Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
In Praise of Nova Twins Amy Love and Georgia South - The Saviours of the Stompbox!
The very core of Pedaldom (The Pedal Domain!) is somewhat imperilled at the moment - with more and more of the younger generation leaning into the Digital Plugins thing - and simply plugging their guitars straight into their PC or Laptop (via audio-interface obviously!). And thus foregoing the delightful experience of those legendary stompboxes of wonder. I know there is a financial aspect / side to that pattern, but also one of convenience - where so many people are permanently ’plugged’ into their computer - and the Guitar therefore just becomes one more periphery / control device. And the real-live pedals get replaced by virtual ones - as mostly pioneered by IK Multimedia, Positive Grid, and Neural DSP. Interestingly those companies reference the trade dress / colour scheme of those original pedals in their own visualisations for their virtual pedal effects!
As a recent example - it was not long ago since I attended Sophie Burrell’s Boss Katana Amp performance showcase / masterclass at the Denmark Street Boss / Roland store. She is a typical example of a Plugin user - as she produces so much content for the web all the time - it kind of makes sense for her to be permanently plugged into her laptop / PC. She does use her Katana Gen III Artist Amp on occasion - but it’s a rarity - as she lives mostly within the digital domain - that is increasingly becoming the new paradigm shift - with less and less people exposed to the joys of conventional hardware box-stomping!
As a result - the pedal domain marketplace is incredibly saturated with relatively affluent middle-aged men at the moment - that tends to be the main audience for pedals nowadays - where the younger generations are increasingly electing to go digital - which is why Boss’s move with its recent PX-1 Plugout FX is a strange one - as it doesn’t really appeal to that proper all-digital Plugins crowd, nor the more traditional pedal buyers - who tend to prefer Boss’s analog Waza Craft editions over anything digital. Where the Boss PX-1 seems to have largely annoyed both camps - especially with its subscription and micro-transactions component!
In any case - we do still have some genuine Champions of our scene - and there are no finer pedal ambassadors than Amy Love and Georgia South of the Nova Twins - for whom analog stompboxes are a front and centre part of their overall DNA and mission. On their recent album Parasties and Butterflies - the Picture Disc Edition of the album features both musicians next to their respective pedalboards - which tends to be an increasingly rare sight / occurrence nowadays.
'Pedals in Disguise'
There are often amusing degrees of cover-ups where artists are protecting the core elements of their signature sounds. And for the Nova Twins - it means their pedals are wrapped up in tape - so to blur their origins. It's somewhat reminiscent of Mike Kerr of Royal Blood - whose Bass into Guitar and Bass Amps rig was a closely guarded secret for many years. It's been somewhat deconstructed now - while it is an example of how artists look to protect the core DNA of their own specific sound.
I'm happy to let artists have their secrecy - I'm much more concerned with the quality of their output. That said - at the recent Nova Twins album launch at Rough Trade East - I did offer to cover their rigs 5 or 10 years further down the line - where and when the secrecy matters less! I was a DJ for over 20 years, and there was a lot of secrecy with certain DJ's trying to keep certain tracks to themselves - while I was always happy to promote the talent - to ensure they got a better record deal. So many tracks could have been bigger sooner - if those DJ's had not sought to obfuscate - it shows a lack of confidence to some degree - that your DJ'ing experience became reliant on a few rare tracks - for me I always sought to popularise - and liked being known as the person who helped to popularise a particular track.
In any case I will always honour and and respect an artist's right to privacy and secrecy. And I'm not looking to demystify the Nova Twins setup - certainly not without their consent. That said - there are already a number of known factors even from the disguised visual perspective - and where the Novas have already revealed that they favour pedals from Boss, Electro-Harmonix, EarthQuaker Devices, and Redbeard Effects - and many more besides. In the top image there is interestingly a Champion Leccy box to the left of Amy's pedalboard!
We know they are the Queens of pitch-shifting - especially Georgia - who is very well known for her pitched up wobbly dubstep-like bass tones. That is a big part of the Nova Twins DNA and Secret Sauce - there's obviously an analog synth in the mix, and a pitch-shifter - and some wobbly modulation - aided and abetted by the long-since discontinued Source Audio HotHand 3 - 3-axis Gyroscopic Expression controller Ring and base-station - which ring you see Georgia deploy at most times. I've looked into buying one of those devices for myself - which were initially introduced in 2012 I think and discontinued within a few years owing to overall lack of interest. Those are proabably ripe for a reissue now - there are other more modern competing devices - but I would imagine there are several individuals, indeed including myself - who would like to be able to do wobbly baselines in a similar fashion. While few will have the foot-stomping dexterity and bounce of Georgia who is generally the most active of tap-dancers during their sets!
The main point is though that for Georgia and Amy - those analog stompboxes are a key part of the band's DNA. And as mentioned - you can see them promoting that side of their setup at every given opportunity - albeit with those pedals very heavily disguised. I quite like the look of all those pedals taped up with colourful tape in any case - very reminiscent of artist Mono Neon (Dywane Eric Thomas Jr.) too - who is known for taping up his own pedals with colourful neon tape - not to obscure and disguise though - but mainly to embellish and personalise. So taped-up pedals are very much a look already!
Wobbly pitch-shifting and modulation
The following series of videos - is very much to highlight Georgia's key techniques - which involve a sophisticated bouncy tap-dance of pedal activations, alongside several bursts of the HotHand Ring device. Those wobbly basslines in particular are so key to the band's sound - and both artists are incredible sound designers too - constantly finding unique combinations of pedals and effects to deliver their always-evolving high octane unique sound.
So I've picked out a few videos here that showcase the technique of how Georgia performs - which is entirely unique and distinct to her and her band :
The Parasites and Butterflies album launch at Rough Trade East - Friday the 29th of August
So I was very fortunate to attend the Nova Twins new album launch event at Rough Trade East this past Friday. Where the Novas played 4 or so tracks from their new album. I believe these were as follows :
- Piranha
- Soprano
- Hummingbird
- Parallel Universe
A perfect showcase for that album - and obviously excluding the most popular 'Moster' single from that album release (possible a little overplayed by now - but still great!). There are versions of each of the songs below, with the first example taken from the night of the event.
Many are saying that 'Hummingbird' is the best track on the album - they did an amazing rendition of that at the showcase - with a very specialist vintage style of signal scrambler microphone - which adds a cool dissonant distortion into the vocal mix. Hummingbird is the Novas channelling Prince, Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd), FKA Twigs and Burial to supreme effect - absolutely stellar!
I picked up the Marbled Blue and white edition of the vinyl at that event :
And then I decided I so loved them representing their Pedal Boards on the Picture Disc Edition - I decided I hat to have that too! :
The Marbled Edition was acquired via the Dice App for the event - that is an edition dedicated to independent records stores - so there are a few of those around. While only 400 of the Picture Disc edition are available from the Nova Twins Store! I think they're around £25 each!
Nova Twins for Boss Artists Endorsement!
I've mentioned Nova Twins several times to my good friend Matt Knight (Mr Boss Europe!) - as being entirely worthy of being Boss Artists - they already favour Boss pedals - and they're an entirely new breed of band - which is really helping to popularise Stompboxes again.
Do help me nudge Boss into making the right move here. They have a slew of pedals existing and forthcoming that no one can showcase as well as the Nova Twins.
They are indeed one of the bright futures for pedals - and needs to be nurtured and supported by one and all - so do the right thing Boss and make the Nova Twins one of your Ambassador Artists! I've been unsuccessful so far in persuading Boss to release my JC-2W Jazz Chorus Emulation Pedal - as visualised below! While this new cause is far more important - this is about the very future of Pedaldom! If you care about pedals - support the Nova Twins!
10 Guitar Heroes and Inspirations
