck if something doesn’t work out”.
“We’ve always been independent; it was a necessity in the beginning, but now we’re at a point where we love it,” says Love. “We’re just trying to create positive change in the game… We’re just trying to fire as many bullets as we can.”
Whatever it sounds like, album two will adhere to the core Nova Twins manifesto: do it yourself and keep it simple. “We’re definitely experimenting with things, and it sounds more like us than ever, in a way,” says South. “All those little details and the scrappiness of things, that’s what feels ‘Nova’. To stay DIY but to keep progressing, it’s cool to send a message that anyone can do it… Just get grafting, and you can make magic.”
“Our thing has always been that if you can’t play it yourself on guitar, drums and bass, it’s not going on the record,” agrees Love. “We’re not saying that we’ll never go bigger, but for where we’re at with a second record, it’s nice to feel like it’s still a ‘come as you are’ kind of thing. We don’t want to say too much just yet, but trust us – when this album comes out, we feel like you’ll know about it!”.
A rising duo who are growing stronger and marking themselves as icons, I am looking forward to the second album from Nova Twins. With some big gigs and festivals under their belt, Amy Love and Georgia South are acquiring more and more fans. There is so much love out there for what they do. Go and check out Nova Twins’ work. They are a phenomenal duo who are…
LEGENDS of the future.
