Julia Stone drops the sister act with Sixty Summers, her first new solo record in nine years
Julia Stone shares how she got Hollywood royalty Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover and a dream team to help make her new solo record.
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Julia Stone was struck silent with nerves. Her first solo single in eight years, Break, was seconds away from its world premiere broadcast on Triple J.
It was indeed a dramatic break from the folk-anchored sound which has won her and brother Angus millions of fans around the globe.
Her new solo work was instead rooted in the danceable rhythms and quirky art rock styling of The Talking Heads and this would be the song to introduce her third solo album Sixty Summers.
“It was my choice for this song to let people know what I was doing. I really had to get it together after they finished playing the song because I was so emotional,” she says.
“And then they read out messages coming in from listeners. It was making me feel so overwhelmed that people were enjoying it.
“For some people, it’s not their type of music, and that’s totally fine, but it means so much to me that I am expressing myself in a way that makes me feel good.”
Stone has shared almost half of the songs of Sixty Summers ahead of its release on April 30 and each inhabits its own particular musical universe.
Recent offering Fire In Me is a glam rock stomper which immediately recalls T-Rex. We All Have, featuring The National frontman Matt Berninger – who recently guested on Taylor Swift’s Evermore record – is a minimalist piano-led ballad where their voices play the starring role.
And then there was Dance, the divinely infectious alt-pop song whose video starred Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover as new lovers meeting for a date.
“My part in that video was shot by my partner in the loungeroom of our apartment in Melbourne on iPhone with us fighting about angles while Danny and Susan filmed in New York,” Stone says.
“We really wanted to tell a love story and one that shows falling in love is not reserved for the young and beautiful; we were thinking about who could tell this story that would show the sexiness of wisdom and age.
“(Director) Jessie and I always dream big with these ideas – and then work back as people say no – so Danny was our No. 1 and first call, he said yes.
“And then Susan said yes. I mean this was mid COVID, we were asking people in their 70s to fly to New York to a set which had such strict guidelines to keep everyone safe and they were so excited and so keen to do it.”
Stone says collaboration has been the key to unlocking the musical experiment that is Sixty Summers, with her core team featuring longtime producer friend Thomas Bartlett (also known as Doveman) and the pop shapeshifter St Vincent (Annie Clark).
Really excited to announce the first single coming out soon from a record I’ve been working on with the amazing @st_vincent and @tommydove.
— Julia Stone (@JuliaStoneMusic) July 10, 2020
Can’t wait to share with you all x pic.twitter.com/gV8Cj3kPRW
“Traditionally writing songs for me has been at a piano or on an acoustic guitar, often on my own, reflecting on an experience or hidden truths I am trying to work through,” she says.
“But working on this was a lot about collaboration … and so I was writing to a sound that was different to anything I would personally create.”
The multi-instrumentalist even performs differently in the wake of recording Sixty Summers in New York before COVID hit. Recent gigs in Australia have revealed her inner rock god on electric guitar.
She credits Clark – whose new St Vincent album Daddy’s Home is out on May 14 – for amping up the guitars even as the songs explored more electronic and beats-focused directions.
“Annie plays a lot of guitar on the record which is why it sounds amazing,” Stone says.
“What is amazing about her as a producer is a lot of producers will say “What would be cool is this idea or that idea’ while Annie says ‘You know what would be cool? Let me show you.’
“So you have the best electric guitar soloist in the world giving you her brilliant musicianship. She’s so hands-on and committed.”
Stone’s strong team of female creatives helping her bring the solo project to life included her longtime video director Jessie Hill and photographer Brooke Ashley Barone, whose dramatic shoot with the musician at Joshua Tree in the Californian desert included not only gorgeous, edgy fashion but some poses with no clothes at all.
“It’s those things you can’t do when your brother is around; it’s just not appropriate,” Stone says, laughing.
“I like being nude, I like being sexy, I like all of that stuff and this has been such a freeing thing because there’s a space now where I can do that.
“I love working with Angus, he’s so remarkable, but there’s a space where it works for both of us and that’s what makes it special, where we can stand together and say something together.
“When it’s just what you want to say or do, you can do what you want.”
Sixty Summers is out on April 30; pre-order the record via her website
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