This week, Leeds duo Sunflower Thieves released a new single called ‘It’s Not Like The Christmas Films’. It’s their first piece of new music since last year’s excellent Someone To Be There For. While this time of year sees the re-emergence of tried/tired and tested Christmas songs, the Thieves decided to release a rarely seen anti-Christmas tune instead.
While it offers an edge and a change of pace from the duo, the new single welcomes back their wondrous, harmony-led instrumentals to full effect. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to talk to them about it and the context that led to its creation.
Hello Sunflower Thieves! How are you? Hi friends! We’re really good – busy busy, keeping well, laughing lots.
What can you tell us about your new single ‘It’s Not Like The Christmas Films’? ‘It’s Not Like The Christmas Films’ was born out of a session in London with our friends Lexie Carroll and Jack Hardman in August this year. We’ve been working with Jack separately over the last year or so, on the production of our second EP, and have been friends with Lexie for a couple of years, but this was our first session writing all together. Lexie wore a festive jumper for the occasion, we ate a lot of grapes, and we had the song written and demo-ed within two days. We were definitely inspired by The Staves and Phoebe Bridgers in the making of this song.
December is a time of year that brings mixed feelings for us both, with the highs of spending more time with loved ones and celebrating each other, alongside the heightened awareness of the absence of others, and the perceived pressure to be at your best, during one of the most exhausting seasons. It’s dark and cold and can feel incredibly lonely, unlike the picture-perfect Christmas scene all the old songs and films show it to be. The bad news on the TV doesn’t go away for Christmas, and neither does any sadness you may be carrying with you.
Snow is falling and I don’t give a fuck about it/I’m too old to play outside/Cos all I want for Christmas this year/Is to feel something other than this
It strips away the lights and tinsel and reveals the truer emotions felt during the holiday season. Did it feel good to get them out into words? Yeah, definitely. In the words of Phoebe Bridgers, “I like fucked up holiday songs”.
The mood of the song fits our writing throughout the rest of the year – we could never do a truly Christmassy song justice anyway. We’ve both lost family members in recent years, and their absence is noticed all the more when family is brought together for the festivities. Alongside being right in the middle of the cold, dark winter and the financial, emotional and health worries a lot of people face at this time of year, the organised merriment and romanticised idea of Christmas can be extremely hard to navigate.
We still had a lot of fun creating the Christmas feel [bells and everything!], and we’re both looking forward to heading home for Christmas, but you can bet we’ll be listening to sad Christmas anthems only.
That dose of reality and reaction to real-world events ripples through a traditionally Sunflower Thieves sound: warm, open-armed acoustic chords cut with strings. Adding a sadness to the mix, with lyrics that detail the loss of loved ones and the ever-growing awareness of their absence. The unknowing of previously expected scenes adds some frost to an otherwise familiar backdrop, and that’s how the new single feels: familiar, yet different.
Sunflower Thieves took a break from music and returned with new emotions and experiences to talk about, and ‘It’s Not Like The Christmas Films’ is a great start to this new chapter. It’s what you want to hear, with a new perspective that has the potential to make you connect with their music even more.
It’s the first piece of music we’ve heard from you this year. How did it feel to take a break away from releasing music? In some ways it was needed, and in others it wasn’t really a deliberate choice, but it feels like it’s served us well. We had a busy stint of live shows earlier in the year, and having stepped away from our previous management, we were back to just the two of us, which feels solid, but is a lot of work! Although that being said, we’re never truly on our own – we’ve been so supported by our friends at Come Play With Me, by our band and by the incredible network of musicians and songwriters around us.
The new songs are all written with friends and we’ve been able to enjoy a more varied, collaborative, in-person recording process too, compared to our last EP, which was written and recorded in lockdown.
We’re so so happy to be back releasing though! The break has only affirmed that this is what we love doing – it’s what we are supposed to be doing.
It’s not like the Christmas films/I never believed them/Look back to those scenes/But they never happened
What is the worst Christmas film? Controversial, but no hesitation from us – Elf.
Could we see an anti-Christmas EP from yourselves in future? Maybe! There’s definitely plenty to write about regarding this time of year. Although Lily’s birthday is actually on Christmas Eve, and so she definitely has a soft spot for this time of year.
We’ve followed Sunflower Thieves’ output since their beginning back in 2018, and they have continued to return with captivating music that leaves us excited for what’s to come. 2024 is looking to be a productive one for the duo, with promises of new music coming, and we cannot wait.
What have you got planned for 2024? Music! We’ve been finishing a whole bunch of new songs in Lily’s bedroom studio, and we’re nearly there, promise. We’ve each also had the honour of being asked to provide some backing vocals for a few friends’ projects recently, so you may hear us crop up in some other sonic spaces in the new year.
‘It’s Not like The Christmas Films’ bridges the gap between our debut EP, Someone To Be There For and what is to come, both in songwriting and production. With the upcoming releases, we’ll be stepping in a fiercer, bolder direction musically, but the focus on storytelling and vocal harmonies are very much still with us.
And finally, what’s your favourite fruit?
Lily: Kiwi
Amy: Mango
