miguel_myriad
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Australian brother and sister duo who released their highly acclaimed debut album 'A Book Like This' last year.
POD CONCERTS presents:
ANGUS & JULIA STONE
Support: JENNY LINDFORS
Monday May 12th
The Sugar Club – Leeson Street – Dublin 2.
Doors – 8pm
Tickets €15 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets. www.ticketmaster.ie
www.angusandjuliastone.com
www.myspace.com/angusandjuliastone
"Fragile, beautiful songs" Uncut
"Spectral piano and hushed vocals that demand attention" The Sun
"The songs - simple but blindingly effective acoustic compositions, warm boy-girl harmonies, less-is-more arrangements. Resistance is futile." Music Week
Hailing from the beautiful northern beaches of Sydney, Angus & Julia Stone form two halves of a musical act with a natural gift for telling emotive, honest and beguiling stories.
Their acclaimed debut album, A Book Like This, is a perfect illustration of their enchantingly dichotomous dynamic, with the siblings complimenting each other wonderfully, both vocally and in their subject matter, as one steps into the foreground during their own compositions while the other performs backing vocals. Younger brother Angus has a soft, warm vocal and is measured, composed and ruminative as he deals with the expectations of society in opening track The Beast. Elsewhere he sings with detached romance in Silver Coin and engaging tenderness in Bella. Meanwhile, Julia is a fascinating juxtaposition of light and dark, joy and despair. Her distinctive voice is delightfully impulsive; at times playful and puckish, elsewhere echoing the sorrow and yearning of a broken heart. Here We Go Again is giddy with desire while the downbeat, aggrieved Wasted is typical of her ability to combine melancholic lyrics with pretty melodies. "They all would have been killed in The Sound Of Music," she tells us during Hollywood.
It is little wonder that the duo are such adroit storytellers, as music runs through the bloodlines of both their mother and father's families and was an integral aspect of their lives. Therefore, it was the most natural thing in the world for Angus & Julia to express themselves using their voices and any of the multitudinous instruments lying around the house, and it wasn't long before they were performing acoustically, as individual artists at first, then as a pair, in venues around Sydney. With their self-pressed debut EP, Chocolates and Cigarettes, selling like hot cakes at their shows, word began to spread around Australia. Yet, in 2006, while their homeland buzzed about this exciting new talent on the local scene, the opportunity arose for Angus & Julia to broaden their horizons and spend an extended amount of time in England, where they would quickly "build an amazing little world" for themselves. While West London was a suitable base, they spent most of their time journeying to every nook and cranny of their newly adopted home to perform live shows drenched with typically mesmeric intimacy and atmosphere, causing British magazine The Fly to state: "Angus and Julia don't so much seize the room as gently envelope it in a warm, shawled embrace."
And so began a nomadic existence that required Angus & Julia to divide their time between Australia and the UK, during which they released a second EP, Heart Full Of Wine, toured nationwide around Australia and gigged extensively in the UK and Ireland, including support slots with The Magic Numbers and a winning display at The Latitude Festival.
Soon after landing upon English shores, Angus & Julia befriended Travis frontman Fran Healy and, through his invitation to come to his house to work on some demos, A Book Like This was born. Perhaps best illustrating how the duo's lives were split between one side of the globe and the other, the remaining songs for the album were recorded in their mother's lounge back in Australia with producer and friend, Ian Pritchett. "The most important thing about recording for us is that we are with people we love, and that everyone can feel good about where we are and what we are doing. This whole record was done in a lounge room, making music with people we love."
Australia's DB Magazine notes: "From the storybook pencil sketches adorning the cover and liner notes, to the adorable listening content, A Book Like This is an extension and development of an already very well musically established partnership further bonded by family connection." Indeed, photos, website, art and video clips are all lovingly created by Angus & Julia with the help of family and friends. For instance, Angus chose the album cover from a book his grandmother used to read and conceived the idea for The Beast video clip utilizing all of the characters from that cover. Julia then storyboarded it and collaborated with artistic friends who came on board to draw and animate the clip. This pleasing DIY ethic adds to an already homegrown, honest appeal. "I enjoy having about ten different things to do," Julia says. "The whole process is fun. For me and for Angus it's just life now. None of it is horrible; it's never an effort. Every single part of it has been fun and if it wasn't fun then we wouldn't do it."
But, of course, ultimately it is all about the music, and the acclamation to which A Book Like This was released in Australia in 2007 suggests that the unequivocal sincerity and depth of Angus & Julia's heartfelt, innocent yet accomplished compositions has struck a perfect chord. Whether their lovingly-crafted songs are tagged as folky, acoustic or bluesy-rock matters not to their creators; they are simply doing what comes naturally. "We don't listen to heaps of other music," Angus admits. "We are two people who play music because… well just because, and if people can enjoy the music and feel something then that is a wonderful thing."
While the pleasingly unassuming Angus & Julia are refreshingly modest about their talent and remain nonplussed regarding their success, their star undeniably continues to ascend at pace. A Book Like This recently went gold in Australia and, on the other side of the world, a successful UK tour supporting Newton Faulkner and supporting David Gray was book-ended their own sold-out London shows.
In truth, their allure shouldn't really come as a surprise, as they are surely the embodiment of everything good and natural about the essence of honest music. After all, anyone who has ever experienced the breathless elation or the heartbreaking pain of love cannot fail to be engaged by the enchanting stories that Angus & Julia Stone tell.
Pleasingly, it is hard to ever envisage a time when their creativity will abate, and one senses that even more exciting times lie ahead for the humble siblings from Sydney.
POD CONCERTS presents:
ANGUS & JULIA STONE
Support: JENNY LINDFORS
Monday May 12th
The Sugar Club – Leeson Street – Dublin 2.
Doors – 8pm
Tickets €15 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets. www.ticketmaster.ie
www.angusandjuliastone.com
www.myspace.com/angusandjuliastone
"Fragile, beautiful songs" Uncut
"Spectral piano and hushed vocals that demand attention" The Sun
"The songs - simple but blindingly effective acoustic compositions, warm boy-girl harmonies, less-is-more arrangements. Resistance is futile." Music Week
Hailing from the beautiful northern beaches of Sydney, Angus & Julia Stone form two halves of a musical act with a natural gift for telling emotive, honest and beguiling stories.
Their acclaimed debut album, A Book Like This, is a perfect illustration of their enchantingly dichotomous dynamic, with the siblings complimenting each other wonderfully, both vocally and in their subject matter, as one steps into the foreground during their own compositions while the other performs backing vocals. Younger brother Angus has a soft, warm vocal and is measured, composed and ruminative as he deals with the expectations of society in opening track The Beast. Elsewhere he sings with detached romance in Silver Coin and engaging tenderness in Bella. Meanwhile, Julia is a fascinating juxtaposition of light and dark, joy and despair. Her distinctive voice is delightfully impulsive; at times playful and puckish, elsewhere echoing the sorrow and yearning of a broken heart. Here We Go Again is giddy with desire while the downbeat, aggrieved Wasted is typical of her ability to combine melancholic lyrics with pretty melodies. "They all would have been killed in The Sound Of Music," she tells us during Hollywood.
It is little wonder that the duo are such adroit storytellers, as music runs through the bloodlines of both their mother and father's families and was an integral aspect of their lives. Therefore, it was the most natural thing in the world for Angus & Julia to express themselves using their voices and any of the multitudinous instruments lying around the house, and it wasn't long before they were performing acoustically, as individual artists at first, then as a pair, in venues around Sydney. With their self-pressed debut EP, Chocolates and Cigarettes, selling like hot cakes at their shows, word began to spread around Australia. Yet, in 2006, while their homeland buzzed about this exciting new talent on the local scene, the opportunity arose for Angus & Julia to broaden their horizons and spend an extended amount of time in England, where they would quickly "build an amazing little world" for themselves. While West London was a suitable base, they spent most of their time journeying to every nook and cranny of their newly adopted home to perform live shows drenched with typically mesmeric intimacy and atmosphere, causing British magazine The Fly to state: "Angus and Julia don't so much seize the room as gently envelope it in a warm, shawled embrace."
And so began a nomadic existence that required Angus & Julia to divide their time between Australia and the UK, during which they released a second EP, Heart Full Of Wine, toured nationwide around Australia and gigged extensively in the UK and Ireland, including support slots with The Magic Numbers and a winning display at The Latitude Festival.
Soon after landing upon English shores, Angus & Julia befriended Travis frontman Fran Healy and, through his invitation to come to his house to work on some demos, A Book Like This was born. Perhaps best illustrating how the duo's lives were split between one side of the globe and the other, the remaining songs for the album were recorded in their mother's lounge back in Australia with producer and friend, Ian Pritchett. "The most important thing about recording for us is that we are with people we love, and that everyone can feel good about where we are and what we are doing. This whole record was done in a lounge room, making music with people we love."
Australia's DB Magazine notes: "From the storybook pencil sketches adorning the cover and liner notes, to the adorable listening content, A Book Like This is an extension and development of an already very well musically established partnership further bonded by family connection." Indeed, photos, website, art and video clips are all lovingly created by Angus & Julia with the help of family and friends. For instance, Angus chose the album cover from a book his grandmother used to read and conceived the idea for The Beast video clip utilizing all of the characters from that cover. Julia then storyboarded it and collaborated with artistic friends who came on board to draw and animate the clip. This pleasing DIY ethic adds to an already homegrown, honest appeal. "I enjoy having about ten different things to do," Julia says. "The whole process is fun. For me and for Angus it's just life now. None of it is horrible; it's never an effort. Every single part of it has been fun and if it wasn't fun then we wouldn't do it."
But, of course, ultimately it is all about the music, and the acclamation to which A Book Like This was released in Australia in 2007 suggests that the unequivocal sincerity and depth of Angus & Julia's heartfelt, innocent yet accomplished compositions has struck a perfect chord. Whether their lovingly-crafted songs are tagged as folky, acoustic or bluesy-rock matters not to their creators; they are simply doing what comes naturally. "We don't listen to heaps of other music," Angus admits. "We are two people who play music because… well just because, and if people can enjoy the music and feel something then that is a wonderful thing."
While the pleasingly unassuming Angus & Julia are refreshingly modest about their talent and remain nonplussed regarding their success, their star undeniably continues to ascend at pace. A Book Like This recently went gold in Australia and, on the other side of the world, a successful UK tour supporting Newton Faulkner and supporting David Gray was book-ended their own sold-out London shows.
In truth, their allure shouldn't really come as a surprise, as they are surely the embodiment of everything good and natural about the essence of honest music. After all, anyone who has ever experienced the breathless elation or the heartbreaking pain of love cannot fail to be engaged by the enchanting stories that Angus & Julia Stone tell.
Pleasingly, it is hard to ever envisage a time when their creativity will abate, and one senses that even more exciting times lie ahead for the humble siblings from Sydney.
