Sunflower Thieves
The Artist & Business Development programme is a support scheme run by Leeds Conservatoire's Artistry & Enterprise team. The program aims to mimic the support a major label artist might receive (or that of a new business receiving seed funding) by offering relevant industry input from multiple successful sources, as well as training programmes, spendable budget and further business partners. We caught up with Folk-Pop duo Sunflower Thieves, who were awarded a place within the Artist Development Scheme.
Can you tell us about your band Sunflower Thieves?
We (Amy and Lily) have been friends since primary school, and have always shared a love for music. Thanks to our parents, we listened to a lot of folk music and attended live music events regularly when we were young. This definitely built the foundation for our love of songwriting. We began singing cover versions of songs at a local open mic back home in Derbyshire, before beginning to write our own music together and being booked for events, festivals and gigs.
We have since released three singles, all self-produced by Lily, who graduated from Leeds Conservatoire with a degree in Music Production. We have organised and performed two week-long UK tours, one mini European tour (playing in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Osnabruck, Germany). In 2020, we received our first national radio play on John Kennedy’s Radio X show, with our most recent single, ‘Hide and Seek’, and were included in the longest for Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition.
We take influence from some of our favourite female artists: primarily Phoebe Bridgers, in both songwriting and production styles, alongside Lucy Rose and Maggie Rogers.
You applied and received support from the Artistry & Enterprise department. Which schemes did you apply for and why?
We applied for the Artist Development Scheme - we were keen to receive support in some areas of music business that were becoming more of interest to us as our project progressed i.e. PR and music licensing. Leeds Conservatoire has always been a welcoming community for us, and it’s a golden opportunity for any artists with a vision they may need some guidance or financial support in achieving.
Can you tell us more about the application process?
We were asked to write about our project, achievements and goals for the funding and support if we were successful, which gave context to the panel for our following interview. We prepared a powerpoint and brought examples of merch and promo/gig photos with us to highlight our work ethic, achievements and brand. We wanted to show the Enterprise team that we were deserving of the support, and had a clear vision for the Sunflower Thieves project.
The application process definitely made us think more about what we actually wanted to achieve within a given timeframe. Additionally, money is always a primary consideration (and sometimes a limitation) for artists when planning releases, video/photo shoots, events, merch, etc, so it was a novelty for us to plan what we would be able to achieve with the funding available to us.
Do you have any tips for students applying for A&E schemes?
Ensure you have a solid idea of your brand, and that it is consistent across your socials, merch, overall image - whatever it may be. This is important outside of the scheme, but it's something we were informed was really strong in our presentation. Funding and advice will go much further when everyone involved knows what the project is all about, and what you are trying to achieve... Be confident! We had never presented ourselves in that way before - it’s much scarier than doing a gig! But if you've been invited to be interviewed, then you know you have something that has interested the team, and all you can do is be prepared, be confident in your goals and ideas, and be yourself.
What support did you receive and what did you gain from the experience?
We received funding which helped hugely when revamping our socials and promo material. This funding also supported other elements of our project, including the planning of our subsequent three-date tour in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Osnabrück. Equally significant was the mentoring received from the team - we met regularly to discuss our progress, get feedback on demos and release plans, and to define our long-term goals for the project. Sometimes it can feel as though you're working really hard on your music and you’re not sure whether it’s paying off or not, so it was great to have some informed guidance and positive feedback, that we were in fact, doing super well. It definitely gave us the confidence to put ourselves forward for more opportunities in future.
How did your time at Leeds Conservatoire help prepare Sunflower Thieves on your career journey?
We both benefited hugely from our respective degrees - Lily in production, and Amy in songwriting. We learned more about where we fit into the industry, and more about self-promotion and self-management. We were motivated by our peers, and encouraged and supported by our tutors. Leeds Conservatoire introduced to some wonderful creatives with whom we love working; musicians, songwriters, promoters, videographers, etc.
What have Sunflower Thieves been up to recently and what can we look forward to from you going forwards?
Throughout lockdown, we have been writing and demo-ing more than ever, particularly collaboratively with songwriters outside of our project. We’ve learned a lot about our writing process, and what kind of music we want to create. Some of these songs will be incorporated into our live set, and some of them will be further developed into digital releases. We want to continue this throughout the coming months, and will be organising our own writing retreat as soon as government guidelines allow us! It’s been super important for us to stay connected and we’ve met (virtually) so many interesting people within the industry who we are excited to get working with once we can travel and get in a room with them!
Our recent single, ‘Don’t Mind The Weather’, was released digitally on February 26th, through
Leeds-based Come Play With Me, and will be released on 7” vinyl on 19th March. Following this
release, we’re working towards our debut EP, which is our biggest project yet and will be made up
of songs we’re really proud of.
A lot of the festivals we were booked for in 2020 have kept us on the bill for rescheduled dates,
whether that be in 2021, or further into the future, so hopefully lots of live performances are coming up! We’ll be redesigning our band set up for live shows, so that’s something super exciting to
look forward to.
Read more about our BA (Hons) Songwriting and BA (Hons) Production courses
Find out more about our the various Artistry & Enterprise Schemes
Listen to Sunflower Thieves on Spotify, or follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp
