“Rick [Rubin] said that he heard our music at a party and wanted to meet us,” Julia explains. “It was just so weird; we were like, ‘What’s going on?’ We had our own paths set going solo, and we were both really happy doing that, and then Rick contacted us and came to both of our solo shows separately in L.A. I met up with him a few times in L.A. We would hang out and go for walks, go on motorbikes and talk. Angus did the same when he was in town. Rick said he wanted to make a record with the two of us together, and that was kind of like the beginning of Angus and I talking; we hadn’t really chatted much between our solo tours.
“I think Angus and I probably would have just drifted off and not made an effort to be in each other’s lives. We really now have become friends because of this process, and I don’t think I would ever not talk to him for more than a week now, but at that time I wouldn’t have seen him until Christmas 2015.”
Meeting and working with the Def Jam label founder has brought a new lease of life to the Stone siblings’ songwriting, the result of which is a new, self-titled album – their first since 2010’s Down the Way.
“It feels very exciting,” Julia says. “I feel like we know the record so well now, and I just assume that everybody else knows it. We’ve been playing a whole bunch of shows and summer festivals through Europe, and we play so much stuff off the new record and I forget that nobody’s heard it. I just assume that everybody’s been living with the mixes as long as we have, but I’m actually excited that people will get to hear it for real, and not just in my head.
“It’s probably just the nature of what’s new in your life, but I feel that the new songs have a lot more energy for us. I think as well the [new] songs are a little more beat-driven and it’s more of a dance-y feel to a show, which is unusual for us. It’s fun to dance around a bit more.”
Not only has the rekindling of their personal relationship brought about a new album, but an entire new approach to songwriting for the pair as well.
“I think that for Angus and I, songwriting was always a really personal thing and it was space away from each other. All of a sudden we’re Angus & Julia Stone and we’re this brother and sister thing. We were really young when it started and we enjoyed it a lot so we kept on going with it, but there was a part of us that wanted to claim our independence from each other. I think for both of us, when we were on tour doing a lot of press and travelling, the songwriting was a really good way to express things that were personal to us and independent from the other person.
“The idea of writing a song together never even crossed our minds; it wasn’t something that appealed. This time around, we had had time apart and we had written and recorded on our own, and we felt that the only reason to get back together was to try to be different in the way we worked and in our relationship. I think the time apart made it possible; we established that we were independent, so when we came into the studio and started singing together, there wasn’t as much control and we felt more free.”
The new album takes the duo’s trademark folk sound and injects some unmistakeable American flavours, although the pair have no particular goals in that part of the world, Stone says.
“We signed to Rick’s label and he’s based out of the US, but I don’t know,” she says. “The guys from the label over there are really lovely and excited about the album. For us, we just go to wherever we’re summoned to play music, and we never really know what makes a song work on radio or whether people are going to connect. We just wake up and play our songs, and whatever unfolds from it unfolds from it. We haven’t ever been known for our planning or goals about places or things. I think Rick’s great though, and his label’s really good, so we have a lot of support to tour there. Although I don’t really have a phone filled with famous people. It’s Rick and then family.”
The duo have lined up a September national tour following on from their homecoming show at Splendour, with dates already selling out.
“I was just looking at a tour schedule today,” Stone says. “We have so many tours, so many shows! We go to L.A. in a few weeks to do press, then we go to Europe to do TV and press stuff. Then we have an Australian tour for September/October, then an American tour for November, then a Europe tour for December. Then I don’t know what happens after that. [I’ll] probably have a little nap.”
BY PAUL MCBRIDE
