Angus and Julia Stone
Accustomed to living out of a suitcase while on tour, Angus and Julia Stone decided to record their latest album in a similar transient style. As Angus Stone hopped from one country to the next on his fast-paced tour, he dreamt of staying put in the one spot for a bit. But back in Australia, enjoying his first substantial break in three years, the musician admits he has itchy feet.
“On tour you think ‘I can’t wait to slow down,’ but when you get home you feel you need to keep moving so I have been driving up the (Central) coast and staying at friends’ places, staying in hostels and sleeping in my car,” he says. “I really like that travelling keeps you grounded even though you are moving.” Tethering themselves to the ground has been somewhat difficult of late for Angus and his sister, Julia. Since the release of their 2007 debut platinum album, A Book Like This, which earned six ARIA award nominations, they have ventured everywhere from the Scottish Highlands to desert towns in the US. In between they have had little time to return home to Sydney’s northern beaches where they grew up.
With travelling now so much a part of their life, Angus says their current album, Down the Way, was written and recorded in locations as diverse as an old sawmill on the river banks of Fowey in Cornwall, a studio in Brooklyn, a water tank in Coolangatta and Queens in New York. “We recorded it everywhere because that is just the way it happened. We’d finish a show in a city and meet people who had studios in different places and would invite us there to record. It was really random, but it was great because we were recording with people who felt something from our music and were excited about making it,” he says.
Perhaps one of the most unusual places the pair recorded was in a converted water tank at the back of a friend’s place in Coolangatta. “It was a completely different way of hearing sound, the way it swirls around the tank. It was a pretty crazy experience,” Angus says. “The location really added to the song Big Jet Plane.” Renowned for their album art and booklets, which often feature quirky illustrations, Angus and Julia used their grandparents’ old photographs for the album. “The shot on the cover was a friend of my grandpa’s who took the photo at Lennox Beach on his first camera. I really love the old photographs taken with film. There is a really nice light and presence to them and it is nice seeing the story of your family unfold through pictures,” Angus explains.
Although he has barely picked up his guitar in the past six months, preferring to draw and surf, Angus is keen to continue his nomadic lifestyle with a national tour to coincide with the album’s release on March 12. Touring throughout Australia before heading to the United Kingdom, Europe, US and potentially Japan, Angus says “living out of a suitcase is a strange but enjoyable way to live”. “There are all sorts of feelings that come out of seeing the world and travelling so fast. At times you can feel really detached and free but it can be lonely. There are lots of different quirks to it,” he says.
Angus and Julia Stone play The Lake, Kawana, March 21, 8pm. Tickets: $44. Details: 5437 1170, 5455 4455 or www.thej.com.au
THE FAMILY STONE
Growing up around music, Angus and Julia’s parents were in a folk duo. Their dad, John, was a music teacher and also in a cover band called Backbeat. He would rehearse in the family’s garage and encouraged each of his three kids to play music. “We all had to pick an instrument when we were young,” Angus recalls. “My older sister, Catherine, picked the saxophone, Julia chose the trumpet and I picked the trombone.”
WORDS KYLIE JACKES
--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
Noosa Festival of Surfing March 14-21. Cost: varies. A week full of action on and off the water. As well as the surfing competitions, which have drawn locals such as Josh Constable and Matt Cuddihy and visitors including US surfer Christian Wach, there will also be a Surf City lifestyle expo in Noosaville Lions Park. Events there will include Richard Tognetti’s Glide (a marriage between music and surfing imagery), book signings, a surfboard and memorabilia auction, collectors’ fair, shapers’ forum, the premiere of Going Vertical (see page 49) and a rock concert featuring The Beautiful Girls, Ash Grunwald and more. Details: www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com
Wild World The J, Noosa, March 11, 3pm and 7pm. Cost: from $35 plus booking fee. The musical journey of Cat Stevens from his early days to his conversion to Islam. Details: 5455 4455.
Art Exhibition Cooper Gallery, Noosaville, March 11-28, regular opening times. Cost: free entry. The art work of Trisha Lambi, whose inspiration is light on form with a mixture of body and inanimate objects. Details: 5455 5655.
Card Day Eden Lea Retirement Village, Buderim, March 12, 10am. Cost: $15. Sunshine Coast Private Hospital auxiliary fundraiser includes morning tea and lunch. BYO cards and table. Details: Maggie, 5445 4652.
Horse Spectacular Nambour Showgrounds Indoor Arena, March 12, gates open 5.30pm. Cost: $30 adults, $20 children seven to 14, under seven free. Kunda Park Pony Club fundraiser featuring premier horsemanship artist Guy McLean, who will perform with his Australian equine Quietway performance team and his Brahman liberty bull, Quietway Rider. Details: Karen, 0414 721 834.
Model Search Sunshine Plaza Riverwalk, March 13, 9.30am. Cost: free. Heat two of the quest to find the Coast’s next top model. Heat three is on March 20 before the grand finale party at the events centre @ Maroochy on March 30. Details: Faye Rolph Models, 5443 4522.
Irish Latin Dance Party Maroochydore Community Hall, March 13, 7.30pm. Cost: $8 members, $12 non-members. Sunshine Coast Latin Dance Club celebrates all things green. Details: 0403 002 464.
Family Day Noosa Regional Gallery, Tewantin, March 14, 11am-2pm. Cost: free. Family fun inspired by an exhibit of Australian fashion photography from the ‘60s and ‘70s called Strike a pose . . . with Lee Lee Chin. Activities include the chance to direct a fashion shoot. Details: 5449 5340.
Sippy Downs Markets Sunshine Toyota car park, Sippy Downs, March 14, 7am. Cost: free entry. Browse stalls offering food, fair trade coffee and local produce with entertainment by buskers. Details: www.thecentreforpeace.com.au
King and Queen of Song Noosa Heads Surf Club, March 15, 7pm. Cost: free. All ages can perform an original song they have written to foster grassroots music. Heats run Monday nights through March and April with the finale on April 12. Details: 5474 5688.
Labyrinth Walk St Mark’s Lutheran Church, Caloundra, March 16, 9.30am and 7pm. Cost: free, gold coin donation appreciated. Pastor Rick Zweck is an accredited facilitator of labyrinths, which have a long Christian tradition. Back from Chartres in France, which has the most famous labyrinth, he has created a downsized version to help people reflect and refocus. Details: Pr Zweck, 0404 043 219.
Men’s Singing Lessons Buderim Uniting Church Hall, from March 17, 7pm. Cost: $5 for initial materials, then free. Free six-week voice coaching program for men by the Sunshine Statesmen Barbershop Chorus. Details: Bruce, 5444 2098.
---------------------------------------------------------------
HEALTH & WELLBEING
Kayak Demo Day Novotel Twin Waters Resort, March 14, 9am-3pm. Cost: free. Have a go at kayaking, which is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Try 25 models from Ozflyte Surfcraft, ranging from family kayaks to those designed for fishing. Details: Jason, 0451 199 151.
-----------------------------------------------------------
ARTS & LITERATURE
One Lind Lane Theatre, Nambour, March 11, 12, 13, 17, 7.30pm. Cost: $15. Peter Wilson creates mayhem as a variety of characters in his one-man show, which includes mime, monologues and masking. Details: 5441 1814.
Giant Book Sale Maroochydore Library, March 12, 9am-5pm; March 13, 9am-3pm. Cost: free entry. Friends of Maroochydore Library event with everything from crime writing and romance to non-fiction. Details: Maroochy library, 5475 8900.
Author Talk Maroochydore Library, March 17, 2.30pm. Cost: free. Coast author Antoinette O’Connor talks about her travels from Rome and Washington to Jordan and Morocco. Details: 5475 8900.
-----------------------------------------------------------
FOOD AND WINE
PJ Lane berardo’s, Noosa, March 11, 6.30pm. Cost: $95 with a welcome drink and four-course meal. This rescheduled event, to benefit Reflections Support Service, sees Don Lane’s son perform with musos Ian Cooper and Simon Tedeschi. Details: 5447 5666.
Wine Dinner Blue Angel, Noosaville, March 12, 6.30pm. Cost: $90. Five-course dinner showcasing Tasmania’s Spring Vale winery with vigneron Tim Lyne. Details: 5473 0800.
Goddesses@lunch Deco Bar and Restaurant, Mooloolaba, March 17, noon. Cost: $35 in advance. Forum for women to connect and network as part of The Enlightened Goddesses program. Guest speaker is Nikki Parkinson from Styling You. Details: Natalie, 0402 462 804.
-----------------------------------------------------------
SAVE THE DATE
Noosa Food and Wine Festival Lions Park, Noosaville, April 30-May 2. Cost: varies Three-day foodie fest, sponsored by the weekender, including celeb chefs in Noosa restaurants, degustation dinners, food trails, wine talks and the Australian Bee Gees show. Details: www.noosafoodandwine.com.au
Weekender Issue 617, March 11th 2010
Accustomed to living out of a suitcase while on tour, Angus and Julia Stone decided to record their latest album in a similar transient style. As Angus Stone hopped from one country to the next on his fast-paced tour, he dreamt of staying put in the one spot for a bit. But back in Australia, enjoying his first substantial break in three years, the musician admits he has itchy feet.
“On tour you think ‘I can’t wait to slow down,’ but when you get home you feel you need to keep moving so I have been driving up the (Central) coast and staying at friends’ places, staying in hostels and sleeping in my car,” he says. “I really like that travelling keeps you grounded even though you are moving.” Tethering themselves to the ground has been somewhat difficult of late for Angus and his sister, Julia. Since the release of their 2007 debut platinum album, A Book Like This, which earned six ARIA award nominations, they have ventured everywhere from the Scottish Highlands to desert towns in the US. In between they have had little time to return home to Sydney’s northern beaches where they grew up.
With travelling now so much a part of their life, Angus says their current album, Down the Way, was written and recorded in locations as diverse as an old sawmill on the river banks of Fowey in Cornwall, a studio in Brooklyn, a water tank in Coolangatta and Queens in New York. “We recorded it everywhere because that is just the way it happened. We’d finish a show in a city and meet people who had studios in different places and would invite us there to record. It was really random, but it was great because we were recording with people who felt something from our music and were excited about making it,” he says.
Perhaps one of the most unusual places the pair recorded was in a converted water tank at the back of a friend’s place in Coolangatta. “It was a completely different way of hearing sound, the way it swirls around the tank. It was a pretty crazy experience,” Angus says. “The location really added to the song Big Jet Plane.” Renowned for their album art and booklets, which often feature quirky illustrations, Angus and Julia used their grandparents’ old photographs for the album. “The shot on the cover was a friend of my grandpa’s who took the photo at Lennox Beach on his first camera. I really love the old photographs taken with film. There is a really nice light and presence to them and it is nice seeing the story of your family unfold through pictures,” Angus explains.
Although he has barely picked up his guitar in the past six months, preferring to draw and surf, Angus is keen to continue his nomadic lifestyle with a national tour to coincide with the album’s release on March 12. Touring throughout Australia before heading to the United Kingdom, Europe, US and potentially Japan, Angus says “living out of a suitcase is a strange but enjoyable way to live”. “There are all sorts of feelings that come out of seeing the world and travelling so fast. At times you can feel really detached and free but it can be lonely. There are lots of different quirks to it,” he says.
Angus and Julia Stone play The Lake, Kawana, March 21, 8pm. Tickets: $44. Details: 5437 1170, 5455 4455 or www.thej.com.au
THE FAMILY STONE
Growing up around music, Angus and Julia’s parents were in a folk duo. Their dad, John, was a music teacher and also in a cover band called Backbeat. He would rehearse in the family’s garage and encouraged each of his three kids to play music. “We all had to pick an instrument when we were young,” Angus recalls. “My older sister, Catherine, picked the saxophone, Julia chose the trumpet and I picked the trombone.”
WORDS KYLIE JACKES
--------------------------------------------------------------
EVENTS
Noosa Festival of Surfing March 14-21. Cost: varies. A week full of action on and off the water. As well as the surfing competitions, which have drawn locals such as Josh Constable and Matt Cuddihy and visitors including US surfer Christian Wach, there will also be a Surf City lifestyle expo in Noosaville Lions Park. Events there will include Richard Tognetti’s Glide (a marriage between music and surfing imagery), book signings, a surfboard and memorabilia auction, collectors’ fair, shapers’ forum, the premiere of Going Vertical (see page 49) and a rock concert featuring The Beautiful Girls, Ash Grunwald and more. Details: www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com
Wild World The J, Noosa, March 11, 3pm and 7pm. Cost: from $35 plus booking fee. The musical journey of Cat Stevens from his early days to his conversion to Islam. Details: 5455 4455.
Art Exhibition Cooper Gallery, Noosaville, March 11-28, regular opening times. Cost: free entry. The art work of Trisha Lambi, whose inspiration is light on form with a mixture of body and inanimate objects. Details: 5455 5655.
Card Day Eden Lea Retirement Village, Buderim, March 12, 10am. Cost: $15. Sunshine Coast Private Hospital auxiliary fundraiser includes morning tea and lunch. BYO cards and table. Details: Maggie, 5445 4652.
Horse Spectacular Nambour Showgrounds Indoor Arena, March 12, gates open 5.30pm. Cost: $30 adults, $20 children seven to 14, under seven free. Kunda Park Pony Club fundraiser featuring premier horsemanship artist Guy McLean, who will perform with his Australian equine Quietway performance team and his Brahman liberty bull, Quietway Rider. Details: Karen, 0414 721 834.
Model Search Sunshine Plaza Riverwalk, March 13, 9.30am. Cost: free. Heat two of the quest to find the Coast’s next top model. Heat three is on March 20 before the grand finale party at the events centre @ Maroochy on March 30. Details: Faye Rolph Models, 5443 4522.
Irish Latin Dance Party Maroochydore Community Hall, March 13, 7.30pm. Cost: $8 members, $12 non-members. Sunshine Coast Latin Dance Club celebrates all things green. Details: 0403 002 464.
Family Day Noosa Regional Gallery, Tewantin, March 14, 11am-2pm. Cost: free. Family fun inspired by an exhibit of Australian fashion photography from the ‘60s and ‘70s called Strike a pose . . . with Lee Lee Chin. Activities include the chance to direct a fashion shoot. Details: 5449 5340.
Sippy Downs Markets Sunshine Toyota car park, Sippy Downs, March 14, 7am. Cost: free entry. Browse stalls offering food, fair trade coffee and local produce with entertainment by buskers. Details: www.thecentreforpeace.com.au
King and Queen of Song Noosa Heads Surf Club, March 15, 7pm. Cost: free. All ages can perform an original song they have written to foster grassroots music. Heats run Monday nights through March and April with the finale on April 12. Details: 5474 5688.
Labyrinth Walk St Mark’s Lutheran Church, Caloundra, March 16, 9.30am and 7pm. Cost: free, gold coin donation appreciated. Pastor Rick Zweck is an accredited facilitator of labyrinths, which have a long Christian tradition. Back from Chartres in France, which has the most famous labyrinth, he has created a downsized version to help people reflect and refocus. Details: Pr Zweck, 0404 043 219.
Men’s Singing Lessons Buderim Uniting Church Hall, from March 17, 7pm. Cost: $5 for initial materials, then free. Free six-week voice coaching program for men by the Sunshine Statesmen Barbershop Chorus. Details: Bruce, 5444 2098.
---------------------------------------------------------------
HEALTH & WELLBEING
Kayak Demo Day Novotel Twin Waters Resort, March 14, 9am-3pm. Cost: free. Have a go at kayaking, which is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Try 25 models from Ozflyte Surfcraft, ranging from family kayaks to those designed for fishing. Details: Jason, 0451 199 151.
-----------------------------------------------------------
ARTS & LITERATURE
One Lind Lane Theatre, Nambour, March 11, 12, 13, 17, 7.30pm. Cost: $15. Peter Wilson creates mayhem as a variety of characters in his one-man show, which includes mime, monologues and masking. Details: 5441 1814.
Giant Book Sale Maroochydore Library, March 12, 9am-5pm; March 13, 9am-3pm. Cost: free entry. Friends of Maroochydore Library event with everything from crime writing and romance to non-fiction. Details: Maroochy library, 5475 8900.
Author Talk Maroochydore Library, March 17, 2.30pm. Cost: free. Coast author Antoinette O’Connor talks about her travels from Rome and Washington to Jordan and Morocco. Details: 5475 8900.
-----------------------------------------------------------
FOOD AND WINE
PJ Lane berardo’s, Noosa, March 11, 6.30pm. Cost: $95 with a welcome drink and four-course meal. This rescheduled event, to benefit Reflections Support Service, sees Don Lane’s son perform with musos Ian Cooper and Simon Tedeschi. Details: 5447 5666.
Wine Dinner Blue Angel, Noosaville, March 12, 6.30pm. Cost: $90. Five-course dinner showcasing Tasmania’s Spring Vale winery with vigneron Tim Lyne. Details: 5473 0800.
Goddesses@lunch Deco Bar and Restaurant, Mooloolaba, March 17, noon. Cost: $35 in advance. Forum for women to connect and network as part of The Enlightened Goddesses program. Guest speaker is Nikki Parkinson from Styling You. Details: Natalie, 0402 462 804.
-----------------------------------------------------------
SAVE THE DATE
Noosa Food and Wine Festival Lions Park, Noosaville, April 30-May 2. Cost: varies Three-day foodie fest, sponsored by the weekender, including celeb chefs in Noosa restaurants, degustation dinners, food trails, wine talks and the Australian Bee Gees show. Details: www.noosafoodandwine.com.au
Weekender Issue 617, March 11th 2010
