Julia Stone launches new album with intimate preview shows

Here at Bobbysix, we love love love Julia Stone and her beautiful music, which is an intriguing combination of dark and light, melancholy and joy. Having won countless hearts when touring the world with her brother and with a critically-acclaimed solo album under her belt, she now announces her new record, By The Horns, with a series of intimate album preview shows around the world. She'll be performing in London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, LA and Sydney.

The album will be released in her homeland of Australia on May 25th, with the Sydney show at Cell Block Theatre (National Art School) in Darlinghurst on Wednesday June 13. Tickets are on-sale here on Monday March 19th at midday.

Julia is a beguiling live performer, so do yourself a favour and make your way to one of the following gigs:

Fri April 20 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – De Duif
Mon April 23 – Berlin, Germany – Rotor Salon
Tue April 24 – Paris, France – Café de La Danse
Thur April 26 –London, UK – Studio Private
Fri June 1 – Los Angeles, USA - Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Wed June 13 – Sydney, Australia – Cell Block Theatre

For full ticketing information visit: www.juliastonemusic.com

Angus and Julia Stone at St George's Church, Brighton

You can usually tell the kind of performance Sydney's Angus and Julia Stone are going to put on by what they open with. Starting with one of their jauntier numbers means the show will be somewhat upbeat, something slower will lead to a more relaxed vibe. So, the fact that they began with Santa Monica Dream suggested that the sold-out Brighton crowd could expect the latter.

It would soon transpire that one half of the beloved siblings was taking their foot off the gas through necessity. Scruffily handsome Angus, it turns out, had lost his voice earlier in the day and, while his consequently husky tones had all of the laydeez in the room swooning even more than usual, he was clearly struggling. Therefore, this show was all about Julia. Taking on the lion's share of vocal duties in a set that was necessarily heavy with her own compositions, she performed a version of Angus' Just a Boy and assisted him as he battled to deliver Yellow Brick Road. Therefore, the pleasing juxtaposition that the two contrasting songwriters usually offer - Angus' cruisy ditties, the darker tone of Julia's subject-matter - was replaced by the ramshackle charm of an ad-libbed, off the cuff set.

The attentive audience lapped it up. As seems to be the norm nowadays, there was a marriage proposal from the crowd, this time for Julia, which she laughed off by suggesting that the suitor should ask her again later after he had listened to a few of the melancholy songs she was about to perform. The singer - diminutive and pretty - floated about the stage as she alternated between piano and guitar, while the four-piece was joined by a modest string section. Julia also played harmonica and trumpet and, when her hands were occupied with her guitar, Angus took over trumpet duties. "You have to take into consideration," Julia instructed the audience as her younger brother prepared to parp away, "That Angus can't play the trumpet." Cue much laughter. In truth though, his turn on brass suggested that he'd had more than a few practices.

After a couple of covers, an atmospheric final song was the set's highlight and showcased how Julia can take the bitterness and pain of love and turn it into something beautiful. While this wasn't the perfect show - it was never going to be with Angus' lost voice - the honesty and charm that the delightful Australians exuded was more than enough to warm the hearts of everyone in attendance as the cold bit at their fingers, toes and noses when they made their way home in the snowy English winter.

Julia Stone - The Memory Machine

Sydney’s favourite siblings are certainly a prolific pair. Despite being insanely busy touring the world in support of best selling records, they still somehow find time to pen solo albums. Following her brother’s long-player last year, Julia Stone now offers The Memory Machine.

Unsurprisingly, considering that Angus and Julia have always composed their songs largely independently of one another, this isn’t a massive departure from the acoustic, atmospheric output of her day-job. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that when it’s done to such a high standard as this. Stone has always been excellent at finding chinks of light within darkness and melancholy and The Memory Machine sees her at her most emotionally weighty. Drenched in strings, My Baby shows her vocal to be rich and yearning all at once, while Winter on the Weekend is sinister and dark. “Daddy, why don't you protect me?/Someone’s gonna hurt me/And there’s nothing I can do,” she cries. The odd jaunty romp, like the horns and perky melody of Catastrophe, offer occasional levity, but the tone is mostly heavy and brooding, even in the album’s many impossibly delicate moments. Lyrically, we find Stone in a typically downbeat place. “What’s wrong with me?” she questions. “I lost my heart and I lost my faith.” Her heart seems so full and yet so fragile that it could either burst or shatter at any moment.

Anyone who assumes The Memory Machine to be a collection of songs that were thrown away when they were cutting the last Angus & Julia Stone record is a million miles from the truth. Rather, this lovingly-crafted, poetic and absolutely beautiful record represents Julia Stone’s best work to date.

Angus and Julia Stone at the Vanguard, Sydney

Even though it is a lovely venue, I have a problem with The Vanguard. I don't like the way that support artists are drowned out by the din of diners eating their meals and chatting, and so sweet little Mebourne singer Pikelet's task was a tough one one. Thankfully though, dinner was over by the time Angus and Julia took to the stage, which was decked-out in illuminated paper stars. Julia looked typically immaculate and beautiful in an emerald-green dress, while Angus was his scruffily handsome self under a mop of hair.

The tone for the evening was set with opener All Of Me; a tender, yearning love song which instantly captivated the audience. Julia’s faultless voice was exceptional, and showed great dexterity, ranging from gentle to powerful and attention-grabbing. Meanwhile, Angus perfectly complimented it with his soft, laid-back vocal.

Their songs were succinct and perfectly crafted. Drums, bass and percussion were used when necessary to raise the tempo, and were always nicely understated. Julia broke out the trumpet and harmonica sporadically, and yet there was nothing superfluous within their sound, and no showing off from any of the musicians. Therefore, the result was simple and beautiful acoustic folk music at its most charming.

The musical highlight of the evening was unquestionably the yet-to-be-released Black Jacket, which saw Julia sitting at the piano and telling a melancholic tale. “I have a black jacket,” she sang. “It makes me look like I ride a motorbike, but in real life I’m frightened I’ll fall off and die.” It was a song of quirky, painful beauty on a par with my beloved Regina Spektor or Bright Eyes, and dropped my jaw to the floor.

The night ended with the heartbreakingly poignant Chocolates and Cigarettes, after which punters rushed to the merchandise stall to pick up copies of their new EP. Trust me... this is a band with a MASSIVE future.

Review by Rob Townsend (with Julia, above).