TOWA BIRD WEARS MIU MIU ON THE FOURTH COVER OF 10 USA ISSUE 07

As she gets ready to embark on her first solo tour, the hyper-talented guitar virtuoso Towa Bird ditches her instrument for a chance to pose in Miu Miu’s latest threads.

In the four years it would typically take to earn a college degree, Towa Bird got a crash course in the music industry. Between 2020 and 2024, she started playing covers on TikTok, got scooped up by powerhouse managers, recorded an acclaimed debut album, American Hero, for a major label, and was an opening act on Billie Eilish’s last arena tour. After so much pressure in such a short time, the young singer, songwriter, and guitarist took it all on in her generally unflappable way. But during a steamy stretch of summer, the performer, known for her sharp suits, met her match. “As soon as this heatwave started happening, the sleeves had to go,” she says with a laugh, having arrived for our video conversation on a fuzzy couch in her Los Angeles dining room sporting a red polo, rather than the dapper wardrobe that’s defined her second album.

“Like, the gentleman has to take a fucking break.” Gentleman, her sophomore record, which arrived in May, is a swaggering statement that has brought the half-English and half-Filipino musician into all kinds of new spaces. But it started in the studio, where she worked closely with her producer, Patrick Wimberly (Caroline Polachek’s partner in the band Chairlift), and landed a feature from the riot grrrl heroine Kathleen Hanna, whose music has long been a refuge for women and queer people like Bird. “I always have to remember that my existence and who I am as a person is innately political,” Bird said. “I am just trying to reflect the truest version of myself. Even though it feels as though we are getting more queer representation in media, I don’t ever wanna be complacent, especially when talking about intimacy. It’s so rare to have that represented.”

Bird, born Victoria Ilagan Vergara-Bird, grew up loving classic rock and soccer in Thailand and Hong Kong, and has both bookish and rebellious tendencies, making her seem like all five archetypes from The Breakfast Club rolled into one. She’s long had a deep understanding of the connection between music and fashion, and was inspired by how icons like David Bowie, Prince, and Madonna presented themselves. “They were so androgynous and so fearless with their androgyny. And I was always so attracted to that for myself, because I was learning how to dress myself.” (She even had some sartorial inspiration at home, via a pair of “swaggy” parents. “My dad’s in his seventies, and he’s, like, rocking a Chelsea boot,” Bird says, with genuine appreciation.)

Though her well-defined personal aesthetic – which spotlights her lush mane – has become a signature, she was overwhelmed when she was approached to be a face of Miu Miu, who outfitted her for this cover story. “I always thought of my fashion as just self-expression, rather than something I could also do as part of my career,” she says. “It wasn’t part of my plan, but not because I didn’t want to do it, just because I didn’t think that they would want me, per se.”

She grew animated while describing the looks she wore for this shoot: “I love doing editorial stuff because I feel like a doll.” Bird similarly tried on musical ideas while playing on Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. “A wonderful thing about opening for somebody is the fans don’t give a shit about you,” she said. “It’s a really cool time to test stuff out because you get to authentically watch people’s live reaction, and they will clearly tell you whether they like it or not.”

Bird also has someone in her personal life she can bounce ideas off of: her girlfriend, the pop singer and actress Reneé Rapp. While she can be “a little bit nervous to show her stuff,” because she’s intimidated by her partner’s creativity, Bird said Rapp “always has really good feedback for me. And because she’s the person who knows me so well, she knows what my insecurities are, where I want to grow.” She tried to make Gentleman, which veers from jagged post-punk to dreamy synth pop and includes a lighter-worthy guitar solo on 69 BPM, without worrying about how she’d pull it off onstage, but the day of reckoning is drawing near.

Bird’s fall tour is her first as a headliner, and though she’s focused on how visuals play into her art, the process began with nailing down the set list: “Once the music feels like it flows and it’s good, then I can fill in the rest of the information,” she says. Bird got some live inspiration this year from seeing Paul McCartney at LA’s tiny Fonda Theatre, where she came face to face with one of her heroes. “I was like, ‘I can’t even tell you how much you’ve done for me so I’m not even gonna bother,’” she says. “He could never understand what the B side of Abbey Road did for me.” (The interaction ended with a handshake instead.) McCartney was 27, the same age as Bird, when The Beatles made that LP, the last one they’d record as a band. Bird is well aware that it’s an auspicious age in music, but she’s got big plans for the future. Right now, “it feels like the very beginning.”

Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 7 – HERITAGE, LEGACY, FUTURE – out September 18! Order your copy here.

MIU MIU: RARE BRID

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