Julia Cumming of Sunflower Bean releases her new solo album Julia next month, and the new single, “Please Let Me Remember This,” was inspired by The Beach Boys’ “Busy Doing Nothing.” The song “started with two questions,” she says. “Why are our sad and painful moments easier to remember than our happy ones? And why can’t we choose what we let go of, or what we get to keep? There’s a surrender that comes with memory, and it’s always fascinated me. I wanted to create a song using these little vignettes to explore the lack of control we have over what we remember. I wanted to capture the desperation that comes with trying to turn an immaterial experience into something that could be held onto.”
Drop the needle on Julia Cumming’s solo debut “Julia” and the very first notes you hear are her voice. A clear, and unadorned declaration of stepping out on her own. Within seconds, she sings her agency into being, fingers meet the piano keys, striking just the sparest of chords.
I sing these words for me
To hear the sound
To let them ring To drown you out
As the hi-hat kicks in, “Julia” sweetly recites a litany of ways that she has been told she’s too much or not enough, wrapped in halcyon production that has echoes of Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick. Album opener, and debut single “My Life” packs a punch in a warm embrace. A belted-out proclamation of liberation – doubters, misogynists, and the industry be damned. Not only is she not too much, but she has always been enough. This thesis statement of a song was the key that unlocked a creative door that New York City-born multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and Sunflower Bean’s bassist, Julia Cumming, had been waiting for since her teens.
In fact, it has taken nearly two decades, two bands, four EP’s, four albums, three labels, and relentless touring for Julia to finally get to the pivotal moment at her piano when “My Life” set the wheels in motion to writing and recording her new album. As touring with Sunflower Bean to promote their third album “Headful of Sugar” drew to a close in 2023, Julia had compiled enough songs to begin the process of figuring out what to do with them. She flew to Los Angeles without much of a plan, only the desire to try out working with an assortment of producers to bring the songs to life.
The Fat Angel Sings 