Towa Bird's Rock Star Fantasy

Towa Bird worships many a god: Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Shane from The L Word. “For real, that was my North Star,” Bird says of the iconic lesbian lothario (portrayed by Kate Moennig). The 25-year-old has plenty in common with each of her icons. Like Hendrix, she can absolutely shred on the guitar. Like the Purple One, she effortlessly pulls off androgynous glam. And just as she credits Shane with being her sexual awakening, Bird is part of a wave of queer artists, including Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp, who are dominating pop right now — and helping a whole new generation of young women figure out who they are.

“I’m already a lesbian monster,” Bird jokes, “so if I had Chappell to look up to when I was 14? I would’ve been an absolute menace!”

Bird has also opened for Rapp and played in her touring band, which means she was there at Coachella this year when the L Word cast reunited onstage to introduce Rapp’s set. “I was immediately flushed in the face, tripping over my words, feeling sweaty in my palms,” Bird says of meeting Moennig and her co-stars. “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.”

Hanging with your heroes is just part of regular life when you’re one of music’s coolest new voices. Bird first blew up on TikTok, where her fiery covers and original songs caught the attention of Olivia Rodrigo, who recruited Bird for her driving home 2 u concert film in 2022. A deal with Interscope Records soon followed. But it was Bird’s debut album, this year’s American Hero, that really cemented her as a rising star, with a sound that pulled from ‘60s and ‘70s rock as well as piercing lyrics covering the joys of lesbian sex (“Drain Me!”), the toils of living under capitalism (“B.I.L.L.S”), and feeling like a misfit among the fashion-week set (“This Isn’t Me”).

Bird looks every part the rock star when she walks into Corner Bar in New York’s Lower East Side for lunch. She’s just come from a photo shoot, and her eyeliner is artfully smudged. Her enviable curls are perfectly mussed, and she continuously ruffles them when she’s not picking at her niçoise salad. Her sunglasses hang off the multiple chains around her neck, and her ringer tee reveals many of her 19 tattoos, including a 2 of hearts card commemorating her debut single, “Wild Heart.”

“Everyone [wanting to know] about my business, I understand. I would want to know too.”

That all might sound intimidating on paper, but Bird is warm and easy to talk to, with a sly sense of humor that’s on full display when a pickle gets stuck in her throat. “Oh my God, I love that,” she says, eyes watering. “It’s so humbling. ‘Pardon me, I’m choking on a pickle.’ How beautifully ironic.”

Bird was born in Hong Kong to British and Filipino parents, and she grew up between Thailand and the United Kingdom. Her dad raised her on a steady diet of classic rock, and at any given moment she’s ready to give a TED Talk on how the Fab Four inspired her musically and aesthetically. “The Beatles are the best band in the world. I don’t give a f*ck what anyone says,” she offers. So it’s no wonder she picked up the guitar at age 12 and has been playing in and out of bands ever since. “I was like, ‘Wait, why is the guitar lit?’” she says of feeling drawn to the instrument. “That’s actually verbatim what I thought in my head when I was 11 years old. I was like, ‘Bro!”

Around the same time she started playing guitar, she also realized she was queer, a process she describes matter-of-factly — even the parts that weren’t so easy. “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 deadpans. “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.”

“These songs are very intimate. I’m showing parts of myself to my audience that I haven’t even shown some of my closer friends.”

Bringing her queerness into her songwriting, however, was a no-brainer. “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 admits. She knows how much the current wave of queer stars would have meant to her younger self. “It feels really great to be a part of something much larger. I’m making my silly little songs, but it probably would’ve affected the way that we viewed ourselves if we were 14. It does matter. 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.’”

That visibility also comes with some scrutiny, especially with regard to her and Rapp’s relationship after they appeared cozy at the Vanity Fair Oscars party in March. Just Google their names together and you’ll find no shortage of posts dissecting the pair. Bird is coy about it all. When I joke that I’m obsessed with Rapp, Bird leans in close to my recorder and giggles, “I’m obsessed with her, too — repeat!” And she’ll gladly dish about their raucous time together on the road. “It was really lovely that she shared her stage with me. That was a f*cking rock star tour,” Bird recalls. “We were just partying after every show. It’s so unsustainable, it’s terrible form from everyone, but it was so much fun.”

Yet Bird keeps the details of her dating life to herself — not that she blames you for your interest. “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 [at the same time],” Bird says. “I understand why people are wanting to bite. When you’re doing the first of something, people are curious.” She shrugs. “I would want to know too.”

So she takes the responsibility head-on. The title of her album, American Hero, is tongue in cheek. She isn’t American, of course, and she doesn’t think her open-book lyrics are particularly hardcore. But Bird — who’s hitting the road this fall — likes the idea of subverting the archetype, and making a little more room in the mainstream for outsiders like her.

“These songs are very intimate. I’m showing parts of myself to my audience that I haven’t even shown some of my closer friends. It’s very vulnerable, it’s very tender. I have my tits out to the world,” she explains. “I think in a way, it kind of creates a new form of a hero: someone who’s willing to share parts of themselves and be a representation. Tits out to the world!”

Catch Towa Bird on tour this fall.

• 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

Top Image Credits: Calvin Klein top and underwear, Brandon Maxwell pants, talent’s own jewelry

Photographs by Amber Asaly

Styling by EJ Briones

Makeup: Chloe Schlossmann

Tailor: Susie’s Custom Design

Talent Bookings: Special Projects

Photo Director: Alex Pollack

Editor in Chief: Lauren McCarthy

SVP Fashion: Tiffany Reid

SVP Creative: Karen Hibbert