‘Maybe the music I’ve written now will be another warm hug for you’: A conversation with bôa

British alternative rock group bôa have had anything but a standard route to success. Facing a massive cultural boomerang following the resurgence of 1998 single ‘Duvet’ four years ago, the band recorded their first album in 19 years – 2024’s Whiplash – fronting eager anticipation from thousands of fresh, internet-born fans.

In the midst of this cyberspace whirlwind, vocalist Jasmine Rodgers isn’t shying away from the band’s new, intensely online fan base: “When we first started, we had a website that had one of the most popular chat rooms of its time.” This is an online connection that has exponentially grown into what Rodgers dubs “a lovely, engaged audience. The best audience anyone could dream of having if you were going to do a show is people who know and enjoy your music”.

It’s no surprise this audience connects so deeply with bôa’s sound; their cross-genre, “bits of jazz, bits of heavy rock, soft rock, folk, and bits of dub” approach defies definition, uniting shoegazers, folk heads, and alt-rock fanatics alike. For Rodgers though, bôa’s sonic imprint is heavily shaped by the familial connection shared between the band, with their original guitarist being Rodgers’ brother, Steve. “So much of it is my own family construct. It’s the way we divvy things out – I used to eat the whites of the eggs and my brother used to eat the yolks.”

Rodgers isn’t turning her back on the emotionally charged, intimate lyricism nurturing the band’s romantic feel. ‘When I sing, sometimes they illicit the memories of what compelled me to write those lyrics’

Now, out of Rodgers’ early ‘90s home studio and onto the global stage with Whiplash, things look a little different: “Because there’s less of us, there’s less of a sonic environment. The songwriting is slightly different because it’s less jamming. Alex [Caird] came in with a lot of guitar ideas and we kind of built from that.” Still, Rodgers puts in the work to not lose the angsty, passionate lyrics that make tracks like ‘Duvet’ and ‘Twilight’ so compelling: “Then, I was reading a lot of vampire books. Now, I’m watching a lot of vampire films.”

In the face of thousands of fresh eyes browsing the bôa discography, Rodgers isn’t turning her back on the emotionally charged, intimate lyricism nurturing the band’s romantic feel. “When I sing, sometimes they illicit the memories of what compelled me to write those lyrics, and that still is the basis of emotion one taps into when one’s singing it. To get annoyed about that one stupid boyfriend or whoever.” For bôa concertgoers too, there’s a visceral shift in Rodgers’ onstage attitude when she’s performing a ‘warm-blanket’ song like ‘Duvet’ or an intense, guitar-driven track like ‘Twilight’: “I tap into a different energy. When we wrote them, we wrote them with these things in mind and, as time goes by, you play them and experience them with new memories.”

About to begin their latest UK tour, the pressure of their new, ever-growing audience hasn’t rocked bôa. Rodgers happily muses on the band’s newfound immersion into the depths of fandom culture, the culmination of thousands of fresh faces that make up the band’s “really broad and diverse audience. Everyone’s welcome and that feels good”. Speaking on their ‘90s, Twilight era experiences, it’s a healthy contrast for Rodgers: “I’d be in venues, and I’d have guitar makers hand out their cards to everyone but me and I’m like, I’m literally the only person here who plays acoustic.” Nowadays, backed by bôa’s active fandom, Rodgers is “taking courage from the female musicians I meet along the way” alongside those who’ve defined her past – “PJ Harvey was kind of the one where I was like, ‘Wow, look at her.”

Rodgers is eager for more: ‘I would like to go to Japan. [Performing at] the big ones like Glastonbury would be amazing to do, but they’re all so different’

Part of the allure of bôa’s sound is its dreaminess, bespoke made for a long, full volume, look-out-the-window train ride, with ‘Duvet’ specifically being picked up for the opening sequence of the anime Serial Experiments Lain. Asking Rodgers if the band would be interested in soundtracking an entire film – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross style – she perks up, “I think it’d be really fun and I’d love the collaboration. To write with something in mind that you can throw yourself into that environment and see what comes up – that’d be a really nice creative challenge.”

For now, bôa’s creative challenges include intense tour planning, including an upcoming Lollapalooza set and an opening slot for internet darling Bladee, a show that charts the band’s full, trench-level deep immersion into internet fandom culture. Still, Rodgers is eager for more: “I would like to go to Japan. [Performing at] the big ones like Glastonbury would be amazing to do, but they’re all so different.”

bôa’s paradigm is dauntingly unique: the internet is suddenly obsessed with a sound you created over 18 years ago. Thankfully for these fans, Rodgers doesn’t let the Twilight obsession hurt Whiplash’s independent sound within the band’s discography: “I wanted to convey that same feeling of ‘I made it through’, at least now, and hopefully you will too. And take light, because I didn’t think I would. So maybe the music I’ve written now will be another warm hug for you. Another warm hug from a different understanding, after getting through a lot of those different experiences.”