Formed while the members were teenagers, the Brooklyn indie pop trio Sunflower Bean merge rock & roll energy and dream pop sweetness into a sound that’s at once familiar and fresh. Drummer Jacob Faber and guitarist/vocalist Nick Kivlen began jamming together while both were still in high school, but nothing much came of it until they were freshman in college and added bassist/vocalist Julia Cumming to the lineup. Once set as a trio, they developed a style that relied heavily on interplay between the two vocalists and began playing shows in N.Y.C. — almost 100 over the course of a year. After recording an EP, Show Me Your Seven Secrets, which was released in 2015, the band hooked up with Fat Possum and began working on a full-length album. They spent the summer of 2015 in Faber’s basement hashing out songs and with the help of producer Matthew Molnar, formerly of indie pop group Friends, recorded them over a whirlwind seven-day session. The album, Human Ceremony, was released in early 2016 and the band embarked on a steady spate of shows. In September, they released From the Basement, a four-song EP of covers of Neil Young, Modern Lovers, T. Rex, and Spiritualized songs. Once the touring slowed down, they began planning a second record. Inspired by politics and growing up in an uncertain world, the group spent a full year writing songs, then recorded them with Molnar again, this time with the addition of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait as co-producer. Taking a more direct approach to the songwriting this time, the band brought in classic rock and glam influences while keeping the innocent spirit of the debut intact. The album, Twentytwo in Blue, was released by their new label Mom+Pop in March of 2018 and hit number 16 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart.
