Brother and sister duo Angus and Julia Stone appeared on the music scene in 2006 with their EP Chocolates and Cigarettes.After moving from their native Australia to living in London the pair have become popular on the tour and festival circuits. I caught up with Julia to discuss their debut album A Book Like This and what the future holds for the duo.

You had an EP release in 2006, Chocolates and Cigarettes, why has it taken so long to release a debut album?

I don’t know I would have to ask the record company, I think it’s just the nature of things getting done; we released the record in Australia about six months ago or eight months ago.We were signed to Independiente for the first season that we were releasing it pretty much independently off a very small indie label called Flock, Flock music. So I suppose doing it independently takes a little bit more organisation and time on the management and the promo side of things.

You work with Fran Healy on the album how did he get involved and what does he bring to the record?

Well we got involved, I suppose a little bit by coincidence a little bit by chance, we were on the same label and we were recording with Chris Potter at the time for the second EP. We wanted to record something on the piano and the guy that signed us to Independiente had said he that he knew this guy who had heard our music and liked it and maybe we could go over to his house and record on his piano, he has got a beautiful grand piano at his house, and we headed over there. So we ended up going up and recording with him and hanging out, we got on really well, and we ended up hanging out for the whole day and recording a whole bunch of songs, none of the songs we had planned to put on the record but because we had such a nice time and the songs came out so lovely we thought why don’t we put these on the record.

Six of the songs out of fifteen or sixteen that we recorded made it on to the record and he was really into the music and he has been a good mate of ours ever since.

Then we recorded a whole other bunch of tracks back home with our friend Ian and used those tracks to go on the rest of the record.

How does the writing process work for you

Angus and I write separately so Angus will go off into his world and I will go off into my world. We just write when we feel like writing, it’s a big part of our lives writing music, we kind of do it out of enjoyment our way of chilling out. Angus will come into my room or the lounge room or what ever and we will hang out and we have a jam and that’s how they end up being.

How have you found working together and being brother and sister does it not put a strain on the relationship at times?

Yeah definitely we have had to grow up so much in the last couple of years and figure out how to get on well together. It’s not that we are brother and sister it’s that we are living in an environment where we don’t ever spend time apart we had to figure out about getting on together and kind of working together, there’s always that rule that families should never work together.

We just know how to give each other time and we have just, over the last couple of years, figured out, if we want to carry on enjoying travelling and stuff like that, we have to respect and love each other as much as we can.

And we are now getting to a state where that is easy to do because we have become more friends than siblings and that’s good, it’s really good actually it’s very nice to be given an opportunity to get to know your family properly not just because they are your family.

And you are originally from Australia but have been living over here for about a year now is that correct?

Yeah we have been living in Notting Hill for the past year and a bit we went home for summer and we just came back about five weeks ago to tour, and then we go back to Australia next week for another few weeks, then back her in April and May.

And why did you decide to make the move to the UK

Well because we were asked if we wanted to. The opportunity presented itself from Independiente they said they would give us some money to come over her and play music and we were like ok we will go and do that. Our manager asked us what we thought about coming and living in a place in London and Angus and I were both excited about travelling and we went for it came over and settled down.

How are you finding the reaction to your music here?

Good, same as everywhere I suppose, people who come to the shows seem to enjoy the music and they are really lovely, people who enjoy our music have always been really sweet, and audiences in the UK have always been really respectful of the music so we have had a great time playing shows over here.

Where did your interest in pursuing a music career come from?

The way that it all happened it was never something where we woke up one and went ‘hey Angus do you want to go and travel the world and get out music out there and make a record?’

It kind of never happened like that we were living at dad’s house, when dad first met his wife, we had heaps of time and we weren’t paying rent just playing music together because we had not job or anything. We would go in and play open mic nights so it was al done for a bit of fun.

Cathy, our manager, came back from the UK and turned up to one of the shows and was like ‘I would like you to meet a few people.’ We went in a played for a few different record companies and then she said ‘well why don’t you two release something together’ so we put together Chocolates and Cigarettes.

After that she flew over to the UK and David Boyd straight away said could the guys come so we could meet them? And we came over here and went on tour there wasn’t any one point when were asked if this is what we wanted to do we just sort of did it.

Obviously this is a great job to have, it’s not even a job it’s just playing music, so I suppose that is the thing it never felt like there was a decision to make, like to go out and become musicians, it’s happened and we are stoked that it’s happened.

Your music has been described as folk/blues how did you get interested in this sound or did you find it by accident?

Like the same with the whole process of coming to this place it was the same with the music we were living in the house Angus was writing his music I was writing my music.

Like we do now we were writing because it made us feel good we didn’t actually sit down and think about it making a folky sound or a bluesy sound, it’s usually other people that figure out labels to put on it. I suppose folk music is quite a big umbrella.

We grew up listening to a lot of music from the sixties and the seventies that our dad played in a cover band and who knows that probably was a part of it, everything is a part of it really the life that you live and the people that you meet.

FemaleFirst Helen EarnshawBrother and sister duo Angus and Julia Stone appeared on the music scene in 2006 with their EP Chocolates and Cigarettes.After moving from their native Australia to living in London the pair have become popular on the tour and festival circuits. I caught up with Julia to discuss their debut album A Book Like This and what the future holds for the duo.

You had an EP release in 2006, Chocolates and Cigarettes, why has it taken so long to release a debut album?

I don’t know I would have to ask the record company, I think it’s just the nature of things getting done; we released the record in Australia about six months ago or eight months ago.We were signed to Independiente for the first season that we were releasing it pretty much independently off a very small indie label called Flock, Flock music. So I suppose doing it independently takes a little bit more organisation and time on the management and the promo side of things.

You work with Fran Healy on the album how did he get involved and what does he bring to the record?

Well we got involved, I suppose a little bit by coincidence a little bit by chance, we were on the same label and we were recording with Chris Potter at the time for the second EP. We wanted to record something on the piano and the guy that signed us to Independiente had said he that he knew this guy who had heard our music and liked it and maybe we could go over to his house and record on his piano, he has got a beautiful grand piano at his house, and we headed over there. So we ended up going up and recording with him and hanging out, we got on really well, and we ended up hanging out for the whole day and recording a whole bunch of songs, none of the songs we had planned to put on the record but because we had such a nice time and the songs came out so lovely we thought why don’t we put these on the record.

Six of the songs out of fifteen or sixteen that we recorded made it on to the record and he was really into the music and he has been a good mate of ours ever since.

Then we recorded a whole other bunch of tracks back home with our friend Ian and used those tracks to go on the rest of the record.

How does the writing process work for you

Angus and I write separately so Angus will go off into his world and I will go off into my world. We just write when we feel like writing, it’s a big part of our lives writing music, we kind of do it out of enjoyment our way of chilling out. Angus will come into my room or the lounge room or what ever and we will hang out and we have a jam and that’s how they end up being.

How have you found working together and being brother and sister does it not put a strain on the relationship at times?

Yeah definitely we have had to grow up so much in the last couple of years and figure out how to get on well together. It’s not that we are brother and sister it’s that we are living in an environment where we don’t ever spend time apart we had to figure out about getting on together and kind of working together, there’s always that rule that families should never work together.

We just know how to give each other time and we have just, over the last couple of years, figured out, if we want to carry on enjoying travelling and stuff like that, we have to respect and love each other as much as we can.

And we are now getting to a state where that is easy to do because we have become more friends than siblings and that’s good, it’s really good actually it’s very nice to be given an opportunity to get to know your family properly not just because they are your family.

And you are originally from Australia but have been living over here for about a year now is that correct?

Yeah we have been living in Notting Hill for the past year and a bit we went home for summer and we just came back about five weeks ago to tour, and then we go back to Australia next week for another few weeks, then back her in April and May.

And why did you decide to make the move to the UK

Well because we were asked if we wanted to. The opportunity presented itself from Independiente they said they would give us some money to come over her and play music and we were like ok we will go and do that. Our manager asked us what we thought about coming and living in a place in London and Angus and I were both excited about travelling and we went for it came over and settled down.