“It felt really good to yell and jump, but it takes confidence to be vulnerable, even with people you love,” Julia Cumming says while surveying the stylistic shifts that mark Sunflower Bean’s mature, polished sophomore effort, Twentytwo in Blue. “It’s a matter of trust.”

The sultry-voiced singer/ bassist is currently huddled next to her bandmates, drummer Jacob Faber and singer/guitarist Nick Kivlen, shortly before Twentytwo in Blue’s release on hipster tastemakers Mom+Pop. It’s been more than two years since the New York-bred ensemble busted out of the New York DIY underground in 2016 with their fully realized debut LP, Human Ceremony, and just over a year since they veered o the road to begin work on its follow-up. Sunflower Bean started writing Twentytwo in Blue almost immediately after a whirlwind world tour that fortuitously came to a close in November of 2016. “We were touring outside the New York bubble, and it was eye opening to see these Trump signs everywhere,” Faber says. “These ominous clouds.”

Cumming, Kivlen and Faber mixed those end-of-innocence realizations and their coming-of-age experiences touring in a popular rock band into the softer, sweeter and more reflective set of songs that form the basis for Twentytwo in Blue. “I tried different vocal styles on this album,” Cumming admits, while still staying clear of the dreaded rock “b word.” (That’s ballad.) “Before I wasn’t ready to do that. I was afraid of what people would think of me.”

In many ways, Sunflower Bean’s arrival was a coming-out party for the 21st-century DIY scene that fostered the trio from their start. As teenagers, Long Island-based Faber and Kivlen had some success with the Sonic Youth-indebted Turnip Kings and, during their senior year, started jamming on some headier garage sounds. Meanwhile, Cumming was stirring up local buzz with Supercute!, her anti-folk/psych-pop project with Rachel Trachtenburg of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players; she eventually joined up with Faber and Kivlen, and Sunflower Bean officially coalesced in 2013.

---

The outfit’s early sound nodded to that community’s immediate influences—a mix of post-jam experimentation and New Wave shimmer, filtered through some authentic scrappy, punk energy. “All the venues we were going to were run by people in the bands,” Kivlen says nostalgically. “If you showed up and hung around, you could end up playing.”

Thanks to catchy, but thrashy, early recordings and some serious club traction, Sunflower Beam landed a record deal with Fat Possum, which issued the dreamy Human Ceremony. They worked with two of their scenes’ “men about town” and elder statesmen, Woods’ Jarvis Taveniere and Matthew Molnar of Friends, and ended up with an endearing set of original songs that used its direct touchstones as a rallying point. “When I was in high school, all the bands I listened to were referencing this ‘80s-inspired, Captured Tracks sound,” Kivlen says of their second-generation status on the DIY circuit. “It was a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.” Cumming adds, “It was about bringing the elements of rock that we fell in love with into the present and making them feel fresh and important again.”

The groovy results catapulted Human Ceremony and its bouncy single “Easier Said” into crossover hits, and Sunflower Bean quickly ascended to NPR status, marquee headlining spots and support slots for the likes of Best Coast, the Pixies and DIIV. “When the band first formed, there was a bit more of a post-modern, tongue-in-cheek spin,” Kivlen adds. “We were playing with the myths and fantasies of the genre of rock a bit.” (They even named a pounding, psych-rock song on an early EP after the band Tame Impala.)

After returning home from the Human Ceremony support cycle, the group planned to readjust to normal life for a bit, but ended up starting work on Twentytwo in Blue. Since their debut was a virtual “greatest hits” of their early live set, for the first time, the three musicians set aside a period of time to write toward a new album. The results sway from their crunchier days to a more mainstream sound; Kivlen notes that by the time they started work on their latest batch of songs, their scene’s classic tropes felt tired. As songwriters, they were also searching for something more honest. “There is a little reflection on Human Ceremony, but it’s much more outward,” Cumming says. “We wanted to get a little more introspective as we matured as songwriters”

---

The aftermath of the 2016 presidential election also colored Twentytwo in Blue. (They note that the loaded hue is associated with both melancholy and the color of peace.) Tracks like “Burn It” and “Crisis Fest” directly discuss the current social-political climate and “Sinking Sands” is a retro-sounding look at podcasts in the era of fake news. The Fleetwood Mac-approved breezy title track is a more naked, reflective moment, and their early single—the beautiful, ad-sync ready “I Was a Fool”—is an update of the classic, whimsical indie-jangle that’s defined their peer group for so many years. Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra also joined their production team and all three members of Sunflower Bean say the sessions were the most exciting creative spark they’ve felt as a band.

“We’ve always had a rebellious streak,” Cumming says. “When everyone was shoegazy, we’d take a guitar solo. When we started this record, we had that ‘80s guitar, Cure-influenced sound locked in, but, instead of staying there, we said, ‘Let’s try something else—these different, warmer guitar tones, a different spin on classic rock.’”

Onstage, Sunflower Bean also hope to harness the energy of their heroes from the ‘60s and ‘70s. “We have some fans who have met each other and formed a dedicated tour following,” Cumming says. “In many ways, they remind me of the jamband community.”

This article originally appears in the March 2018 issue of Relix. Fore more features, interviews, album reviews and more, subscribe here.