Summer Sounds: Angus and Julia Stone

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We meet the brother and sister musical duo to talk touring with Fleetwood Mac and their new working dynamic

The atmospheric sounds of sibling duo Angus and Julia Stone are captivating all year round, but there's no doubt that their songs make for a particularly spine-tingling summer soundtrack – a fact proved by their performance for Somerset House's Summer Series earlier this month, where they lulled the audience into a state of revery with their unique brand of folk blues as the sun set on the 18th century town house. 

The pair, who hail from Sydney, Australia, were born to musical parents but it wasn't until 2006 that they first began making music together. "It was Angus that made me want to write songs," Julia explains. "We didn’t spend much time together as teenagers but we took a trip together when I was 19 and he was 17, and he was singing one day in the hammock. The words were beautiful and moving and his voice sounded lovely. I asked him what the song was and he said he had written it. So I asked him to show me how to play it and he taught me a few songs then and I started writing soon after that." They released their dreamy debut album, A Book Like This, to much critical acclaim in 2007, and by the end of the year found themselves on tour with Martha Wainwright.

Their second album Down the Way (2009) met with similar success, drawing comparisons to Fleetwood Mac and Joanna Newsom, but shortly after embarking on a third album, the pair announced that they would be taking a break, turning instead to solo projects with no plans to look back. It came as a surprise then, to the siblings as much as anyone else, that last year saw the release of their eponymous third album, spearheaded by US heavyweight producer Rick Rubin who heard their music playing at a friend's party and invited them to LA to work with him. His enthusiasm fuelled their own and before long the Stones were writing songs and singing together for the very first time – their previous albums alternated between individually penned songs. The resulting album, a perfect meeting of the pair's strengths, has been described by many as their best yet. "It's a love album," Julia told The Guardian, "Falling in and out of love is a huge part of my life. Not just romantic love, but love between friends and family." We caught up with Julia following the Somerset House gig to find out more about the duo's new working relationship and the news that they will be supporting Fleetwood Mac on their Australian tour.

On their working dynamic...
"I guess it all sort of blends in together now: being brother and sister, being in a band together. We are different in a lot of ways – and I think there is a kind of balance that happens because of our differences. In the past they made things really challenging but now, because we have accepted ourselves better, we both can appreciate them and also recognise when either of our individual qualities better suit a situation. And after years of singing together and sharing each other's stories and music, a trust and love has grown between us and a willingness to allow each other to change and grow."

On coming from a musical family...
"We certainly weren’t a Von Trapp family (as our Wikipedia page may make it sound). We did sing together in the car sometimes when we were really little but mostly the music I remember listening to that got under my skin was our dad’s band. It’s something that was always around – they would rehearse in the house and the low frequency of the bass, the four part harmonies really made an impression on me. So yes, it felt like a pretty normal thing to start writing songs and singing. I think we both wanted to do it as a job but didn’t really really know that’s what we wanted to do. A lot of people along the way helped us figure that out."

"That’s what is so interesting about music: everyone hears the story according to their own environment, their own experiences"

On the atmosphere of their songs...
"I think everything affects everything when you're writing and recording songs – the instruments, the weather, the people in the room, the building, the city, how your body feels, if you're in or out of love. It’s hard to quantify how exactly, when there are so many factors, but each recording of ours sounds like the time and the place. And I can hear the influence of all the things going on at that time. Perhaps it’s only the artist that really notices those things though. And for someone listening from a totally fresh perspective, it sounds like something totally different. I guess that’s what is so interesting about music: everyone hears the story according to their own environment, their own experiences."

On supporting Fleetwood Mac...
"When we heard we were doing the support it was absolutely a pinch yourself moment – I couldn’t stop smiling. I can honestly say there isn’t another band in the whole world I’d rather support; it’s a dream."

 

On finding a new way of working together...
"For the latest album, we didn’t want to continue making records together in the way we had in the past. It was always a song of Angus’s and then a song of mine. We would contribute to each other’s song by singing harmonies and adding our own touches but they were minor in the scheme of things. This time we wanted to be more like a band and work together more, so we decided to write together. We weren’t sure how that was going to play out and we had a rip chord to pull – we agreed if it sounded or felt shit at any point we wouldn’t keep going. So we started jamming with some friends when we were living in LA – we’d start off with guitar riffs and then just make up stuff over the course of our days. It was really relaxed and fun. Neither of us minded if it worked or didn’t at that point; it was just fun to be making music again. So the rip chord never got pulled."

Angus & Julia Stone is available now.