{"id":343,"date":"2021-05-20T19:06:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T19:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theadclub.org\/womens2021\/?page_id=343"},"modified":"2021-05-20T19:06:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T19:06:41","slug":"julia-stone","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/julia-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Julia Stone<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Singer & Songwriter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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 With Julia Stone\u2019s new record comes the grit and glitter of the city, and all its attendant joys and dangers, romances and risks. No longer content to merely explore the wildernesses of folk and indie-rock, Sixty Summers, <\/em>Stone\u2019s third solo outing, finds the celebrated songwriter diving headfirst into the cosmopolitan, hedonistic world of late-night, moonlit pop. Dirt under foot is replaced with wet pavement and sticky dancefloors; blue skies are traded for red lights and red lips. A dazzling reintroduction to the beloved Stone, Sixty Summers <\/em>presents that rarest of transformations: not a metamorphosis or cheap makeover, but a shedding of skin, a revealing. It is Stone at her truest, brightest self, a powerful and revered icon finally painting herself with her own brush and her own palette. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scope of Sixty Summers <\/em>is dizzyingly vast; miles away from Stone\u2019s past work, it is a world unto itself, a surreal and breathtaking new landscape. Where Stone\u2019s previous solo records, 2010\u2019s The Memory Machine <\/em>and 2014\u2019s By The Horns<\/em>, found her grappling with the natural darkness that comes with loving too much, Sixty Summers <\/em>finds Stone claiming every part of herself: fire, fury, love, lust, longing. From the early strains of opener and lead single \u201cBreak\u201d \u2014 metallic synths twinkling like stars above, crumpled drums hitting like the rattle of a subway car \u2014 Sixty Summers <\/em>is an album you can dance to, one you can lose yourself in completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a new quality for Stone\u2019s music, but not one without precedent: ever since she was young, she has appreciated the transformative qualities of body-moving music. Touching on reference points as disparate as the avant-funk of Talking Heads (\u201cBreak\u201d,) the romantic 2am musings of Serge Gainsbourg (\u201cFree\u201d, \u201cDance\u201d,) and the sleek, ecstatic synthwork of Lorde\u2019s Melodrama <\/em>(\u201cSubstance\u201d), Sixty Summers <\/em>is an alluring, intoxicating project, a collection of dancefloor hymns that are equally wild and life-affirming. \u201cLife is incredibly confronting for most humans,\u201d Stone says. \u201cSometimes, the only thing you can do when it\u2019s really overwhelming is to dance or sing. Even in the most dark moments, when we play music, we feel free.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty Summers <\/em>is rich with that feeling of freedom, a quality wrought from Stone\u2019s emancipation from the recording and production techniques she was used to. A perfectionist tired of being beholden to the whims of outside engineers, Stone steadily taught herself how to record and comp her own vocals on ProTools; much of the vocal production on Sixty Summers <\/em>is the result of her D.I.Y. innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recorded sporadically over five years spanning 2015 to 2019, Sixty Summers <\/em>was shaped profoundly by Stone\u2019s key collaborators on the album: Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, and Annie Clark, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer known as St. Vincent. Like ego and id, Bartlett and Clark were the symbiotic pair Stone needed to realise her first pop vision. A wizard of production and songwriting, Bartlett helped coax Sixty Summers<\/em>\u2019 independent, elemental spirit out of Stone, writing and recording over 50 demos with her at his studio in New York \u2014 itself a thoroughfare for indie rock luminaries, some of whom, such as The National\u2019s Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner, ended up on the album. \u201cMaking this record with Thomas, I felt so free. I can hear it in the music,\u201d says Stone. \u201cHe brings a sense of confidence to recording sessions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clark, on the other hand, was the incisive yang to Bartlett\u2019s yin, a sharp musical polymath who, when presented with the work Bartlett and Stone had made together, quickly helped fashion Sixty Summers <\/em>into the album it was meant to be. Singing and playing guitar on the record in addition to her production work, it was Clark\u2019s revered acidic touch that brought the sparks out of Stone. \u201cJules is the best,\u201d Clark says of her experience working with Stone. \u201cWe were always fond of each other from afar, but after working on this, we became great friends. She’s a brilliant girl \u2014 tenacious, perfectionistic, so smart. All fire.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Stone\u2019s perfectionist tendencies, there is a fluidity, an organic freeness to Sixty Summers <\/em>that resonates. While the album is all gleaming jewel tones and florid arrangements, Stone has never sounded more herself on record; when she half-whispers \u201cYou\u2019re giving me nothing, it\u2019s fucking me up,\u201d on the infatuated \u201cSubstance,\u201d or exclaims \u201cWhy don\u2019t we dance?\u201d on \u201cDance,\u201d it feels like a revelation of power and profound self-assurance. And then, of course, there is the record\u2019s most plangent, breathtaking image: that of Stone \u201cdressed like a queen, begging in the street,\u201d on \u201cQueen\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s about not selling yourself short for anything or anyone,\u201d Stone says. \u201cIt\u2019s about when we put ourselves in a relationship because we think that\u2019s what we deserve, but we\u2019re actually royalty.\u201d \u2018Actually royalty\u2019 would be a good way to describe Stone\u2019s transformation on Sixty Summers<\/em>: that of one of our most remarkable musicians, stepping forward and accepting her throne. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julia Stone Singer & Songwriter  With Julia Stone\u2019s new record comes the grit and glitter of the city, and all its attendant joys and dangers, romances and risks. No longer content to merely explore the wildernesses of folk and indie-rock, Sixty Summers, Stone\u2019s third solo outing, finds the celebrated songwriter diving headfirst into the cosmopolitan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":true,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-343","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/events.theadclub.org\/womens2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}