Sunflower Bean have a Headful of Sugar and they're heading to The Wedgewood Rooms | Interview

The New York-based trio have a sound that takes in glam, psych, indie and shoegaze, but with new album Headful of Sugar they are releasing their most direct, attention-grabbing set to date.

Thematically Headful, due out on May 6, covers the bases from hedonism to life under late-stage capitalism and the American Dream gone sour.

The Guide caught up with frontwoman Julia Cumming via Zoom from a hotel room in Dallas, Texas, as the band were on their way to perform at the music biz bonanza South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Julia is an old hand at the event: ‘The first time I went to SXSW I was maybe 13 years old in my first band,’ the short-lived Supercute!, ‘and I just busked on the street for business cards.

‘SXSW runs very deep for me – it's a great place to see all the bands you've been waiting to see, see new bands, hear what everyone's been up to... It's a really great time to connect in real life, and those opportunities are more rare than ever these days.’

While at SXSW the band play a show dubbed Women That Rock and Julia sat on a panel discussion, Feminism In Rock. While it is arguably sad that these conversations still have to be had, Julia believes it is more important than ever that we have them.

‘In the music industry right now, there's lengthy plethora of issues which are extremely pertinent, the fact that women's role in music, women's rights within music, visibility, access, being able to have your music heard – the fact that that is at the forefront right now, is really important.

‘I think that every woman or fem-presenting person that's out there creating that visibility just by being themselves... it's a person-by-person effort, and I think right now people are excited to talk about the future.

‘I see so many cool bands now which have women and girls, fem-presenting people, and it is way more normal than it ever was. I feel that's what everyone was fighting for – just to be seen as “normal”, making music not to be seen as an outsider and to have your perspectives be taken as seriously as a man's or anyone else's.

‘Even though it might seem annoying we're still having these conversation, to me it's not. The fact we're even having the conversations we're having now, it's worth continuing to fight for that visibility.’

These conversations have become even more pertinent to the band recently – since their last album, drummer Olive Faber has come out as transgender.

‘It's not really right for me to speak on her experience, but I am very very glad that someone I love so much gets to be who they are and gets to be true to themselves, and I support her 100 per cent, and so far everything has been really great.’

Latest single Roll The Dice is the three-piece at their most immediate, a three-minute critique of the American Dream, with guitarist Nick Kivlen sharing vocals with Julia.

‘Everything about this song, the fact it's so abrasive, sonically in a unique place with both of our voices, it's really supposed to bring up that uncomfortableness in yourself. Just the global experience of whether you know that these systems you reside in are massively imperfect, you also know that you have to take huge gambles and risks in order to have the chance to succeed within them.

SEE ALSO: Free art trail around the city previews Portsmouth Comic Con

‘When we sing that part, “I just want to win, win, win, win, win”, it's both looking at it, but also accepting it within ourselves.

‘You can critique something while also having to accept that you are every day, coming with these claws to try and figure out how to survive and get ahead of another person. There's so much competitiveness, which we also inherently accept just to survive.’

While they are obviously writing as Americans, Julia sees the song’s theme as being something more universal.

‘There's a primal thing about it which is outside the American Dream – we are so connected, and we all become more culturally similar all the time due to the access we have to each other.

‘I do hope that it speaks to everyone in that way, and that people are open to that experience within it.’

Previous album Twentytwo in Blue came out in March 2018 to critical acclaim, appearing on numerous end-of-year lists. The band had planned to follow it up long before now, but with the arrival of the pandemic they decided to keep writing, ending up with more than 80 demos for this album.

However, with so much material at their disposal, instead of throwing the kitchen sink at their next release they opted for a lean, taut album.

‘It's very lean,’ agrees Julia, ‘11 songs in 35 minutes and that was definitely intentional. When we made this record we were very clear on our intentions.

‘We wanted to make something that was very grounded and tangible, yet psychedelic. We wanted to live in the real world, have it be about the real world and about real things. And we wanted it to be powerful and fun.

‘While we haven't thought of it as a "pandemic record", there's darkness around all the time and a lot of the themes on the record are dark, but we wanted to kind of play into that “sugar” element.

‘When it came to choosing what made it on we went back to the ethos of keeping it fun, keeping it light.’

Are any of those other songs likely to be released elsewhere?

‘Yeah, all this music exists, so I hope a lot of it will see the light of day.

‘It's such a great thing to have. I never would have imagined to have that much time to try so many different things. It’s very cool to have this much material.’

The circumstances of the last two years also gave Julia the chance to get involved in ‘two really cool pandemic collaborations’ – with experimental musician Yves Tumor on his latest album Heaven to a Tortured Mind, and with Manic Street Preachers on the single The Secret He Had Missed from their chart-topping album The Ultra Vivid Lament.

Nicky Wire of the Manics has previously praised Twentytwo in Blue in interviews as one of his favourite albums of recent years, and the band contacted her about working together.

‘I knew they were writing and they told me about that song, we talked about the inspiration and the lyrics, the sound, and it was a really cool opportunity to be part of their legacy.

‘It's the first number one record in the UK I've been part of, and it was really awesome to get to know them, and they have remained so passionate and excited about new music. They don't have to do that - they don't have to do anything, so the fact they listen and get excited and share that experience with me, it was definitely a highlight of the pandemic.

‘I was supposed to sing it with them at Wembley, but Omicron happened, so it got cancelled.’

Sunflower Bean are at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea on Sunday, April 10. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.