Angus and Julia Stone return with Life Is Strange, a surprise fifth album
‘When do you really get a chance to score a video game?’ said Angus Stone of the new album recorded with his sister Julia. ‘It’s something really special that we thought we couldn’t pass up.’
After four years away from the recording studio, sibling singer-songwriters Angus and Julia Stone have emerged with a surprise fifth album, Life is Strange, to be released on Friday.
In a pioneering move for a popular Australian act, the indie folk/pop duo was commissioned by a US video game company to compose the soundtrack for the fifth instalment of an acclaimed series that has sold millions of copies worldwide.
From his home studio near Byron Bay, Angus Stone said: “For us, it was a really interesting concept of the gameplay and what the character goes through. They synced up and we thought, ‘Let’s just give this a go’.”
As a lifelong gamer himself, the musician and producer was tickled by the idea of the art he shares with his sister being integrated into a complex story within a virtual world.
“When do you really get a chance to score a video game?” said Stone, 35. “It’s something really special that we thought we couldn’t pass up.”
Although their last work together was the 2017 album Snow – which contained the APRA Award-winning single Chateau, whose Spotify streams now exceed 160 million plays – the pair has long been among the most popular acts in the country.
Two of their four previous releases have topped the ARIA chart; they swept the ARIA Awards of 2010 with five trophies including album of the year, and their signature song Big Jet Plane topped Triple J’s Hottest 100 music poll in 2011.
This new collection, though, may end up reaching more ears than any of their previous works, given the global popularity of the Life is Strange series, and the unique way in which the soundtrack is situated at the centre of the gaming experience.
The release of the Stones’ fifth album precedes the September 10 release of Life is Strange: True Colours.
Developed by Colorado-based studio Deck Nine, it will be available on platforms including PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
In the game, players inhabit the role of a young woman named Alex Chen, who is tasked with trying to solve the mystery of her brother’s death while trying to come to terms with her unusual ability to experience the emotions of others.
The Australian has heard an exclusive preview of the album, and even outside the context of the game’s narrative it is a compelling and emotive work that skirts genres, including indie pop, folk and electronic music.
One of the 12 new tracks, Blue, is a stirring reinterpretation of Main Street, a song first included near the end of their 2014 self-titled album.
The notion of picking up an existing song and rearranging it for a new project seemed to fit the reflective space that the game’s protagonist finds herself in midway through the story.
“I’ve very rarely listened back to records we’ve made, but sometimes I’ll be sitting in a cafe and in moments like that, I always get this really warm feeling,” Stone said. “These memories come flashing back, from the time that we wrote it and also where we were at that stage in our lives.
“It’s a real pleasure, and it’s something that comes with age and working hard at what you do and love. Those are the moments you really cherish.”
After forming the duo in 2006, the siblings toured the world throughout their 20s. Together, they have lived in London, Los Angeles and Switzerland, before making the mutual decision to split a few years back: Angus settled in Byron Bay, while his sister put down roots in Melbourne.
Across the years, they have come and gone from the core duo as they see fit.
Julia has released three solo albums including Sixty Summers, which debuted at No. 16 in April, while in recent years Angus has built a strong following behind the moniker Dope Lemon.
The songs that appear on their new album together were written and recorded in an unhurried fashion, in the same room and remotely, across the past 18 months or so, as the US game developers sent gameplay scenes and footage to prompt their creativity.
It wasn’t planned, but once they received the offer, reconnecting to work on Life is Strange simply felt right – by now, the pair know each other well enough to follow their intuitions.
“Julia and I have been writing records together for a lot of years, and now it just feels really easy,” Stone said. “We have this free-flowing energy between us; making sure we have that is really important for our relationship as writers and people.”
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