A Duo for the Ages
Lily and Thatcher Horrocks of Sunflower Academy. Photo by Hannah Lilly (@hannahlillypictures, hannahlillypictures.com).
Hidden among the masses of CSULB is a sibling duo for the ages. Formed by chance, these siblings are musicians to watch out for.
“To get to the point of Sunflower Academy, I think it’s good to go back to when I started performing by myself,” said Thatcher Leland Horrocks, 18, who is one half of the sibling duo. “I kind of started doing that locally in the South Bay, like Redondo Beach, Hermosa area before we started playing together.”
Thatcher was working for several months with a non-profit called South Bay Music Connection, which connects local teens and young adults to live shows where they can play for experience or occasionally for money.
This is where he “started to grasp the idea of playing solo acoustic and singing” by himself for an audience. One day, Thatcher’s sister, Lily Simone Horrocks, 23, decided to play with him, completely unplanned.
“I was like, ‘I want to do it with you!’ and it happened on accident; we started playing for that nonprofit,” said Lily. “We started doing shows together because we did it at home for fun, and we were like ‘Oh, this would be kind of cool.’”
“‘Come join me for this quick 30-minute set on the Redondo Beach pier,’” said Thatcher, cutting in.
Lily and Thatcher were thrilled when they received such a positive response from the audience.
“We got some tip money and were like ‘Dude, what?’” said Thatcher, in awe as his eyes got wide and he began to laugh.
Lily and Thatcher Horrocks of Sunflower Academy. Photo by Hannah Lilly (@hannahlillypictures, hannahlillypictures.com).
From there, they kept playing and progressing into the band they are today.
It is no surprise to either of them how well they did on stage and with their music as they come from an incredibly musically inclined family.
Both of their parents are singers, and their mother specifically is a piano teacher. The duo was homeschooled, and because of this, they were always home surrounded by music.
They also happened to be a part of church choirs almost their whole life.
“It was like a part of our education,” said Thatcher. “It was ingrained in us since we were born.” “Like, our mom would sing to us all the time, like nursery rhymes and just small little diddies and things like that, so, we just got really familiar with music and really comfortable expressing our musical abilities from a really young age.”
Creating music as siblings can be an interesting experience for the duo. In the beginning, the siblings were planning to make Sunflower Academy as a way to create some income— it was their side hustle. For the duo, becoming business partners became a strain on their relationship as Lily’s type A personality started to clash with her brother Thatcher’s more laid-back vibe.
After some time, the siblings eventually found a balance between their roles in the duo.
School is currently taking up most of their time, but when they were not as inhibited by their academic pursuits, and were gigging more frequently, the siblings performed all of their music acoustically.
This, by nature, gave the cover songs that they were performing interesting and unique sounds.
“There's no percussion, there's no base, there's no drums, there's no rhythm to it really besides like the rhythm you’re creating with the guitars. We would definitely do harmonies. We would switch off the vocals and we would always have a build with it,” said Lily, animated. “Like we would layer things so that where there’s like a build in the song, a bridge, or there's like a louder chorus at the end we would always try to switch it up… so a lot of dynamics. I love doing that.”
Photo by Hannah Lilly (@hannahlillypictures, hannahlillypictures.com).
Thatcher’s favorite cover that he and his sister do is “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers. But the duo has quite a unique version of the classic song.
“We do it in like this kinda like dirty blues [style],” said Thatcher.
“It’s like swampy,” said Lily, scrunching up her nose with a smile.
The duo also loves to sing “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Hallelujah” where they draw inspiration from both Jeff Buckley’s version and Tori Kelly’s version. In Hallelujah, the duo continues to stack the harmonies until they are in a whole other octave from where they started.
Lily and Thatcher also like to cover songs in different genres like soul, blues, rock, indie, classic rock, folk indie, dreamy folk-rock and many others. Two of the hardest covers the band has ever done, for Thatcher at least, were “Never Going Back Again” by Fleetwood Mac and “Neon” by John Mayer.
“[It] is impossible to play perfectly, ever,” said Thatcher when referring to the Fleetwood Mac song.
For the duo, and Thatcher especially, playing guitar while singing is really where the challenge comes in.
“If I could describe it one way, I would say singing feels almost like I’m speaking a different language — but one I know fluently. I’m still learning the language of playing guitar,” said Thatcher.
For the siblings, writing a piece of music isn’t linear. Sometimes it starts with a random lyric or a random melody before a complete song comes to fruition.
Photo by Hannah Lilly (@hannahlillypictures, hannahlillypictures.com).
For Lily, those snippets of music are almost always put into voice memos on an iPhone before they disappear into the recesses of her mind. Once the initial idea is down, she will usually try to build off of that main lyric or melody and sometimes if nothing comes to her, she will let the idea sit and will come back months later.
For Thatcher, lyrics never come to him first when he is writing a song— it is always some kind of melody. Sometimes he will adlib lyrics over those melodies that have no rhyme or reason, they just “sound cool.”
Lily, on the other hand, spends a lot of time thinking about what she wants to say but has also tried to take on some of the free mindset that her brother uses when he approaches songwriting.
When it comes to performing, Lily’s favorite part is drawing in her audience.
“I like to look at people and hold the room. I love striking up a feeling in the audience and then holding them at that feeling,” said Lily. “I love to watch their emotions and like their facial expressions and really connect with people through music.”
The driving factor that makes Lily and Thatcher want to continue performing is the fulfillment and awe of getting to do what they love for hours at a time.
“[It’s] a pretty cool thing to be able to do, just because as a kid I never thought that was something that was going to be possible for me,” said Lily.
Enjoy their music on YouTube by searching for Sunflower Academy Official and follow their Instagram @SunflowerAcademyOfficial for updates on upcoming shows.