Interview and photos by Annie Barber.
Leeds-based duo Sunflower Thieves, comprised of Amy Illingworth and Lily Sturt-Bolshaw, are currently touring Europe as the support act for Dan Croll and have just released their second EP, ‘Same Blood’. Before playing Cabaret Voltaire with Croll in Edinburgh last month, the duo sat down with Karma! for a chat about tour life and their experience of being young women in the music industry.
When asked how the tour had been going so far, Lily replies saying it’s the longest consecutive night tour they’ve done, and that it’s been really fun. Amy says the tour has been somewhat of a learning curve for both of them, that they’re “learning a lot about where your energy comes from, and how to work with each other to make sure everything goes smoothly”. Notoriously, many musicians struggle to manage their energy levels when touring, but Amy says that travelling the country by car together has helped them to relax: “When I’m driving, it’s quite chill. We listen to a bunch of podcasts, which is very entertaining, but it also means that neither of us feel the pressure to have to talk all the time; we can just cruise along.”
Sitting in the darkness of Cabaret Voltaire, they both muse about what venues they would like to play in the future. They mention Lafayette and Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, the former of which they played as a support act for Lewis Watson in 2022. Amy notes of the two venues that “it would be really good to go back with a full band”. However, there is one venue that tops them all for Sunflower Thieves: Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. Lily says, “it’s actually the best venue, so we’d like to play there again”.
Regarding their latest EP, ‘Same Blood’, which was released on the 30th of October, the pair say that it came together very naturally. Amy says that “all the songs came from different places. They weren’t written consecutively. I think it’s the same as with the EP we did before, you kind of just find that songs stick together, and I think that comes a lot through the production”. Lily adds to this, saying that they usually begin writing songs on guitar and then “slowly build them up” by adding other instruments to the tracks. She mentions that co-producing the EP with their friend Jack Hardman gave them a chance to try out new things and take a more collaborative approach than before. Commenting on the overall vibe of the EP, Amy says that “it’s just a bit grittier, a bit of a darker edge than the previous releases we’ve done”.
The title track on the EP was inspired by Amy and Lily’s relationship with each other. They have been friends since childhood and view their relationship as a type of sisterhood. Growing up Lily played the trumpet, Amy played flute, they both sang in choir, and both took piano lessons. They make sure to qualify that while they loved playing piano, they did not enjoy sitting grade exams for it. “We grew up in a very musical town”, Lily shares, mentioning an open mic night down the road from them that their dads played at a couple of times. Amy adds, “coming from a place where music and creativity were around us, and our parents have always been really supportive of that, we just kind of found ourselves playing the keyboard and songs we both liked, and then going from there and learning about harmony”. They both highlight the fact that they were scared of performing when they were younger, but it helps that they can now “hide behind the name” of Sunflower Thieves.
They both credit having gone to university and being based in Leeds as a source of inspiration. Amy says that “a lot of people that we first met, were through a man-made creative space, that you kind of enter into”, and says that this environment allowed them to expand their horizons creatively. She also mentions that it’s a very connected community, and that knowing so many people who work in the music industry in the area has helped their career. Both of them studied music related courses at university, with Amy doing a course on songwriting, and Lily doing one on production. Amy says that collaborative songwriting was something which had been encouraged during her time at university and then helped them both during lockdown: “During lockdown, [we] started writing with two of our close friends more, and developed a love for that, I guess a preference for that, over writing on our own, which has stayed with us and has fed through into both EPs”.
Speaking about the music scene in Leeds more generally, Lily says “it’s definitely grown as well since we’ve been there. When I first got to Leeds, it was very neo-soul-y, and a really rock-y scene, and now nine years later, it’s definitely got a lot more singers and is a lot more songwriter-y”. Adding to this, Amy says that having “prominent scenes in different areas” can make things difficult for some musicians. She goes on to say, “the music that we make, along with the production [of it], doesn’t sit in folk music or pop music, it’s sort of a blend of four or five different genres. So it’s kind of hard to place yourself”. Even though their music straddles several genres, it’s clear that they’re strongly influenced by folk and indie music. They both listened to Joni Mitchell and Lucy Rose when they were younger – and still do, Amy points out. Lily emphasises that they were the only female voices she listened to when she was younger, the rest were male indie acts. However, she says that she now listens to mainly female voices: Boy Genius, Phoebe Bridgers and “all the indie girls”.
Finally, when addressing their experience as two women in the music industry, Lily reflects that they’ve been lucky to have each other, as they can “bounce off that and not take any shit off anyone”. Amy says that it’s difficult to pinpoint how you may have been treated differently to men, “because obviously you don’t know otherwise”. She recalls instances where they would let venues know in advance that they would be showing up with several instruments but would be put on the small acoustic stage with no PA. “Looking back now, I feel like it was definitely a factor that we were two young girls”. Lily chimes in, saying that this still happens to them sometimes. She also mentions that “you might get a sound engineer that mansplains how to plug your guitar in when we’ve been gigging since we were literally 13, and I am a sound engineer as well”.
Despite these difficulties, Amy says that there are a lot of positives of being women in the music industry: “We’ve connected with lots of organisations and platforms, and have been supported by people who are super aware of discrimination, like Girls Can Play Guitar and Come Play With Me, and a bunch of local organisations, as well as individuals and venues. I think we’ve got a really good female and non-binary community”. She credits this to the fact that the conversation around women’s experiences is more open now, saying that “as we got older, we feel empowered to talk about it with other people, so I think we’re lucky, because I imagine there was a time when that wasn’t the case”.
Sunflower Thieves’ EP, ‘Same Blood’ was released via Kartel Music Group on the 30th of October. You can buy a copy of it on vinyl to get an exclusive bonus track, and listen to it on streaming platforms. You can also sign up to the Sunflower Thieves mailing list and Patreon to hear more from them. Tickets for their show at St. Pancras Old Church in London on the 2nd of April 2025 are still available – make sure to grab one now so that you don’t miss out!
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