Nova Twins On Their BMTH Collab: "Oli Sykes DM'd Us The Song"
London duo Nova Twins on their Bring Me The Horizon collab and playing our next K! Pit show in association with Nordic Spirit.
For London-based duo the Nova Twins, 2020 should have been a year of firsts.
In February, after six years of playing together, Amy Love (guitar/vocals) and Georgia South (bass/vocals) released their debut album, Who Are The Girls?, on FEVER 333 frontman Jason Aalon Butler’s 333 Wreckords label. Spearheaded by singles that include Devil’s Face, Vortex and Play Fair, the album’s arrival should have marked the start of 12 months of intense activity for the pair.
“We were booked for Glastonbury for the first time, on the Greenpeace and Earache stages,” begins Amy, talking to us from Zoom from Georgia’s frontroom where the pair are in the process of writing new music.
“We were due to play Reading and Leeds for the first time too,” adds Georgia. “We were meant to play Russia twice, America too. There were a lot of first times! And we had our own album tour too.”
In fact, the band were on the road in France promoting the new album as the impact of the pandemic began to take hold.
“Obviously, we didn’t know the whole world was going to close down for a whole year!” smiles Amy. “When we had to turn back [on March 13], we were on our way to Strasbourg to play. We weren’t sure what was happening and we were calling our agent the whole time when we realised that the whole country was closing down and we just had to come home.”
“We locked down in separate places and it was just really sad,” she continues. “We were anxious, watching a lot of Netflix, and eating, lost in our own pity. After about three weeks, we decided that we had to do something with our time and we decided ‘Let’s write!’”
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As well as making new music, the duo have developed new ways of reaching their growing audience – creating everything from online art challenges through to playlists.
A further moment that introduced the gregarious pair to a wider audience came in October, when they collaborated with Bring Me The Horizon on the Sheffield outfit’s Post Human: Survival Horror EP. Joining the likes of YUNGBLUD, BABYMETAL and Evanescence’s Amy Lee, the pair contributed the central verse to 1 x 1 – a tune that deals with the isolation and introspection engendered by the pandemic.
“Jason gave us the heads-up that Oli [Sykes] and Jordan [Fish] were interested in talking to us,” recalls Amy, detailing how the collab came about. “The next day we got an inbox from Oli saying, ‘Got a song for you guys, I’ve been listening to you guys on Spotify and I really like your stuff’ and he send us the song as a DM!"
“Yep, he sent it as a Dropbox file through Instagram!” laughs Georgia.
“We listened to it, and we loved the song,” continues Amy. “It had that nostalgic feel about it, while sounding very modern at the same time. We loved the concept. It resonated with us.”
“They were on a really tight deadline because they needed it done a week after we’d got it, so the song was there and they said they wanted a few weird sounds, so I added a few weird bass noises on there,” picks up Georgia. “We turned it around in two days because they needed it quickly.”
Working with Horizon provided Amy and Georgia with a welcomed distraction from lockdown life, but the pair have been itching to play live again. The opportunity to do so came when we invited them to play The K! Pit, hosted in association with Nordic Spirit at Blondies, our favourite London dive bar. As with every set in the current K! Pit series, the band played with no-one in attendance other than the film crew and their manager.
“It was surreal,” says Georgia of the experience. “It actually felt like it was the first gig we’ve played all year, but having you guys there felt like having a little audience. It felt really good.”
“At first I was a bit nervous because you feel out of touch because everyone’s been doing stuff in the studio or at home, when you’re not really going for it,” adds Amy.
“Yeah, it was a little bit like going from zero to a hundred in one go, which was a head spin. But it felt really good,” says Georgia.
Nova Twin’s K! Pit set will premiere on Tuesday December 8 at 6pm (UK/GMT), 1pm (US/EST) and 10am (US/PST) on Kerrang!’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Amy and Georgia will also be joining us on Facebook to chat to fans as we stream the set, so come and join us!
Standby for further news of a competition to win 20 exclusive, signed Nova Twins K! Pit posters and - thanks to Nordic Spirit, the UK’s No 1 Nicotine Pouch* - a hoodie, and rucksack full of K! Pit swag plus a chance for you and three friends to win VIP tickets to Download. More info at 9am on Tuesday on Kerrang.com.
In the meantime, check out Who Are The Girls right here.
*IRi Market Place, volume Share, Nicotine Pouch Category, Total UK, YTD to w/e 04/10/2020 - For more information or to verify contact