NOVA TWINS
E L B U O D
E L B U O R T
David Pollock catches up with London grime- punk duo Nova Twins about their recently released debut album and a desire to keep pushing the scene forward
W hen Amy Love and Georgia Smith released ‘Bassline Bitch’ in 2015, their first track as Nova Twins, they were referred to as ‘urban punks’. It felt like the perfect description at the time for a duo whose influences ranged from NERD, Missy Elliott and Kanye West (Smith) to New York Dolls and MC5 (Love), with a shared appreciation of artists like The Prodigy and Princess Nokia.
‘We don’t really use that label anymore,’ says Smith. ‘When we came out we didn’t know how to describe ourselves, and someone said “urban punk”, so we were like, “OK”. Someone the other day said “Novacore”: that’s much better. You can’t bracket it, unless you use a ton of genres.’ ‘They tried to pigeonhole us but, you know, it’s not this and it’s not that,’ adds Love. ‘And I guess “urban punk” is really just another way of saying “black people playing punk and rock music”. We just want to drop the labels. It is what it is, take what you want from it; leave it open and up to the listener.’ The pair met when they were teenagers studying at music college in different parts of London. Smith hails from the
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