Nova Twins blasts a jagged sound that perfectly captures the dirt of their hometown of London. Both their music and their look is keeping alive the old school angst of punk, with a modern sass. Recently Tamara had a talk with this badass duo.
Tamara Grant: Are you originally from South East London?
Georgia South: Yeah I’ve always lived in Lewisham and Amy basically lives in my room now, I’ve turned her into a London girl, haha.
Amy Love: Yes, I’m an Essex girl through and through, but London is where my heart is.
Tamara: What do you think of the music scene there?
Georgia: We love the music scene in Lewisham, there’s always something going on! There’s a strong grime scene here which is sick, but also has a cool alternative music scene too.
Amy: Yea, the music scene is pretty eccentric! We have a few cool local venues that we sometimes hang out and play in. Amersham Arms and Fox And Ferkin are gem venues to discover new artists and musicians.
Tamara: How hard is it to work with your twin all the time?
Amy: This sounds really boring but It’s actually easy! We never really argue and share the same visions on most things, whether it’s to do with music or not.
Georgia: Yeah it’s really easy, although the bad side is we do get very easily distracted and chat about rubbish when we should be working!
Tamara: Which one is the biggest troublemaker?
Amy: I feel like people would assume that I am the most trouble, in some cases that is true but when it actually comes down to it, Georgia always ends up in trouble!
Georgia: Haha, I wouldn’t call it trouble, I just find myself in weird situations.
Tamara: How would you describe your musical sound? Amy: We don’t really write from a band or guitarist perspective, we use our pedal boards as if we were producing sounds on logic. We are forever fiddling with knobs and buttons to create new tones on our pedals. It gets to the point where we have to reconsider whats practical when we are playing live, as you can’t make all the changes you want, but we find a compromise or a way around it. Georgia almost has a dance routine with her board, it’s fun and fascinating to watch. Although it can dictate the structure or the nature of our lines, we like the idea that we are creating all of the sounds live and refrain from using laptops. Guitar, bass, drums are all you need, and add a few crazy pedals in the mix for good measure! Georgia: People call it urban punk and I guess I can see why, with the hip hop drum feel, heavy bass riffs and sharp vocals, but really we’re just playing what feels good to us, we didn’t decide to make this kind of music but we decided not to make music to please the industry. You would be surprised with how many people let the ‘sound of now’ dictate what their musical style should be, but you can’t grow roots like that. You need to have a strong foundation and good people around you who understand and support your creative decisions. With all that, we make music that we want to make and this is the result. Call it what you like. Tamara: Favorite place to perform and why? Amy: The Monarch in Camden is always good fun, we had a monthly residency there, where we invited some of our good friends to come and play with us. It’s the best thing being able to share the stage with fellow band mates! I generally prefer small, well lit up venues. I like being up close and personal to our audience. There’s nothing worse than performing to a dark room. We came here to play to people, it would be nice if we could see their faces. The more intimate the better! Georgia: It’s nice knowing a venue inside out as you know what the sounds gonna be like too. We have done so many fun shows all over the place, Brighton and Hastings are always up for a good laugh! Tamara: Do you ever play tricks on people and pretend to be each other? Georgia: Only when we’re on the phone because we don’t look anything alike. Tamara: What is your favorite song to play and why? Amy: I enjoy playing the set in general but if i had to choose, Wave, which is on our E.P, is always exciting to play as it’s just bass, vocals and drums, it adds a different dynamic when there’s no guitar in the mix, it’s a different type of pressure. Georgia: One of my favourites is Wave too but 'Hitlist' is also fun as I can use my special little toy! Tamara: Inspiration behind “HITLIST”? Amy: It sets the tone of self empowerment, playing on stereotypes and gender roles. Men have a free pass to talk about sex, getting head, being their own boss ect, When women talk about that type of stuff we automatically get labeled as brazen, outspoken or mouthy! We are human at the end of the day, these feelings are natural in a lot of us but somehow it is still seen as a foreign concept in this day and age. When we first started to write the song, we wanted to take the piss out of that stereotypical attitude, switching up the roles but saying it from a woman’s perspective. We enjoy being straight up and to the point in our lyrical content. Georgia: It’s important to us that we get that message across. We want people to feel liberated when they come to our gigs or listen to our tracks. Too many people are victimized over wanting the freedom of being themselves but we want to embrace everyone’s individual qualities.
e. Rachel Rosell