Nova Twins: A Voice For The Unheard
The unstoppable duo punk force NOVA TWINS had the industry at the neck last year with their sensational debut album Who Are The Girls? that received high appraise from us here at Distorted Sound Magazine. If they’re not laying down gnawing riffs, they’re laying down straight facts. NOVA TWINS have become a beacon of hope for the underdogs, using their platform to raise awareness to LGBTQ+, women’s, and POC inclusivity in rock and metal.
With the success of their series Voice For The Unheard that uplifts marginalised people in this community, they’re now working alongside Dr Martens with their Voice For The Unheard vinyl, a collaborative LP of POC artists that are smashing it in music right now. We sat down with bassist Georgia South and vocalist Amy Love to chat about the new release, and what efforts need to be made to continue these conversations so they don’t fizzle out in the cycle of trends.
“It’s not a tokenism thing,” says Amy Love. “It’s about good music that happened to be done by people of colour.” We’re looking at the track listing, the pair explaining how they came across these artists. “After the BLM movement, I think there was just more awareness,” Love explains. “More people were sharing POC alt music, I think we just ended up reaching out to each other. It was like ‘wow, you’re doing that too? Brilliant. We’re not alone in this!”
They explain that working with Dr. Martens just made sense given their organic relationship with the brand. “We’ve worked with Dr. Martens before and we just love them. We lived and breathed in Dr. Martens, since forever,” South gushes. “Yeah, because we did the DM stage in 2017 or something. There’s always been a relationship there and then it just kind of made sense,” adds Love.
Their Voices For The Unheard series has a great pedestal for the undervalued talents of our industry, but it’s also become a useful educational tool for white allies to keep themselves informed of the experiences of minorities. Love went on to explain that it’s been educational and validating for them to do the series and not feel like they’re going crazy. “I think it just kind of clarifies that you are not going crazy” she chuckles. “Because I think before the BLM movement, the industry would make you feel like you’re going crazy, that the problem is you. It’s like hang on a minute, we’ve done all this was doing this, but people are still shunning us and you says it’s ‘it’s nothing to do skin colour’ or ‘that’s all in the past.’ No, no it’s not.” South chimes in “and they make it sound like an excuse!”
“Then something like BLM happens and it confirms it,” Love explains. “You speak to other like-minded people have basically very similar stories in all areas you’re like ‘okay, we’re in this together and we’re not going crazy.”
The Black Lives Matter movement forced a domino effect of radical change on a global level but particularly, the music industry and Blackout Tuesday meant that “people are being held accountable” as South explains. “It was crazy but nice to not feel isolated in our feelings. Even though we’re from different parts of the world, there’s still similar stories of how we feel in the rock scene, or going to shows and being the only POC there. It’s obviously terrible because this shouldn’t be happening but we also felt very united in it.”
As we slowly approach a year since the Black Lives Matter movement reach a mainstream height this May and June, the conversation delves into where we can go next. Stereotyping black artists and the ideas around what they can achieve needs to change. “We’ve definitely adopted bad habits,” Love confirms. “I think it’s funny when you find that, White men will use trap in rock, they will use like hip hop elements, and no one says a fucking word. It’s seen as ‘cool, progressive, that’s genius!’ but it’s like, if we do it, cause the way we look is almost a bit too black for them.”
One word that keeps arising is “representation,” we can breakdown these stereotypes and unshackle the limits of success for POC when young children can see people like themselves in the jobs and goals they want to achieve. “I think it is really important because it’s damaging not to see yourself or to be told you can only do a certain thing,” the vocalist reveals. “That leads to suppression, people start loathing themselves because they can’t identify what what’s around them. I just think having different types of people is just a reflection of what this world really is. It’s not a lie. It’s just the honest truth.”
Though the touring and outside world feels like a distant memory, South says that it’ll be interesting to see what’s what when festivals come back. “I think the benefit of BLM is that people can call it out now, just like how festivals had a really uneven bill,” she says. “Because we’ve played so many festivals where were the only, either women on the stage that day, plus person of colour on like the whole rock or metal festival. Now we could be calling it out more.”
Voices For The Unheard available for pre-order until March 1st via Blood Records. Pre-orders are available now and can be purchased here.
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