Q&A: Sunflower Thieves Close Out 2025 With Their Tender New Single “Already Taken”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
Photo By Nick Porter
WITH THEIR SIGNATURE BLEND OF DREAMY HARMONIES, FOLK-ROOTED INTIMACY AND A GRIT THAT CUTS STRAIGHT TO THE BONE - Leeds alt folk-pop duo Sunflower Thieves return with their final release of the year: “Already Taken,” out now via Mahogany Songs. Childhood friends Amy Illingworth and Lily Sturt-Bolshaw have long built their sound around deep connection, to each other, to community, and to the emotional truths tucked between life’s quietest moments, and their new single feels like a distilled version of everything that makes their music resonate.
Written in the aftermath of heartbreak, “Already Taken” sits with the heaviness of learning to live without someone who once felt essential, tracing the small reminders and lingering echoes they leave behind. The pair recorded the track with close collaborators and even brought in Amy’s brother Laurie, whose tender piano lines became a core part of the song’s heartbeat. That intimacy extends beyond the music itself: the song was shaped in a community-driven studio environment supporting marginalized creatives through Leeds CIC, Come Play With Me, adding another layer of purpose to an already deeply personal release.
Following a string of celebrated EPs, national radio support, and a milestone headline tour, “Already Taken” closes out Sunflower Thieves’ 2025 chapter, a moment of reflection before they step into a new era in 2026.
Below, we spoke with Amy and Lily about the story behind “Already Taken,” the friendships that ground their work, and what comes next for the duo.
LUNA: “Already Taken” captures the ache of holding on after someone leaves. When did you realize this experience needed to become a song?
ILLINGWORTH: We wrote this song right in the thick of the feeling, but it took us quite a while to work out what the chorus wanted to say, as I hadn’t quite worked out where my feelings sat yet. I’d written the first verse really quickly and naturally, and brought it to the others, but the situation I’d just been through was still incredibly overwhelming and it was hard to articulate. I think what we landed on hits the nail on the head — it’s the total lack of control when something, or someone, has been snatched away from you. We actually wrote it in early 2021, but we didn’t consider it for release until much later, I think because at the time, it was 100% written to process the feelings, rather than to write a song for the band.
LUNA: You wrote the track with your close friends Sam Perry and Tom Hammond. How did collaborating with people who know you so well shape the emotional honesty of the song?
ILLINGWORTH: We were writing a lot together at the time, and the four of us had been a bit of a lifeline for each other during the lockdown, so it felt really easy to share. It’s really uncomplicated and direct in the verses, which is a consequence of writing with Tom and Sam — they have a way of picking out the details of what’s being said in conversation and crafting it into the song. They’re really dedicated to helping whoever they’re writing with find the heart of what they want to say, and it’s also a really nice space for us to play with vocal harmonies.
LUNA: Laurie’s piano part has become such a core piece of the track’s movement. What did bringing your brother into the recording add to the song’s energy and meaning?
ILLINGWORTH: I’m not sure I can articulate it! I’m so grateful — we got him up to Leeds to play on another of our songs, “West Park Drive,” and I took the opportunity to involve him with this track too. The sound of him playing piano evokes such big feelings in me — it reminds me of home, of my family, of all of the songs he loves. When I was going through everything “Already Taken” is about, I was living back in my childhood home, and listening to the song now really puts me back there, but in a comforting way. He’s my biggest supporter, and he’s always been such a big part of any music I make.
LUNA: Much of Sunflower Thieves’ music is rooted in deep friendship. How does your bond influence the vulnerability and grit that show up in this new single?
ILLINGWORTH: I think for a while we took our friendship for granted, as it’s hard sometimes to step back and appreciate it when you’re working and being creative together, and also when you’ve been around each other for such a long time — we can’t really remember a time when we weren’t in each other’s day to day. But it’s definitely crucial in being able to share with each other so easily in our writing, and also to show up for each other when we’re going through it. I think the way we step forward and back for one another when needed is a really special part of this that manifests in this song: there’s the space for me to be able to navigate my feelings in the writing, which Lily has mirrored so sensitively in the production.
LUNA: The song was recorded partly through a Come Play With Me project. What was it like creating this track within a community-oriented environment supporting marginalised people in music?
STURT-BOLSHAW: I think we have both been really lucky in our music careers so far in terms of support and encouragement from family and friends. I became really aware of the minority gap when I started doing live sound and realised I was the only woman in all of the group chats. So, with the help of the Come Play With Me team, I created a project for marginalised people who wanted to get into studio and live sound. It was really really special to bring “Already Taken” into the studio to record with this group of wonderfully talented and enthusiastic people. As Amy said before, we had written the song years before we decided to record it, so it definitely got a new lease of life with this added element of community and excitement.
LUNA: Sonically, this track sits in your dreamy-but-gritty folk-pop world. What new textures or production choices were you excited to explore on “Already Taken”?
STURT-BOLSHAW: I like that, dreamy-but-gritty! We recorded the drums all the way through the track at first. Jo, our drummer, and I decided it could do with a drum machine at the start instead, which we deliberated on for far too long trying to find the right sounds. I finally decided to take the organic drum sounds and manipulate them to make them sound like a drum machine instead, and I’m super happy with the result. It’s actually exactly what I had in mind from the start and it was way more fun to manipulate the sounds and make exactly the right sounds from the recordings!
LUNA: This closes out your 2025 releases. How does “Already Taken” set the tone for the next chapter of Sunflower Thieves heading into 2026?
STURT-BOLSHAW: “Already Taken” feels like the tie between our Same Blood EP and our singles “Overdose” and “Say The Word.” It has the organic and the manipulated sounds as well as feeling big and small at some points too. We’ll continue, into 2026, to bring emotion and vulnerability as well as powerfulness and strength in our songs.
