Leeds-based dream-folk duo Sunflower Thieves are masters at their craft. Rooted in authenticity honest lyricism, the soulful sisterhood have seen themselves included in the 2020 longlist for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent and supported by the likes of Steve Lamacq on 6Music. Creating a sound that unearths a warming notion, Sunflower Thieves are an exciting band growing with each release.
Hey! How are you guys? Are you excited about the release of your EP?
Hiiiii! We’re good thank you – very tired post-tour but really excited the EP is out in the world!
And what does the new EP mean to you personally?
Someone To Be There For is a collection of songs we’ve written over the past couple of years and they all document moments and feelings we needed to talk about. They explore self-discovery and growth, both individual and through various specific changing relationships, both looking forwards and looking back. We’ve both had a lot of change happen in our lives over the last few years, and this was a recurring theme throughout the writing sessions that birthed these songs. We touch on friendship, loss, relationship breakdown, personal strength and growth. The EP songs were all written with and by friends and I think that says a lot about why they made it onto the EP – they’re true and important to us, and hopefully resonate with others.
From these songs, what would you say your number 1 is?
It’s a tricky one, but we always come back to Sirens. Hearing it now immediately takes us back to writing it. It was the early ish days of lockdown one, and I [Amy] hadn’t felt like writing very much for a little while, but the verses sort of just fell out of me. I started writing about my friend Hannah, and how invaluable she was in needing me, when I was feeling pretty low. Lil, Sam and Tom helped me finish what I needed to say. I was so excited hearing the demo Sam and I initially made, and knew we’d made something vital and special. It’s a love song for your friends and how beautiful and constant friendship can be when you’re a bit lost in everything else. Sirens is definitely our favourite to play live because of the four part vocal harmony arrangement [thank you Sam!], and the feeling it takes us all back to. There’s a live performance with the four of us on YouTube, in which you can clearly see and hear how much we love it.
And what was your songwriting process when creating these new tracks?
This EP was all about collaboration in the end – something we’d not really explored too much pre lockdown. We worked with some wonderful musician friends to bring them to life. The process for each was different as they weren’t written in mind for an EP – we were mainly just writing because we felt like it. Generally, our writing approach goes: write an idea [lyric and guitar for a verse]; take it to each other and chat through the concept/narrative in depth, making notes; build on original idea and play with melody ideas, work out chorus message and keep checking back with our notes and core concept. Recording guitar and at least one vocal post-session is key for us to listen back and decide whether what we have is worth taking further, what needs revisiting and if we have any counter-melody ideas for instruments etc.
Can you tell us how you came to write your latest song Grown Out Of You?
Grown Out of You was written with our lovely friend Rachel (Mehalah Ray). She’s an incredible songwriter and artist, and we love working with her.
We both moved back to our respective childhood homes in Derbyshire in early 2020 for a while, and there’s nothing like being back home to bring back thoughts of people you used to know and hang out with. Catching up with friends is always full of, ‘Did you hear so and so bought a house/got a new job/is with this person’ etc and it’s funny how it hits home that you just don’t know those old friends anymore. We often feel that as musicians, we live quite different lives to a lot of our school peers who may have followed more traditional methods of seeking employment, or staying in the local area etc. We try not to compare ourselves for this reason, but it is hard! It’s that unavoidable ‘what if’, and reminding yourself that you are actually happy with the way you’ve chosen to go. We like to think we’ve grown out of worrying about letting go of those people, and grown out of comparing ourselves to them, because it’s not a genuine day-to-day worry.
So, what are your biggest aspirations to complete music-wise?
We’d love to be able to release an album, if not albums, and tour as far as we can, for as long as we can. Travelling the world and performing our music live is the dream. Oh, and with an orchestra. That’s the dream.
And who would be your dream artist to perform alongside?
Phoebe Bridgers, please and thank you.
Finally, what made you decide to start your journey in the music industry? Where did your passion originate?
We were so lucky to grow up in a vibrant, creative artsy community where we were exposed to music and arts from a young age. Each of our parents is hugely into music and live music was a strong feature of our childhood. Lily was adamant when she was younger that she wouldn’t be a musician because she didn’t want to just follow in her dad’s footsteps, but fell back in love with music and particularly with production, which was something we hadn’t really explored before. That’s definitely heavily influenced us writing and producing our own music. Amy developed an interest in the business side of the industry as well, and has grown our socials, network, image etc, learning to manage our release campaigns and live bookings – so we make a good team!
But yeah, it’s all about songwriting really. Our parents played us lots of folk and country music when we were younger, and the love for storytelling has definitely stemmed from there.
Stay connected to Sunflower Thieves: