A Wary Reunion

13 August 2014 | 1:09 pm | Hannah Story

To be honest, it was Rick Rubin. It was way out of the blue; we hadn’t thought about getting back together

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To be honest, it was Rick [Rubin]. It was way out of the blue; we hadn’t thought about getting back together for some ways down the road.”

So there we have it; Angus & Julia Stone, the ARIA-winning Northern Beaches brother-sister folk-pop duo, – what a mouthful – were reunited, while in the midst of fairly successful solo projects, thanks to US producer Rick Rubin (Jay Z, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash).

“We had only just made the decision to go our own ways; we were pretty comfortable in our own projects and travelling around the world playing shows. When we got the call it was a bit of a shock. It took some time to absorb the information and think about what that meant. After some time, Julia and I ran into each other in Paris at our favourite restaurant, we didn’t know each other was in town and walked in and we were like, ‘What the fuck?’”

The siblings Stone approached the reunion with a little bit of trepidation, but after talking it out, they found a new way of working together.

“I think there was just a bit of confusion when we first moved to LA. We were sitting around the house tapping our fingers and smoking lots of cigarettes and wondering what the fuck was going to happen and how this record was going to be different. I don’t know – we both felt like something had to change with this one, and it had to be special. I guess that’s when we had a chat and we talked about finding a place to go and write – this is two weeks before going in the studio – and make something together together; not just me bringing a song to the table and Julia doing the same and working together that way.”

They managed to find a space to write in LA, a space where they could chill out and be creative at the same time.

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“Our friend Elmo suggested we go to his friend’s place out in the hills of LA, it’s this place called Bronson Island and it’s that dude from That ‘70s Show that lives there, what’s his name? He’s the son of the dad that drinks beer and sits in front of the telly in the show?” 

Bronson Island is the Hollywood recording studio run by Danny Masterson, who plays Hyde on the show.  

Stone continues, “It’s cool, he’s got a big mansion and this garage out the back next to the tennis court and the pool. He’s got all the equipment set up and we just jammed, we just played and drank wine and we came up with a bunch of cool stuff. Then we’d drive back to Venice Beach after the sessions. We recorded everything on iPhone so we’d plug it into the stereo and just listen whilst we drove. I feel like in that time driving back to Venice we did a lot of the writing and a moment would come up and we’d be like, ‘Oh that’s cool, that could be a song.’ It was a cool haphazard way of writing together.”

The spontaneity and organicness of the process led to a self-titled album that works as a statement of intent. While working with the same folk-tinged aesthetic, they’ve drawn upon Americana twang and almost surf guitar lines to create polished pop songs. Understandably, those tweaks in sound stem from the way stepping out on their own changed each of them as people.

“We changed as people and travelling artists, and in that time of being out there on our own on the road we’ve grown a lot and learnt new things. We kind of brought that together and we made something cool.

“I think when you’re out for so long, Julia would be out on stage with me and you’d walk out and it was just that little bit easier, you had your buddy there and she’d have your back and I’d have her back and we’d split the show up in that way. The pressure wasn’t as scary. When you’re out on your own in front of all those people and the band you kind of scare the shit out of yourself and I think that’s healthy.”

Stone is not sure what the next thing for the pair will be, following their sell out national tour. He’s reluctant to comment on whether they’ll return to their solo guises or remain a duo  “It’s hard to say, I don’t even know what I’m doing for lunch – I guess we’ll sort of play it by ear and we’ll see what happens.”