Artist of the Month is an accolade given to an up-and-coming artist or group who is poised for the big time. For June 2022, we’re celebrating UK duo Nova Twins and their excellent new album, Supernova, featuring the brand-new video for “Choose Your Fighter.”
Main character energy — that’s what Nova Twins try to bring to everything they do. In many ways, the London duo, comprised of Amy Love (vocals/guitar) and Georgia South (bass), have done just that, infusing their unique blend of nu-metal, alt-rock, punk, R&B, and hip-hop with a sense of power, precision and undeniably warranted worship of Black Girl Magic.
There’s a reason for that, since both Love and South have felt as though there’s been both a lack in representation within the scene, as well as a lack of appreciation and overall acceptance of Black woman and everything they do, especially when it doesn’t fit into the typical mold. Since they started making music together in the early 2010s, it’s been a prominent mission to saturate the industry with rebelliously organic constructions, and they do it well.
As our Artist of the Month for June, their energy was entirely too potent to go unnoticed, though not without the hurdles and criticisms that helped it exist in the first place. Their inherent “twin” energy transcends the cosmic, out of this world nature of their sound, because that interconnectivity is more than a creation. It’s a statement.
“As a rock band ourselves — an alt band — we weren’t accepted into the industry straight away,” Love tells us in the video interview above. “We’d play shows and it would go off and it was amazing, but in terms of the industry, they would basically say to us that we need to be more hip hop, we need to be more R&B. It was always just, because of the way we looked, a ‘you don’t belong here’ kind of thing.”
Love and South aren’t the only ones who experience this in the scene — placing Black artists in an easily marketable and more socially acceptable category for salability is an unspoken industry standard, one that’s unchanged despite decades of proof that Black musicians can do so much more than make stereotypically Black music. Nova Twins’ new album Supernova (out Friday, June 17th), sits high on a laundry list of records working staunchly against the cliches of the music industry and society at large, though not without some influence from hip hop and R&B chart toppers.
Sure, you’ll hear nods to Destiny’s Child, hints of Timbaland and Missy Elliott’s bouncing song structure, or N.E.R.D.’s eclectic production, but you’ll also get all the dramatics of bands like The New York Dolls and KISS, or the straight up rock of MC5. That recipe isn’t contrived, it’s intrinsic, and that’s entirely the point.
“We’ve never had a specific ‘we’re like this or that’ — we like it all,” says Love. “That’s kind of why the music is how it is today, because we’re not fussy. We like what we like. Genre doesn’t really come into it.”
This, plus a natural proclivity for activism and community building led to an obvious next step for them, though it shouldn’t have even been one so necessary to take. They created Voices for the Unheard, a playlist-turned-compilation and vinyl release backed by Doc Martens showcasing other Black and POC alternative artists like the riot grrrl punk of Big Joanie to the metalcore/emo hip hop of Unity TX.
It was about authenticity and representation — both aspects essential to who Nova Twins are as individuals and as musicians. There’s a truth to them and how they artistically construct commentary, especially during the height of the George Floyd protests, Black Lives Matter Movement, and the pandemic. It’s reflected throughout Supernova intentionally.
“I think it’s a true reflection of the times whilst we were writing,” says Love. “It has light and shade… no matter how bad it gets or chaotic life can be, there’s always an end through that chaos. The album to us was an outlet, it was our way forward. We hope when people listen to it, they feel that same energy, like they can get through anything, take charge of their life, and take ownership. Main character energy all the way.”
Their message is immediate and necessary — that Black women won’t be put into boxes anymore, that they can do anything. If it’s something not believed before, it certainly should be believed now.
“People try to put so many boundaries on what Black women can do,” states South matter-of-factly (and accurately). “They don’t give us enough credit.”
Watch our Artist of the Month video interview with Nova Twins above, and pick up their new album, Supernova, at this location. The duo is touring the UK and Europe this summer, including one show opening up for Rage Against the Machine in August. And, as you’ll see in the interview, Amy and Georgia are promising a return to the States at some point this year.
Trouble viewing the interview above? Watch on YouTube.