Beginning in London in 1993 as a funk-inspired project, the band bôa would experience swift line-up changes, which brought with it sonic rearrangements and new inspirations, resulting in the discovery and move towards the dreamy and hazy indie sound that they would become known for.

Their 1998 debut album, The Race of a Thousand Camels, was released by the Japanese indie label Polystar. Despite limited circulation, the album managed to catch the attention of some people working on the then-upcoming anime series Serial Experiments Lain, who wished to license the track “Duvet” as the series’ theme, which the band agreed to.

After the success of Lain, in 2000, the Pioneer Company (which had licensing arrangements for the anime) worked with bôa on a rearrangement of Camels for their music division. Camels’ tracklist was rearranged and resulted in their 2001 album Twilight, which is now considered their official debut. Thanks to Pioneer’s strong distribution, Twilight had a much broader reach.

In 2004, the band self-released their follow-up album, Get There, before amicably splitting and going their separate ways. After their split, bôa’s frontwoman, Jasmine Rodgers, attended university and earned a degree in zoology before returning to music as a solo artist in the early 2010s.

 “We put so much effort into it, and we were so dedicated to it, and we’d put everything on hold,” Jasmine tells Post-Burnout of the band’s initial run. “I was in the band from when I was fifteen, just turning sixteen, so I wanted to be able to go and do some stuff with my mates, like going travelling or anything, really.

“So, I kind of wanted to just explore that a bit, and I know everyone else did. I know Paul [Turrell, their former keyboardist] went on to lecture sound engineering, and everybody, basically, just had that moment in time to rethink, ‘Is that what you want to do?’ Because when you’re really committed, it can take so much out of you.

“We had already been together for five or six years by the time we wrote the Twilight album, so we’d already been meeting up every week… – and it was social, as well! – …meeting up every weekend and rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing. We didn’t have social lives; our social life was the band!

“There was always a bit of heartache of, ‘Oh, I wish it had done better,’ and when it started to do well, we were like, ‘Oh, we found our audience.’ Of course, we got massively lucky, but it’s also kind of the nature of the beast that it went out and it met people that were willing to receive it. It was nice.”

To the surprise of the band, in the late 2010s, “Duvet” would go viral on TikTok, with people familiar with the song through Lain adding it to their videos, resulting in even more people discovering the track and, by extension, the band. As a result of the renewed interest in bôa, several labels and management companies contacted the members about a reunion. Eventually, they would agree. They signed with the Nettwerk Music Group and publicly announced their reformation in 2023.

 “I think it was the curiosity,” Jasmine says of their reason for coming back. “We were given an opportunity, and we were just curious to see what we’d come up with. We had no idea that we’d be touring. We had no idea that we’d end up touring around the States, and Australia, and Europe, and Turkey, and I think we’re still a bit shocked and tired! [Laughs] So, none of this was in any way calculated; it was more like, ‘Oh, they’re interested,’ and we were curious to see what we could come up with.”

This new iteration of bôa initially featured Jasmine on guitar and vocals and longtime members Alex Caird on bass and Lee Sullivan on drums. Given the multilayered nature of their sound, the band would need to extend its personnel for their live shows.

“When we first started, there was six of us, and everyone was sort of scrabbling over each other for space,” Jasmine says when contrasting playing as a trio to their original formation. “I say ‘scrabbling’; I’m sure others would disagree.

“But what happened was, we ended up coming up with this lovely sound from all six of us, and I loved how broad that sonic landscape is, and there is a part of me that does miss that, but I think we’ve now got amazing strings and things going on, and amazing performers with us, as well, who build that, and they’ve made it their own, as well.

“So, I think our live shows are even more exciting now than they might have been if it was just us three, because we’ve always wanted that bigger sound of more people, so I don’t think we’ve completely left that behind, which is nice. So, I guess, going forward, we’re taking these new things with us, and a little bit of a nod to the past.”

After announcing their reformation, only a little over a year later, in October 2024, bôa released their first album in twenty years, titled Whiplash. “We were really determined, so we were meeting weekly and songwriting,” says Jasmine when explaining the quick turnaround rate. “It was quite lovely; we just came in, ‘How’re you doing?’, and then started songwriting. Every now and then, we’d get for dinner or something, but it was really, really focused.

“And all of us have got other lives and stuff, so we just really wanted to take this moment and focus in, and that made us more sensible with our time, I guess. So, we got more out, whereas, if we were not so focused, we’d probably would’ve taken about five years.”

Also helping to speed up the process was the fact that the members had semi-crafted tunes that they were sitting on, and they now had a project to fully realise them. “I think Alex had quite a few, and then I brought in a few, as well,” Jasmine says.

“So, lyrically, I think it was quite a challenge to write so quickly, in that respect, because, usually, I take a lot longer. With early bôa, I was reading voraciously and [was] really inspired by the books that I read, and now I have no attention span, so I could write about an Instagram story! [Laughs] That’s about it!”

Described as an album about “break-ups, breakdowns, and divorce,” Whiplash took inspiration from life experiences that the members had encountered during their sabbatical. “I split up with my ex during that time, so I was like, ‘Oh, look! I’ve got some fuel now! Here we go!’,” laughs Jasmine.

“But there were also loads of other things going on, so those all went into that. Sinéad O’Connor passed away during that time, so some of the lyrics, just looking into…[Sighs] I can’t even reference her properly, in that sense. That was just in mind, what a wonderful person she was. So, that came into some of the lyrics about being misunderstood or unrecognised, and the meaning behind what you’re saying being something deliberately obscured.

“That kind of played on my mind quite a lot while we were going through this, and we were actually recording at the time, and we were still half-finishing writing some of the stuff while we were doing that, so I think that might have gone in there. And, obviously, all the things with the pandemic, and…I don’t know. You know, you can’t really say, ‘Oh, this song is about this,’ but you know that, in the back of your head, it probably had a lot of that in there.”

When crafting the songbook, the members incorporated new auditory inspirations whilst also giving consideration to continuity between this album and what fans had loved in their previous output. “We definitely didn’t want to go into a completely different style of music,” Jasmine says. “But because there were only three of us, we were able to explore maybe some other influences that we liked, like Depeche Mode and people like that.

“So, there’s a slightly more new wave-y twist to things a little bit, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure, and Smashing Pumpkins. So, I think we were throwing in a bit of that, as well. Maybe slightly different. Even though we were conscious that where we came from was this, and we were referencing that in our mind a lot because it is us, even to the point of, ‘I know we’ve already written that!’ [Laughs] So, you do default to certain things, and licks, and stuff. I don’t think it was completely conscious – some of it was intuitive – but, yeah, there was some thinking about trying not to be too different.”

Despite initially existing for over a decade, in their original lifespan, bôa toured very infrequently and mainly played disjointed shows and anime conventions whenever they were asked, with Jasmine joking that the band never really left the studio. In 2024, they embarked on their first world tour, which saw them headline across the US, Australia, the UK, Ireland, and Canada.

Lacking sufficient evidence for their draw as a live act, the members viewed these shows as a test run to get a feel for their popularity after a twenty-year gap. “None of us knew whether we’d be able to cope with touring. The jury’s still out on that!” jokes Jasmine. “And none of us knew if we would sell out a venue. We had no idea at all. We had no idea whether people would like our T-shirts or CDs, or anything like that. So, all of it has been quite a delight to find that people really enjoy our music and really want to see us play. It’s been fantastic.”

Beyond reacclimatising to playing live, these shows were also experiments in adapting to newer tech. “The first show we did in Colours in Hoxton, we were using wedges, and then we went on to using inner-ears,” Jasmine says. “I [was] using pedals, and now I’m using a Line 6. So, getting used to using that.

“Getting used to the on-stage dynamic with inner-ears was just a different beast, because [Laughs] I was used to having the microphone almost down my throat, in order to combat the sound of Alex and Lee. [Laughs] They’re quite loud! I almost swallowed the microphone, and now I have to learn not to do that, now! Just things like that. So, playing the electric guitar for me was quite a big thing. Still is. I’m still learning, and I’ll always still be learning, I suppose.

“I think for all of us, the touring, [discovering how] quite exhausting it can be and how to manage the pacing of things, and I think a lot of it has been quite gruelling, actually, for us. So, that’s played quite a large part in some of the reframing of some of the touring, going forward, because we need to take a little moment.”

We asked Jasmine if the crowds bôa were performing for now just wanted to hear “Duvet,” or if they were wholly invested in the music that the band had poured so much dedication into. She responds, “We’ve been really lucky that people, when they come to the shows, they’ve really enjoyed all the music, and a lot of them seem to know all of the songs, as well.

“I don’t know whether that’s because they’re getting ready to come to a show, because they’ve heard ‘Duvet’ and now they’ve got involved with the rest of the album or what, but, certainly, that seems to be the case. And, of course, if they’re familiar with that song and that’s how they’ve met the band, that’s what they’re going to be happy to hear, but I think we’ve got quite a mixed bag.

“So, we’ve had people who knew us right from the start, we’ve had people who met us through the anime, and then there’s people who’ve met us through the viral side of things, and everybody consumes it all differently, but I think the main thing with the audience is that they enjoy that level of fragility and hardness of the songs that we have, and the sentiment behind them is very earnest, and that attracts people who are willing to hear everything.

“They have that sense of curiosity, as well. So, I just think we’ve got a really lovely audience, and I think they really do seem to respond to the songs really well. Let’s see how we go after this! [Laughs]”

After a sold-out world tour proving their popularity, bôa have been maintaining the momentum. When we spoke, they had just returned from their second tour of the United States, having played across mainland Europe in February. Beginning on the 10^th, bôa will embark on their largest headlining tour of the UK and Ireland, which kicks off at the New Century Hall in Manchester, before they return to Dublin for their second show in the city on the 14^th, playing at the 2,000-cap National Stadium, which is a 1,600 jump from their Irish debut at Whelan’s last autumn.

From our interaction, it was very apparent that bôa are taking their renewed interest with a sense of ease and allowing whatever opportunities that arise to take place without having a master plan for their future. “You want to write something that’s very meaningful, and I’m not good at pushing myself, lyrically, if I’m not feeling something,” Jasmine says.

“I think, as it stands, I want to take some time and process. Like, ‘What the hell has just happened these last few years?!’ [Laughs] As we’re going and starting to write again, what will that look like? I think we’ll see how it goes.”

bôa’s latest album, Whiplash, is out now. You can keep up with the band through their website. bôa will headline The National Stadium, Dublin on Saturday, June 14^th. Tickets for that show can be purchased through Singular Artists.

Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… tonight at 21:00 (IST) to hear this interview in full. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.