“I Want to Look Like a Lesbian Mick Jagger”: On the Road With Towa Bird

What can you expect at a Towa Bird concert? “Lots of guitar solos, lots of hair, lots of lesbian jokes,” the 25-year-old rock star says. None of that has changed since she went viral on TikTok during the pandemic for her electric guitar-driven, sex-laden covers of Tame Impala. Or when she appeared as a guitarist in Olivia Rodrigo’s 2022 documentary. In the past year, though, her stock has risen. The Hong Kong native released her debut album, American Hero; went public with fellow musician girlfriend Renee Rapp; and, not to mention, opened for Billie Eilish at several dates on the pop megastar’s nationwide tour, which heads to Europe in 2025. After playting the iconic Kia Forum, and just before taking a much-deserved sabbatical in China with her family, Towa called us up to talk about the rockstar lifestyle, from pre-show Instagram Reel sermons to makeup routines courtesy of her girlfriend and the Twitter page dedicated to her arms. “I have a fan account called Towa Bird’s Arms, so it’s really important for me to maintain my physique,” she told us over Zoom. “I’m obviously very humble, and I never talk about it.”

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EMMA STOUT: How are you feeling? You just got back from the tour, right?

TOWA BIRD: Yeah. I’m feeling okay. I have food poisoning right now, so that’s wonderful. It’s truly a blessing.

STOUT: You were stuck in traffic and now you have food poisoning?

TOWA: Yeah, the last show that we played was peak food poisoning. I’m fine now. But yeah, man, it was a tough look for me. I was struggling.

STOUT: So you got it before the last show?

TOWA: The night before, yeah.

STOUT: Oh, shit. I’m sorry.

TOWA: It’s okay. It happens. Dude, I prevail. Have to, no choice.

STOUT: Do you have a break or are you back to the next thing?

TOWA: Yeah, I’m going to Hong Kong tomorrow, which is where I was born.

STOUT: A little holiday?

TOWA: Yeah, just eat food and walk around and not think about music for a really long time. 

STOUT: It’s been a big year for you.

TOWA: It has. I would appreciate some time to myself just so I can reflect on what the fuck just happened to me.

STOUT: Speaking of, what was it like to open for Billie [Eilish]? I’m sure it’s a different dynamic opening for one of the biggest pop stars in the world.

TOWA: Yeah, it was definitely a big jump, but also not. We played a festival opening for Lana Del Rey in Paris this August, so that was the biggest crowd that I had played my set to, which I think was 35,000 people. But it’s always going to be intimidating, which is good. It keeps you on your toes.

STOUT: How do you handle the pre-show jitters?

TOWA: I’m on my phone as fuck. I’m on Instagram Reels just easing my mind. Sometimes it’s good to keep your mind off of what you’re about to do because the more time you have to go over each individual step of your set, the more chances you give yourself to fuck up and step on your own toes.

STOUT: Instagram Reels are the perfect distraction. It’s brain rot.

TOWA: It’s horrible—especially my algorithm. It’s definitely cursed.

STOUT: What’s been in your algorithm?

TOWA: It’s religious Christian women preaching. They’re like, “If you see this video, god is with you.” 

STOUT: You have a come to Jesus moment before—

TOWA: Yeah. It’s that, or the spinning fish. It’s the ultimate brain rot. It literally represents nothing, but I just feel like a toddler. You know those dancing fruit videos?

STOUT: Oh my god, I love them. My friends will pre-game to those videos, taking shots with the dancing fruit in the background.

TOWA: They’re amazing. Whenever I see a blueberry, I’m always so gassed. They represent the field of emotions, and it’s nice to feel represented.

STOUT: How would you describe the vibe at a Towa Bird concert?

TOWA: Lots of guitar solos, lots of hair, lots of lesbian jokes. I don’t know, I feel like I’m just trying to make people dance, and I feel like there is a lot of concert etiquette at the moment, which is like you watch through your phone. But I force them to clap so that they can’t have their phone in their hands. Not in a way that I’m pushing it down their throats—but if they want to clap, they should clap.

STOUT: Yeah, there’s something really gleeful about your music. I think it feels very cathartic for you, which, in turn, feels cathartic for the audience.

TOWA: Thank you. I mean, that’s what this album was for me. I wanted people to feel like they should come to a show after listening to the album and want to experience it live.

STOUT: What’s the best guitar riff in a song not performed by Towa Bird obviously?

TOWA: I mean, I would probably fall really low on the best guitar riffs of all time. My god and king will always be Jimi Hendrix. Every guitarist’s favorite guitarist is him, and there is a reason for that. Probably “Purple Haze” by him, because I remember learning that when I was 12 and being like “Wow, I’m fucking amazing at this instrument.” I learned a lot of his catalogue. I was obsessed with playing those songs, and I learned a bunch of Guns N’ Roses songs, which is hilarious. It was mostly just dad rock.

STOUT: Honestly, fire. Our dads were really onto something.

TOWA: I mean, it was probably acid.

STOUT: It was definitely acid. There’s that late-sixties influence in your music, for sure. But I also feel like I hear a nineties pop-punk thing going on, too. Is that something for you?

TOWA: My sister was—and she’ll probably throw me off a cliff for saying this—but she’s six years older than me, so she was in the scene kid generation, the MySpace swag. I remember going to school with her, being seven or eight years old, and she had her fucking eyeliner on and it was 6:37 in the morning, and I would be in the car and anxious about making friends at school. So I think she put me onto Fallout Boy, Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance. Those aren’t things that I reference when I’m writing my music, but it’s in the subconscious. It lives there.

STOUT: It’s like a trauma response.

TOWA: Exactly, and it makes it into my music by accident.

STOUT: Thank you to your sister for that, then. So before the show, you’re locking in on Instagram reels?

TOWA: Definitely dialing in, yeah.

STOUT: And what else? Do you do a shot for courage?

TOWA: Absolutely. 

STOUT: It’s mind, body, and spirit.

TOWA: Actually, in a real way. Then I’ll do 10 or 15 minutes of vocal warmups, which are just really shitty piano sounds, playing scales, and I sing along. After that, I’ll do my makeup, which I just recently learned how to do. Shout out to my girlfriend. She gave me a bunch of products and was like, “Go, be free.” I’ll do a little bit of that, usually butcher it, send her a selfie and be like, “I’m scared, can you help me?” 

STOUT: What’s the hardest part of the makeup routine right now?

TOWA: Skin. I grew up like a little boy, so I don’t really know what any of them are called. I know that there’s foundation.

STOUT: Foundation is major. 

TOWA: But you know when you put foundation on and you’re like, “Whoa? There’s a lot of foundation on me.”

STOUT: Yeah, the first step is scary.

TOWA: But that’s always the first thing that you have to do. It doesn’t fill me with confidence when I’m putting foundation on and I’m like, staring at myself in the mirror and I see a ghost.

STOUT: You look half-dead, but maybe it’s the journey on the way to the result that really matters.

TOWA: So well put. I’m feeling inspired after that. Thank you.

STOUT: What was the inspo for your wardrobe this tour? I saw a lot of silk blouses, some wife-beaters.

TOWA: Yeah, I worked with a stylist called Jake Sammis—

STOUT: Oh, yeah, he does some stuff for Interview.

TOWA: Sick. I just saw him this afternoon and he helped me just pull a bunch of stuff. But again, I was back to dad rock. My gods have always worn the flare pants, the androgynous blouse, big collars, big sleeves—

STOUT: And heels, too. Always a little five-inch platform.

TOWA: Maybe they were short kings. I feel like Prince was short, right? He was like 5’2.

STOUT: How tall are you?

TOWA: I’m 5’10. I try to drop that in as much as I can. I’ll tell everyone that when I meet them because apparently I give short person energy over Zoom.

STOUT: That is a flex because that’s the ideal height, I think.

TOWA: Thank you, I agree. It’s one of my only good traits about myself. Sorry, I keep getting sidetracked, but it’s based on that seventies glam. I want to look like a lesbian Mick Jagger, but five inches taller.

STOUT: How do you unwind after the show?

TOWA: Gotta hit the Instagram reels, bro. No, I’m joking. Before we get on stage, my friend Ian, who plays bass for me, always gives a speech. We’ll do one whiskey shot before we go on stage and he just makes up a toast on the spot, and it’s usually the most obscene shit you’ve ever heard. Then we will go on stage and do our little thing. And then it’s mostly just hanging out with my band and my crew. I have a really amazing, close-knit group of people who I love to travel with. My band, they’re my boys.

STOUT: How many people travel with you typically?

TOWA: Eight of us.

STOUT: So, no rock star parties after a concert?

TOWA: It’s a nice balance. [Laughs] I’ll do a couple of rock star nights—

STOUT: Why are you laughing?

TOWA: I’m just like, that’s so stupid. I can’t possibly get away with that. But yeah, we’ll go out and we’ll get some beers. When we were in Minnesota, we just hung backstage with Billie’s crew. A lot of my band knows her band, and I actually became super close with her backup singers who are sisters, Ava and Jane Horner. We have a group chat and we just send each other memes.

STOUT: What’s the group chat name?

TOWA: Shit, we don’t have one. Maybe we’re not there yet. I want it to come naturally.

STOUT: And then you guys brought in some dogs. Is this after the show?

TOWA: Oh, yeah. So Billie’s camp calls local shelters who bring them into the arena. There’s a puppy room and you can go and hang out with them. People adopt them—

STOUT: Did you?

TOWA: I would’ve loved to adopt all of them fucking dogs, dude, but I move around so much that it would be irresponsible for me to have a life in my hands. But I highly recommend rescuing a puppy.

STOUT: Were there any fun fan encounters during the tour?

TOWA: During Billie’s set, when she sings “Birds of a Feather,” I’d go out into the pit. People would make their own little circles in their friendship groups, and they skip around to the song. I kept trying to make a mega circle because it was just cute little families, so I would grab their hands. I was like, “Fuck it, let’s open the pit.” I was trying to make this big mega circle.

STOUT: You’re the United Nations of mosh pits.

TOWA: Yeah, you know I just love to bring people together. That’s my passion. But it was a really fun moment that I shared with whoever I forced into making a mega circle with me.

STOUT: Dancing with strangers was good cardio exercise, but I saw that you were also doing some gym workouts. What’s your routine on the road?

TOWA: Oh, you saw those. Damn. Sometimes I forget that I send this stuff to people.

STOUT: There were a couple photos, actually.

TOWA: I’m like, “Wait, really? Why are you asking me about the gym? That’s so fucking weird.” Yeah, I sent you all gym pictures. I mean, I have a fan account called Towa Bird’s Arms, so it’s really important for me to maintain my physique. I’m obviously very humble, and I never talk about that or my height. [Laughs] But no, I am definitely running. I’m on the treadmill and my band is always like, “Dude, you’re like a little hamster on your little ball.” But you’re sitting in the van or on a plane for so long when you travel that you have to move or else you’ll just become brittle. So I hit a lift, just a cute one, and then hit a run, and that’s kind of it. I recently became a Pilates girl, which is scary because I have to put leggings on and it makes my gender feel all weird. I feel really dysphoric, but that’s cool.

STOUT: As long as the body is rocking, right?

TOWA: Yeah, and I’m close to being able to touch my toes, which is a huge milestone for me. I’ve been trying for 25 years at this point.