Meet Towa Bird: 23, 4 singles out, residing the lifetime of a rock star. She’s obtained easy glam-rock curls that bob to the beat of her music, and a deep voice that drips over the cellphone. Every evening, she clambers on stage to the cheers of rabid followers, the place she’s presently touring the US with breakout pop sensation Reneé Rapp. There, her painted nails dance alongside the fretboard of the guitar that she performs like butter.
During the pandemic, Bird uploaded movies the place she brilliantly riffs over classics like Childish Gambino’s ‘Redbone’, or Supertramp’s ‘Breakfast In America’ chorus. She’s carried that over to her music, too: ‘Boomerang’ and its solo options bursts of exuberant shredding and wailing notes that audiences have gone wild for. Pretty rapidly, the musician discovered herself as the brand new Internet girlfriend to over 900k individuals: “I will say, it never feels bad for people to call me hot!” she laughs.
Lately, that obsession has reached fever pitch: “People will try and flirt with you, especially on this tour – someone invited me to have a threesome with their partner,” Bird tells NME from her tour bus on the way in which to Philadelphia. It’s not simply followers, both – Billie Eilish has even sung her praises on social media (“gimme kiss”, the singer playfully pleaded). Bird ultimately met Eilish, that data taking part in on loop in her head: “Yeah, it’s pretty hard to ignore, but we both played our cool cards. It just felt like I was talking to a mate.”
But whether or not it’s individuals who proposition her or the world’s greatest popstar, Bird says she respectfully turns them down. She could be the latest femme fatale, however Bird’s latest single ‘Drain Me’ types a journey to her debut album – an ode to her girlfriend.
Born in Hong Kong to British and Filipino dad and mom, Towa Bird initially deliberate to remain in London. She’d lived in Hong Kong and Thailand, the place she grew up taking part in dive bars and road festivals, taking her inspiration from the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Prince. Then, she moved to London, the place she began a level at Goldsmiths University and performed as a guitarist for rising alt-punk star Cassyette.
That all modified when she obtained a name from Olivia Rodrigo, who had seen her TikToks; she’d invited Bird to partake in her documentary Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film). You can now see Bird taking part in alongside bassist Blu DeTiger to ‘Brutal’. Bird ultimately dropped out of her diploma and upped sticks as soon as once more to LA to signal with Interscope (who additionally signed Rodrigo): “I went from making songs in my room in London to landing in LA and being on this massive production. I was like, ‘Wow: this is what life could be like for me.’”
It was a unbelievable begin, however fairly rapidly, actuality started to set in. Bird was in a brand new metropolis in an amazing trade, and a tradition that didn’t at all times respect her British sarcasm (“it didn’t really stick”, she winces). Bird additionally discovered America extra “insular”, one thing that unsettled her in comparison with the extra worldwide cultures she’d beforehand been surrounded by: “I went to an international school in Hong Kong; all of the kids looked like me and had this mixed up accent. I could relate to people. In the US, you don’t see so much of that.”
“I want people to dance to [the album], I want them to cry to it”
As a consequence, Bird started to really feel alienated within the US. “In the UK,” she explains, “I don’t feel like an immigrant, whereas here, I do. I very much do.”
Talking to different Filipino musicians like Rodrigo and fellow British-Filipino Beabadoobee helped Bird discover the alternative ways immigrants interacted with their respective cultures. Bird frolicked with Bea and had some “really deep chats” about their identities; Bea, who speaks Tagalog (probably the most widely-spoken language within the nation), “is incredibly proud to be Filipino.” In America, nonetheless, she felt this wasn’t the case; she stresses these had been broad observations and never particular to Rodrigo.
“I feel like some parents potentially encourage their kids to be American, to be white and speak English and grow up with that culture because of the discrimination they received,” she defined. “Whereas in the UK more generally, I’m seeing a wider acceptance of growing up within your Asian roots and having that be celebrated around the house.”
So Bird began from scratch. She referred to as up each buddy she knew of, together with “gaysian icon” Deb Never, and located a roommate. Slowly, however absolutely, she began to type a friendship group: “The one thing that we all have in common is that we’ve all come to LA with a purpose. We’ve all left something behind and sacrificed something to be there. We find that sense of comfort, family, and community in each other, which is very special.”
On prime of that, Bird was navigating a long-distance relationship along with her associate Liv, who she met on Instagram. They’ve been going out for 2 and a half years, and have been primarily long-distance, as Liv resides in NY. “She is literally one of the coolest people I’ve ever met”, Bird gushes. “She’s so funny and incredible and kind. Even though we have this tough context right now, I just don’t see myself being with anyone else in the way that we are together. I’m absolutely down to sacrifice it for her, you know?”
Bird has made good on her sacrifice thus far, having launched 4 singles within the run-up to her debut, which she referred to as ‘American Hero’. The title is injected with a wholesome dose of irony and self-awareness: “When I think of those two words together, I think of a 6’4 white guy, Captain America – blonde, blue-eyed,” she jokes. “That’s nothing that I represent as an androgynous queer person. I am the anti-American hero, but because I’m an immigrant, that almost makes me an American. I’m sharing parts of my life I’ve never told anyone before; because I’m being vulnerable, I’m almost a hero.”
So far, Towa Bird has launched 4 snippets of the album. There’s a slew of lovesick anthems starting from the fabulously carefree (‘Boomerang’) to the rambunctious and horny (‘Drain Me’). There’s additionally Bird’s first single, April 2023’s ‘Wild Heart’, which is so catchy it sounds prefer it’s straight off a noughties British teen romcom soundtrack. But there’s additionally house for the extra anxiety-riddled ‘This Isn’t Me’, impressed by Bird being thrust into her solely new world, bursting right into a dreamy Phantogram-esque refrain. There’s even some spectacular guitar tapping thrown in proper firstly, simply in case you doubted Bird’s skills.
Along along with her relationship with Liv and her new, unfamiliar surroundings, Bird’s north stars for the album had been “being a personality on the stage” and “the guitar”, her everlasting love. “I wanted to make an album that would feel good to play live and that the crowd will love,” she says. “I have written a lot of my choruses with a crowd in mind.”
To achieve this, Bird enlisted the assistance of Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith from Kiwi indie legends The Naked and Famous, who she calls “mentors”. Bird stayed with Powers and wrote 9 out of 10 songs with him, spending almost a 12 months in his studio in LA. She additionally cites Xayalith being an early inspiration: “I remember being young, looking at Alisa: she’s an Asian woman, she’s in rock, she’s got this big voice and she’s powerful. Having the opportunity to write with her was so cool.”
“You don’t hear that many songs about queer sex like ‘Drain Me!’”
The album’s been saved tightly below wraps, however Bird tells NME to anticipate “big riffs”, “big beats”, and “a lot of vulnerability and heart”. It’s the primary time Bird can be writing a few romantic relationship, one thing which she says is “surreal”. Bird’s latest single ‘Drain Me’ is a nod to steamy lesbian intercourse: “Tip of my tongue/Sweet and sour/Back of my car/In the shower”.
“To me, I was just writing love songs,” she says. “You don’t hear that many songs about queer sex like that. It’s my sense of normal, but I suppose to the outside world, it represents much, much more. So in a way, I’m happy I can be that representation, that I can put out a rock song about lesbian sex.” However, Bird additionally teases that there’s some “mid-tempo, slow jams” on the report: “I’ve saved the more vulnerable songs for last so people can hear the whole project.”
Bird singles out the unreleased ‘She’ for instance, which can see the singer open up about part of her life she usually retains hidden. “It depicts the primary two days of assembly Liv. I can’t imagine I’m really sharing the story, it’s so non-public. But I’m additionally so excited for individuals to know as a result of I can’t consider any songs which might be doing this sort of stuff. I’m not attempting to toot my very own horn right here, however there’s only a lack of illustration of it on this world, and that’s actually unlucky.
“So to hear a diary-entry song about meeting your partner and all of the little details, that spark, I think it’s quite nice.”
According to Bird, “the whole bloody album is about her”, apart from one “fuck-off” music: ‘Bills’. It’s the music Bird likes to sing stay, the place she will get individuals within the crowd to shove two fingers up at landlords (one thing which, to her delight, perturbs the extra rural American crowds she’s performed).
“It’s about saying to all the billionaires, landlords, bosses and big corporations in the world: fuck you,” she explains. “All of these kids are in massive student loan debt, there’s a massive recession happening. It could be contextual, but also, the song goes off. It’s a very fun, riffy, playful song about a heavy topic.”
Bird desires to make use of her expertise rising up in disparate cultures to create a queer love story for the ages – and in the end, for her to attach with individuals who may not know her but. “I want people to dance to it, I want them to cry to it. I hope it evokes the same amount of emotion that I have, but I also hope people can feel my heart in it.”
Towa Bird’s ‘Drain Me!’ is out now on Interscope
Listen to Towa Bird’s unique playlist to accompany The Cover under on Spotify and right here on Apple Music
Writer: Alex Rigotti
Photography:
Styling: Stefani Colvin
Label: Interscope
