Back in 2010, with remarkably little promotion, pomp or pageantry, Julia Stone released her first solo album, The Memory Machine, a darkly exquisite and unnervingly assured longplayer.
Though it later received a full release, it was initially sold only at shows, audiences alerted to its existence by Stone’s soft mention of “another album I’ve made, which is here tonight …” as her voice would trail off and she’d bow her head, seemingly unable to engage in explicit self-promotion.
Given that The Memory Machine was one of the best records of that same year, the lack of fuss surrounding its mere existence, never mind its lo-fi release, was frustrating to those of us who were blown away by its hushed intensity.
It was, however, also “so completely me,” Stone says, laughing gently.
“The idea of, I don’t know, directing people to it and announcing its existence felt weird and too much like self-promotion, yeah. Your description is a good one. I wasn’t good at it, I suppose, at saying I’d done it and it was there, go listen to it, please!”
Now, some two years later, Stone has released her sophomore solo album, By The Horns, and will play two sold-out shows at the Courier Mail Spiegeltent as part of September’s annual Brisbane Festival.
Like it’s predecessor, By The Horns is a collection of elegiac and quietly powerful, occasionally hymnal and reverent, songs that leaves the listener wanting nothing more than to be left alone in quietude to revel in its restrained beauty and, yes, occasional sadness and darkness.
Stone says that she wrote much of the album “all over the place” while travelling through North America, France, India and Australia. Aided by producers Thomas Bartlett and Patrick Dillett, known for their work with Antony and the Johnsons, Glen Hansard and David Byrne, she then began the process of recording.
“It’s always a naturally evolving thing because it’s hard to have a plan about sound. Maybe when you’re an artist who is creating something visual it’s a little bit easier. Sound-wise, you can do that with demos and I know that there are artists that work like that – they demo something and create layers of sound and then think about the instruments they want to use. None of us work like that, so it was different, very liberating, very in-the-moment,” Stone reflects.
Alongside 10 original tracks, By The Horns also boasts a stellar interpretation of The National’s ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio,’ a song Stone nails with her bruised, fractured and forlorn vocals.
“When I met Thomas, he was in London with The National and he told me how great they were and that I had to check out their stuff. I liked the sound of the song, so I got up that night and I played the song. When we got into the studio, it was just one of those things. I wasn’t thinking about recording it but because the band knew the song, we recorded it,” she recalls.
“It felt really good, it felt fun, but it was never intended that it’d go on the record. It was just something to warm up with, something to play to get settled into being in the studio, but when it came to choosing the tracks, everybody loved the sound of that version, so we put it on. It fits nicely with the other songs, though, so it all worked well in the end.”
By The Horns is out now through EMI Australia.
Julia Stone plays the Courier Mail Spiegeltent, South Bank, on September 19 and 20 (sold out), Byron Bay Community Centre on September 21 and The Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns, on September 22.
Heidi Maier
