Stunflower

Hey there lovely people! Welcome to Stunflower’s first-ever blog (add cajon finger drum roll here) whoop whoop!

I’m Devaki – the drummer/vocalist – so grateful for your time :)

Stunflower have been around for a little while, previously named Thomas & Devaki - but joined by born n bred Londoner, the amazing Alex Barrett on bass, we felt it was time to get a proper name for the band....after 50 ideas and lots of thought, we settled on Stunflower. 

Now with a brand new website....we wanted to share our thoughts, experiences, likes/dislikes with you all.....we have family and friends in 5 countries and figure this is a good way to share collectively :) 

On Sunday 10th June we started filming the video for our upcoming single release, Modavader – I can’t wait for you to hear, the 1st song we've written collectively featuring ancient Sanskrit mantras from the Vedas called the Upanishads. It also explores a rare mode Thomas has been enchanted with on the guitar.

We now see the benefit of raising kids in the arts.....They're all artists and run a film company called The Thomas Brothers. So yeah....if you're a band most likely one of the best options for careers for your kids!

The only thing they asked for us was to order cloudy weather to have the best lighting. The concept was to gather as many like-minds/hearts as possible to dance wildly on the hills in South Norwood Country Park as if this was their last day on earth. We were going for apocalyptic :)

Anyway England is not so much known for surprise sun but thats what we got! not very apocalypitc unless global warming has had its way....

 40 people from 10 different countries, age ranges 3 - 60 and every part of London made our shoot feel like a mini festival! A wonderful group of artists, dancers, friends, musicians.....folks we've connected with in the 10 years we have called London our home.   

It felt like a glorious tribal gathering … a festival. and reminded me of being back home in BC Canada ... with kids, dogs, musicians, dancers, even our neighbours .... hanging in the sun ... eating vegan curry, having a few drinks, painting each other’s faces! And then they were all dancing up on a grassy hill in the sunshine with our single Modavader blasting out on our new ‘turn up and play anywhere’ sound system. The vibes were spine tingling.....warm bodies expressing, joy, sadness, life...love.....to see people's interpretation of our music was unforgettable and moving.  My 4 sons who make up The Thomas Brothers used state of the art cameras and drones to capture it all. 

I felt like i could live like this...every weekend please....and found it hard stay focused on the filming ... was I hosting a festival? Should I direct the dancers, or give them express freely? Giving up control... letting my boys take over, not an easy task!  But it was what I had to do, - l trusted their work, experience and people skills and bowed to their director-ship ;) 

From the snatches of footage we've seen they seem to have captured the beauty and rhythm of the dancers and music...the long green grass and blue skies ... we still need to film the band, but that’s another story to come! So likely just one more day of filming and we'll be ready to edit.  

We're hoping to release it in the next six weeks ... so keep checking back, Stunflower will announce the date soon!

Next stop - recording! We are recording the single and also start of our album, more about that in the next blog!

Don't forget we are playing live at Sydenham Festival in Mayow Park on Saturday 30th June at 12pm and then on Sunday 1st July we are at the South Norwood Community Festival at 5pm, see more information here.

Thank you for checking out my first blog! Tune in next time my friends :) 

Devaki