Angus & Julia Stone: How a fateful snowboarding trip inspired their new album

Julia Stone (left) says she and Angus "drifted off into our own worlds" after their last record. Photo / supplied

Musically, Snow is almost a misnomer for Angus & Julia Stone's newest album. It's a warm, sunny collection of indie folk/rock songs, with grittier, more layered production that builds on the Australian brother-sister duo's earlier work. But, as Julia Stone tells me over the phone from Melbourne, the title isn't intended to reach for any sort of wider, deeper meaning; it's more a mark of a time and place. The title track is the first song they wrote for the record, and it all began during a special trip to Switzerland.

"Last year, Angus and I played a festival called Zermatt Unplugged - it's this little festival in a town where the Matterhorn is, and it was snowing, and obviously for Australians snow is pretty spectacular," says Julia.

"One day this guy took us up in a helicopter and dropped us off at the top of this mountain, and then we snowboarded down - I actually skied, I say snowboarded because I think it sounds better but I'm actually a skier - anyway, we got out there and this crazy blizzard came through, and you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. It felt like it was the beginning of time or something.

"We were finding our way down these incredible slopes, and we just really connected and had an incredible time. It was during that trip that we sort of said, 'Let's get in the studio and start figuring out what we're doing next'. And then Snow happened, and it just felt like the song, and the time, it all tied together. And 'snow' is a nice word."

After Angus & Julia Stone's last record, a self-titled album recorded with legendary producer Rick Rubin in 2014, the siblings bowed into different orbits. "We never really know whether we're going to make another record," says Julia. "We just finish off a tour and say, 'Anyway, uh, see you when I see you'... we drifted off into our own worlds."

Angus & Julia Stone's Snow began with a fateful trip to Switzerland. Photo / supplied

While Angus got to work on a solo project called Dope Lemon, Julia found other things to keep herself busy. She learned to meditate, went on hikes and signed on to score an indie film (after meeting the producers by chance on a flight to New York). It wasn't until that trip to Switzerland that she and Angus decided to make another record.

Snow is the first album that Angus and Julia wrote together and worked on almost exclusively as a duo. They built their own studio at Angus' farm in Byron Bay, with his collection of cars and campervans providing accommodation for the rotation of guests and friends they brought in to help (including Kiwi Dann Hume, the ex-Evermore member who contributes bass on the record). This synchronicity is evident on Snow, their most muscular and nuanced record yet; a mark of the siblings' growing maturity as artists.

"I've always been a communicative and open person but I also lacked self-confidence," says Julia. "My early 20s were scary and intense, and those songs were very inward in a way. As the years have gone by, I think I've become more confident on the guitar and with my voice, and I would say the same for Angus as well."

Photo / supplied

Julia says she's excited to return to Auckland's "amazing" Civic Theatre - particularly as she and Angus find themselves fueled by new-found energy on stage. "On the way home from rehearsal yesterday, [Angus and I were] saying how excited we are to be playing this show live," she says. "In the past, it's been tricky for us to pull a set together in a way that has felt fluid, because of the back catalogue of different sounds.

"The new album is different, in the sense that it's got a bit more drive to it. It's exciting."

LOWDOWN:
Who: Angus & Julia Stone
Where: The Civic Theatre
When: December 15