By Aditi Hrisheekesh, Co-Deputy Music Editor
After years out of the spotlight, British alt-rock band Bôa have found themselves pulled back into a world they didn’t expect to return to, but one that has welcomed them with open arms. The group, best known for their cult-hit ‘Duvet’, has reunited after a 20-year hiatus in a musical age radically different from the one they left behind.
‘It’s been quite a weird situation to be back after so many years and to navigate a very, very different landscape now,’ Jasmine reflected. ‘Not only because the world is so much more digital, but because we’re older and our priorities have shifted’.
That new landscape has thrust their breakout single ‘Duvet’ into unexpected limelight on TikTok, where users have slowed it, sped it up, re-imagined it in a thousand different contexts – a musical chameleon of a song. I’ve seen it soundtracking everything from Rory Gilmore edits to Pinterest slideshows of ‘the downtown girl aesthetic’.
‘Sometimes, it’s funny to see how people engage with the music. There was a true crime reel I saw which had "Duvet" really slowed down, and it sounded really scary,’ Jasmine laughs. ‘But it’s nice. There’s a sort of immediacy of how people relate to the music and it’s quite creative’.
Decades later, their musical essence remains intact at its core, with the release of their first album in twenty years, Whiplash, in October 2024. 'I mean, we just started jamming and it just worked. It just sounded like Bôa again. It was like, oh, right, okay – we’re back'.
‘I don’t think my sound has changed much personally’, Jasmine says, ‘although I’ve maybe become a little more reserved’.
Dropping from six members to three certainly made a sonic shift, they noted. With some arrangements becoming more elaborate nowadays, the live experience has become more expansive. ‘Our newer songs are sort of packed more full’, they note.
Back when they first recorded their esteemed album Twilight, the world was a lot more analogue, and recording was much more work. ‘It was all on two-inch tape rather than click, rewind, play, click’.
But for Jasmine, the live setting is everything. ‘I’m more of a live music person – I mean, I love our studio recordings, but I just feel like our live shows are really great’.
And, I can tell you, having seen them recently at Electric Bristol, they certainly pack a punch.
When asked to choose a favourite live show, they admit it’s a tough call. ‘Honestly, I couldn’t pick one. There have been so many great moments’.
One especially sweet vignette from Jasmine centres on a cherished birthday. ‘Lee, for various visa reasons, couldn’t get to the States (though I like to say bank robbery as a joke), and it was my birthday. The guys brought out a birthday cake for me on stage, everyone was singing, and it was just lovely. It was a very core memory moment for me’.
Nostalgia runs deep, and they haven’t forgotten their roots.
‘One of the most humbling moments was when we first started and we were trying to blackmail friends to come to our shows… It was the World Cup. We put the TV in the pub and at half‑time, we did the show and they all left. Whenever you’re looking around and you’re playing these lovely big shows and stuff, it's a very humbling memory, which is also quite funny.’
And of course, English weather plays its lovably volatile part. Recalling a particularly soggy Glastonbury, Jasmine laughed - ‘Lee’s drum stage had started sinking in the mud as he was playing.’
In the years since they last played together, their lives spun off in pretty different directions. Lee, for one, leaned into family life and, as he puts it, released a ‘tiny EP, nothing like Bôa though’. Jasmine, meanwhile, went and got a zoology degree.
‘I was just about turning sixteen when we started the band, younger than everyone else’, she said. ‘So I wanted to do other things. I’ve been doing solo music as well, which has been put to the side for the moment, but it’s still there’.
Mid-conversation comes a casual admission from Lee, ‘Forgot I did a degree… Yeah, I did one of those too’ - a statement that surprised Jasmine. ‘You’ve never said that to anyone!’ she said, genuinely caught off-guard.
Bôa’s sound has always been remarkably distinct and eclectic, instrumentally blending alt-rock with the undercurrent of trip-hop and folk. Jasmine’s vocals are both emphatically strong and wistful, floating over groovy rhythms. So, it is unsurprising that the band harnesses a plethora of musical influences. Of course, for Jasmine, her father, Paul Rodgers, formerly vocalist for Queen, was her first inspiration.
Early on, the group gravitated towards Jane’s Addiction, Gong, and Ween, but over time their collectively agreed tastes widened to PJ Harvey, Blondie, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and more. Wet Leg and Amyl and the Sniffers were also named as a couple of newer favourites.
There’s certainly a folk undercurrent too in their sound and they pay homage to Led Zeppelin, complimenting that ‘mix of heaviness and folk’. In August 2023, they posted a cover of 'Ramble On' by Zeppelin, fresh from their reunion.
Such a distinguishable sound, however, would not come without creative clashes. Lee notes, ‘There was a lot of fighting.’ Practising from Friday night to Sunday became their weekly ritual. But it certainly forged something special, especially when they recorded ‘Duvet’, which Jasmine called ‘a lovely one’.
‘It kind of had every single part of us… all the different bits and bobs are in there quite nicely placed. You’ve got the guitar solo, synth solo, running bass, and it seems to meld quite nicely’.
When asked which track they each resonate with most, Jasmine points to ‘Fool’ – a song that wrestles with identity, reflecting her search for a sense of self. ‘And that’s never not going to be a question for anybody.’
‘Fool’, from the Twilight album, is inexplicably raw and personal – ‘I was born and raised, as an eastern girl in a western world’ – a line many second-generation immigrants will find deeply relatable, reflecting the struggle of growing up between cultures. It speaks to the experience of being part of a ‘Third Culture’ – a term for those raised in a culture different from that of their parents.
Lee highlights ‘Strange Few’ as a current favourite – softer, but unnerving in the best way. Every song, they say, holds a piece of them, with each member putting something of themselves into it.
‘It was silliness that somehow turned into something serious’, Jasmine says, when asked about the process of choosing the name Bôa. The choice emerged from playful chaos and countless throwaway suggestions (including the names ‘Sharon’ and ‘fried chaffinch’) until they landed on Bôa. ‘And I love snakes anyway’, she added.
After decades in the game, these established musicians offer advice to the next generation: ‘It’s not always about how fast you play. It’s about feeling and having that chance’. Of course, this inevitably comes with its own battle against perfectionism.
‘Keep going. Don’t feel put off by comparing yourself to others. Be serious about what you’re doing, but try to remember to have fun’.
Pulling a lyric from their song ‘For Jasmine’, she says to ‘never stop learning’ – a reminder that, while stumbling through adulthood, you’re still in perpetual motion, adapting, changing. You still grow.
Featured Image: Angela RicciardiWhat's your favourite song by Bôa?
