With dedicated fans ready to hear whatever Towa had to say next, there was a newfound freedom that came with creating her second full body of work. That freedom, in turn, allowed her to be bolder, to stand firmer on who she was and what she wanted.

"It comes from a place of, and this is the general theme, the confidence and self-assurance I have in myself now as a human and as an artist. This time around, I have my bearings. I've been on tour, I've supported amazing artists, been on big arena stages - I know what it feels like now to do this. Growing with that, and being able to take that confidence from the live shows and touring and bring it into the studio and be like, I can make these really intentional choices now without the fear of being rejected. I can really push the boat out. Especially with this album, I'm leaning a bit more alternative. I don't have that many straight pop-structured songs as 'American Hero'. It's what we were talking about with getting to watch people react - people love when I play guitar. They love when I play my stupid little guitar; they're excited about it. In the studio, now that I know that, I can have the confidence to do that and bring that in. I can make more guitar moments, long intros, solos - things like that that I know I have the confidence to do. I was so fresh and new, and I wanted to keep myself safe the first time, whereas this feels like I'm starting to take more risks musically."

Those moments of risk-taking were fundamental in shaping the album, but were also often difficult in their own ways - it was a matter of going against the grain, resisting her natural urges and temptations to create something that felt completely new and exciting. Whether that's forgoing a chorus, pushing her voice to new limits, or taking a much slower approach, those opportunities to do something unique and unexpected were absolutely crucial in shaping 'Gentleman'.

"I think if you're scared or uncomfortable, then you're usually on the brink of doing something that is your best work," says Towa. "'Dog', writing that song, there were so many times where I had to slap myself on the wrist and be like 'no, don't write a fucking pop song, keep it cool, and keep it alternative'. I was like, 'What if we made it more pop, or wrote a hook', but I had to keep redirecting myself and know it was actually cool. It's very instinctual and feelings-based, and that's fine, and that's enough. I don't have to do too much; this is fine. I think being uncomfortable means that you're doing something productive for yourself."

'Dog' is an exercise in careful restraint, but a masterful one - Towa's guitar work shines amongst the bare landscape of the track, and it becomes all the more intimate as a result. It's a moment of stillness, a time to pause and soak in the weight of the surrendering the track fixates on. That idea of letting go in some regard echoes across the album - on 'Dog', in the sense of giving yourself over to someone completely, letting go of inhibition and fear. On 'All Gone', however, it's letting go in a much more free-wheeling sense. A maximalist opposition to 'Dog', the track is wildly caterwauling and exhilarating. Enlisting the formidable Kathleen Hanna for the track, it became the album's high-voltage peak.

"For me, it's like inviting Paul McCartney on," laughs Towa. "Like, okay, that's not gonna happen. I never entertained that idea at all. Patrick Wimberley, who produced the record, he and I would send each other songs back and forth and playlists. There was a lot of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill, always, throughout the year. When we were 70% done with the record, I realised I had never had a feature before and was like should we start thinking about that? I was thinking of an up-and-coming artist, someone who is maybe the same size as me and has the same amount of experience as me. Someone threw her name out there and was like, 'She is the reference for this record, why don't we just ask her?' I was like, you're so full of shit, that will never happen, but sure, whatever. I put it out of my mind and forgot about it, but then she was down, and that is still so wild to me. She came into the studio, and she's so much fun, so full of energy, she's such a bubbly, magnetic person."

It's pure celebration, and a track that captures the album's ethos immaculately. A little bit pissed off, but crucially escapist and uninhibited, and deeply multi-faceted. It speaks to the album's title, a word that had stuck in Towa's mind for a good few months before it became contextualised within the record. She's always had a penchant for redefinition - the entire concept of an 'American Hero' was her going against the grain and reinventing an aged stereotype. With 'Gentleman', she does that again, expanding the tradition and subverting it by adding multitudes. For Towa, the gentleman is something far more evolved than the chivalrous, outdated idea the word conjures up. It's a representation of her own complexity - of her ability to be bold and forthright whilst more vulnerable and sensitive than ever before. In 'All Gone', there is anger and joy existing side by side, and it is within those dualities that the idea of 'Gentleman' really exists.

"I think that reclaiming that word has been fun," reflects Towa. "It's not really a word you hear very much these days, not in the circles that I'm in. It's definitely putting a queer lens on it has been really exciting. The word is so old, and it can be very traditional, and I think this record is obviously not quite that. It's been really fun to reappropriate what that word means to me and what it could be to others."

In the androgynous, ever-evolving world of 'Gentleman', there is reinvention at every corner. More confident than ever, she's able to craft something increasingly closer to the core of her being and more raw as a result.

"It's still weird. It's a weird thing to write about such intimate parts of me and who I am and what I've experienced, but I also think it's entirely necessary for a good track and a good album to be authentically vulnerable and truthful. There's a ballad on this album, and it's the first time I've done a song like that, but it's the confidence again. The confidence to be big, but also to be small, and for that to be enough, and not hide behind a big wall of sound, for it to just be me and the guitar. Especially songs like 'Victoria', that's so exposed in my opinion, and I don't think my audience has heard me in that sort of landscape before, so I'm excited."

'Victoria' is an especially refreshing side of Towa - it's almost lullaby-esque until you truly listen to the lyrics as they grapple with self-worth and the hold it truly has. It's much stiller than the rest of the album - a closing track that seems to suggest that, as confident as she may have become, there is always, always room to grow more. The track is some of her strongest lyricism yet, and allows her vocals to be more clearly heard than ever before.

"I definitely was much more confident in my voice this time around. I know how to play to my strengths now. I'm not the most experienced singer in the world; I'd consider myself a pretty new singer compared to some of my peers. I would consider myself more of a musician, so it was really great to feel a little bit more in touch with what I can do and really play to those strengths in this record and start to experiment a little bit."

Though encouragement from those around her to push what she could do vocally was a huge help, much of that confidence also stemmed from her live experiences. In the intervening years between 'American Hero' and 'Gentleman', Towa found herself on increasingly bigger stages, from her own headline shows to a support run with Billie Eilish. Those opportunities proved pivotal to 'Gentleman'.

"I love touring so much, I love playing live, and I think it's one of the most important things about what I do. I love it so much. It's the only real way to get tangible live feedback from people. You can literally see people react to music in their face and in their eyes for the first time, and I think that's really special. A lot of other mediums, you can't necessarily do that. For example, if you're an actor, you don't really get that, like the first time listening to something, instinctual feedback. Playing live was really beneficial for me to have that pause. I felt very grateful to be able to watch people react to me for the first time. It was a huge learning curve. It really helped me decide what I wanted to do for my second album."

'Gentleman' in and of itself was a learning curve for Towa - from honing her craft live to allowing herself to be more audacious, it was an education in reaching closer to the music she wants to make and embodying that. 'Gentleman' is daringly capricious, and crucially, completely Towa Bird.

"My goal is to always make a record better than the last, or to feel more confident in the record than the one before," Towa concludes. "I feel so proud of this one, and I think that the first record is great and I loved making it, but this one feels really strongly like me, and I hope that the third one will be even closer. I can only hope for that, really."

Taken from the June 2026 issue of Dork. Towa Bird's album 'Gentleman' is out 15th May.