Towa Bird Is Entering Her Next Era: “Towa 102”
The Filipino British guitarist opened up about confidence, desire, and what’s next after ‘American Hero’ in Vogue Phillipines’ latest cover story.
Featured Photo by Frazer Harrison/WireImage
If you felt a collective gay shiver this week, it’s because Towa Bird just soft-launched her second album.
In a new interview with Vogue Philippines for their February 2026 Love Issue, the Filipino English guitarist and singer-songwriter confirmed she’s officially working on her sophomore project, Towa 102, and teased a record that’s louder, sexier, and far more assured than her 2024 debut, American Hero.
“I know what I want, and I’m gonna show you how I got it,” Towa says of the new album, which she began conceptualizing in late 2024 while touring with Billie Eilish. Where American Hero functioned as an introduction—restless, curious, exploratory—this next chapter is rooted in confidence, desire, and falling deeply, maddeningly in love with people, music and herself.
The themes? “Confidence, aura, sexiness, and desire.” The tone? Raw as hell and written from the perspective of someone who’s no longer asking for permission to take up space. Songs were built from notes jotted mid-conversation, overheard phrases at dinners, and fleeting feelings captured on tour, then sharpened in the studio with instinct leading the way.
For fans, especially queer fans, this era feels personal. Towa’s music has always been deeply embodied—thrashing guitars, mischievous eye rolls, and lyrics that flirt with vulnerability and lust in equal measure. Tracks like “Drain Me!” already blurred the line between love song and sapphic anthem, and the new album promises to lean even further into that energy. Not explicit for shock value, but explicit in truth.
Just as important as the music is who Towa is becoming more comfortable being. Born Victoria Ilagan Vergara-Bird, she’s Filipino English, born in Hong Kong, raised across Asia and Europe, now based in Los Angeles—someone who has long existed in the in-between. In the interview, she speaks candidly about checking “other” on forms, about not fitting neatly into boxes of race, gender, or expectation, and ultimately deciding to create her own category.
That self-definition extends to her queerness, her androgynous style, and her pride in Filipino heritage, which is honored beautifully in the Vogue Philippines shoot, as she wears traditionally masculine barongs styled with heeled boots and sharp tailoring. It’s gender play. It’s cultural reverence. It’s soooo hot.
At just 26, Towa Bird is stepping into a version of herself that feels fully intentional—musically, culturally, romantically. The second album isn’t just a follow-up, it’s a declaration.
