Nova Twins on anarchy in the US, owning your power and embracing the limitless Supernova mantra
There’s the cliche “the sky’s the limit,” but London duo Nova Twins have taken their success to astronomical feats. In addition to buckling a second studio album under their belt only two years on from their debut LP, they’ve also secured a record deal with Marshall, collaborated with their heroes Bring Me The Horizon and Jason Aalon Butler, toured globally, been nominated for the 2022 Mercury Prize and grown their Nova Twins community into an unstoppable force.
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The pair are set to embark on a headlining North American run this September. Ahead of their U.S. adventures, we caught up with the AP cover stars to discuss what they’re looking forward to with this tour cycle and the success of their second studio album, Supernova.
Starting off, congratulations on your Mercury Prize nomination. I know the award show has unfortunately been postponed, but still, how did it feel to be one of the few alternative musicians to be among the nominees?
GEORGIA SOUTH: It was a big one, big bucket list tick-off to be shortlisted.
Speaking of bucket lists, this year has been one of many milestones for you. Looking at your trajectory from Who Are The Girls? to Supernova — touring internationally, working with Bring Me The Horizon, nominated for awards —did you ever anticipate that you’d achieve all this when you made your debut album?
SOUTH: Me and Amy always like to dream and keep our minds wide open in that sense. But obviously, you can’t foresee anything like this. And whenever it does happen, you’re literally just like, “This is crazy!” and you’re just trying to process it. Even touring in the U.S., Europe and the U.K., doing headline shows was just a massive moment for us to even be able to sell out shows across the globe and in our own hometown. It’s been a massive rush, especially coming out of COVID, going back into all this touring.
When you think about the times that you’ve performed in North America, are there any places, any states in particular, where you have really fond memories?
AMY LOVE: This was in Canada, Toronto. It was wild to see a huge, young, diverse crowd. It was amazing. They had their makeup on point, style on point. Everything was just on point.
Everything’s bigger in America!
SOUTH: Everyone’s louder as well. I think that was the first time I experienced people screaming for us. It was mental. In New York also, we do meet and greets, but this time it was a two-hour long queue.
Is there anything you’re excited to see? Any towns or cities where there are varying aspects and influences of rock or metal?
LOVE: We’ve only done three headline shows there, Toronto, LA and New York. It was amazing, to be honest. We’ve supported people like grandson and seen places like Kansas and Minneapolis. It’s nice to take our music to different places and see what the reaction is.
I wanted to touch on your new album, Supernova, that you’ll be touring in the States. Since its release, are there any songs that have resonated with people during live performances in a way you didn’t anticipate when making the album?
SOUTH: Maybe “Sleep Paralysis”? When we play that song live, people really like it, but ’cause it’s a slower, more obscure song on the album, we didn’t know what to expect from it. But live? People really enjoy it.
LOVE: I definitely agree that I feel like we will only ever put songs out that we fully love. I guess we have our favorite children. It changes from time to time.
The climate of music in North America right now is so exciting. Are there any U.S. artists that come to mind who are making music you really love right now?
SOUTH: We’re really excited to take out Gully Boys. We’ve been watching them online. We haven’t met them yet, but we’re so excited for them because their energy is infectious, and so we can’t wait to tour with them.
LOVE: I’d love to take out Pinkshift on tour. Seeing them at Slam Dunk festival, their energy is so great and infectious. We’d love to bring them out with us.
SOUTH: Zaria as well, I think she’s doing Afropunk at the minute. So happy for her.
LOVE: The OBGMs. Oh, and HO99O9, of course!
Finally, what is the Supernova mantra for 2022?
LOVE: Own your power. Whether it’s owning who you are, where you’re from. Your power could be your culture, where you’ve come from, what you’ve been through. Own it.
SOUTH: The world is limitless to you. There are no limits or ceilings to what you can do. The world is Supernova — you can break through.
