From TikTok to world tours, if you don’t know rising rock sensation Towa Bird yet, now is your chance.
Featured in NYLON, the out guitarist and singer spoke with Kerensa Cadenas about this whirlwind year, her relationship with Reneé Rapp, and her brand new album American Hero.
Towa spoke about what it was like to come out at such a young age, “When I was 12, I wrote in my journal, ‘I am gay’ or ‘I’m not straight’ or something. I came out to my best friend at 13. I was definitely spreading the agenda quite young.” She goes on to say, ‘I’m also Filipino, and we’re deeply religious as a culture. That also means that coming out was a conversation. It wasn’t as easy as some of my other friends, and that’s OK.”
Now that she’s secured lesbian icon status, she talks about how important it is to be out and proud. “I can’t not be myself, or else what the f*ck? I would be absolutely miserable. I would be just self-sabotaging if I just wasn’t completely honest.” She says that, “It feels really great to be a part of something much larger.”
She continues, “I’m doing my thing, I’m building my project, but also I’m part of a cohort of people that represent something that is beyond me, and that’s really wonderful. I wish I was a kid [now] because I didn’t really have any musician icons where I looked at them and was like, ‘Yeah, this is someone that looks like me.’”
Though she got her start posting videos of herself playing guitar on TikTok, Towa Bird’s fame skyrocketed when she began touring with now girlfriend, GLAAD Media Award winner Reneé Rapp. “It was really lovely that she shared her stage with me. That was a f*cking rock star tour,” she says.
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She talked about how cool it was to get to meet the cast of The L Word while performing with Rapp at Coachella this year, “I was immediately flushed in the face, tripping over my words, feeling sweaty in my palms…I regressed to that 12-year-old version of myself that was closing my bedroom door and hoping that no one would hear the sex scenes coming from my laptop.”
With all this fame, comes a great deal speculation. Bird talks about how she’s been dealing with this influx of attention, “Everyone [wanting to know] about my business, I understand. We’re living in what feels like the first couple of years where there are actually lesbians, queer women, who are out and on the radio … I understand why people are wanting to bite. When you’re doing the first of something, people are curious… I would want to know too.”
This is just the beginning for Towa Bird, be sure to stream her debut album American Hero and check out her upcoming tour dates below:
- Sept. 24 – Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room
- Sept. 25 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
- Sept. 28 – Forest Hills, NY – All Things Go NYC, Forest Hills Stadium
- Sept. 29 – – Columbia, MD – All Things Go Music Festival, Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Oct. 1 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
Read the full article at NYLON.