As they play multiple shows at SXSW this week, here's a chance to revisit our interview with Alt Blk Era.
Hailing from Nottingham, hotly-tipped sister duo Alt Blk Era are ready for the big time with their electrifying, genre-bending debut album, Rave Immortal. Here, the rising stars share their story, reminisce on karaoke sessions at home and highlight the importance of accessibility in the industry…
INTERVIEW: MIRANDA BARDSLEY
As we enter 2025, Alt Blk Era currently stand as one of the most exciting new alternative rock bands in the UK. Yet for all the award nominations and hype coming their way of late, for sisters Nyrobi and Chaya Beckett-Messam, it still feels like only yesterday that they were doing their household chores while belting out their vocals over instrumental versions of Katy Perry’s biggest hits.
“Our mum would be like, ‘What is taking so long?!’ because we’d spend hours playing songs off our iPod,” laughs older sister Nyrobi, as the siblings settle into a chat with Music Week during a “big planning, organising, ‘clothes-all-over-the-bed’, wardrobe-sorting” kind of day.
Hailing from Nottingham, 20-year-old Nyrobi and 17-year-old Chaya have been surrounded by music for as long as they can remember.
“Growing up, our mum would play neo-soul, R&B and reggae around the house, and Nyrobi and I would listen to artists like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Alicia Keyes, Leona Lewis… a lot!” recalls Chaya.
Nyrobi, a self-described “music and drama geek”, spent her school years falling in love with performing.
“I was in a band in Year 4, which brought me so much joy,” she says. “And I also remember doing this talent show at school, which I didn’t win, but all the parents came up to me afterwards saying I should have [laughs], and from there, I just really latched onto it!”
As Chaya got older – “and became conscious,” jokes Nyrobi – the sisters started singing together, first at home on their karaoke machine, then at performances at school. But it took a little persuading on Nyrobi’s part to convince her younger sister that they had something special.
“My sister has always been an introvert so she’d be like, ‘No, it’s not that good…’ and I’d be like, ‘No, trust me, we’ve really got something here, let’s do this,’” smiles Nyrobi. “It’s so funny imagining that conversation happening between a 10- and seven-year-old!”
It was five years later, in 2020, that Nyrobi and Chaya started to take the idea of pursuing music seriously. The Covid pandemic had hit, they’d left school, and with encouragement from their mother, started to post song covers on YouTube. From there, they started to research the music industry itself and began working on putting their first songs out.
“It started with one every month, then it went to every two weeks,” Nyrobi remembers. “Ever since, we’ve been putting out more and more, and have just been growing until it’s become this actual ‘thing’.”
Indeed, in recent years, Alt Blk Era have established themselves as one of the industry’s most exciting alternative acts. With nominations from the MOBO and Heavy Music Awards and extensive support from stations like BBC Radio 1 and Kerrang! Radio, the duo were also one of Glastonbury’s BBC Introducing Stage acts in 2023 and last year took to the stage at Download festival, Boomtown Fair, Burn It Down and as Forest Sessions stage headliners at 2000 Trees.
Their latest single, My Drummer’s Girlfriend, has racked up more than a million Spotify streams, and this month they are gearing up to drop Rave Immortal, their brilliant, genre-smashing debut album.
Released via indie label Earache Records, Rave Immortal not only marks the next step for Alt Blk Era as a band, but it also digs deep into something they have never spoken about before: Nyrobi’s disability, which took hold after she had become chronically ill in 2020, during her teens in the pandemic. Nyrobi was left bed-ridden in the years following, suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, hypersomnolence and POTS.
“We wanted to share this story,” says Nyrobi, pausing to consider why now felt like the right time to do so. “My disability is a hidden one – I haven’t talked about it for years because Chaya and I wanted to show the world who we are and what we can do, but now it feels like we’ve really done that. No one can say we can’t perform because I have chronic pain and tiredness, or that our award nominations are sympathy votes.”
“Ever since we started, every month we’d be like, ‘Shall we tell people now…?” Chaya adds. “And I was scared to, for Nyrobi, but I’m so glad it’s out there because it’s had a good response and people have related to her.”
Although the idea of opening up initially seemed daunting, Nyrobi and Chaya were also driven to spread awareness about what hidden disabilities actually are, and to normalise the discussions around them.
“When I first became disabled, we wouldn’t even mention the word ‘disabled’ itself at home, because it would just make me cry,” she says. “That’s because no one ever talks about hidden disabilities – there is such a stereotype about them – so it’s about opening up people’s minds to them.”
Nyrobi felt particularly inspired after hearing Lady Gaga share her struggle with chronic pain, which she opened up about in her 2022 Netflix documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two.
“That helped me because she’s been able to travel the world and become an icon,” Nyrobi explains. “So if people see what I’m doing, they might feel inspired like I did.”
By speaking about it openly, Nyrobi and Chaya also hope to educate others on the importance of accessibility.
“We didn’t tell people at first because we didn’t want to get less shows,” says Chaya. “So if you have an artist who is disabled, it’s important to still try to get them shows, and not think, ‘Oh, they won’t be able to do this or that.’”
“It’s all about listening,” Nyrobi adds. “And asking questions, instead of telling me what my own disability is.”
And as they prepare to let Rave Immortal loose, Alt Blk Era – with their electrifying live shows and signature black-and- white outfits – are ready to share their message with the world, and connect with more and more people as they do so.
“I just want to work with artists everywhere,” Nyrobi says.
“And I hope this album lands us in a spot where we are even more recognisable,” Chaya adds. “But mostly, I just want to be happy…”
“Are you happy now?” her big sister asks.
Chaya doesn’t need to say a single thing in reply. Her face says it all.
