Angus And Julia Stone

Angus & Julia Stone are an Australian brother-sister folk-blues group which formed in 2006. Their parents played as a folk duo before Julia and Angus were born. Angus & Julia Stone have released two studio albums, A Book Like This (8 September 2007), which peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart; and Down the Way (12 March 2010), reached No. 1. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 they won fiveawards from nine nominations: winning 'Album of the Year', 'Best Adult Alternative Album', 'Best Cover Art' and 'Producer of the Year' for Down the Way and 'Single of the Year' for "Big Jet Plane". The siblings have each issued two solo albums with Angus releasing Smoking Gun (under the pseudonym Lady of the Sunshine) in April 2009 and Broken Brights in July 2012; Julia's albums are The Memory Machine(October 2010) and By the Horns (May 2012)
Early years and musical style
Angus & Julia Stone are a brother-sister folk-blues duo which formed in Sydney in early 2006. Their parents, John and Kim Stone, were a folk duo before their elder sister, Catherine, was born (ca. 1982).[1] Catherine, Julia (born 13 April 1984) and Angus (born 27 April 1986) were raised in Newport, New South Wales wherethey attended Newport Primary School and then Barrenjoey High School – they were all taught by their father.[1] At family gatherings, when the children performed, Catherine was on saxophone, Julia on trumpet and Angus on trombone.[2][3] During their teen years their parents separated and soon after Angus started writing pop songs.[1][2] The children lived with John, and after finishing schooling,Angus initially worked as a labourer and Julia taught trumpet.[4] Angus had learnt guitar while recuperating from a snowboarding accident, he travelled to South America to join his sister.[3] Angus returned to Australia while Julia spent the rest of a year travelling.[4] Julia later recalled, "[Angus] was writing amazing songs ... [he] had shown me how to play guitar in Bolivia, and those songs hadgotten me through that year".[2] She elaborated "At that time the guitar was a new thing for me. I'd just bought it because I wanted to start learning. So we're in the middle of the jungle with this guitar and Angus was playing us these songs he'd been writing. I hadn't really been around him that much for the last couple of years – once I finished school I moved in with my boyfriend and Angus wasoff surfing and skating – and all of a sudden we're in the middle of the jungle and he's singing these songs that are so beautiful so I asked him to teach me some songs and that was the start of learning guitar and our friendship, I suppose, and the start of us having this amazing experience".[5] When Julia returned to Australia she encouraged Angus to start performing.[4] By 2005 Angus wasplaying at open mic nights, sometimes Julia performed backing vocals – for their first such gig, at the Coogee Bay Hotel, they performed Angus' track, "Tears".[6] By that time Julia was writing her own material and they played split sets with each providing backing vocals for the other's material.[2]
The siblings decided to collaborate on their musical endeavours as a duo in early 2006.[2] In terms ofcomposing material, they each write on their own, then work together on structure and harmonies.[3] Australian music journalist, Ed Nimmervoll, described their songwriting as "Julia with her highly romantic confessional relationship songs, Angus with his more guarded lyrically, more directly pop oriented songs".[3] Julia related her process as "The songs and the writing happens all over the placeand from all different sources of inspiration. It can be a combination of a place, a person and then the emotions that you're going through in relation to those things. And then there's the people around you who you're leaving with and the lover you've left at home and the fact it's your mom's birthday next week and you're not going to be there".[5] They have distinctive vocal styles, according...