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Angus and Julia Stone, two ways of feeling music
Tuesday 2nd October 2012 | Laura
The brother-sister duo, who took different paths a few years ago, are both succeeding with their second solo albums released this year.
Angus & Julia Stone used to be a brother-sister duo formed in 2005 in Australia, who got a lot of recognition and success with their three albums: A Book Like This, Heart Full of Wine and Down The Way. But in spite of their prolific career, they decided to part in 2011, to see how it feels to work and perform in their own way. Actually, the fact of splitting up didn’t affect them much. With a similar music style, they are still creating great material and catching audience attention.
This duo, whose parents also formed a folk duo before they were born, started building their careers at open mic nights, helping each other with backing vocals. In 2006, they got a distribution deal with EMI and moved to London, where artists and producers such as Chris Potter (The Verve/Richard Ashcroft) and Fran Healy from UK band Travis, opened their studios for them to record.
They received more recognition when the pair’s stand-out track ‘Big Jet Plane’ got the ARIA for single of the year in 2010. The romantic potential of the song caught the ear of teenage drama producers, meaning the song appeared in shows such as 90210, One Tree Hill and Parenthood, as well as in movies like Easy A and Les émotifs anonymes. Another of the band’s songs to became popular thanks to a soundtrack was ‘Love Will Take You’, which was announced as the second track for the Twilight Saga's latest film, Breaking Dawn-Part 1.
But after that, they decided to start their own careers. Julia Stoned explained to Rolling Stone Australia: "It was too much to think we could only pick six songs each… We were both in a place where we really wanted creative space to go in whatever direction we wanted, so we were like 'let’s just take a year out.'"
Julia Stone
“I keep finding in my lyrics that I always come back to the idea of kindness. It’s been a really intense year of change”
Julia has released two solo albums, The Memory Machine in 2011 and By The Horns last May. Working alone allowed her to be herself and discover what she really wants, making Julia a stronger artist, a fact that is reflected in By the Horns. Her inspiration for the songs came from many different backgrounds, such as a dream of profound loss for ‘The Line That Ties Me’, a friend’s film script for ‘Break Apart’, or during a detox session in India, which product is ‘I Want To Live Here’.
The album is a reflection of Julia’s willingness to be present, living in the here and now: “Songs like ‘I Want To Live’ and ‘Justine’... they’re built on, ‘I don’t want to worry about what anybody’s going to say when I’m gone! I want to be here right now, not wait for something to make me happy tomorrow", the artist said.
Angus stone
“Let the conversation of the energy unfold into a creation”
Angus started his solo career trying to get far away from his image, so his debut album, Smoking Gun, was released in 2009 under the moniker name Lady of the Sunshine. With this project he went dirty, edgy and introspective. From acoustic to electric, with intensive vocals in the line of Kings of Leon, this album, which was recorded in six weeks with the help of his friend Govinda Doyle co-producing and taking over on drums and bass, was Angus´ attempt to build a whole new style. His new album, Broken Brights, comes after the break up of a two-year relationship and those feelings are printed in ballads like ‘Only a Woman’ and ‘Be What You Be’. But it also reflects his pilgrimage around the world. In this album he uses unexpected sources as instrumentation, vocal stylings, speedily plucked banjo strings, somber trumpet solos and old fashioned howling, to create his songs. The album is already a success in Australia where it debuted at No.1 on iTunes and No.2 on the Australian Recording Industry Association chart.
We don’t know for how long these solo projects are going to last, but it is said that they already have an album in the can together.
By Laura Vila
