Julia Cumming names her favourite Paul McCartney song
Julia Cumming has had an equally successful and fruitful career as both the lead singer and bassist of New York psychedelic indie band Sunflower Bean and as a model, even referred to as “Hedi Slimane’s muse” during his time as creative director at Saint Laurent.
As a musician, Cumming got her start in the band Supercute! when she was just 13, a group she formed with neighbourhood friends June Lei and Rachel Trachtenburg from the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. The project was in existence until 2013, acting as “an art project about not letting your age or being a girl stop you from trying anything.”
Alongside Trachtenburg, the pair started a radio talk show called Pure Imagination which encouraged teenagers to be politically active. Meanwhile, she also joined Sunflower Bean alongside Nick Kivlen and Olive Faber. The band earned themselves the title of the “hardest-working band of 2014” due to their extensive touring schedule, and they quickly became ones to watch.
Since then, Cumming and the band have released three studio albums, finding the most success with sophomore effort Twentytwo in Blue. Inspired by the likes of The Velvet Underground, Fat White Family, Talking Heads, Cate Le Bon, and Iggy Pop, the band have crafted their own signature blend of indie. In an interview from 2013, Cumming suggested that “it’s like if Black Sabbath mixed with The Smiths, maybe?”
However, another big influence for Cumming specifically is The Beatles, as well as the solo work of each member. In a Stereogum article celebrating the favourite Paul McCartney tracks of different artists in honour of his 80th birthday, Cumming was asked to choose hers.
After pondering for a moment, Cumming goes with ‘Ram On’ from the 1971 album Ram by Paul and Linda McCartney. In 2001, Paul explained the song as “a cute little thing on a ukulele, ’cause I used to carry one around with me in the back of New York taxis just to always have music with me. They thought I was freak, those taxi drivers.”
Cumming says: “I didn’t discover it until I was a teenager. At the time I was in my first band, writing songs on ukulele myself, and ‘Ram On’ was one of the songs that showed me how beautiful that instrument could be. The song itself contains so much mystery and magic, and a defiant refusal to fit into a world that Paul built for himself in a way. As a lifelong fan it was mind-blowing to hear something so lush and psychedelic and simple at the same time, an idea that has influenced my songwriting a lot and a lot of other indie music made today. A song before its time!”
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