Angus & Julia Stone

Fran Healy, lead singer of Travis, was an instant fan. So was I. Amidst the incessant sounds creeping across my desk courtesy of the U.S.P.S. came a little folk duo from England-via-Australia: Angus and Julia Stone. I put it off for awhile, until a set time when I would listen to several discs at once. When I did, I didn’t even get to any of the others.

The music of this brother sister duo is beautiful, even though it’s deceptively simple. Angus’ decent tenor and Julia’s own youngish vocal are fine on their own, but when they combine, it’s pitch perfect. Their own style of acoustic folk remains minimal for the most part, although Mitch Connelly adds fine percussion to keep the tracks buoyant.

After moving to London, Healy soon took the band in, recording at his house and forging creative and lifetime relationships with the band. The result is the sure-to-be-celebrated A Book Like This, the latest recording which has the band selling out their entire tour through the U.K.

We recently asked Julia several questions about their connection to Healy and what it’s like making music someone so close.

SSv: I’d love to start with exploring the relationships that shape the band, starting with your friendship with Fran Healy. How did the initial connection take place?

Julia Stone: We were recording in London with Chris Potter, and we got to a place where we wanted to record a song on the piano. In the studio we were in we didn’t have a piano, and so David Boyd suggested we go along to Fran’s house and record the song on his piano out there. He had given Fran our EP and Fran had some time off so was happy to have us come over and record the song.

We headed over to his home and then started chatting and got along very well. We played one song, then he just kept saying, “Play another one.” The day went by and we had recorded a dozen songs just hanging in his jam room. He and his family were so lovely to us.

SSv: Did you envision such contacts when you first moved to London?

Stone: Things just happen. You know, you’re in one place and then somewhere else … you connect creatively with people and then do stuff together.

SSv: After you become acquainted with Healy, how did it move to collaboration?

We were making music together when we were at his home. He listened and became a part of the songs. He wrote some bass parts, piano parts- he liked the music we were writing making and added some really beautiful ideas with strings and all sorts. He also made us feel like recording our music, raw … in a room was good enough. He told us that the music sounded right just the way it sounded when we played it all together as a band.

SSv: Are there further plans with Travis or Healy specifically?

Stone: No.

SSv: Going back to your own family, do you have strong musical memories of your childhood together, as brother and sister?

Stone: We spent a lot of time out on the water on granny and grandpa’s boat. They are mad sailors and when they were back from sailing through the pirate bays and searching for treasure, we would go out on the boat with them. There is a photo of us together out on the boat. Angus is lying up on the boom and I am standing on the deck with a ukulele, singing. He has this funny look on his face, his hands over his face, like, there she goes again…

SSv: Can you tell us about the first time you performed together or those early days? How did you begin to form your current identity?

Stone: One of the first times we performed together was down at the Coogee Bay open mic night. We played in front of the bar, everyone having a few drinks. We played there every Monday night for a few weeks, then Jason, who runs the night got us a spot up in Kings Cross playing a longer set – three songs each. Then our drummer Mitchell, who at the time was playing with another band asked us to come on tour with his other band. They took us up the east coast playing to very nice crowds of people and then we went on tour with a band called The Goons of Doom.

Angus and I would get up before there show and play very quietly, then they would come out really rock. It was very crazy and fun. Then we came back to Sydney and that is when our Aunty came to see us. She saw us play and then started managing us. From there we moved to London and so it goes.

SSv: How do you think your familial relationship affect the artistry you create maybe compared to other similar musicians/bands?

Stone: Being family makes it easy to get on with playing music. We don’t have to talk about the music. We don’t have to talk about where we are going or where we’ve been. When you know someone so well, and love someone so much, everything is easy. So I suppose everything is easy for us when we are together.

SSv: Do you remember what prompted you to move to London in the first place? What were you hoping to accomplish?

Stone: Our Aunty Cathy, our manager, suggested that we come over to London. Angus and I both loved living in the cottage by the beach, but we were excited about the idea of living in another country. She had given our record to a company that gave us money to live on, so we went over. I think at the time we hoped we would love our time there – that we would be happy in London. We met so many amazing people, that made us feel like London was our home.

SSv: Can you tell us about your recent full-length, A Book Like This?

Stone: A Book Like This are songs that were recorded in different living rooms. Half in London and half in our mum’s house in Australia. We were in rooms that had microphones in them. In London, we had Mitchell our drummer tucked underneath the grand piano, so every time the sustain pedal would be used the bass drum would swell through the piano strings. We had no headphones. Angus sat next to me on the piano, so we could hear each other and we played the songs we had written just as we did when we would jam together back in the cottage.

SSv: What does the rest of 2008 look like?

Stone: It looks a lot like the seagulls on the beach as the sun goes down-excited and calm, all at once.