Sunflower Bean tell us about elemental new EP ‘Shake’: “We wanted to just keep it simple, stupid”
nme.comSunflower Bean have returned with new single ‘Shake’ – the title-track of an upcoming EP. Check out the mud-covered video below now, alongside NME’s exclusive chat with the band.The ‘Shake’ EP will be released via Lucky Number on September 27.
Its five tracks will each be accompanied by a 14-minute performance-based video that sees each song represent a natural element: earth, wind, water, fire and metal.Each video was directed by rising Toronto director Isaac Roberts over the course of one weekend in upstate New York.
The first, for ‘Shake’, puts the band in a dark, dingy wood, where they perform with their bodies and their instruments slathered in mud.“When we told a lot of people, ‘This is what we want to do – five videos in one weekend and just go fucking crazy’, a lot of them were scared,” singer and bassist Julia Cumming told NME. “You need someone with DIY ethos who is ready to do what it takes to get the shot and sometimes that means building a mud pit in the forest and spraying yourself with a hose over and over again.”“When you make an EP and it’s inspired by raw elements, you’re gonna get exposed to the elements,” guitarist Nick Kivlen noted.“All of the videos are very performance-based and live-based, which we thought would speak to the music best,” Cumming continued. “Getting back into that live spirit after feeling like a writing band and a studio band in the past few years was really cool.
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