Speaker 1: This episode of CEZ the A is brought to you
Speaker 1: by Mitsubishi.
Speaker 2: We were raised to be I think, hard working, and
Speaker 2: we also believed that you never look at an opportunity
Speaker 2: and turn it away. A lot of people didn't want
Speaker 2: to play our music. It wasn't what was happening in
Speaker 2: Australian music at the time, but we just kept going
Speaker 2: and we just felt like, you know, there was something
Speaker 2: good in it.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the CS the AA Podcast. Stunning in your moment,
Speaker 1: I keep one feeling and Madra.
Speaker 2: You asked me fun more am am so last started
Speaker 2: dancing under the street, lad and you saw me and
Speaker 2: I saw that you saw me, and I wanted you bad.
Speaker 1: Well, there's a little something different for you all this week,
Speaker 1: Lovely neighborhood. What a treat to have the melodious voice
Speaker 1: of Julia Stone coming to your ears. Unless you've literally
Speaker 1: been living under a rock, you will definitely have heard
Speaker 1: some of her work, even if you didn't realize it,
Speaker 1: including at the very least the ubiquitous and ARIA Award
Speaker 1: winning single Big jet Plane, released with her brother Angus
Speaker 1: in the same year that they won five ARIA Awards
Speaker 1: from nine nominations for their incredible work. But what I'm
Speaker 1: thrilled to be chatting with Julia about today is her
Speaker 1: brand new album, sixty Summers, and you've just heard a
Speaker 1: little snippet of one of the featuring songs and one
Speaker 1: of my favorites, break It's so ful of Yea, along
Speaker 1: with a couple of other tracks that have been pre
Speaker 1: released before it launches officially this week. This is her
Speaker 1: third solo album, but the first one, as you'll hear,
Speaker 1: that wasn't launched in between other Angus and Julia releases,
Speaker 1: and with the most striking departure into new sounds. As again,
Speaker 1: you just heard new partnerships and even supporting visuals, including
Speaker 1: a wonderful little music video featuring Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover.
Speaker 1: You know I love getting into conversations about identity, different chapters,
Speaker 1: outgrowing your past definitions of success, and finding new metrics
Speaker 1: for your happiness. So what a perfect time to sit
Speaker 1: down with this wonderful artist just before this new album
Speaker 1: comes into the world. As always, it was so enlightening
Speaker 1: to hear more about the human being behind the household name.
Speaker 1: I love that part of this show so much. Hopefully
Speaker 1: you all learn as much as I did about Julia
Speaker 1: that you might not have known before before we jump in.
Speaker 1: You've probably noticed that we didn't have a Yeas of
Speaker 1: our Lives episode this week, even after our fabulous co
Speaker 1: hosted chat last week. I'm so glad you guys love
Speaker 1: the banter. I'll make sure that there is much more
Speaker 1: of that to come. I've admittedly fallen into some very
Speaker 1: optimistic but ultimately unrealistic scheduling, so it's been a bit
Speaker 1: of an overflowing few weeks. We've been out on the
Speaker 1: road recording some amazing yeahborhood chats, but need a bit
Speaker 1: more time to bring the editing together. So just taking
Speaker 1: a little breather from the extra segment for this week
Speaker 1: and next to make sure I do justice to those stories,
Speaker 1: but also to give us time to line up some
Speaker 1: other co hosts since you loved the banter so much.
Speaker 1: I'm actually heading out to the Red Center this week
Speaker 1: for an immersive women's cultural experience along the Larapinta Trail
Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory, and won't have any signal for
Speaker 1: quite a few days in a row for the first
Speaker 1: time in many years, so there'll be a whole yays
Speaker 1: of our Lives episode just on that I'm sure to
Speaker 1: fill you in on all the revelations and our har moments.
Speaker 1: I expect that that will stimulate after we return next week.
Speaker 1: So things are still moving in the background for years
Speaker 1: of our lives, just slower than I might have liked.
Speaker 1: My own fault. Your regular interview scheduling, however, will continue,
Speaker 1: and Years of our Lives will be back as soon
Speaker 1: as possible. In the meantime, enjoy Julia Stone, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's my pleasure. What an absolute privilege.
Speaker 1: I've been listening to your music for so long, so
Speaker 1: to meet you in person, it's just so delightful.
Speaker 2: Thank you. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: So before we kick off, I love to start by
Speaker 1: asking everyone what the most down toward thing is about them.
Speaker 1: To break through the often glossy surface level identity that
Speaker 1: our kind of digital world enables us all to have,
Speaker 1: but particularly for those of us like yourself, who have
Speaker 1: many wonderful achievements, who we've all often been introduced to
Speaker 1: through ARIA awards or chart topping albums and singles, what's
Speaker 1: something really just normal about you.
Speaker 2: If there's anything, Oh, there's nothing normal about me. I
Speaker 2: guess probably my absolute adoration for my dog. Ah, Yes,
Speaker 2: I found that the love that I feel with her
Speaker 2: and going to the beach, and it's so simple. It's
Speaker 2: just a really simple pleasure. But the purity of animals
Speaker 2: is something that no matter how big a deal you
Speaker 2: might think you are, in a moment, you know, your
Speaker 2: dog is just like, yeah, you're just the person that
Speaker 2: I love and want to be next to. And yeah,
Speaker 2: so I guess that's that's it.
Speaker 1: Oh, we're the same. We have a Golden Retriever called Paul,
Speaker 1: and here's the center of our universe. Like sometimes it's
Speaker 1: a trocio. So I'm like, if we've become yes, horror
Speaker 1: but amazing.
Speaker 2: My grandparents are cattle farmers on one side, and so
Speaker 2: I grew up around working dogs and dogs were just
Speaker 2: a different it was a different thing. You know. They
Speaker 2: were there to help out and they were never inside
Speaker 2: the house and they were loved. But I think if
Speaker 2: my grandparents saw how redd Is treated inside the bedside,
Speaker 2: on the bed, anywhere she wants to go, they would
Speaker 2: be they would be appalled.
Speaker 1: They're just whenever you're having an anxious moment or just
Speaker 1: getting overwhelmed by anything. They're unconditional love for you and
Speaker 1: just how happy they are to see you, even if
Speaker 1: you've only been out for like ten minutes. It's just
Speaker 1: so beautiful. You can't be angry while your dog is happy.
Speaker 1: That's true. So, speaking of your grandparents and your background,
Speaker 1: I think one of my favorite parts of show is
Speaker 1: going back to the very beginning and tracing back how
Speaker 1: we form these identities, and as we started talking about
Speaker 1: before we were recording, just looking at the different decision
Speaker 1: making processes that you go through in your life that
Speaker 1: lead you to where you are today, and so much
Speaker 1: of the incredible stuff that we hear that we've all achieved.
Speaker 1: You know, it gets more airtime, I think than a
Speaker 1: lot of the earlier days. But they're the formative ones,
Speaker 1: and people forget that you had to go through so
Speaker 1: many shitty chapters, so many tough chapters where you don't
Speaker 1: have direction before the fine you find the ones where
Speaker 1: you do. So tell us about young Julia, what you
Speaker 1: were like as a child. I know music was part
Speaker 1: of your life from very early, but did you always
Speaker 1: perceive it as a career option or was it just
Speaker 1: something that you enjoyed.
Speaker 2: I think music was always a part of our lives,
Speaker 2: and it wasn't until I left high school and went
Speaker 2: backpacking that I started thinking about songwriting in the way
Speaker 2: that I do now. So I guess that was around nineteen.
Speaker 2: Prior to that, music had been something fun to do
Speaker 2: and something that, in a way, I wouldn't say our
Speaker 2: parents forced us to do it, but it was. I
Speaker 2: mean they did force us music well ish. You know
Speaker 2: Mum and dad when they met. Mum sings and Dad
Speaker 2: plays guitar and piano, and so when they were backpacking,
Speaker 2: when they had first met and they were in their twenties,
Speaker 2: they would make money by singing songs together, and oh
Speaker 2: my god. So that was part of their story and then,
Speaker 2: of course has become a part of our story. But
Speaker 2: probably wasn't the fundamental part of them that drove us
Speaker 2: towards music, because when we were old enough to remember,
Speaker 2: Mum wasn't really singing anymore, and Dad had a band
Speaker 2: of his own that was more the music in the house,
Speaker 2: and we all joined the school band. You know, Dad
Speaker 2: was the band conductor.
Speaker 1: And I saw that you were all together in the family.
Speaker 1: Were you trumpet.
Speaker 2: I was trumpet, my sister saxophone, and Angus was trombone.
Speaker 1: Also, everyone there is a third stone, a third stone sibling, Catherine,
Speaker 1: who played the saxophone. I thought that was really interesting. Yes, Catherine.
Speaker 2: She's a year and a half older than I am,
Speaker 2: and in a way, Catherine was probably the most naturally
Speaker 2: interested in music.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny looking back because she ended up taking
Speaker 2: up classical guitar when she was in her teenage years.
Speaker 2: And for me, it was just it was really a
Speaker 2: social thing. I loved being in the school band because
Speaker 2: I got to hang out with older kids, and particularly
Speaker 2: in high school, felt like older kids were more fun
Speaker 2: than kids in my own.
Speaker 1: Year and wise beyond your years kind.
Speaker 2: Of not that, I guess, I just at first when
Speaker 2: I got to high school, I didn't have any friends,
Speaker 2: and so the band was much more accepting. I was
Speaker 2: a pretty odd kid in the sense that I had
Speaker 2: much more confidence than other kids like and that was
Speaker 2: because being raised by stage yar kind of parents that
Speaker 2: they put us in well, you know, they we were
Speaker 2: all doing acting when we were five six. I was
Speaker 2: in a country practice when I was six years old.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I used to love that show. I
Speaker 1: did not know that. Yeah, intructor.
Speaker 2: I guess that's something that nobody really knows about me.
Speaker 1: At an institution.
Speaker 2: I was a child actor until I was nine, and
Speaker 2: then I retired.
Speaker 1: Oh like earlier retirement. I mean, you peak and then
Speaker 1: what can you do?
Speaker 2: I peaked? I peakd young early. I peaked in an
Speaker 2: Australian film called Sirens. It was I don't know if
Speaker 2: you remember, but there was El McPherson, Kate Fisher and
Speaker 2: Porsche to ROSSI were the models who were being painted
Speaker 2: by Norman Lindsay played by Sam Neil, who was a
Speaker 2: famous Australian painter that he was famous because he was
Speaker 2: painting naked women at a time that the church was
Speaker 2: really dominant in the art world. Hugh Grant plays the
Speaker 2: priest from the UK who fl out to talk him
Speaker 2: out of painting these naked women. What a car. I know,
Speaker 2: it's an all start. This is why I said I picked.
Speaker 1: Early Stone's claim to fame.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was. It was a big deal at primary school.
Speaker 2: I had two months off school to shod in the
Speaker 2: Blue Mountains at the original Norman Lindsay house. Wow, and
Speaker 2: I got everybody El McPherson's autograph. You know, so I
Speaker 2: came back to school, you know, just you know, cheering
Speaker 2: people cheering for me. They weren't, they absolutely weren't. It's
Speaker 2: weird how jealousy at a very young age seeps into,
Speaker 2: particularly in girls' kind of environments.
Speaker 1: So and difference. I think we spend so much of
Speaker 1: our youth suppressing what makes us different, because we want
Speaker 1: to be same, and we want to have grounds that
Speaker 1: are you know, common with other people, to kind of
Speaker 1: identify with each other. But I feel like as you
Speaker 1: get older, you start stripping that back and just owning
Speaker 1: the bits of you that are weird and unique, and
Speaker 1: that ends up being what you're celebrated for rather than
Speaker 1: what makes you an outsider. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think being a kid, you don't understand complex emotions
Speaker 2: like that, you actually that behavior or the way that
Speaker 2: other people treat you then refines you to become more,
Speaker 2: you know, someone who conforms a little bit more. And
Speaker 2: I realized from all of that time of being out
Speaker 2: of school doing fun, acting things, it was better not
Speaker 2: to tell people about what I was doing. It was
Speaker 2: better to hide that I was doing fun stuff out
Speaker 2: of school. And that continued through high school where I
Speaker 2: started writing songs when I was in year seven at
Speaker 2: high school, but I didn't have a guitar or a
Speaker 2: piano to write songs on. So I would write a
Speaker 2: capella melody lines and lyrics wow, and I felt confident.
Speaker 2: I just didn't never understood that people could see that
Speaker 2: as a bad thing to share the songs. And so
Speaker 2: I would go to the school teachers and I'd say,
Speaker 2: I want to sing a song that I've written for
Speaker 2: the school assembly. And I would stand up with no
Speaker 2: music and see the song in the microphone to a
Speaker 2: thousand kids. You know, the song I wrote about peace
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was very good.
Speaker 2: Dog, exactly my dog. And that was when I started
Speaker 2: realizing as well, like bullying and stuff where people making
Speaker 2: fun of me, and and again all of that stuff
Speaker 2: led to me turning away from music. When I was
Speaker 2: in high school, I stopped wanting to sing. And I
Speaker 2: liked singing a lot, and at home it was really
Speaker 2: normalized to do that. But high school, you know, sort
Speaker 2: of beats it out of you. And then it wasn't
Speaker 2: until I left that I was like, actually I love
Speaker 2: doing this, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: And that is I mean, another big section that we
Speaker 1: can probably weave into this. One is your natia, and
Speaker 1: it is all the big challenges to your joy that
Speaker 1: you face along the way, like for many people self doubt.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it's the opposite. If you do show or
Speaker 1: demonstrate any kind of confidence, it's being hit by tall
Speaker 1: pobby syndrome or jealousy or misunderstanding or bullying. And for
Speaker 1: many people, what makes me shut is that they could
Speaker 1: maybe not come back to finding the thing that they're
Speaker 1: joyful about, and they do suppress it for so long
Speaker 1: that it is beaten out of them completely. So it's
Speaker 1: so wonderful that the music was never beaten out of you,
Speaker 1: because now we all get to enjoy it in such
Speaker 1: a wonderful way.
Speaker 2: I think, I mean, from my understanding, people don't mean
Speaker 2: to do it. I think it's a way of buffering
Speaker 2: your own feelings of insecurity about something you desire. And
Speaker 2: I think self expression is something that is innately human.
Speaker 2: We all need to express and when you're somebody who's
Speaker 2: afraid of doing that, it makes you feel uncomfortable when
Speaker 2: somebody else does it, and for some people it inspires
Speaker 2: them to do it themselves, and for other people they say,
Speaker 2: please stop it because you know, in whatever way they
Speaker 2: say that, but please stop doing that, because it's making
Speaker 2: me feel, yeah, uncomfortable about that. It's missing in my life.
Speaker 2: And I taught trumpet throughout high school. That was the
Speaker 2: I saw that my part time job. And I was
Speaker 2: always amazed at how young children could be because we
Speaker 2: were raised by our parents to believe that everybody can sing.
Speaker 2: Everybody has a singing voice. My dad, in particular, he
Speaker 2: didn't have a particularly lovely voice, but he would always sing,
Speaker 2: and he sang in choirs, he sang in his band,
Speaker 2: and he would always encourage anyone who came around to
Speaker 2: our house to sing with us and sing by the piano.
Speaker 2: But young kids who would come to learn trumpet from me,
Speaker 2: I often at the time, would teach with my voice.
Speaker 2: I found it easier to sing the parts on the
Speaker 2: music than to play them. And I also found that
Speaker 2: if you could sing the part, it was easier to
Speaker 2: play the part on the trumpet when you were learning,
Speaker 2: So I'd try to get the kid to sing the
Speaker 2: part with me, and a lot of kids from very
Speaker 2: young eight years old would say I can't sing, and
Speaker 2: I would say, absolutely, you can sing. Everybody can sing,
Speaker 2: and they'd say no, my teacher says that I have
Speaker 2: a bad voice, or my mom says, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: And it's just a moment that a parent turns around
Speaker 2: and says, can you please shut up, I'm trying to
Speaker 2: do the cooking. It sounds terrible. It's one moment, and
Speaker 2: that for someone's voice is a lifetime. They never forget
Speaker 2: that they've been told their tone. Therefore they're singing out
Speaker 2: of tune. And people who have beautiful voices still believe
Speaker 2: that they can't follow a pitch or oh.
Speaker 1: My gosh, it's fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's incredibly powerful. Wow.
Speaker 1: So during that time when you did sort of steer
Speaker 1: a little bit away from music, something that I find
Speaker 1: really fascinating is when we mentioned this just before, when
Speaker 1: you stop making decisions based on what you love and
Speaker 1: what you're drawn to and what you're good at and
Speaker 1: the Venn diagram of all those things, and start kind
Speaker 1: of being more influenced by the noise of expectation and
Speaker 1: societal norms and also just on what you're going to
Speaker 1: do as a job and having a livelihood. And I
Speaker 1: think for a lot of creative and artists, like musicians,
Speaker 1: music starts as a passion, and for some people if
Speaker 1: they turn it into their job, it kills the passion.
Speaker 1: For others, they don't actually believe that it could be
Speaker 1: a job, so they don't pursue it. For you, when
Speaker 1: you know, what did you first think you were going
Speaker 1: to do as a living. Was it music or did
Speaker 1: you have other jobs in between before you came back
Speaker 1: to it, Like how did you sort of fall into
Speaker 1: it as a career, particularly if you beat away from
Speaker 1: it for a little while.
Speaker 2: The songwriting part of me, I guess I always wrote poetry.
Speaker 2: I always wrote a journal, and you know it was
Speaker 2: all very innocent stuff, you know, about problems at school
Speaker 2: or mom and dad. You know, they don't understand teenageanks. Yeah,
Speaker 2: teenage inks. I remember finding one of my journal entries
Speaker 2: and it was just I'm so fucking tired that I
Speaker 2: don't understand. It was like they don't didn't get it,
Speaker 2: And it's like, yeah, I think they do. They both
Speaker 2: are working six jobs. It's like, yeah, I'm very grateful
Speaker 2: to my parents. Now I've reread stuff, and I also
Speaker 2: behaved incredibly poorly at times, and I thank them as
Speaker 2: regularly as I can for forgiving you, just for forgiving
Speaker 2: me and for being amazing. Parents are amazing. Even when
Speaker 2: they're not great parents and they're going through stuff, they're amazing.
Speaker 2: It's tough. Yeah, I wish I knew that when I
Speaker 2: was a teenager, but veering away from music, I think
Speaker 2: started with boyfriends and that was My parents are amazing.
Speaker 2: But they had a very unhappy marriage, and they would
Speaker 2: be fine with me saying that, because I've mentioned it before,
Speaker 2: and they split up when I was fifteen. But for
Speaker 2: up until that time, the house had been a pretty
Speaker 2: difficult place to be in, and I think all of
Speaker 2: us kids were looking for a way out of being there.
Speaker 2: And so when I met my first boyfriend, who was
Speaker 2: an extraordinary man, I saw a way out and I thought,
Speaker 2: that's it. It's marriage and children and you know everything
Speaker 2: about Yeah, that was the right one option, And he
Speaker 2: had other ideas. He's a brilliant musician and he was
Speaker 2: in a band and they were on the road to
Speaker 2: great things, and I was following him around all the
Speaker 2: shows and I was just very, I guess, utopian about
Speaker 2: what I wanted out of the relationship. I wanted it
Speaker 2: to save me. I wanted it to fix everything. And
Speaker 2: he was a bit older than me and aware that
Speaker 2: that was unrealistic, and also aware I think that I
Speaker 2: needed to live a life, and I was so committed
Speaker 2: and so obsessed. I put everything else aside just to
Speaker 2: follow him around. And when he broke up with me,
Speaker 2: that was part of the desire to start writing songs again.
Speaker 2: I felt like, oh, I don't have anything, really like,
Speaker 2: I don't have a home to go to with my
Speaker 2: parents that feels safe. I don't have him, who was
Speaker 2: everything in my life or every hope I had. I
Speaker 2: think everybody's first heartbreak feels.
Speaker 1: Like the end of the world and your identity. You
Speaker 1: don't know that you're meant to hold a little piece
Speaker 1: of yourself back either, so you don't and then yeah,
Speaker 1: completely subsume in this other person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you give everything, and that isn't I now realize
Speaker 2: that's not a healthy relationship, but as a fifteen year old,
Speaker 2: it's it's everything. But without that I wouldn't have I
Speaker 2: think found my way back to music. I really needed
Speaker 2: to get it out in some way, and I started
Speaker 2: to listen to music in a different way. I had
Speaker 2: this experience, now, this life experience that made sense of
Speaker 2: my parents' unhappiness as well, which I hadn't had any
Speaker 2: way to integrate or contextualize from my own you know, innocence,
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden that was, you know, the
Speaker 2: wizard of ours. The curtain had been pulled back and
Speaker 2: I saw what was behind. Humans are flawed. I'm flawed,
Speaker 2: and we hurt each other when we don't mean to.
Speaker 2: And that's something that really pulled me back into music
Speaker 2: is really powerful and connective, and I'm not alone in
Speaker 2: this experience. So many people have been hurt through losing
Speaker 2: someone through death, or losing someone through them leaving or
Speaker 2: them leaving. You know, it's I guess in a more
Speaker 2: physical sense. How I found my way back to music
Speaker 2: was that I decided I had no idea what I
Speaker 2: wanted to do when I finished school. I studied really
Speaker 2: hard and I did well at school, but I felt
Speaker 2: confused about university. I applied for a course in visual media.
Speaker 1: Oh Ida why.
Speaker 2: It was a popular course at the time, and it
Speaker 2: sounds like a smart thing to do. I just thought
Speaker 2: everybody else wants to do it, so maybe I should.
Speaker 1: Isn't that funny? That's probably exactly what you thought.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. I just thought everybody says I should
Speaker 2: go to UNI. I don't know what to do, and
Speaker 2: that that's one of the most popular courses at this
Speaker 2: moment in time, so try and get into that. I
Speaker 2: did a year and I was really uninspired. I just
Speaker 2: remember feeling really out of place. And I wasn't living
Speaker 2: on campus. I think that made a difference. I was
Speaker 2: driving in and driving out in my old Volvo and
Speaker 2: I just felt like, I don't know, just very flat.
Speaker 2: And I was going out with a lovely guy whose
Speaker 2: family were Chilean, and we started talking about going to
Speaker 2: South America to see his meet his family, for me
Speaker 2: to meet his family, And this was your gap year. Yeah,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: So actually, relationships have led you to lots of different
Speaker 1: places that have caused peoplet all moments in your life. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like for me, relationships have been a huge
Speaker 2: part of the proportion through moments in time. Each relationship
Speaker 2: I've been in has been deep and important. And I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that that's not the same for everybody. Some people, though,
Speaker 2: I feel like they find their person and it really
Speaker 2: makes sense and there's a comfortable side to their life
Speaker 2: in relationship and other things in their life will propel
Speaker 2: them to change. But for me, relationships have been really
Speaker 2: I think because of our upbringing, it's been fertile ground
Speaker 2: to find growth and learn love that.
Speaker 1: There's a quote that I really like that people come
Speaker 1: into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 1: And we kind of I think we want everything to
Speaker 1: be forever, and we feel guilt or shame or loss
Speaker 1: if we do evolve in and out of relationships. But
Speaker 1: you're a different person at every different chapter of your life,
Speaker 1: so you're going to need different relationships for different things,
Speaker 1: different propulsions, different pivots, And I love that you do
Speaker 1: reflect back and think of them as quite pivotal for you.
Speaker 2: And I think some people can do that together, you know,
Speaker 2: they pivot at the same moment. And I've seen friends
Speaker 2: of mine who have been together since they're in high
Speaker 2: school and they're still pivoting together and it's amazing and inspiring,
Speaker 2: and you know, I sometimes think, what would that be like?
Speaker 2: You know, that would be incredible. I mean, I still
Speaker 2: have so much love for my high school boyfriend. I
Speaker 2: just think he was so to what a great person
Speaker 2: to have welcomed me into the world of relationship. He
Speaker 2: was so kind and so funny and set the tone
Speaker 2: for what a friendship inside of a relationship looks like.
Speaker 2: And there was pain in it, of course, but yeah,
Speaker 2: each person along the way has shown me something about
Speaker 2: myself that I've needed to see.
Speaker 1: Wow. And so then you entered this amazing chapter that
Speaker 1: I mean, did you have any idea of how you
Speaker 1: would become a household name? Now we all know who
Speaker 1: you are. Did it start from just writing songs and
Speaker 1: then you and Angus deciding to write songs together and
Speaker 1: then they just happened to go really well or did
Speaker 1: you set out with a plan for them to become
Speaker 1: as widespread as they did? Like, how did it all unravel?
Speaker 2: I suppose that the first step of Angus and I
Speaker 2: connecting it all. We had been quite disconnected through the
Speaker 2: years of our of being teenagers because of what I described.
Speaker 2: Our parents lived separately. We had a lot of freedom
Speaker 2: that we hadn't been allowed when they were together, so
Speaker 2: we lived quite independently. I had moved in with my boyfriend.
Speaker 2: It was kind of we were a bit ships in
Speaker 2: the night, and I knew that he was interested in
Speaker 2: music because we went to the same high school, so
Speaker 2: he would sometimes be performing on the school assembly and
Speaker 2: I knew he was really good. Like I remember seeing
Speaker 2: him perform once and it was rowdy, like the kids
Speaker 2: were all talking and you know it, you know, schools
Speaker 2: just like teachers getting kids under control to pay attention
Speaker 2: to a performance. And he walked out on stage and
Speaker 2: as soon as he started singing, the whole room went
Speaker 2: dead quiet, and it was a moment. I remember thinking,
Speaker 2: there's something special about what he does. And this was
Speaker 2: when I wasn't particularly interested in music. I just knew
Speaker 2: Angus was onto something, you know, or something about him
Speaker 2: was special. And well, when I was in South America,
Speaker 2: Mum flew over and met my partner at the time
Speaker 2: and me with Angus, and we went. We took our
Speaker 2: backpacks and we went into the Bolivian Amazon and it
Speaker 2: was a great experience. It was so wonderful. It was
Speaker 2: an organization that was run by the tribal community in
Speaker 2: the Amazon. It was to try and keep the youth
Speaker 2: staying in the Amazon rather than trying to go to
Speaker 2: the cities for work.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: So a lot of them would speak five languages, the
Speaker 2: traditional language, Spanish, German, English. It was incredible and they're
Speaker 2: in the deep part of the Amazon forests and beautiful
Speaker 2: eco lodge, and they would take us on walks around
Speaker 2: the forest to tell us about the different animals. I
Speaker 2: remember seeing a tarantula of the size of a plate.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it was incredible. And everywhere everywhere were
Speaker 2: the I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but they
Speaker 2: it's like the alligators or the crocodiles of the Amazon.
Speaker 2: They called kaimaners, I think, and they just we'd go
Speaker 2: out in canoes at night with the torches and you
Speaker 2: could see them all around the boat, and you're in
Speaker 2: a canoe that's kind of just on the surface. It
Speaker 2: was really wild and wonderful, and we're all on anti
Speaker 2: malaria tablets and having wild, vivid dreams and Angus we
Speaker 2: had a guitar with us and he one morning I
Speaker 2: came out and he was playing a song and I
Speaker 2: asked him, you know whose song it was? It was
Speaker 2: so beautiful and he said, oh, I wrote that. And
Speaker 2: that was a moment where I realized he was also
Speaker 2: writing songs about these incredible feelings he was having. And
Speaker 2: I asked him if he could show me a couple
Speaker 2: of chords on the guitar and he taught me to
Speaker 2: play Ben Harper walk Away and he then left went
Speaker 2: back to finish school. He was in year ten at
Speaker 2: the time. And I then traveled onwards with the guitar,
Speaker 2: and that was when I started really writing song songs.
Speaker 2: I had them fully formed and I was playing them
Speaker 2: for people in hostel and my partner and I had split,
Speaker 2: and so I went down to Argentina and traveled all
Speaker 2: the way up through Brazil, and it was me and
Speaker 2: my guitar and my backpack, and I just asked people
Speaker 2: to teach me songs everywhere I went. So I learned
Speaker 2: from random travelers along the road. And that was a
Speaker 2: year doing that. And then I got back to Australia
Speaker 2: with maybe eight songs under my belt, and I had
Speaker 2: no money, and Angus was living in Dad's house and
Speaker 2: Dad had just met his soon to be wife, and
Speaker 2: so we both lived there, you know, rent free at
Speaker 2: Dad's place, writing songs.
Speaker 1: After the nest, yeah, And.
Speaker 2: It was then that you know, I started singing harmonies
Speaker 2: on his songs, and he started singing harmonies on my songs.
Speaker 2: He had a label that was interested in him and
Speaker 2: he asked if I would come in and sing some
Speaker 2: stuff with him for one of these label sessions, and
Speaker 2: then the label sort of said, well, what is she doing?
Speaker 2: What's going on? And they offered us a weird deal.
Speaker 2: It was sort of together but a part, and it
Speaker 2: was a very bad deal. Went No. That was later.
Speaker 2: This was very early, even pre doing open mic nights.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Then we started doing open mic nights. Our auntie, who
Speaker 2: worked at EMI and had moved to London, got an
Speaker 2: email from my mom saying, can you help the kids
Speaker 2: because they don't know what they're doing and they're getting
Speaker 2: offered deals but we don't know if they're good or not.
Speaker 2: And she came back and took us into EMI and
Speaker 2: a bunch of other places around Sydney and we played
Speaker 2: just me and I guess we're walking with our guitars
Speaker 2: and we didn't even still at this point see us
Speaker 2: as a group. We were just playing one of his
Speaker 2: songs and one of my songs and then yeah, we
Speaker 2: got offered a record deal. We said, well, what do
Speaker 2: we call ourselves and.
Speaker 1: Feel like our names? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well, we went through all sorts of names, you know,
Speaker 2: band names, and then we just we were like, this
Speaker 2: is silly. Let's just say where angus and Julier and
Speaker 2: oh that was the beginning.
Speaker 1: Hey Yeahborhood. Just a quick word about our partner and
Speaker 1: yay before we continue with today's episode. As you've probably seen,
Speaker 1: I've been zipping around town in a fabulous yamobile from Mitsubishi,
Speaker 1: the amazing new Eclipse Cross and I'm so grateful to
Speaker 1: the team for making our yeas of our live segment possible.
Speaker 1: You all know I love working with partners who use
Speaker 1: their influence in business for good and not only are
Speaker 1: Mitsubishi enabling us to shine a light on unsung heroes
Speaker 1: in the community, They've also just extended their own partnership
Speaker 1: with Disaster Relief Australia. As part of this, they'll be
Speaker 1: providing twenty five suv and all terrain vehicles across Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne,
Speaker 1: Sydney and Townsville, helping to fulfill Disaster Relief Australia's mission
Speaker 1: to provide rapid disaster response in the wake of natural disasters.
Speaker 1: Throughout the devastating twenty nineteen and twenty twenty bush by
Speaker 1: A season, Mitsubishi helped Disaster Relief Australia deploy nearly six
Speaker 1: hundred volunteers across the country to support with clearing bush
Speaker 1: via land and this support accounted to a community value
Speaker 1: of over two point two million dollars which will only
Speaker 1: continue to grow this year. What a privilege it is
Speaker 1: to have a partner in Yea with such a big heart.
Speaker 1: And keep an eye out for the Yamobille as we'll
Speaker 1: be heading out with Disaster Relief Australia to see more
Speaker 1: of what they do in the coming months. Also for
Speaker 1: anyone out in the neighborhood who would like to get involved.
Speaker 1: Disaster Relief Australia are currently looking for volunteers nationally, so
Speaker 1: people can sign up by visiting Disaster Relief oz dot
Speaker 1: org slash volunteer. Now back to the show. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that is so fascinating. And this is the bit that
Speaker 1: I don't think you get to hear as much because
Speaker 1: you know, we all know of you as Angus and
Speaker 1: Julia Stone already formed people. Forget that you actually had
Speaker 1: to decide when that was going to happen, and then
Speaker 1: choose a name and then figure out who was writing what.
Speaker 1: And it's oh, that's so interesting. I didn't know any
Speaker 1: of that. It's so cool how you came together and
Speaker 1: I always think there will be so many people out
Speaker 1: in the world who saw you at open mic nights
Speaker 1: or who saw you playing around South America, who will
Speaker 1: now see you and go I remember when I saw
Speaker 1: her singing on the street. I think my husband had that.
Speaker 1: He saw the Kook's busking Wow, years before they became famous.
Speaker 1: And I think you do you forget once people really hit,
Speaker 1: you know, platinum albums and all these huge accolades that
Speaker 1: everyone had to start as you know, from the beginning
Speaker 1: and from not knowing that it was going to go
Speaker 1: that well, So what did you think? What was you
Speaker 1: know once you knew that you know, you could get
Speaker 1: a record deal and people loved your sound when you like,
Speaker 1: for example, when you re recorded I think Big jet
Speaker 1: Plane was Angus's songs that then you guys read wrote together.
Speaker 1: When you release a song out into the world, what
Speaker 1: do you actually think is going to happen? Like, do
Speaker 1: you monitor people's response? Do you know it's going to
Speaker 1: go well? Do you know that it's going to become
Speaker 1: a song that now the whole world recognizes.
Speaker 2: Is definitely not I bigd up playing And what happened
Speaker 2: with that record down the way that was six years
Speaker 2: into us touring, so we had by that point put
Speaker 2: out maybe six EP's, we'd made a record or two records. No,
Speaker 2: we'd made a record before that, and you know, we
Speaker 2: had been living in London, we were playing. We had
Speaker 2: gone from playing in front of eight people to twenty people,
Speaker 2: to fifty people, to seventy people to one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty people. I mean, we were just years and years
Speaker 2: on the road and we really liked touring, but we
Speaker 2: you know, we also it was a lot of work.
Speaker 2: And you know, we were touring in our eight hundred
Speaker 2: pound to Rago with you know, the whole band living
Speaker 2: in a three bedroom apartment, which was six people living
Speaker 2: in a three bedroom space, and it was a lot
Speaker 2: I mean, looking back, you think that was a lot
Speaker 2: of fun, but it was tough, and it was a
Speaker 2: long way from home, and you know, Angus is a surfer,
Speaker 2: you know, not being near the beach and water, we
Speaker 2: we were living a different life and it was it
Speaker 2: was good for our writing, I think it was. It
Speaker 2: was great for us to be in that environment and
Speaker 2: London was a lot of fun. But by the time
Speaker 2: Down the Way happened, we didn't have any expectations we'd
Speaker 2: already signed deals, and you know, our deals weren't major deals,
Speaker 2: they were just startup deals. You know. He's a bit
Speaker 2: of money to keep you going whilst you play your
Speaker 2: gigs and.
Speaker 1: Write your food.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't like we were in Forbes,
Speaker 2: you know magazine for our record contracts. But yeah, we
Speaker 2: had some really nice people that believed in us, and
Speaker 2: we kept having just little incremental changes, you know, and
Speaker 2: like I said, just watching the shows grow and people
Speaker 2: coming back with more friends. And we both believed that
Speaker 2: every show was an opportunity, and we'd meet people at
Speaker 2: shows who worked at a radio station and then they'd say, oh,
Speaker 2: I'd love you to come in and do an interview,
Speaker 2: and we took every We were raised to be I think,
Speaker 2: hard working, and we also, similar to what we were
Speaker 2: talking about before we started recording, we also believed that
Speaker 2: you'd never look at it an opportunity and turn it away.
Speaker 2: So we were yes people. We were just if you
Speaker 2: told us there was a gig tomorrow night in the
Speaker 2: south of England and we just played in Scotland, we'd
Speaker 2: just drive through the night and we'd sleep in the
Speaker 2: car and we'd get there and we'd play and we
Speaker 2: were so excited that we got to play gigs, and
Speaker 2: so we felt really privileged. I mean, it was our
Speaker 2: both of our parents' dreams to be performers, and here
Speaker 2: we were living it. And we weren't famous, but we
Speaker 2: were happy. And I mean I say that there were
Speaker 2: so many challenges, but we were really you know, we
Speaker 2: felt lucky. And so when big Jet Plane had the
Speaker 2: success that it had, it was really really fun to
Speaker 2: do bigger shows. But for both Angus and I we
Speaker 2: were at that point we were ready for a break.
Speaker 2: So it was funny. It was like at the time
Speaker 2: that things really started to take off, we were exhausted
Speaker 2: and we were kind of ready to also be our
Speaker 2: own people. Apart from each other, we've been living together
Speaker 2: as brother and sister, you know, in sharehouses for it
Speaker 2: was going on, yeah, six years by down the way
Speaker 2: and living on tour buses or split vans and doing
Speaker 2: every interview together, doing every photo shoot together, doing every
Speaker 2: radio together. And that's tough. And I think we both
Speaker 2: have really different personalities and we have common values and
Speaker 2: common beliefs, but we relate differently to people. And having
Speaker 2: to sit in an interview and try and find a
Speaker 2: tone that suits both of us and talk about things
Speaker 2: that are relevant to both of us. Was it was tricky,
Speaker 2: and sometimes we would clash, and we also we were
Speaker 2: raised in a clashy environment, so that was also getting
Speaker 2: out of those habits and behaviors that we that were normalized.
Speaker 2: We had to do a lot of work and think
Speaker 2: Angus and I both would say in different ways that
Speaker 2: that's the thing we're most proud of now, is that
Speaker 2: we figured out ways to get through it.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's extraordinary. I love so many of
Speaker 1: the things that you just said, particularly how you mentioned
Speaker 1: it was really incremental, because I think any kind of
Speaker 1: success or fulfillment is always incremental. It's just that you
Speaker 1: often don't hear about all of the increments, particularly they're
Speaker 1: less glamorous, harder, even the fact that you know, of
Speaker 1: course siblings in business together, but particularly in art form together.
Speaker 1: Of course there's going to be harder bits that don't
Speaker 1: make you know most interviews, but behind the scenes there's
Speaker 1: so much And I think I am so excited to
Speaker 1: now see that you're here as Julia Stone. It's not
Speaker 1: Angus and Julia Stone everything anymore. You've now had this
Speaker 1: is your third solo album about to come out now,
Speaker 1: and again it reiterates that idea that some of the
Speaker 1: increments are going to be chapters that are you know,
Speaker 1: with partners, and some might not be. In the last
Speaker 1: few for you have been as a solo artist, which
Speaker 1: has seen your sound come out as a beautiful individual
Speaker 1: sound that even from album to album has changed so dramatically.
Speaker 1: And I'm so lucky to have had a little sneak
Speaker 1: peek of sixty Summers, which is such an even compared
Speaker 1: to your own sound, quite unique and different. So tell
Speaker 1: us about coming into your own now as an artist
Speaker 1: and maybe weave in a little bit of what I
Speaker 1: imagine is quite a jarring experience of building a new identity.
Speaker 1: And if we ever have self doubt, I can imagine
Speaker 1: it is when you first go out on your own
Speaker 1: and put your sounds out there when you're not you
Speaker 1: don't have two of you to kind of say, oh,
Speaker 1: it was both of us. So if you don't like
Speaker 1: it, it was both of us. If you like it, it was
Speaker 1: just me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's really I've always did
Speaker 2: my solo artists, and for that particular reason, because I
Speaker 2: felt for both. I mean, I won't speak for Angus,
Speaker 2: but for myself, that experience of it's ours really did
Speaker 2: soften the fear that you have of presenting something. And
Speaker 2: this record in particular, I have made three solo records,
Speaker 2: but this one was different because my first two solo records,
Speaker 2: The Memory Machine and By the Horns, felt like side
Speaker 2: projects to Angus and Julia. Angus and Julia were was
Speaker 2: always dominating our lives. It was in a good way.
Speaker 2: It was just that thing that it was growing, and
Speaker 2: it felt like that was where we should invest our time.
Speaker 2: And Angus and I love writing songs together and working
Speaker 2: in the studio, so that part of it, and that
Speaker 2: part of making the actual music, we just loved doing
Speaker 2: it and we were enjoying that. After down the Way,
Speaker 2: actually we had sort of decided, Okay, now it's time
Speaker 2: for solo music. And then we were thrust back together
Speaker 2: by the very you know, very successful, wonderful producer Rick Rubin,
Speaker 2: who just out of the blue was like, you guys,
Speaker 2: think you're done, You're not done. And that was great
Speaker 2: because that was a real healing record for us. And
Speaker 2: then we then stepped into off the back of that
Speaker 2: feeling great and making snow and again it was two
Speaker 2: record cycles, and I felt like By the Horns and
Speaker 2: the Memory Machine for us. Sorry, it's a little bit
Speaker 2: of a jumbly way of saying this, but we both
Speaker 2: write a lot of songs, and putting out a record
Speaker 2: together it always felt like it was six songs of his,
Speaker 2: six songs of mine, or six songs that I love,
Speaker 2: or six songs that he loves, and we would put
Speaker 2: them together. That's not a lot for a two year
Speaker 2: album touring cycle, so side projects had to exist for
Speaker 2: us to get the other music out, and the Memory
Speaker 2: Machine and By the Horns felt like songs that could
Speaker 2: have worked on an Angus and Julia record, but there
Speaker 2: wasn't space for them. Yes, this record's different because this
Speaker 2: wouldn't work in that context. It's something that felt really
Speaker 2: individual to me and something that sonically and lyrically, I
Speaker 2: really it's been bubbling underneath the surfaces style of singing,
Speaker 2: in this style of expressing that I just I've wanted
Speaker 2: to do for so long, and a big part of
Speaker 2: it was finding that confidence to do it and working
Speaker 2: with Annie Clark, working with Thomas Bartlett, working with all
Speaker 2: of the collaborators on this record. Really, it gave me
Speaker 2: that confidence and I just felt like, yeah, this is
Speaker 2: this is where I want to go artistically, and oh
Speaker 2: my gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So my favorite favorite thing in doing these interviews is
Speaker 1: watching when the guest's eyes start to sparkle when they
Speaker 1: get to the bit where they're talking about the thing
Speaker 1: that makes them really excited. And you just started sparkling,
Speaker 1: like talking about it. And you know, this was recorded
Speaker 1: between twenty fifteen and now, and that is a long
Speaker 1: time for something to be brewing for you, which means
Speaker 1: that I can imagine how much of you has gone
Speaker 1: into finding this new sound and working with new collaborators,
Speaker 1: having written with the same person over and over. And
Speaker 1: I think there's five that have been released already, but
Speaker 1: fourteen songs now that are all yours, with amazing, amazing
Speaker 1: video clips. I just watched Before You Arrive, the one
Speaker 1: with Susan Sarandon and Danny Glass, so random but amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what does it feel like? What does it? Are you
Speaker 1: petrified that it's out in the open? Are you proud?
Speaker 1: And also from a technical perspective, for the totally uninitiated
Speaker 1: and non musical listeners out there, how do you write
Speaker 1: a song? Do you hear the lyrics first? Do you
Speaker 1: hear I know you play different instruments, so do you
Speaker 1: hear it on a particular instrument like the vision? When
Speaker 1: you actually break down every part of a song, from
Speaker 1: its words to its backing, to its harmonies, to the melody,
Speaker 1: like how does that all come into your brain? Do
Speaker 1: you wake up one day and you just hear it?
Speaker 1: Or how does it happen?
Speaker 2: Well, I'll answer that question, then I'll go back to
Speaker 2: how it feels to put the music out. Writing a song,
Speaker 2: I think every time is really different. And traditionally for me,
Speaker 2: writing was always on the piano or with an acoustic guitar,
Speaker 2: and it's different for everybody, but for me it all
Speaker 2: came at once. It was something where I would start
Speaker 2: playing chords and then I would, I guess, almost at
Speaker 2: the same time, hear the lyrics and the melody, and
Speaker 2: I would sing it. And what I would often do
Speaker 2: is record whilst I'm writing. And sometimes it's really formed
Speaker 2: straight away, and other times, like a song like Death
Speaker 2: Defying Acts, I remember writing almost just in one go through,
Speaker 2: you know, in twenty minutes sort of thing, And other
Speaker 2: times it'll be like I'll be, you know, jumbling around
Speaker 2: with different lyrics and different ideas and singing melodies and
Speaker 2: singing lyrics, and then I'll listen back and then I hear, oh,
Speaker 2: that's what the song's about. That moment there is what
Speaker 2: I want to sing about. And then I refine that
Speaker 2: idea and develop it from there. And that's been a
Speaker 2: really solo experience, that way of writing. Then when I
Speaker 2: started writing with Angus, I guess and I write very
Speaker 2: differently to that, where we will something like Chateau for instance.
Speaker 2: We'll start with the bassline. We'll be in the studio
Speaker 2: often it'll just be the two of us. He will
Speaker 2: play a bass line, I'll play a guitar part over
Speaker 2: the top. Then we layer that in protos and just
Speaker 2: lay a parts and start to create it vibe. And
Speaker 2: then we will, you know, we'll send that to our
Speaker 2: friend who plays drums and feel like do something with it, Yeah,
Speaker 2: like give us a FOURD to the floor kick pil
Speaker 2: you know, and send it back and then we'll have
Speaker 2: a kick and bass part that's pretty basic. And then
Speaker 2: we sit opposite each other and we both have a
Speaker 2: microphone and we just loop it for you know, thirty
Speaker 2: minutes and we make up funny stuff and some times
Speaker 2: out yeah, we just He'll say something and it makes
Speaker 2: me think of something and we go back and forwards.
Speaker 2: And a lot of that record Snow was written like
Speaker 2: that because you can hear it in songs like Snow
Speaker 2: where that stuff was from just the writing session where
Speaker 2: it's I mean, I can't remember right now how the
Speaker 2: song goes, but that back and forward style singing where
Speaker 2: Angus says something, then I say something, then he says something.
Speaker 2: And then Chateau was you know he we found in
Speaker 2: the lyrics somewhere this. I think he had said something
Speaker 2: like about the chateau and we're like, that's really cool,
Speaker 2: like you know the memory of being at the chateau.
Speaker 2: Mo'm on I'd said something about dancing in the hotel
Speaker 2: room and it felt like, oh, there's the story, and
Speaker 2: then you know, we build around it. But working on
Speaker 2: this record again was different. Thomas Bartlett, who was a
Speaker 2: co writer for a lot of it. I'd go into
Speaker 2: the studio, He's got a studio in Midtown in New York,
Speaker 2: and he would play me really interesting like break was.
Speaker 2: He'd play me those kind of the sex line and
Speaker 2: the looped beats and he'd play it and he'd just
Speaker 2: set up a microphone and say go and I just
Speaker 2: sing and say stuff. And so I left and I
Speaker 2: started dancing under the street light, and you saw me,
Speaker 2: and I saw that you saw me and I and
Speaker 2: you know, I just I guess I love I like
Speaker 2: spoken word, I like freestyle writing.
Speaker 1: But I'm two.
Speaker 2: I'm not the person who's gonna go and do that
Speaker 2: live all.
Speaker 1: The time all the time.
Speaker 2: But I really enjoyed in the studio and there's only
Speaker 2: certain people I feel comfortable doing that with in front,
Speaker 2: like in front of them, which is Angus and then
Speaker 2: Thomas and Nannie. I felt really comfortable to just just
Speaker 2: write and just make stuff up. And a lot of
Speaker 2: the time that's where the songs would form, just having
Speaker 2: someone else create the sound and then I'd create the
Speaker 2: lyrics and melody.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so cool, because I always have wondered, like
Speaker 1: where does it just come into your brain like a vision?
Speaker 1: And do you ever like I think with business people
Speaker 1: we look back at earlier iterations of what we do
Speaker 1: and cringe. And I think if you don't cringe over
Speaker 1: your earlier work, you haven't done it right. Because you
Speaker 1: haven't evolved enough. Do you cringe it your earlier music ever,
Speaker 1: or do you love every single part of it for
Speaker 1: what it was at the time.
Speaker 2: I mean, there was a time where I couldn't listen
Speaker 2: to anything ever, you know, if something would come on
Speaker 2: in a shop, I would walk out of the shop
Speaker 2: because I was so self depreciating about the recording or
Speaker 2: the way I had sung. And I think my voices
Speaker 2: developed a lot. There's a lot more strength in how
Speaker 2: I sing. When I started, I was very, very delicate
Speaker 2: in my delivery, and that was just because that's how
Speaker 2: I sang. I didn't have a strong voice, and years
Speaker 2: and years of singing changes your voice. And now I
Speaker 2: listen if a song comes on, like one of the
Speaker 2: early songs like Private Lawns or Mango Tree or I
Speaker 2: find it really sweet, you know, and I feel a
Speaker 2: sense of like pride around the child that I was
Speaker 2: when I made that. And I have this real I
Speaker 2: can hear the lost voice, and I can hear the insecurity,
Speaker 2: and I can I mean, I just have this feeling
Speaker 2: of like, what an amazing confidence then to still it's
Speaker 2: so scary to put yourself out in the world. And
Speaker 2: I think that's big credit to our parents. We were
Speaker 2: really lucky that we didn't question that there were people
Speaker 2: so much more talented than us on the open mic
Speaker 2: night scene that didn't have that confidence or that support.
Speaker 2: And Angus and I talked about it a lot. How
Speaker 2: you know, we were We had a lot of self
Speaker 2: belief and there's an innocence in that. There's this naivety
Speaker 2: you know people. I'm sure a lot of people didn't
Speaker 2: want to play our music. It was very it wasn't
Speaker 2: what was happening in Australian music at the time. But
Speaker 2: we just kept going and we just felt like, you know,
Speaker 2: there was something good in it, and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely was, thank goodness. But how does that, yeah,
Speaker 1: how does that so doubt play out for you?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Releasing this huge, huge album that's been so long in
Speaker 1: the works. That's so different again, And I think being
Speaker 1: at the cutting edge of something and doing something different
Speaker 1: to what you've ever done is the scariest thing you
Speaker 1: can ever do. So how are you feeling now knowing
Speaker 1: there's still half an album to be released? Are you excited?
Speaker 1: Is there anything you're burning to let everyone hear?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited. I feel like the self doubt part.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, when people don't like what you
Speaker 2: do in any context. I think if people don't like
Speaker 2: something you say at a party or you know, you're impacted,
Speaker 2: or at least I am, because that's something I guess
Speaker 2: is part of my built identity. Is I like being liked.
Speaker 2: I like making people feel comfortable around me. I enjoy
Speaker 2: that feeling. And so you know, music, I guess, isn't
Speaker 2: at an expression of that. So if someone really specifically
Speaker 2: doesn't like it, then it's not going to make me
Speaker 2: feel good. But I don't care as much as I
Speaker 2: used to. I just I do what I do and
Speaker 2: if it's not for you, it's not for you. And
Speaker 2: I feel really excited because it is a body of
Speaker 2: work that I'm really proud of and I had a
Speaker 2: lot of fun making and I can hear that in
Speaker 2: the record. It's really varied and there's every song has
Speaker 2: its own I mean, every song has something really heartfelt
Speaker 2: behind it, and it's been built, like you know, brick
Speaker 2: by brick. I feel like I've built this house with
Speaker 2: these people I love in such a detailed way that
Speaker 2: I'm so excited for people to come over for a
Speaker 2: cup of tea, and some people will notice that, you know,
Speaker 2: the architraves are really unique and special and every window
Speaker 2: is you know, different and has been selected from markets
Speaker 2: around the world, and other people will just enjoy the
Speaker 2: cup of tea and not notice that. But for me,
Speaker 2: it's just knowing that I've built it with so much
Speaker 2: love and care. I know that, and that feels good
Speaker 2: and that's exciting. And I don't know, I think humans
Speaker 2: are pretty intuitively smart. I think other people can feel
Speaker 2: that when you've put love and care into something, it
Speaker 2: comes across on some subconscious level. So I hope some
Speaker 2: people get to feel that, because yeah, yeah, the record's
Speaker 2: really interesting and different.
Speaker 1: It's so different. I love it so much. It is
Speaker 1: so varied, and I think that's such a testament to
Speaker 1: you as an artist as well, that you can create
Speaker 1: such a broad range of music and continue to kind
Speaker 1: of surprise with new styles and new ways of using
Speaker 1: your voice. And yeah, it's extraordinary. So congratulations. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for you. Just to finish up. This is something
Speaker 1: I am quite fascinated about generally, but particularly in the
Speaker 1: case of artists. This section is your plata, which is
Speaker 1: who you are when you're stripped back from all the
Speaker 1: titles and all the product, you know, productive endeavors that
Speaker 1: you have in your life. So for people who are
Speaker 1: employed or people who are business people, the line is
Speaker 1: a little bit clearer because it's sort of on off.
Speaker 1: But in music or creative you're often drawing your inspiration
Speaker 1: for like the process of writing over years and years,
Speaker 1: that on offline is very blurry I can imagine and
Speaker 1: very hard to I mean, you must enjoy music of
Speaker 1: others as well as writing it yourself. So in any job,
Speaker 1: but particularly when you love your job the most, you
Speaker 1: still need to find joy that's unrelated to it so
Speaker 1: that your brain can have a rest, so that you
Speaker 1: get inspiration. How do you play? What are the things
Speaker 1: that you do that are purely for joy and that
Speaker 1: maybe aren't related to music, so that you do give
Speaker 1: yourself space to come back fresh when you're writing again,
Speaker 1: or maybe you don't need that. Maybe it is still
Speaker 1: music and that's all tied up together as work and play.
Speaker 1: How does it all work for you?
Speaker 2: I think both the two. I think there are times
Speaker 2: that music is completely tied up in my play, whether
Speaker 2: it's going out dancing and having that sort of experience
Speaker 2: of endo, often released through moving the body to rhythm.
Speaker 2: But I've realized over the years of being so immersed
Speaker 2: in music and being so completely you know, there is
Speaker 2: no weekend. It's just I'm thinking about it all the time,
Speaker 2: and whether it's the collaboration of the music video and
Speaker 2: the what goes into making that, and I mean all
Speaker 2: of it's fun for me. I feel like, again so
Speaker 2: lucky that this is my life. But I don't turn
Speaker 2: off easily.
Speaker 1: And that doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 2: So I've had to develop ways to turn off. And
Speaker 2: it sounds maybe a little extreme, but what I have
Speaker 2: found works for me being the way that I am
Speaker 2: and being quite an extreme person and living an extreme
Speaker 2: life of probably at least ten months touring up until
Speaker 2: the pandemic. But when I had those couple of months
Speaker 2: where I wasn't touring or recording or writing, I take
Speaker 2: myself to Vapashona.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, guys, that's a ten days silent retreat, completely silent,
Speaker 1: like no talking to other human beings. Yeah, double the
Speaker 1: introspection that must happen.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's very uncomfortable for the first few days.
Speaker 2: It's an extreme shock to the system. In the same
Speaker 2: way I imagine if you're a heavy drinker, stopping drinking
Speaker 2: all of the sudden completely, or stopping anything all of
Speaker 2: the sudden, stopping interaction with other humans when it's the
Speaker 2: predominant part of your life the first few days is
Speaker 2: having that the fear around what I'm going to see
Speaker 2: and what I'm going to confront and what I'm going
Speaker 2: to face. But I find it extremely healing, and with
Speaker 2: a good teacher as well. I've done all kinds of
Speaker 2: a passions with the go Ankadee system that's all over
Speaker 2: the world, and then Insight meditation, which is another style
Speaker 2: of a passionate and had extraordinary teach and feel so
Speaker 2: lucky to have sat with them because the kind of
Speaker 2: wisdom that is given to us as students is you know,
Speaker 2: I think I've always been doing this in a way,
Speaker 2: from when I started backpacking. I was seeking out this
Speaker 2: other side of what could be considered peace or joy
Speaker 2: or connection and music has been a big part of that,
Speaker 2: but it's also a job. So meditation and the spiritual
Speaker 2: community I think is really helpful for me and yeah
Speaker 2: for passions, not for everybody, but I love it. I'm
Speaker 2: weirdly in love with the process and probably the thing
Speaker 2: I miss most about the pandemic has not been able
Speaker 2: to go and retreat.
Speaker 1: Wow. Do you do one every year?
Speaker 2: Yes? I mean you know, for the past six years.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Well that could be one of your answers to the
Speaker 1: second last question. What are three interesting things about you
Speaker 1: that don't normally come up in use? The things that
Speaker 1: only someone who lived with you would know, like weirds,
Speaker 1: gnoring habits, or funny party tricks.
Speaker 2: Or I'm very into having baths. Oh me do.
Speaker 1: My husband thinks it's like bathing in your own filth,
Speaker 1: but I think it's the most relaxing thing you could
Speaker 1: ever do. I'm like, I'm clean. How do do do
Speaker 1: you think I am?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And I have a very I'm a very cold
Speaker 2: like I run really cold. So baths are like I
Speaker 2: just find them so comforting. And I love Switch. So
Speaker 2: I play Switch in the bath. What switch? It's like
Speaker 2: a Nintendo Nintendo switch.
Speaker 1: I was like, surely not that switch?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so people. And then I love gaming. Probably I
Speaker 2: guess that's three things, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have one last one. What is your favorite
Speaker 1: song that isn't one of your own or a favorite song?
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have many.
Speaker 2: I mean a couple that are on varying degree of
Speaker 2: the spectrum. Is you know, we grew up with Americana
Speaker 2: music like Neil Young, Johnny Mitchell and all of those
Speaker 2: that crew. And I was obsessed with Neil Young's Comes
Speaker 2: a Time record, and I love most of the tracks
Speaker 2: on that record like a lot, and Comes a Time
Speaker 2: is a song that I really anytime I hear it,
Speaker 2: I think it's a phenomenal piece of songwriting. But then
Speaker 2: I also love Kylie's Real Groove. You know that's like
Speaker 2: at the moment, I just think that's a brilliant pop song,
Speaker 2: and every time I hear it, I'm so happy.
Speaker 1: A love a musician you would love to collaborate with.
Speaker 2: I mean, Kylie, I love her. I always be the best.
Speaker 2: It would be really fun and I think she's so badass,
Speaker 2: and you know, just yeah, she's awesome. You know people
Speaker 2: that have passed on, like Leonard Cohen and David Bowie.
Speaker 2: Of course, if you could choose one throughout history so.
Speaker 1: We can hologram them back to you for Coachella and
Speaker 1: you guys can talk it right. And final question, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite quote? Oh?
Speaker 2: Favorite quote? I don't know who said this, except for
Speaker 2: my friend who said it to me once when I
Speaker 2: was extremely heartbroken. I had I had gone into a
Speaker 2: space that wasn't great after losing someone that I really
Speaker 2: I felt a strong bond with. And I guess the
Speaker 2: loss of friendship was a big deal, and they some
Speaker 2: I was. I was actually on another retreat in India
Speaker 2: and my friend was sitting with me and we were
Speaker 2: throwing stones in the river well, playing this game where
Speaker 2: you chuck one stone up and then you have to
Speaker 2: try and hit it. It's a really calming game if
Speaker 2: you ever need something to take your mind of things.
Speaker 2: And oh another thing I was going to say, sorry,
Speaker 2: this goes back to before you said, what else do
Speaker 2: I do? Aside from a passionate I also love sports
Speaker 2: away stop. I play squash and tennis, and that's another
Speaker 2: thing that I do to take my mind of I
Speaker 2: love that jusick. My dad always said, well, if she
Speaker 2: didn't get into music, she would have been on the
Speaker 2: Aussie soccer team.
Speaker 1: I loved never too late.
Speaker 2: I can have a mature Yeah, so you can do
Speaker 2: everything kids. I was sitting playing this game and I
Speaker 2: was really concentrating and I was talking. I was trying
Speaker 2: to unravel what had happened, and he just said to me,
Speaker 2: what is for you won't go by you.
Speaker 1: I love that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I found it really helpful, and I just thought,
Speaker 2: that's so true. I mean, why are we so afraid?
Speaker 2: If it's meant for us, it will find us? And
Speaker 2: it made so much sense to me because of course,
Speaker 2: throughout life there are friendships, there are loves that come
Speaker 2: and then go forever, and there are some that will
Speaker 2: return at a different point in your life, and you
Speaker 2: don't have to be afraid. It's if it's meant to be,
Speaker 2: it'll it'll find you again.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. That's beautiful and so a perfect way
Speaker 1: to end. Thank you so much for joining. This was
Speaker 1: amazing and I'm so excited about sixty summers.
Speaker 2: Thank you so Nay's talking with you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I truly love metaphorically climbing into the brains of people
Speaker 1: like Julia, whose minds just uprates so differently to my own.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine just hearing a brand new song out
Speaker 1: of nowhere in my ears? Did anyone else find it
Speaker 1: fascinating to hear how she writes songs like how incredible
Speaker 1: is it? That music just comes from nothing into something
Speaker 1: in the mind of an artist like hers, and then
Speaker 1: that people can even collaborate to create something from nothing together.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed, as always, please let Julia know by
Speaker 1: sharing and tagging her. It means so much for our
Speaker 1: guests to hear feedback and to help us continue to
Speaker 1: scout new amazing humans to share their stories. Sixty Summers
Speaker 1: is a beautiful sensory experience such a cool album, make
Speaker 1: sure to tune in as soon as the remaining tracks
Speaker 1: launch in the coming days. The album comes out officially
Speaker 1: on April thirtieth, but in the meantime, hope you have
Speaker 1: an amazing week and is seizing your ya