A classic car and a Byron Bay barn reno inspire Angus Stone’s new album Rose Pink Cadillac

Angus Stone has revealed how his Byron Bay reno and a pink Cadillac have inspired his new album — and he’s even giving a car away to a fan.

Angus Stone releases new Dope Lemon record. Picture: supplied

Angus Stone is Byron Bay’s most unassuming Renaissance man.

On his ranch perched among the hills of the Byron Bay hinterland, he has created a sanctuary where he makes music, raises cows, rides horses, hangs out with a bushfire-rescued joey called JoJo and plays host to gatherings of neighbours, friends and musicians.

After more than a decade of touring the world as Angus and Julia Stone, including long stints living in London and America, his farm has become his retreat from that life and away from the madding hordes of tourists and influencers posing at Byron’s hotspots by the beach.

A classic Rose Pink Cadillac became a character in Angus Stone’s new album. Picture: supplied

He mucked in as a tradie with local artisan mates during the long pandemic pause on touring to fashion a new hang space in the loft of an old barn on the property.

Tucked into the renovated mezzanine is his new studio, where Stone recorded Rose Pink Cadillac, the third album from his Dope Lemon solo project.

“I’ve always wanted to convert this dusty old mezzanine level so we got to work,” he said.

“We herringboned the floors with mahogany, plastered all the walls and had big, recycled wooden beams everywhere. And we built this beautiful sunken marble firepit which sinks into the floor and a riverstone rock wall with a big copper-hood open fireplace.

“The studio sits beside that with an outlook over the field with the horses and cows. The new space became the muse for this record.”

Stone has been sculpting his Byron Bay sanctuary over the past five years. Picture: Instagram/Angus Stone

As side projects go, the Dope Lemon is more successful than most.

Stone’s first two records under this creative alias have generated more than 400 million streams and a devoted fanbase who came for the sun-kissed psychedelic rock and stayed for the peace, love and good times vibes.

Fans have embraced the trippy Dope Lemon logo as a tribal totem, with Stone constantly amazed and flattered that many have gone so far as to celebrate their fandom with a tattoo.

“What’s been special to me about this project is it’s been like this lovely flower to water and watch grow into a community; I feel at home with it and very lucky to have those listeners and people who show love,” he said.

“When I see people who have had tattoos of the lemon – that’s for life – I always write back to thank them and tell them it is such a touching thing to see.

“It makes me want to do this more, to share more of my soul and my heart and the way my mind works with songwriting.”

Stone describes Rose Pink Cadilliac as his “love record”. Picture: NCA.

If renovating a slice of his hinterland retreat satisfied the Stone family adage that “a change of work is the best rest”, making the new album realised his ambition to drop a musical love bomb on the world.

The record suggests there is love in his life, in songs like Hi Rollin, a duet in French about the headrush of those initial sparks lit by a new flame, and the single Kids Fallin In Love.

“This is my love record,” he said.

“With the way the world was turning, the impending doom and chaos during the making of it, I decided I was going to push out as much love into the world as I could through the storytelling and the music.”

While whiskey was the album’s lubricant, its other muse would become its titular character; a beautifully restored rose-pink 1960 Cadillac Fleetwood.

Cars have always loomed large in the Dope Lemon universe as a symbol of escape and adventure.

The album’s biography suggests after dreaming about a woman driving a rose-pink caddy and a subsequent vision of her while “under a hazy influence”, he had a real-life encounter with his dream girl.

“He was sitting in a bar in the small town, speaking to a girl he had only just met. They got along well, a clear friendship blooming over sticky carpet and some golden god’s nectar filled pints,” the bio reveals.

“Finally, they got up to leave, and Stone stepped outside to discover that his new friend wasn’t just any girl, but the girl, — the driver of the rose pink Cadillac, arriving manifest in his life with all the weight of those previous psychic and psychedelic experiences.”

A classic car and a mystery woman were inspirations for the new Dope Lemon album. Picture: supplied

Stone would like to leave it to the imagination of his listeners as to whether or not she is an invented character to carry the Rose Pink Cadillac story, or a real-life manifestation of his dreams.

But in the generous spirit of pushing out good vibes, he is giving away an actual collectable car worth tens of thousands of dollars to a lucky fan as the album is launched this week.

The gesture is also a measure of Stone and his team’s astute approach to marketing a record in the pandemic era, when touring is still dicey and the connection between fan and artist is predominantly online.

Stone with the groovy animated vinyl version of Rose Pink Cadillac. Picture: Instagram

He wanted to offer them something tangible in the digital age. And it goes hand-in-hand with the stunning animated vinyl version of the record; as he recently illustrated on an Instagram video, the pattern emerges off the disc and into the air as it spins.

Stone worked with Australian graphic designer and animator Tee Ken Ng, who combines op-art and stop-motion techniques to create visual magic, with the animated vinyl for his 2019 record Smooth Big Cat and they joined forces again for Rose Pink Cadillac.

“Now other artists have clicked onto what he’s doing and it’s opened up a whole new game for vinyl,” Stone said.

While there are Dope Lemon tour plans afoot for Europe in March, Stone is mulling over a plan to stage another of the epic pre-pandemic ranch parties he hosted during the Splendour In The Grass weekends.

The Rose Pink Cadillac album is exactly the kind of record you would have on the playlist for that kind of gathering.

“Oh man, that would be wicked, absolutely epic,” he said.

“Hopefully we can put on a show at the ranch because I really want to showcase this record to the people who can give it a good platform for more people to listen to it.”

Rose Pink Cadillac is out on January 7. For all details dopelemon.com