28/02/2007
Australian siblings Angus & Julia Stone had a pretty productive time when they relocated to London for three months last summer. As well as recording the follow-up to the milky, sunlit harmonies on their debut six-track EP ‘Chocolates & Cigarettes’ they squeezed in plays on Zane Lowe, an in-store performance at Rough Trade and comparisons to everyone from Portishead to Joanna Newsom.
“We were all living in an old house in Ladbroke Grove,” says Julia, 22. “and we all suffered from crazy insomnia because the house was right next to the freeway. A kind of delirium, a happy sadness.”
The new release is a mini-album containing all the songs from Chocolates & Cigarettes as well as the six gorgeously opaque songs recorded in London. You’ll be gently torn apart by a Julia song, like opener ‘What You Wanted’ before being scooped up and soothed by an Angus track, like the cocoon-shaped ‘Fooled Myself’. These are songs crafted from voice and sharp-picked acoustic guitar, musical waterfalls of subdued emotion amplified by those moments when the siblings’ voices collide and harmonise.
The lead song, ‘Heart Full Of Wine’ had a particularly colourful genesis. “This girl moved into our house while we were at home,” says 20-year-old Angus. “She’s someone I’d seen in surf movies – she’d been an icon of mine for years. We got together. Then after a while we grew apart. Love wasn’t love any more.”
The duo’s main influences are familial; music soaked up during their sun-soaked childhood in Newport, a northern beaches suburb of Sydney – although Angus names records by Elliot Smith, Nick Drake and Joni as key musical mentors. Their music teacher dad was in a covers band Backbeat and now plays folk covers with his new wife and new band, Tallow Wood. “He looks like a weird wizard and she wears long velvet dresses. They do medieval acoustic covers of pop songs.”
Their mother was also seeped in music. She had them at dancing at drama classes and crucially, got the siblings singing together. “She’d grown up going to camps and she knew loads of call and response songs that we’d always sing on car journeys when we were little.”
There was nothing straight-forward however about Angus and Julia’s journey into performing together, despite the fact that they’d been singing together as young children.
Both, Angus and Julia speak of their childhood with great sense of separation from one another. “We didn’t talk at all. We may have been close once, when we were 5 and 3 but I don’t remember ever having much of a relationship. There are nice photos of us holding hands then. We must have been friends. But through school we lived in different worlds, different circles. ”
“Angus never spoke to me and I never spoke to him. It wasn’t until I we left to go travelling that I suppose we found something that we both wanted to do.”
In Chile, her brother joined her and they made their way through Bolivia, swept themselves up the Amazon and took the trail to Machu Picchu. “That trip engraved something in my head, that music is a beautiful thing,” says the ever-dreamy Angus. “It brought so much love. It had a massive influence on me.”
On their return, Angus decided to showcase the songs he’d written and Julia decided to help him, organising a few gigs and singing backing vocals at his first sessions down at the local open-mic night. “Then I got the confidence to sing some of my songs and organised some shows for myself.” Angus, of course, provided backing – an arrangement which naturally morphed into a single set with the pair taking turns to sing their sleepy, atmospheric songs into the mic.
After the gig they’d sell their (separate) CDs – until they realised they were putting their fans under unintentional pressure. “It got embarrassing! I’d be there with my CDs and he’d be there with his and people were standing around going ‘errr, I’ll have that one.’ So we put them on one CD.” That one CD turned into ‘Chocolates & Cigarettes’, which leads us neatly to now, via a handful of incredible, intimate London gigs and a show in New York in an old theatre: “it was crazy – the backstage was all packed with props and gowns and old mirrors. It was a great gig.”
Angus and Julia are siblings. But how similar are they? “He’s a boy, I’m a girl,” says Julia matter-of-factly. “There’s a billion differences right there. We are very different in a lot of ways but we’re from the same family. Our family experience has given us some kind of common wants. We’re always wanting to go, anywhere else… but often right at the same time or just a moment apart we also want to stay very still. We both find making choices very difficult.”
The next big thing in Stone World is their imminent relocation to London and a series of low-key dates around the UK ‘til springtime. Angus: “I’m going to miss the heat and going for a swim in the morning, but in London you can get into the whole groove of winter, like scarves and those big coats. It’s all good.” Angus and Julia Stone make music made of sleepy sunshine – whatever the weather.
The Band:
Angus Stone – Vocals, guitar
Julia Stone – Vocals, guitar
Mitchell Connelly – Percussion & Drums
Cameron Whipp – Bass and Double Bass
The Heart Full Of Wine mini-album contains material from two recording sessions in the UK; the first with Chris Potter (Verve / Richard Ashcroft) and then later with Travis frontman Fran Healy.
Presented alongside last years’ EP Chocolate & Cigarettes, the resulting two disc set is dusted with summer breezes, late night tales and solitary introspection. It once again features the captivating vocals, delicate guitar lines and impeccably minimal production that so warmed the hearts of critics to their debut release last year:
“Spectral piano and hushed vocals that demand attention” THE SUN
“A lovely introductory EP” SUNDAY TIMES
“Angus and Julia don’t so much seize the room as envelope it in a warm shawled embrace… Julia’s voice hovers between Hope Sandoval soft and Kristin Harsh brittle, Angus’ Paul Simon-ish tones balance this short but effecting set on a pinhead…. Unquestionably promising.” THE FLY
“Most impressive are the songs – simple, but blindingly effective, acoustic compositions, warm boy-girl harmonies and delicate, less-is-more arrangements. Resistance is surely futile.” MUSIC WEEK
UK Tour Details:
FEB 20, LONDON, Enterprise SOLD OUT; 21, BIRMINGHAM, Glee Club (www.glee.co.uk / 0870 241 5093); 22, MANCHESTER, Bay Horse (www.ticketline.co.uk / 0161 832 1111); 24, GLASGOW, King Tuts (www.gigsinscotland.com / 0870 1690100) 25, NOTTINGHAM, Social (www.alt-tickets.co.uk / 0115 958 8484); 27, LONDON, Enterprise SOLD OUT; 28, TRURO, CORNWALL, One Eyed Cat; MAR 1, St AGNES CORNWALL, Taphouse; 2, St IVES CORNWALL, The Lifeboat; 3, PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY; 4, BRISTOL, Thekla Social; 17, SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE, supporting Donavon Frankenreiter (www.livenation.co.uk / 0870 400 0688). 20, LONDON, Borderline (0870 400 0688 / www.livenation.co.uk)
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
