The young creative Mona Cordes recently took this stunning 35mm film shoot with the duo of the band Nova Twins. Along to her extravagant and beautiful series Mona did a little interview with them. ☆

What is your music mostly described as regarding genres? What would you agree with if you were asked?

We don’t really like labels, we are happy for people to call it what they want. We have had all sorts of descriptive titles, Grunk, Punk, Grime, Hip Hop, Grop… and that’s all cool as everyone will have their own interpretation of it, but we just call it “the Nova sound” its a blended hot mess of sounds that we love!

Where do you find inspiration in music – what artists have mostly inspired your musical journey?

Our inspirations can come from anywhere. We often write about what we know or experience. We’ve watched some great movies that have influenced some of our songs. It can be as simple as a hectic night out.. you’ll sometimes find cryptic messages in the lyrics that only make sense to us, we always find it funny on stage, we also address political social issues that we experience, there’s no limits on our story or how far we can push the boundaries as there are none in our music. We gravitate towards heavy, gnarly sounds when it comes to our guitars and are always finding new ways in our lab to make new tones and textures! Different riffs are written after fiddling and messing around with sounds on our pedal boards. They can be inspired from a wide range of things, like from sounds you hear on the street like a car or a siren!

For me as a fashion and music, photographer and fashion textiles student, there is an important connection between fashion and music. You as Nova Twins, becoming a band and customising your clothes – how does this connection feel for you and in what ways does it help you express your music?

The music came first. As our sound developed and pedal boards grew, so did our idea’s for custom clothing. We design our clothes to what we think our music looks like. Its also become a hobby, out of that we decided to create a small online boutique call @BadStitchesOfficial where we have hand stitched some custom jackets, we will be adding more to the collection in the near future!

How did the shoot feel for you outside show life and stage presence?

It’s always fun doing a photoshoot. We always find it awkward at first but we are always pleasantly surprised when we look back at the pictures. We enjoy collaborating with photographers who get our style and enjoy the music as they often bring out different elements that we didn’t know was there or wouldn’t of thought to try ourselves. Its nice to get a different perspective through their eyes and experience as a photographer.

You have told me about your recent touring. Pretty intense it is sounding – doing shows abroad and playing festivals in France. What are future events you are exited about, any new releases to come?

It has been a crazy year. We have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel with our music. We have been playing festivals in South Africa, Reunion, France and will be playing in Italy in September! We have met and seen some amazing people and bands on our journey, which makes the experience all the more better! We are also very excited to be releasing our second E.P in November!

Credits:

Photography & interview: Mona Cordes ☆ IG: @princess_moona & @mona_cordes_photos

Models & styling: Nova Twins ☆ IG: @novatwinsmusic