Bôa Premieres "Walk With Me," Their First Song In Two Decades

The last time the members of Bôa were in a studio together, it was 2004. The London-based five-piece were recording their sophomore album, Get There, and lead singer Jasmine Rodgers had way fewer freckles. It wasn’t until March 2022 — after a sudden, TikTok-fueled resurgence of their 1998 hit “Duvet” brought the band back into Gen Z’s consciousness — that they found themselves in a studio again. Now, numbering just three, they’ve created their first new music in over two decades. “Horses turned to carriages,” says Rodgers of the lapse, adding that it also felt like no time had passed at all. “We just started writing. It was straight away really fun, really nice.”

Today, Bôa shares the first taste of those sessions exclusively on NYLON as they premiere “Walk With Me,” the rumbling lead single of their long-awaited (still untitled) new album. The song features Rodgers’ deep, clear vocals beckoning someone to “come and keep me company,” a line that doubles as a bid to their new legion of fans as they kick-start this new era. “We're inviting people to come with us on this journey,” she says, and “meeting them with a spring in our step.”

For a band that’s been on hiatus for over two decades, Bôa is unexpectedly chill about getting back on the hamster wheel. When I catch them on a recent Zoom conference call, they’re hard-pressed to pinpoint anything to be worried about. Their chemistry? “Oh, we’ve still got it,” Rodgers says. Playing live again? “It’s better, I think,” she adds. Even the thought of touring, which is arguably the worst it's ever been, doesn’t faze them. “I haven’t got any worries,” says bassist Alex McCaird breezily. Rodgers’ main concern is leaving her cat and making sure they’ll have access to toilet paper (an inside joke stemming from a too-real experience that left her traumatized).

Perhaps that’s the way it should be as the band takes their victory lap that’s been years in the making. To them, the overwhelming success of “Duvet” and this second life it’s brought is one of those miraculous one-in-a-lifetime fortunes one just has to accept without question — or else, Rodgers says, “I'll go insane.”

That ethos also filtered into writing the songs of the new album, which McCaird says wasn’t overthought and has a sound that will be simultaneously familiar and new to longtime fans. They describe it as “heavy rock” with influences of new wave and synths, and moments that might recall Siouxsie and the Banshees. Now, with families of their own and more life under their belts, the band says it’s the lyrical content that most gives away how much time has passed: “Breakups, breakdowns, and divorces,” says drummer Lee Sullivan.

Bôa is now looking down the barrel of a busy year of more new and old experiences. The band embarks on their first proper North American tour ever in September, with stops in Los Angeles and New York City. A recent show in London — their first live performance in decades — gave them a preview of what the experience will be like. “Turning around and seeing Lee and Al really rocking out while we're playing,” Rodgers says, “is just wonderful.” For Rodgers, the excitement outweighs any anxiety about releasing new music again. After all, she jokes, “if they don't like it now, they might like it in 20 years’ time.”