Amy Love and Georgia South are Nova Twins, a South London duo mixing up riffs, attitude and raw hip hop beats in their hard hitting music.
After two years spent sharpening their sonic spears, they’re now ready to impale mainstream ears thanks to their debut EP, a release that’s picking up props from Kerrang! to BBC Radio 6’s Tom Robinson.
Citing everything from Rage Against the Machine to Missy Elliott as influences, you can catch the duo on tour this September, including the ROAR showcase, a new live jaunt addressing gender inequality in the music industry. Spend 30 seconds with them below…
We first started writing music because…
There isn’t a specific reason why we started writing music. It’s just something that resonates with you from birth! We read articles and have a lot of musician friends who all have the same boring answer to this question, ‘we started from a young age’. You notice little things, when looking back at your younger self, whether it’s fantasising in the mirror or singing into a brush for a microphone.
We have been making music since…
Georgia: Like most teens, I did the opposite of what I was taught to do… I started out being taught the piano by my dad when I was seven or eight and loved doing that for years, but when I turned 12 I started a band and chose the bass over the keys. Every week we would rehearse and I would plod away on the bass till eventually my fingers made sense of it all. A few years later I left that band and became a Nova Twin.
Due to the dynamic of the band being heavily bass driven, it has allowed me to be more flamboyant and experimental with my choice of sounds and how I create them. I have a lot of space to play around in and enjoy thinking as big and outside the box as possible.
Amy: As a band, we have been writing music for two years, although we have been good friends and have played together in previous projects for many years. We started off gigging around the notorious London circuit together in our old bands. Like most artists you have to kiss a few frog musicians before you meet (in my case) princess charming with a nasty bass! But those experiences shape you and are vital to your growth. We would often chat about our band troubles together until eventually the problems became our reality and both separated from our projects around the same time. We very quickly came to the realisation that we had everything that we ever needed between the two of us to form the dream team and have been a band ever since.
Our music is…
It’s a bit like the big bang, it just kind of happened. Between the dynamic of our characteristics as people, curiosity as young women and all the best things that we love about music, the Nova sound was born!
You'll like our music if you listen to…
I guess we can only go by what people have described our music as, we have been compared to artists like Rage Against The Machine, Missy Elliot, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deap Valley, Talking Heads, Slaves, Skunk Anansie … it’s all really eclectic but we like that we're not pigeon holed and that people have their own experience and individual take on it.
Our favourite venue is…
We recently had a three month residency at the Camden Monarch where we got some of our good friends to play with us. It was a lot of fun! We generally like the set up in the Monarch, it’s a nice space to get up close and personal with the audience and the sound guy is great!
We played this year's Wonk Fest at The Dome and loved every minute of it. It’s a different experience to our usual intimate gigs but it’s nice to set up on a proper stage and use our stacks where they don’t look ridiculous. Koko is also a beautiful venue to play.
We will be playing Alexandra Palace on 24 September for Afro Punk which will be our biggest show to date, we are so excited for it and are chuffed to be on the same bill as the one and only Grace Jones amongst the other great artists on their line up.
Our biggest inspiration is…
We can’t really pin point one artist as our biggest inspiration, we enjoy listening to all types of music in different ways, what we listen to at home is very different to what we play live or enjoy watching! The spectrum ranges from bands like Raconteurs, Slaves, Nerd, Royal Blood, Talking Heads, Mc5, New York Dolls to Rihanna, Skepta, Missy Elliot, Lola Wolf, Kate Bush, Melody Gardot, Hiatus Kaiyote, the list goes on. We generally just vibe and take inspiration from each other when writing.
Our dream collaboration would be…
Missy Elliot, Rihanna or Jack White, in fact … all three of them, at the same time!
To try us out, listen to our song…
Listen to the whole debut EP!
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
Sitting in the gutter, looking at the stars!
In 10 years’ time we want to be…
We want to be playing shows around the world, our borders are open to all and anyone who wants to listen. Like every musician we want to be making a living out of what we love doing and eventually would also love to get into fashion design (we already customise our own clothes) and owning our own boutique pedal range...
novatwins.com
Listen to Hitlist below.
After two years spent sharpening their sonic spears, they’re now ready to impale mainstream ears thanks to their debut EP, a release that’s picking up props from Kerrang! to BBC Radio 6’s Tom Robinson.
Citing everything from Rage Against the Machine to Missy Elliott as influences, you can catch the duo on tour this September, including the ROAR showcase, a new live jaunt addressing gender inequality in the music industry. Spend 30 seconds with them below…
We first started writing music because…
There isn’t a specific reason why we started writing music. It’s just something that resonates with you from birth! We read articles and have a lot of musician friends who all have the same boring answer to this question, ‘we started from a young age’. You notice little things, when looking back at your younger self, whether it’s fantasising in the mirror or singing into a brush for a microphone.
We have been making music since…
Georgia: Like most teens, I did the opposite of what I was taught to do… I started out being taught the piano by my dad when I was seven or eight and loved doing that for years, but when I turned 12 I started a band and chose the bass over the keys. Every week we would rehearse and I would plod away on the bass till eventually my fingers made sense of it all. A few years later I left that band and became a Nova Twin.
Due to the dynamic of the band being heavily bass driven, it has allowed me to be more flamboyant and experimental with my choice of sounds and how I create them. I have a lot of space to play around in and enjoy thinking as big and outside the box as possible.
Amy: As a band, we have been writing music for two years, although we have been good friends and have played together in previous projects for many years. We started off gigging around the notorious London circuit together in our old bands. Like most artists you have to kiss a few frog musicians before you meet (in my case) princess charming with a nasty bass! But those experiences shape you and are vital to your growth. We would often chat about our band troubles together until eventually the problems became our reality and both separated from our projects around the same time. We very quickly came to the realisation that we had everything that we ever needed between the two of us to form the dream team and have been a band ever since.
Our music is…
It’s a bit like the big bang, it just kind of happened. Between the dynamic of our characteristics as people, curiosity as young women and all the best things that we love about music, the Nova sound was born!
You'll like our music if you listen to…
I guess we can only go by what people have described our music as, we have been compared to artists like Rage Against The Machine, Missy Elliot, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deap Valley, Talking Heads, Slaves, Skunk Anansie … it’s all really eclectic but we like that we're not pigeon holed and that people have their own experience and individual take on it.
Our favourite venue is…
We recently had a three month residency at the Camden Monarch where we got some of our good friends to play with us. It was a lot of fun! We generally like the set up in the Monarch, it’s a nice space to get up close and personal with the audience and the sound guy is great!
We played this year's Wonk Fest at The Dome and loved every minute of it. It’s a different experience to our usual intimate gigs but it’s nice to set up on a proper stage and use our stacks where they don’t look ridiculous. Koko is also a beautiful venue to play.
We will be playing Alexandra Palace on 24 September for Afro Punk which will be our biggest show to date, we are so excited for it and are chuffed to be on the same bill as the one and only Grace Jones amongst the other great artists on their line up.
Our biggest inspiration is…
We can’t really pin point one artist as our biggest inspiration, we enjoy listening to all types of music in different ways, what we listen to at home is very different to what we play live or enjoy watching! The spectrum ranges from bands like Raconteurs, Slaves, Nerd, Royal Blood, Talking Heads, Mc5, New York Dolls to Rihanna, Skepta, Missy Elliot, Lola Wolf, Kate Bush, Melody Gardot, Hiatus Kaiyote, the list goes on. We generally just vibe and take inspiration from each other when writing.
Our dream collaboration would be…
Missy Elliot, Rihanna or Jack White, in fact … all three of them, at the same time!
To try us out, listen to our song…
Listen to the whole debut EP!
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
Sitting in the gutter, looking at the stars!
In 10 years’ time we want to be…
We want to be playing shows around the world, our borders are open to all and anyone who wants to listen. Like every musician we want to be making a living out of what we love doing and eventually would also love to get into fashion design (we already customise our own clothes) and owning our own boutique pedal range...
novatwins.com
Listen to Hitlist below.
