Exclusive Preview: Towa Bird for Non Threatening Boys*
Words: Jenn Lehwald | Photography: Alexandra Lopez | Styling: Ian Elmowitz | Makeup: Valerie Vonprisk using Huda Beauty | Hair: Johnnie Sarpong | Production Design: Steph MacDonald | Photo Assist: Katie Walsh
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A few years ago, Towa Bird was making guitar covers from her bedroom in South London, posting them online from a flat tucked behind the big Sainsbury’s in New Cross. Now, she’s living in Los Angeles, embarking on the tour behind her second album Gentleman.
Gentleman is inspired by the guitar-heavy rock music Towa grew up with. Drawing inspiration from bands like The Strokes to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the album plays with masculinity rather than accepting its traditional rules. Its title, she says, offered her a way to reappropriate a word loaded with cis-male conventions through a queer lens, while its abundance of guitar solos lets her take up space in a music culture historically dominated by male ego.
When we catch up over Zoom, we end up talking about her old haunts in Deptford, the trajectory that took her from lockdown success to touring internationally and the ways she’s grown into herself as an artist along the way.
