Nova Twins: “People in the industry are noticing that the youth want to listen to heavy music”

Unsurprisingly, the atmosphere in their rehearsal studio today, high up on the hills, with the English Channel just twinkling in the background, is almost horizontally laid-back. There’s a new drummer Luke Campbell to properly bed in, but even that isn’t a fuss. Inside, the pair’s amps take up almost any free space, while their individual, space station-sized pedal boards might as well answer the question of what effects they have with: ‘Yes.’

“I’m looking forward to this run, because it feels like I’m charged up again,” grins Amy, inspecting her pedals. “I always love playing live, but the time off has got me looking forward to it, because it isn’t just coming as a big blur of activity.”

Indeed, sat in the sun outside the studio (at Georgia’s suggestion, “To get vitamin D, or else we’d just be locked inside all day – self-care!”), Nova Twins are in a very different place than when K! caught up with them a year or so ago, when they were about to drop lead single Monsters and fire the starting pistol on album number three.

Back then, there hadn’t been a break between the end of their globetrotting touring for Supernova, a record that had done just that for them, and going straight into writing the next one. They spoke of spending a dark winter hunkered down at home, with no time to decompress, or properly get their heads around what they’d managed so far.

“On reflection, it's nice that we've come out on the other side where we can see the good, the bad, the ugly, the fun, the excitement, the achievements,” says Amy now. “Obviously, there's probably better ways to work for artists in terms of being creative. If you want to write a good album, you need time, and so we feel really proud of what we managed to create in that time, even though we’d come straight off the back of touring and our mental health really wasn't in the best space.

“You really can test your limits on how much you can do. It doesn't mean you should have to just because you can, but we did nonetheless!”

And so, after another frantic summer of non-stop gigs, including a second visit to Glastonbury, in October Nova Twins finally got home and properly shut the door behind them for the first time in three years. Though some elements were easy to not miss (Amy: “Fuck airports.” Georgia: “Fucking hate airports…”), the feeling of having the same ground under your feet every day took a minute to get used to.

“It was a bit confronting at first, for me personally,” Amy admits. “I was a bit like, ‘Oh my god, I’m at home. Silence. Four walls.’ But I think was really important just to re-centre. It’s been time really well spent.”

“When you tour that much, you don't have time to think about other life things, because you're just constantly on the go,” adds Georgia. “Getting home, I think we were both nervous to kind of confront the things that we haven't been able to, but also really excited to just rip the Band-Aid off and deal with it. There's only so much patching over and brushing under the rug that you can do. That’s part of growing, which we’ve been doing.”

There has been some music idly worked on, just as the inspiration comes, but largely they’ve been properly relaxing. Somewhat unexpectedly, the decompression didn’t come with a weird sense of guilt about not being on the Nova Twins frontline every day.

“It’s interesting, I didn’t get that at all,” says Georgia. “Usually that happens to us when there's two weeks in between another big trip. You feel almost guilty for not doing something, and you don't feel fully relaxed. So, for me personally, for the first time ever, the guilt went away. You’d get asked to a family member's birthday, and you’re able to actually say yes, which was really lovely.”

“I personally spent the first few months a bit going a bit wild,” reveals Amy. “I was going, ‘Oh god, what do I do with all this time?’ But, like I said, it was time well spent, and we're looking forward to getting back into it again. But it was really lovely to catch up with family and friends, because we never really do, because you're obviously always on the road.”

“Now, though,” smiles Georgia, “I’m just ready to properly get back out there.”

Before Parasites & Butterflies had even dropped, Nova Twins were busy. After kicking off their new era with Monsters in February last year, they performed it for the first time at the MOBO Awards, and then again as guests of floppy-haired king of chat show smooth talk and surprising rock supporter Jonathan Ross a couple of weeks later.

“That was the first time we've done TV shows like that, and it was really fun,” says Amy. “It's obviously been a dream to go on Jonathan Ross. He's so lovely, and he actually loves heavy music and everything. He requested us, which was incredible. He came into our dressing room, was super welcoming, and made us feel really at home.”

Again, before the album was even out, they were heavily on the road, to a point where occasionally they wonder if they’ve got locations and dates and fests right. When Warped Tour made its return in California, they played a blinder. Under the usual Warped way of doing things, running orders were decided on the day, helping ensure a good turnout for everyone. Which was great, until…

“We got cut off!” laughs Georgia. “They are so strict on their timings. If you’re playing for half an hour, you have to play for half an hour. We're normally pretty good at sticking to set times, but we hadn't done a half an hour set in donkeys, and we went over probably by like 30 seconds. It was in a middle of Glory. Everybody was like, ‘We can't hear you!’”

“It was so awful,” winces Amy. “It was where Glory is building, just after the doorbell. So we're building to this big, heavy riff. We do the doorbell, we stop the fucking show, ready to whack in a riff and… nothing!”

“The thing is, the PA went, but our in-ears cut out later,” continues Georgia with a groan. “So we can still hear stuff, and we’re rocking, and then we slowly realise that nobody can hear us. We couldn’t even say goodbye! We just sort of… waved.”

In matters more prospectively successful, though, things are looking good. In a couple of weeks, they’ll hit the MOBOs again, this time as nominees in the Best Alternative category they themselves had pushed hard for the organisers to start back in 2022. They don’t want to get too confident about their chances of bagging the gong, but they do reckon that just being a rock band nominated, let alone having an actual whole category, is a win in itself.

“It's not necessarily to do with the MOBOs. We're seeing it across the board,” buzzes Amy. “Seeing Spiritbox doing the GRAMMYs and stuff like that, it’s amazing. Rock generally gets sidelined from these mainstream platforms. So we were really grateful to Kanya King at the MOBOs for pushing this forward, because without her listening to us and having that conversation, it wouldn't have happened.

“It's amazing see all the bands that have been nominated and who are getting that recognition that they deserve. It’s also great for people to have the opportunity to see a band like us play. A young kid might be at home watching the MOBOs, see us, and think, ‘What the hell was that?! I could do that, too!’”

It’s not just the MOBOs. As they point out, Spiritbox did the business at the GRAMMYs. Turnstile were at the BRITs. For some reason, someone thought it’d be a normal idea to have Knocked Loose play live on Jimmy Kimmel. Nova Twins themselves followed up their turn on Wossy by getting up early to go on Sunday Brunch, a breakfast meeting that was also had by Corey Taylor not so long ago.

This is extremely good news. It’d be even better if the lower rungs of music’s ladder hadn’t been sanded down to a point of near-uselessness. But here as well, Nova Twins have been trying to do their part, working with organisations like Music Venue Trust to keep a grassroots industry alive, in which bands like their own can take their first steps. Even when you’re Novas’ size, it doesn’t get any easier. They ain’t complaining, but it doesn’t take much to know that things could be a lot better for musicians.

Amy also points to “unrealistic standards that bands have to meet, whether it's the grassroots venue situation we're in, or the cost of living and being a musician and having to wear a million hats and not really being paid properly for what we do.”

“It's great seeing in Ireland, they've passed [a policy] where musicians actually get paid a basic wage,” notes Georgia. “Hopefully that will be the first little knock to help musicians who are working really hard and creating jobs and contributing to the economy actually get paid like a normal job. People don’t see it as a real job.”

All of this is, sadly, true. Were you to look at any decent-sized band’s accounts, you’d think it was all gravy. “Musicians make so much money in revenue,” nods Amy. But that’s the cost of buses, of crew, of petrol, of fees, of taxes, of having production worthy of the ticket price in a bigger venue. As the artist, you are responsible for everyone else, “And you get paid last.”

“The transport alone is ridiculous,” admits Amy. “There was a time where you could reach a certain level and get a sleeper bus. But the cost of that goes up, and suddenly the route doesn't become viable anymore. You can't really do some drives in a splitter van, because the distance is too long, and you'll have a burnt-out band at the end of it.”

Kate Nash recently tried to raise awareness of the dire state of touring, by going public that the expenses involved had meant she’d taken to OnlyFans to help cover the bills. “Shout-out to her for literally stepping up to the government publicly and being like, ‘Yeah, I’m selling pictures of my arse to make ends meet,’” says Amy. “That’s the reality.”

As well as making noise and doing what they can, as Georgia puts it, “to help level the playing field and make things better for musicians,” on this front Novas are taking heart in something else they’re just as much a part of.

Something has changed over the past couple of years. As well as getting invited to award shows and on telly, in a more general way, rock as a cultural thing does feel like it’s stirring. Just last week, recent data had the genre as the biggest growing music market in America, something Amy puts down to, “People wanting something real and tangible, so you just get that natural musicianship anyway, as opposed to AI music, which we won't go into – fucking swear word.”

“People in the industry are noticing that the youth on platforms like TikTok, they want to listen to heavy music,” adds Georgia. “I think [the industry] is actually seeing what's going on.”

And what is that?

A smile. “It’s the rise of rock’n’roll.”