Music
Twin Effect
Genre-blending British duo Nova Twins are rewriting the rules of rock. We head backstage at the band’s homecoming gig to talk respect, representation and gnarly bass riffs
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On an unseasonably sunny Saturday in November, the queue of people outside south London music venue Electric Brixton is rapidly growing. They’re here to see Nova Twins, aka Amy Love and Georgia South, one of the most electrifying live acts on the UK music scene, and the diversity of ages, genders and sartorial looks in the 1,500-strong line reflects the duo’s inclusive, genre-busting appeal. With a sound that spans punk, rap, pop, rock, metal, R&B and more, Nova Twins have been likened to everyone from Rage Against the Machine to Cypress Hill and Missy Elliot during their stratospheric rise in popularity over the past two years. If the broad spectrum of artists they’ve been invited to support in the past 12 months – from stadium fillers like Bring Me the Horizon and Prophets of Rage to Yungblud, Enter Shikari, Skunk Anansie and Sleaford Mods – is any indication, no corner of the alternative music scene is immune to the band’s charms.
And they have dedicated fans. The expanding queue outside Electric Brixton snakes all the way down the main road and up a nearby side street. The doors don’t open until 7pm, but some fans have been camped out here since midday, chatting, eating sandwiches and drinking from cans of cider. Amy Sober, at the head of the queue, travelled down early in the hope of meeting the band and asking them to write some lyrics on her arm, which she’d then have tattooed. “I want the line ‘From Persia to Nigeria, London to Jamaica, our ancestors were sailors, crossed over the equator,’” she says. “Cleopatra is such an important song for me.”
Around the back of the venue, Nova Twins are disembarking from a taxi to prep for their sold-out gig. They’ve had a busy few months. “What a crazy time,” lead singer and guitarist Love exclaims, laughing and theatrically slumping on bandmate South’s shoulder. “We’re a bit overwhelmed.” This will be their third show in as many nights; the pair have travelled up and down the UK over the past 48 hours, playing shows in Glasgow and Manchester before driving to London in the early hours. But as they greet today’s team, neither reveals any sign of weariness. Their faces immaculately painted in statement Nova Twins make-up, the pair are dressed in heavy black boots, handmade tartan and animal-print miniskirts, and blazers. They jump out of the car and excitedly greet everyone with smiles and hugs, making sure they remember everyone’s names. Then bassist South wraps a huge zebra-print faux-fur coat around her shoulders and the duo stride into the venue together.
Written in the stars
© Stephanie Sian Smith
People would tell us all the time, ‘You should be a band’
In person, Nova Twins are chaotic and hyperactive, their personalities perfectly mirroring the playfulness of their personal style. Love, the elder of the two, is poised and charming, while South is sweet and animated, bouncing between people with an infectious enthusiasm. Among the organised chaos of gig prep, they frequently huddle up to chat, whispering jokes and making each other laugh. It’s the kind of easy bond that comes from having spent years together.
The pair met as teenagers, through South’s brother, and felt a connection straight away; their origin story is more akin to a romcom than a music profile. “I was introduced to Georgia’s family and we just got on like a house on fire,” says Love. “I went to her house one day and we clicked immediately.”
“You got snowed in!” South interjects, beaming broadly. “Yes,” Love continues, “and we thought the trains might have stopped running, so I stayed the night and basically never left.”
On that first meeting, South and Love bonded over a shared love of music. Love had been writing and performing as a solo artist and was drawn to South and her musical household. “Everyone in Georgia’s family is musical,” says Love as they both laugh. “It’s true! Your mum, dad and your brothers are all musicians! You were all always playing music in the house – it was great.” They didn’t think to form a band of their own, however; Love had a solo project on the go, and South was already in a local band. “But we always had this kind of connection and affinity, and we’d gravitate towards each other anyway,” says Love. “People would tell us all the time, ‘You should be a band,’ and we’d awkwardly say, ‘We’re in other bands already.’ But, of course, all those people were right. It was obvious to everyone but us, and soon we decided we were going to be a thing.”
If you know our band, you know we stand for respect
They officially became a duo in 2014 and hit the ground running. Sewing their own outlandish stage outfits from scratch and filming DIY music videos on phone cameras with the help of South’s mum, the teenagers soon became known fixtures of the southeast London open-mic scene, playing at well-known live music spots such as The Fox & Firkin and the (now sadly closed) Ravensbourne Arms in Lewisham. After independently releasing their first song, Bassline Bitch, online in 2015, Nova Twins caught the attention of indie label Robotunes and were soon signed. In August the next year, they released their debut, self-titled EP.
“Our sound was there from the start,” says South. “When we wrote our first song, it was just my distorted bass with Amy’s punky vocals. We had those elements straight away and knew it was fresh and interesting, like nothing we’d stumbled across before. That made us excited to push on. We really didn’t go out for two years; we were in our own bubble together, writing, rehearsing, just getting really into it.”
Nova Twins’ have an individual and distinctive sense of style
© Stephanie Sian Smith
Nova Twins have their own fashion label, Bad Stitches
© Stephanie Sian Smith
Fired up: Nova Twins on shoot
© Stephanie Sian Smith
Nova Twins, shot in November 2022
© Stephanie Sian Smith
Fast forward to 2020 and the culmination of that hard work: the band’s blistering debut album, Who Are the Girls?, which was released on Spotify that February, just weeks before the world went into lockdown. This could have spelled disaster, but instead the record became one of the success stories of the pandemic. Though unable to tour, the pair’s high-octane songs, with their empowering lyrics and heavy riffs, captured the imagination of music lovers worldwide. Along with a new-found audience of passionate fans came messages from industry greats including Elton John, who invited them onto his Apple Music podcast – “We were like, ‘Fuuuuck!’ There he was, just sat on FaceTime, a legend in a Gucci tracksuit,” South laughs – and rock legend Tom Morello, who proclaimed that Nova Twins were the “best band you’ve never heard of”.
Following the breakout success of Who Are the Girls?, the band got to work on a follow-up, Supernova, set for release in 2022. “We were pretty nervous,” admits Love. “Because of the pandemic, Supernova didn’t really feel like a second record… more like a second first record.” They needn’t have fretted: the album lived up to its name, launching the duo to another level. Universally acclaimed by critics, the album earned Nova Twins a plethora of nominations for awards such as the Mercury Prize and NME’s Best Band from the UK and Best Band in the World, with wins including Kerrang!’s Best British Breakthrough and Music Week’s Women in Music 2022 New Artist Award.
Supernova is a punchy body of work with tight hooks and expertly crafted lyrics squeezed into neat three-minute tracks. Written during the pandemic and at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s straight-talking in its message about Nova Twins’ struggles as women of colour in the music industry (Love is of Iranian and Nigerian descent; South’s ancestry is Jamaican and Australian). “Coming up in the rock genre, we didn’t see many faces like ours,” says South. “Often, we’d be the only POC [people of colour] band on a festival line-up. People would tell us we’d be more successful if we became more pop, or less heavy and alternative.”
Supernova flips a middle finger at such comments: “Look me in the face – say you’ve never met someone like me,” challenges the opener, Antagonist. Second track Cleopatra joyfully celebrates the band’s mixed-race identity: “You can buy your looks, but you can’t change your genes, I’m a straight talker, fucking say what you mean,” Love sings. “Blacker than the leather, that’s holding our boots together, if you rock a different shade, we come under the same umbrella.” The latter track was written in response to the negativity surrounding Black identity during those months, and a desire for more public pride and positivity. “We wanted that song to celebrate who we are, and to be a statement of pride of where we come from,” says South. “We hope it encourages people from all walks of life to act and feel the same way, too.”
During the pandemic, while looking for more ways to respond to the events they were seeing unfold in the US, Nova Twins launched Voices for the Unheard, a playlist of alternative artists of colour, on their Spotify artist profile. “It’s a way to highlight POC creators and say to our audience, ‘These are artists you should be listening to – they’re amazing,’” says South. The playlist then became an interview series on social media, hosted by the band. “Those interviews were about letting musicians tell their story and their journey,” South says. “It was interesting that they could be from America or the UK, but everyone’s stories of how they felt coming up were very similar.” She and Love spoke to musicians including Skunk Anansie vocalist Skin, Noisettes frontwoman turned solo star Shingai Shoniwa, singer-songwriter Connie Constance and Liverpool-based metal band Loathe about their experiences of being artists of colour in the music industry. “There were all these shared experiences,” says South. “Stories [about situations] like not being booked at a festival because they’d already picked one POC band. Stories of being told, ‘Oh, you’re not indie, because you look like this,’ or, ‘You’re not rock, because you have a massive ’fro.’ Just so many similar stories of not being understood.”
The series pushed Nova Twins to take matters into their own hands and, at the end of 2020, they wrote an open letter to the organisers of the MOBOs – an awards event that celebrates music of Black origin – calling for the addition of an alternative/rock category. “We are Nova Twins, a band of two mixed-race girls from southeast London and Essex who shout through distorted mics and play gnarly bass riffs,” they wrote. “We want to use our platform to raise the voices of the unheard, diversifying the space for alternative POC bands, but we can’t do it alone. We need trailblazing, influential platforms like [the MOBOs] to back us and look ahead to a more diverse future for music.” It was a powerful statement, and one than didn’t go unnoticed; they soon received an invitation to a meeting with MOBOs founder Kanya King, and in 2022 an ‘alternative’ category was created – with the Novas among the first nominees, of course.
Nova Twins get the crowd moshing at Electric Brixton
© Federica Burelli
“That started because someone joked, ‘Have you ever been up for a MOBO yet?’ and we all laughed like it was this ridiculous idea,” says Love. “But then we stopped and thought, ‘Why not?’ The reason why we really struggled as a band in rock music to begin with was because people didn’t acknowledge where rock comes from. It’s rhythm and blues! It’s inspired by Black music!” This is a point made in their MOBOs letter: “People often don’t know that rock’n’roll was in fact largely originated by a Black woman,” they wrote. “Starting her career in the 1930s, Sister Rosetta Tharpe went on to inspire household names through the decades. You can see and hear her influence in the works of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Tina Turner and Jimi Hendrix… Her guitar-playing technique also had a major influence on the development of British blues in the 1960s. We all owe her a huge debt…”
The new MOBO category is a victory for the representation of POC women from rock’s past and present, the band point out, but more importantly it paves the way for artists of the future. “This will open up doors for young POC artists who might want to explore different genres,” says Love. “It’s so good to see younger POC alternative bands really excited about the category,” agrees South. “It’s like finally we’re included, and people are so excited for the future.”
And as The Red Bulletin went to press, it was announced that Nova Twins had been nominated in two categories at this year’s BRIT Awards: Group of the Year and Best Rock/Alternative Act.
Afterglow: exhausted hugs for Love and South at an unforgettable gig
© Federica Burelli
There was always a kind of affinity
Tonight’s London show marks the end of the Supernova UK tour for 2022 (it finishes proper in Brighton on March 4, 2023) and is a bit of a homecoming for the band, who started out performing in pubs just down the road. Nova Twins’ family and friends will be in attendance at Electric Brixton – not only the biggest venue on their tour but, amazingly, the 90th gig they’ve played in an epic year. South is buzzing around the venue with nervous energy as they prepare to sound check, and Love is already feeling emotional about the end of this chapter. “Sometimes it’s hard to take things in when you’re always on the go. But I definitely think in this moment, especially after the gig is finished, we’ll take it in,” she says. “We’ve been a band for a while now and we’ve worked so hard to get to this point. It’s amazing seeing how the work we’ve put in is now paying off.”
Witnessing Nova Twins backstage at Electric Brixton, it’s evident how much control they have of every element of their image and production. Barely five minutes after arriving, both are deep into the technicalities of tonight’s show. South is talking to the stage crew about the placement of the pyrotechnics and lights, while Love discusses outfit choices with The Red Bulletin’s photographer. The duo, who have always created their own matching stage outfits, now have a fashion label, Bad Stitches, so choosing the right look is of the utmost importance. “We’re DIY at heart,” Love says. “We’re still an independent band, signed to an independent label. So when it comes to the lights or sound, we’re going to be all over every single part of it, because only we know how it should sound and look.”
Seven hours after South and Love’s arrival at Electric Brixton, the front doors open and concertgoers fill the main arena and balconies. The diversity of the audience sets this night apart from your typical rock show. There are fathers with their sons, teenage girl gangs hanging off the railings at the front, some people attending on their own, couples wrapped around each other by the bar… and all are fizzing with excitement. By the time the lights dim, the whole room is roaring.
Four giant standing lights at the back of the stage flash in sequence – N-O-V-A – and a wall of fire shoots into the air as South and Love bounce on stage and rip into their first song. The crowd instantly parts to create the first mosh pit of the night. By the second track, both women have jumped off stage and are playing in the pit alongside them. “Everyone gets in the pit at our shows,” says Love. “It’s lovely to see women, non-binary people, a mixture of older men and women, as well as younger ones. We always keep an eye out for everyone’s safety, but if you know our band, you know what we stand for: respect, no matter where people are from, what they look like, or what their gender is. Everyone deserves respect.”
The duo play a pitch-perfect show, Love’s powerful vocals offset by her cocky frontwoman presence and South’s energy unfaltering as she launches herself around the stage for the entire set. “When we were writing in lockdown, we’d always imagine how it would feel to be in front of a crowd,” South says. “In my bedroom I’d think, ‘This will be the drop in this song,’ and I’d daydream about touring it!” So of course I’m jumping around! That’s now my reality. It’s the biggest release.”
As the duo command the stage in front of an adoring, sell-out crowd, it’s clear they’ve arrived. And, in an industry still littered with obstacles, South and Love believe they have what it takes to carve out their own place in the world of music. “We’re so lucky to have found each other,” says South after the gig, looking over at Love. “We’re determined, we motivate each other, and we don’t complain. We’re so lucky to be in this duo, to trust and respect each other’s ideas. I know that whatever we come up against, we’ll team together. We’re going to fucking do it.”
