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Mighty Hoopla and Olly Alexander have announced Trans Mission, a concert for trans solidarity•
JADE has announced a deluxe edition of her debut album, 'THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE'•
Madra Salach have released new single ‘Ribbon Factory’•
Bleech 9:3 have dropped new track 'Tourniquet' and announced their biggest headline tour yet•
Mollie Elizabeth has announced her new EP ‘People Pleaser’ and shared ‘Kiss The Ring’•
Baby Dave and The Works have kicked off a new collaboration with ‘Wings’•
RAYE, Olivia Dean, JADE and more are set to perform at the 2026 Mercury Prize ceremony•
Fontaines D.C. have released ‘Tongue’ and its New York-shot video•
LCD Soundsystem have announced 12 New York residency shows, including their 100th•
Saint Clair have shared new single ‘Dreams’ ahead of sold-out autumn headline tour•
overpass and Nieve Ella have shared a new version of ‘Fall In Love’•
Pollyfromthedirt has shared ‘White Wine Vinegar’ and announced a first London headline show•
Keo are leading the midweek UK album chart with ‘Put A Smile On For Me’•
Welly has released new single ‘Skinny Boy’•
Rachel Chinouriri has shared ‘Broken chair’ from new album ‘I Think I Spoke Too Soon’•
Lime Garden have shared new track ‘Moving Target’ with Antony Szmierek in the video•
CMAT will perform on ‘The Daily Show’ this week•
Audrey Hobert has unveiled a new video for 'Sex and the City' as she begins her headline tour•
The Dork 2025 Readers' Poll nominations are in, featuring CMAT, Turnstile, Wolf Alice, Djo, Hayley Williams and loads more•
flowerovlove has released her first-ever first Christmas track, 'wishlist'•
Mighty Hoopla and Olly Alexander have announced Trans Mission, a concert for trans solidarity•
JADE has announced a deluxe edition of her debut album, 'THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE'•
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Sunflower Bean: "We wanted to be a little bit braver"

Sunflower Bean are taking their irresistible tunes up a notch.

Sunflower Bean: "We wanted to be a little bit braver"
Written by
Dork
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Sunflower Bean
Published
26 Mar 2018 • 11:49 am
Sunflower Bean are back in the UK, but it hasn't exactly been a smooth ride. After a five-hour flight delay, they arrived at the airport to find all of their bags had been lost. They're surprisingly chipper about the ordeal, though. "We were only slightly hindered and stressed out, we've been lucky it hasn't happened more," says singer/bassist Julia Cummings, to agreement from singer/ guitarist Nick Kivlen and drummer Jacob Faber.
The reason those delayed flights and lost valuables aren't denting Sunflower Bean's happy-go-lucky attitude might have something to do with the imminent release of their new album, ‘Twentytwo in Blue'. It's been a long time coming, as Jacob explains: "We started writing it at the beginning of 2017, right after we got off of touring ‘Human Ceremony'. We got the soul of all of the songs down in early 2017, and then we were able to craft them and give them a lot of love in the studio for the best part of a year." He pauses and laughs. "Which is a bit different from 'Human Ceremony', which we just banged out in a week!"

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"I'm a big music nerd": Julia Cumming finds herself in full on her debut album ‘Julia’
Features

"I'm a big music nerd": Julia Cumming finds herself in full on her debut album ‘Julia’

Sunflower Bean frontwoman Julia Cumming steps out on her own with debut solo album ‘Julia’, a bold, piano-led statement about identity, autonomy and refusing to be boxed in.

"We also saw a lot of amazing acts on the road," she continues. "Seeing so many great songwriters made us think about what we wanted to be, how dedicated we were and what we wanted the next few years to look like. I think we decided we wanted something a little bit more inward facing. All of our music marks a place in time, so that made it feel like more of a natural decision." It's a real change of pace for the band, and one which you can tell took a lot of guts to make.
"I think one of the main differences between this album and the first is that we wanted to shed some of that guard we put up on ‘Human Ceremony'," Nick explains, picking up from Julia. "We wanted to be a bit more honest and open up. Because the first album had a sly, winking sense of humour to it, and I think we wanted to stop using that as much and be a little bit braver. It was partly down to a change in attitude and a growth in confidence after the first album, but it also meant trying something completely new."
It isn't all about finding inner peace and ignoring the world, though. "There's always going to be outside influences in your music," Julia says, when asked if the album is completely inward facing. "A record that we've kept in mind is Fleetwood Mac's ‘Tusk', especially that experimental aspect of it. We're pretty tender about people making that comparison to Fleetwood Mac, but I can hear it more on this record than in our previous work.
Citing Fleetwood Mac, Iggy Pop and Gorillaz as influences shows that Sunflower Bean draw from a wide range, but that doesn't mean they're indiscriminate. "I think a big part of the band has always been rejection," Nick says. "When we first started playing shows in the Brooklyn DIY scene around 2014, we wanted to do the opposite of what everyone else was doing, and now on our second album, we decided to completely throw out everything that we were doing on the first one! We wanted to see if we could run in a different direction with it."
Was this change in direction a response to pressure after ‘Human Ceremony' was released? "Honestly I don't think I felt any pressure," Nick replies. "When we got together to first start working out ideas in late 2016 we had this amazing creative explosion. Every day we had new stuff, and it was great, just this massive build-up from the year of touring when we didn't have time to write together. We made a lot of material very quickly, and it was a creative and fulfilling time.
Jacob agrees: "I think there's outside pressure inherently there, but we're all very good at managing it. We knew we had a lot in us to put into the record, so I think the pressure was good, at least for me."
"I feel more pressure now," admits Julia, referencing the fact that the album is finished, but not actually out yet. "Annie Mac premiered our song ‘Twentytwo' on Radio 1, and all night beforehand I couldn't sleep. I just get so jittery and excited, especially because we didn't say anything about the record for so long. I think because of that the real excitement is getting it out there. That full circle of actually getting the songs into people's hands will be pretty awesome.
Taken from the April issue of Dork - order a copy or subscribe below. Sunflower Bean's album ‘Twentytwo in Blue' is out now.
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