Angus & Julia Stone reveal details for new album 'Snow'
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Following on from the single release Snow, comes news that Angus & Julia Stone’s forthcoming new album will also be titled Snow, and is set for release on September 15.
Snow the album continues a process the siblings began at the suggestion of producer Rick Rubin on their self-titled album of 2014. "That was the first time that we actually started writing together, in the same room, and I guess we took a leaf from that chapter into this record. This time round though, every song on the record we wrote together" Angus says.
Plot-wise, Snow is yet another confident advance on a story which now accounts for over half a million album sales in Australia alone. The Sydney-born siblings produced and largely engineered it themselves, in Angus's cottage studio, Belafonté, in the Byron Bay hinterland.
"It was quite magical because Angus and I have never spent that much time together, just the two of us," says Julia. "There's always at least an engineer or tour manager but the last phase of writing and recording was just eight weeks of him and me and the quiet of the land. It was a beautiful time."
As songwriters and performers, Angus explains, "We’ve seen a lot of the same things but they come out of minds and hearts in different ways. We have united memories but different perceptions which makes creating together really interesting”
Julia adds, “We can be talking about the same thing, but how we talk about it, how we feel about it is different. I think that what makes it exciting for us to write together. There’s a line that ties us. Then there’s the many different ways to talk about that line.”
The first notes of ‘Snow’ are instantly transporting. The guitar is a scratchy, wooden memory laid over a moment of silence. The gently driving organ beat emerges and takes you with it, beginning the next enchanting journey with the brother-sister duo, "Running from the start, here we are again," Julia sings. "Running from the start, here we go again," comes her brother's reply.
‘Chateau’ is a song of pure contentment in time and place. ‘Nothing Else To Do’ is a stunning acoustic breeze - "There's nothing else to do here but fall into your arms," Angus and Julia sing in effortless harmony.
‘Cellar Door’ borrows its title from the film Donnie Darko, its subject drawn from the intensely personal experience of the siblings' grandfather's funeral. On ‘My House Your House’, they find a call-and-response groove that paints a shared place viewed from different angles.
"There's a lot of this on there, where Angus would find the story in the verse and I would find it in the chorus and we find a way through because of each other," Julia says. "We have very different styles of writing but they seem to work together. In a way, it’s the differences that make it sound the way it does.”
"I never could have imagined that Angus and I would still be working together 10 years later — i feel pretty lucky we get to make music together. We've been through so much, so many shared experiences and memories."
"It’s exciting to share new music with people for sure... but to be honest, it's not why I got into writing music," says Angus. "For me it's always just been an expression… but it’s a great feeling if people are digging it”
Angus and Julia have invited fans to come behind the scenes for the recording of Snow saying, “We shot a little video while making the album on the farm. It's a little snippet into our world making music. Enjoy!”
Directed by Onil Kotain and produced by Karim Sukarno, the video for the ‘Snow’ single is as intimate and intoxicating as the track itself and sees Angus and Julia Stone wandering through the Australian desert until they fall upon a steamy laidback affair in the middle of nowhere. Check out the music video below.
Since the duo began performing together in 2006, their story has unfolded with a magnetism that has galvanised the world. Their three albums have amassed multi-platinum sales, whilst new single ‘Snow’ has already hit #2 most played on triple j, #57 on the Shazam chart (nearing 12,000 shazams) and over 1.2 million Spotify plays! The band have over 5 million listeners each month who tune in to stream their music from all over the world, and have accumulated a fan base of millions over tours of the UK, Europe and USA.
Their quietly hypnotic songs have infiltrated film and TV from the recent Woody Harrelson film ‘The Edge of 17’ to TV shows like ‘Pretty Little Liars’, ‘Suits’ & ‘Revenge’. They have cast their spell over the world's key festivals: Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Rock Werchter, Hurricane, Austin City Limits, Electric Picnic, Splendour In The Grass.