Julia Cumming Is Done Being Cool

Julia Cumming does not subscribe to the “New York or nowhere” mentality. The East Village native, who moved to the Golden Coast in August 2024, loves her life as a Los Angeles resident — even when work brings her back to her hometown 25 days out of the month. “I didn't have the college experience of, ‘I'm going to Colorado for four years and this is my time to be a person.’ This is my time to define myself outside of the location that I grew up in," she tells NYLON over coffee and Coca-Cola at the Chelsea Hotel. “I really wanted the chance to develop my own relationship with the city.”

It’s no wonder why she needed to get away; Cumming has been the poster child of cool since she burst onto the scene with her rock band Sunflower Bean in 2016. The status was thrust upon her, rather unfairly, thanks to her eminence in the NYC underground and her turn as Hedi Slimane's muse circa 2018. But if everything goes according to plan, that’ll all change on April 24 when the 30-year-old singer-songwriter releases her debut solo album, Julia. “F*ck cool,” she says. “This is the anti-cool record.”

This rejection campaign began with the album’s lead single “My Life,” a jaunty ‘70s-inspired tune about living for no one but yourself. On the track, she adopts a theatrical tone of voice that’s unlike anything she’s ever done with Sunflower Bean, soaring over a loungey, cocktail bar-esque instrumental as she denounces doubt and the societal expectations that’ve been placed upon her. “I don’t do this to impress you / I don’t wear this to undress you / I don’t need you to define me / Or approve of what’s inside me / I sing to everyone I love / I sing to all the stars above / I do this because / My life is mine,” she sings.

When you’ve spent your formative years forming your sense of self based on the opinions that’ve been projected onto you by the music and fashion industries — two of the most damaging industries to a young woman’s psyche — you can’t help but internalize those beliefs as your own. “I don't just blame the world,” she says. “It's easier to take on what someone puts on you if it's in a shape that you wish you were, especially if that shape is cool.” Julia is her way of reclaiming the public image that, up until now, she has never fully had control over. “[This album is] the version of myself that I'm choosing,” she says.

Cumming’s reclamation arc and sonic about-face may piss some people off, especially those who worry about what her Julia era could mean for the future of Sunflower Bean. But before you decry her solo career, know that the group isn’t going anywhere. In fact, her bandmates have been incredibly supportive throughout this journey, with bassist Nick Kivlen making multiple in-studio appearances during the recording process. “Sunflower Bean is a huge part of who I am,” says Cumming. “My dream is that we'll be like Sonic Youth or like Pixies, and we'll be able to tour forever.”

Cumming stresses this new artistic venture is simply just a “different alchemy” that exists in tandem with the band. “The solo project is not a side project, it’s a whole new way of interacting with the world,” she explains. “But at the same time, Sunflower Bean is still very much a part of how I want to continue interacting with the world.” It’s a symbiotic relationship we’ve seen work many times over: Julian Casablancas has The Voidz, Thom Yorke has The Smile, and now, Julia Cumming has Julia Cumming.

If Sunflower Bean built its psychedelic rockist sound upon the backs of Black Sabbath, The Velvet Underground, and Pink Floyd, then Julia borrows from the lush, feel-good music of The Beach Boys, Carole King, Simon & Garfunkel, and Burt Bacharach. “I'm going [for] all my dorkiest influences [on this album]” Cumming says. “All the things that I thought people would hate, all the things I thought people didn't want me to do, all the things that I was afraid to do, all of the sides of myself that I was afraid to show… Your dad doesn't even like this.”

Even as she wears this new anti-cool identity on her sleeve, Cumming always finds her way back into the conversation. “[Making this record is] the coolest thing I could do, because everyone's f*cking faking it anyway,” the singer says. Therein lies the true genius of Julia: it’s not anti-cool, it’s cool on Cumming’s terms.