23 Sep 2017

Angus and Julia isolate themselves for 'Snow'

From RNZ Music, 3:00 pm on 23 September 2017
Angus and Julia Stone

Angus and Julia Stone Photo: supplied

On their last album, they were only working together because music icon Rick Rubin had forced them back together. But on their new album Snow, Angus and Julia Stone have found their groove again by going back to their roots.

"Angus’s farm is wide open spaces, it’s like a big property and in a way it’s reminiscent of our grandparent’s form where we spent a lot of time growing up. There’s cattle and there's a big hill in the middle and Angus’s home is up on the top of the hill and the studio is down the bottom of the hill kind of in the wetlands." 

It was in this setting that the siblings wrote and recorded their latest album with Julia taking on much of the production duties.

"The studio is like an old cottage from the seventies that has kind of been stripped inside and turned into a live room with a control room and it has this beautiful veranda out the front. The studio is all natural light and right next to the control room is the kitchen.

"Our days making the record were very much about getting in there and we’d cook breakfast and hang out and do some work, take a walk, some of the songs were written on the veranda looking out over the paddocks. You feel like you’re away from everything in a very nice way."

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