What happens when you enter the studio with a song that is not finished and no time to figure it out?

In this episode of The Hardest Part, Kieron Banerji sits down with Julia Cumming and Nick Kivlen of Sunflower Bean to break down the making of their track “I Knew Love” from the album Mortal Primetime.

The song was one of the only tracks that was still being developed once the band entered the studio. With time, budget, and pressure all in play, they found themselves building the structure in real time, chasing a feeling they knew was there but had not fully landed yet. They talk about the origins of the song, from experimenting with open D tuning to pulling influence from artists like Nick Drake and Sonic Youth, and how collaboration helped unlock key moments in the track when ideas felt incomplete.

This episode is about the reality of self-producing, from trusting instinct under pressure to navigating disagreements and knowing when to push forward with an idea even if others are unsure. They also reflect on how a single lyric, “I knew love and it shined on me,” gave the song its emotional center and allowed everything else to fall into place.

Guests: Julia Cumming and Nick Kivlen of Sunflower Bean

Host: Kieron Banerji

Creative: Callum Baker

Produced by Palm Tree Island