Bôa— Your New (Old) Favorite Band
Notebook in hand like a journalist, of course, I’m paying attention to outfits worn by fans standing in line for what seems like hours. A girl wearing a black milkmaid knee-high dress paired with micro-bangs. Next to her, was a guy with studded bracelets and a band tee. Next to him, someone wearing a neck-tie and blouse. As the crowd becomes my personal Pinterest board; I remember other artists who’d suggest to fans to have a certain look or wear a certain item.
Not Bôa.
“I want people to feel welcome in whatever they were, however, they were… I don't want to prescribe to people how they should be if they want to listen to our music, right?” Said lead singer of the alternative rock group, Jasmine Rodgers, “they're the kind of people that I would quite happily ever cup of tea with.”
Now on tour 20 years after their sophomore album Get There (2005), Bôa’s getting back into the swing of things with their third American show in Orlando at The Plaza Live. Strike Orlando got to sit down with Rodgers and discuss the creation of the band’s new music, described in magazines like Variety as a collection of “breakups and breakdowns.”
“They were like, ‘Do you want to just do a new album?’ We were like; yes…we were writing straight away, and then suddenly we're on tour, and suddenly all these things were happening while we hadn't gone on tour. Then it felt like whiplash, where you're kind of like, oh my goodness, and then you're okay, you're kind of recalibrating.”
That’s the sort of vibe she gives off. Rodgers is an artist’s artist. Walking into the interview with Strike Orlando, she let her hair down and smiled wide. She radiates authenticity and sees it shine in Bôa’s fans.
“You are always kind of recalibrating and finding your center and finding your place or kind of peace,” Rodgers said about Bôa’s latest album Whiplash— perfect for fans of Fiona Apple, Hoizer, and Mazzystar.
In 2022, one of Bôa’s songs, Duvet, became a well-known TikTok song and brought on a new generation of fans to their music.
“We've got lots of fans in different countries, and I think that social media has allowed that to happen. It allowed us to enable people to hear us in those places, which is fantastic. We would not be here without it,” says Rodgers.
After our interview, I was able to speak to some fans behind the barricades and ask them about the band, the show, and TikTok.
“I’m cool with [songs] blowing up on TikTok because TikTok is a good platform to uplift smaller artists… I found a lot of small artists from TikTok… It’s really great seeing artists get the recognition that they deserve,” says one fan.
After opener Dream Ivory set the mood with a shoe-gaze type set, Rodgers and the rest of the band members, Alex Caird and Lee Sullivan, came to dazzle audiences with a set— Rodgers noting “It’s quite hot, I’m wearing clothes I’d wear in England.”
The band took a 20-year gap between their last and latest album. Each member went on to do solo projects— Rodgers herself working on her own solo music.
“The same as writing fashion or anything creative, isn't it? Everybody was kind of going separate ways.. wanting to find other places and things to do… you have these peaks and troughs, and you kind of have to push yourself a little bit if you want to do it,” says Rodgers.
The show was an exciting watch— filled with energy from the band and the crowd, the type of show with no theatrics, just raw authentic music. Refreshing from the type of big gimmick shows seen all over one’s For You page on social media.
“When you write a song, you're not writing it because you're hoping somebody's going to listen to it, you're writing it because you're expressing yourself, and if somebody connects with that, then that's a really authentic connection, and that's really nice.”
Strike Out,
Orlando
Written By: Riley Flynn
Photography By: Estephanie Ortiz
Edited By: Madison Campbell
