Foto-© Thania Rodriguez
Angus und Julia Stone haben sich mit ihren zarten Harmonien und emotionalen Geschichten einen Namen gemacht. Obwohl sie beide regelmäßig ihre eigenen Soloprojekte verfolgen, bleibt ihre Leidenschaft für gemeinsame Arbeit ungebrochen. So erscheint am 10. Mai mit Cape Forestier ihr sechstes gemeinsames Album, das verspricht, ihre künstlerische Reise fortzusetzen – und gleichzeitig einen Blick zurück zu wagen. Im Gespräch mit Bedroomdisco teilt das australische Geschwister-Duo die Inspirationen und persönlichen Erfahrungen, die dieses Album geformt haben: Von den individuellen Anfängen der beliebtesten Tracks der Fans bis hin zum Blick in die gemeinsame Vergangenheit, der in den visuellen Elementen des Albums zum Ausdruck kommt.
Congrats on your new album! It’s coming out May 10th, which is my birthday, so thank you in advance for the birthday gift.
Angus Stone: Oh yeah, we got it all planned out!
So nice of you. Could you tell me a little bit about what the album means to you? When did you start working on it?
Angus Stone: It’s always hard to find the origin of how something starts when you’re still caught up in it. Making this record with Julia just felt like it was the right time. We work so hard when we’re off on our own adventures, when we’re growing and moving through the world as humans. And then when we came back and talked about making another record this time around, it felt like we both were in a good space and it came together just really naturally.
You were both working on your own projects before you started working on this record. How did it feel to go back to working together?
Julia Stone: We started working on the record while we were both still off doing our own things. Angus was on tour with Dope Lemon in the US and I was living in Berlin, writing songs for other people. So we started together, but then we were apart, and I actually think this is really good for us. We work really well just kind of flowing in and out of our different lives. At one point Angus was in Barcelona, and we flew down to watch him play with Dope Lemon. While I was watching him perform, I thought about how it’s really inspiring to see each other being so creative in the world outside of the project we do together. I never really get to experience that when we’re on stage together because I’m thinking about playing the songs and the chords, and the emotions behind the song. Being in the audience and seeing and witnessing the things that make Angus special is incredible. It brings up a lot of emotions and I think both of us doing that separately really enriches what we do together.
“We work really well just kind of flowing in and out of our different lives” – Julia Stone
That sounds beautiful. The first video I saw from the upcoming album was the one for The Wedding Song: It’s made of fan videos, people at their own weddings. The video is so heartwarming. Can you tell me more about how that idea came along?
Julia Stone: We wrote the song for a friend’s wedding 12 years ago. When we were touring Down The Way, the couple who we wrote it for came to one of our shows and we played it for them at the concert. Then people started asking for this song, so we started playing it at more shows. One of the shows was recorded, the recording got shared amongst fans, and then all of a sudden we were getting these videos of people getting married to this live recording of The Wedding Song!
That’s so sweet.
Julia Stone: You can hear the audience it it, it’s not a good recording, but it was part of all these people’s beautiful moments where they’re walking down the aisle, and you can hear chatter and clapping from our shows in the background. Anyway, so years go by and we’re making this new record, and Angus and I talked about how nice it would be to make a really nice version for the fans. People get married to Big Jet Plane, people get married to Chateau, so we had seen a lot of these videos already and we thought, oh, wouldn’t it be amazing if the video was just all these fans? And it was amazing. We got like 500 videos sent in!
Wow! That’s so cute.
Julia Stone: Yeah, it was incredible. We could only fit 80 of them into the actual three minute video. It was celebrations of love from all over the world, from India, Africa and the Middle East and Thailand and Peru and, you know, backyards in Australia and Europe. It’s really special.
It must be such a special feeling knowing that your music is part of people’s lives and these important moments.
Angus Stone: Yeah. It’s cool. Sometimes you’re just playing shows and writing and making music, and it’s only those moments where someone will stop you in the street and be like, hey, I know you don’t know me, but it feels like I know you. It can be really weird and confusing sometimes, too (laughs) – but it’s really cool. Those moments remind you that it’s bigger than just you writing something down and sharing your thoughts with yourself. It becomes this universal language where people are having profound experiences with the music. With The Wedding Song, it was just beautiful to see all those people from all over the world celebrating love.
Another video you’ve put out for the title song of the new record, Cape Forestier, is a compilation of your own private video recordings. Watching that felt like you were reflecting on the journey you’ve been on for the past 16 years. Can you tell me a little more about that?
Angus Stone: Julia was actually editing that video for my funeral. (laughs)
Julia Stone: I was saying that the other day, that it’s like what you imagine someone would play at your funeral to celebrate your life. It’s so emotional for us because we’re usually so caught up in all of it: being in the moment, making art. I’m always really excited for the next project, now the tour is coming up and then there will be the next record to work on. And it’s such a privilege to be able to spend your time being creative. But sometimes you forget to look back and cherish it. We’ve been through so much together: We’ve both been through big heartbreaks and family losses, all the stuff that we’re just living through as we’re do this thing. The song and the record are about the journey, so we wanted to try and show the journey, which feels really monumental in a way. But going through the archival footage, I mean, there’s hundreds and hundreds of hours – it was crazy!
“We’ve both been through big heartbreaks and family losses, all the stuff that we’re just living through as we’re do this thing.” – Julia Stone
How long did the editing process take you?
Julia Stone: A friend of ours helped us, a guy called Sean. I would say we worked through at least 50 hard drives.
Wow!
Julia Stone: I took them all up to Melbourne and I said to Sean: Can you just help us get it in some sort of order? He’d go through each hard drive, find bits and tag them with things like “Angus and Julia driving in the car.” “Angus and Julia go to the beach.” “Angus and Julia in the studio.” “Angus and Julia at a gig.” “Angus and Julia walking in the street.” Through all the years.
Angus Stone: That’s when you want AI to be able to do that for you. Go through all the footage and just shows you all the snippets and dump it into one folder.
Julia Stone: I’m sure it’s already a thing.
It’s definitely emotional to watch those old snippets from the beginning of your career. What’s different now than it was when you started out?
Angus Stone: When you’re younger, you’re pulling pieces from all the things you’re inspired by, musically and just life in general. Everything you see, someone that you know, people you look up to. You try to bring all those pieces of yourself and of what you love about the world together. Now that we’ve been doing this for a while, it feels more grounded and true. It feels like we’ve found our footing in life. In any relationship, whether it’s business or friendship or creating something, it’s great to be on the same level. And looking back at all that, it’s nice to see that we’ve come this far.
Your parents are musicians, too, right? How did music come in to your life?
Julia Stone: We grew up in a very working class family. Our dad was a builder first, then he was a truck driver, then he became a teacher. And whilst doing all of that, he was a wedding singer. So we had this dad who would always rehearse in the house, playing music, real 70’s Americana stuff. We grew up listening to our dad’s band playing Bob Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival, Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac. We would fall asleep with live music in the background. And they he would take us to gigs sometimes. Growing up and being exposed to that type of music and songwriting, something about performing was very natural for us. We both went to the same high school, and we would both perform in front of, like, a thousand kids there. High school is hard, people judge each other. But we both would just get up on stage in assembly and sing our songs that we’d written.
You wrote your own songs back then already?
Julia Stone: Yes, and that’s so vulnerable! I didn’t know how to play any instruments. I could play the trumpet and I thought I could sing. I got up and I sang a song about peace, and it was just the microphone in front of the whole school. I felt really confident and I thought it was important that I shared that. I think our parents just made it seem really normal to express ourselves through music. Our mom was always singing in the house. We went on a lot of road trips when we were little, and there was a lot of call and response singing in car. She would sing a line and we’d sing back to her as little kids.
Can you take me back to the moment when you decided to dedicate your lives to music?
Julia Stone: I don’t think there was a particular moment where we decided to make a career out of it. When Angus had just finished high school, he was playing lots of gigs and writing really beautiful music. I started doing backing harmonies for him at the shows. One night at a gig Angus said, why don’t you sing one of my songs? That was when we started singing a couple of songs each. Then the record label offered us a deal – I can’t remember if they offered us separate deals first, or together?
Angus Stone: I think it was simply opportunistic: signing both us together, two for the price of one. (laughs)
Well, that was a good decision.
Angus Stone: It’s crazy to think about that now. It was a really interesting time. We were so young. We’d go to from venue to venue and sneak in because we’d be too young to actually play there. Then after we’d go outside and sell our CDs, but we’d sell them separately, so I’d have songs that I’d had recorded and Julia had hers.
Julia Stone: People would have to come up and choose one of us.
Was that like siblings rivalry?
Angus Stone: Kind of – no, I think we weren’t even thinking like that. It was just that started on my own and Julia was doing her thing, we were figuring it out. But it was funny, because people would end up buying both, out of pressure I guess. (laughs)
Julia Stone: It was a bit manipulative. Like at the grocery store, when they ask you in front of everyone if you want to donate.
Angus Stone: But yeah, at some point someone we loved and trusted said: You guys should just be playing together, which we were already doing. It was just making it official.
Julia Stone: I feel like that conversation happened out on the veranda at Dad’s house. But I don’t know if that’s a false memory.
You’ve mentioned that you both love road trips. What was a memorable road trip you’ve taken recently? And what’s your favorite music to listen to on the road?
Angus Stone: I was in New Zealand recently. We went on a fishing trip with some friends from Dope Lemon, and it was really fun. We were just camping at camp campsites along the river and listening to music. I can’t remember what we were listening to. It was a pretty diverse playlist, but eclectic in that way.
Julia Stone: My last road trip was up the east coast of Tasmania. My partner is a huge Orville Peck fan, so we listened to Orville Peck. It’s great music for the road.
Angus & Julia Stone Tour:
20.05.24 Köln, Kölner Philharmonie
31.05.24 Stuttgart, Bürger Freilichtbühne Killesberg
01.06.24 Hamburg, Laeiszhalle
09.06.24 Berlin, Admiralspalast
10.06.24 Berlin, Admiralspalast
