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WUTC's local and regional live music coverage features artist interviews, festival overviews, show reviews, and photos from the event.

Shaky Knees 2023: Interview w/ Sunflower Bean

Sunflower Bean is a 3-piece indie rock band from New York. All three members grew up in the New York City music scene, determined to pursue careers as musicians. Being some of the youngest members in the scene at the time, Julia, Nick, and Olive were drawn to each other. Their shared traits and aligned desires to be full-time musicians, coupled with their passion to prove themselves on the scene, allowed for a natural friendship and effective partnership.

As Julia told Haley Solomon, all three members collaborate to write the songs, and the seed for a new piece of music could easily come from any one of them. This partnership and self-reliance as a band grew even more during the pandemic when they all shared a rental home in upstate New York and nearly single-handedly produced their latest album "Headful of Sugar."

For two years they worked tirelessly on this project for, as Julia from the band says, “the work is their life.” With the uncertainty of the pandemic looming, the band converted their rental into a full-service recording studio, and Olive, the drummer, taught herself about recording, editing, and producing. The band even took all their meals outside, so as to leave more interior space for instruments and recording equipment. Their bathroom became a vocal booth, the dining room, a live recording space, and a lot of this process was documented on video by the guitarist, Nick. You can find that footage on Youtube as “Sunflower Bean – The Making of Headful of Sugar.

Sunflower Bean played Shaky Knees 2023 on Saturday, May 6th. They had another festival shortly after in Florida and weren’t able to stick around long after their set. So, in the week before, Haley and Julia met up over Zoom to talk about the band, the making of "Headful of Sugar," their experience with festivals, and how Julia has somehow still never attended a single one as a fan.

Haley Solomon said, "Julia was a joy to speak to, she and the band Sunflower Bean are extremely ambitious and have a beautiful vision for the role that artists could play in booking shows and festivals of the future."

Production Director, Producer & Host at WUTC of The Haley Solomon Show, ElectroNights with Haley Solomon and Wild Woman Radio.
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