“... everyone is competing for attention, especially in such a digital way; it’s hard to just be a human.” As they were for many, the lockdowns of 2020/21 were a time of self-discovery for New York’s Sunflower Bean. Shortly before the pandemic put paid to touring plans for what must have felt like a lifetime for a band who had rarely been off the road since 2015, the three-piece consisting of vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming (she/her); guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen (he/him) and drummer Olive Faber (she/they) had been revelling in the critical and commercial success of their second album, 2019’s ‘Twentytwo in Blue’, and the glowing reviews for its accompanying live dates. However, the restrictions imposed on the world gave Cumming, Kivlen and Faber the opportunity to assess where to take Sunflower Bean next and work soon began on their third album, with Faber having used the downtime to acquire the relevant
skills to act as the band’s co-engineer alongside UMO’s Jacob Portrait, who having worked on ‘Twentytwo in Blue’, also provided production and mixing. The result is the Psychedelic headrush ‘Headful of Sugar’, released on 6th May via Lucky Number. Whereas Sunflower Bean described ‘Twentytwo in Blue’ as an “ode to the fleeting innocence of youth”, ‘Headful of Sugar’ is an album inspired by the lived experience of late capitalism. And with such weighty subject matter explored across their growing catalogue, it is no surprise that the band caught the attention of Manic Street Preachers, who recently called upon Cumming to add her vocal talents to ‘The Secret He Had Missed’, the second single to be lifted from their latest chart-topping latest album, last
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