NOVA TWINS
capital, and Love is from Essex; they first made a connection when Love met Smith’s brother. ‘This was years ago, so we hung out loads, became family, went on holidays,’ says Smith. ‘We were just inseparable growing up.’ They were both in separate bands who played on the same bills; when their own projects fizzled out, the obvious became inevitable. ‘We thought, why don’t we make a song together?’ says Smith. ‘We’re together all the time, we’re basically living together; so we did, and that song was “Bad Bitches” [released in 2014 as “BRAATS”]. It was just bass and vocals, the foundation of what we are now. We were like, this is great; it just felt so natural to make music together.’
The pair’s bright and vivid combination of punk attitude and searing choruses has won them many fans, including Prophets of Rage, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, and producer
Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian), who worked on their recent debut album Who Are the Girls?. ‘Like most bands, we just want to keep going forward, and pushing this movement to change a scene that’s not made for everybody,’ says Love. ‘If we can be a different face in the rock scene, then a lot of people can see their reflection in there. It was a bit of a struggle for us originally, because that recycled Bikini Kill sound was coming back again, and we didn’t fit in that as women of colour playing rock music. It was the bands and promoters who helped us, took us on tour and booked us to play that helped make the space for us.’
Who Are the Girls? is out now on 333 Wreckords. Nova Twins were due to play at Stag & Dagger, Edinburgh, which has been postponed due to COVID-19 virus.
42 THE LIST 1 Apr–31 May 2020