And, of course, there’s the album, out on August 29. As well as Monsters, they’ve just released Soprano, and suitably fierce yet danceable number, built on a sassy bite, a celebration of women throughout the music industry and beyond. It helps pull what to expect from Parasites & Butterflies into sharper focus: big, confident, a touch darker than before, a sense of having lived and learned and grown even bolder from it.
There’s a lot going on. Amy says that when Nova Twins get their heads down in writing, the results are “crazy detailed” demos, adding that when they took what they’d been working on to Vermont to get transferred into the studio, Rich Costey was astounded when he saw that some songs had upward of 100 recording stems to sew together.
“We threw the kitchen sink at it,” laughs Amy. “We always put the kitchen sink in, loads of ideas, because then we can take things out later.”
“We’re constantly fiddling with things,” adds Georgia. “We’re always going, ‘Oh, can we change this tiny drum part?’”
Both admit having to write within a window and to a deadline wasn’t the easiest new territory. Particularly since writing on the road doesn’t work for them, so they were effectively starting with a blank sheet.
“After a while we were just like, ‘We can't think about the outside noise or people's expectations or anything. We’ve just got to be true to ourselves how we've always been, and just write what we want to write and love,’” says Georgia. “But that was a difficult process to get to that point. It didn't come without tears and blood and sweat.”
“We were trying to find new ways of doing things – new bass sounds, or using my vocal slightly differently, just pushing ourselves in that way,” adds Amy. “We took what we learned from the past two records and evolved naturally. We don't really think about it. I think it just happens. We don't know why it just happens. We're like, ‘Okay, there, it sounds great!’”
“We always try to look forward,” continues Georgia. “We’re always looking at new things, and trying to invent things in different ways. It’s important to not stay too comfortable in what we've done. Stepping out of our box was fun… Scary and fun.”