Australian indie folk duo Angus & Julia Stone turn everyday observations, memories and shared experiences into warm, intimate songs on their moving seventh album, ‘Karaoke Bar.’

Stream: ‘Karaoke Bar’ – Angus & Julia Stone

“A night at a karaoke bar can hold so much goodness,” Julia Stone says. “Everyone has the chance to be heard.”

For Australian indie folk duo Angus and Julia Stone, that idea became the starting point for Karaoke Bar, their seventh studio album.

The record grew out of an unexpected stretch on the road. While touring their 2024 album Cape Forestier, the siblings played a series of intimate Living Room Sessions, revisiting songs from across their catalogue and sharing the stories behind them.

“We felt such a sense of joy and togetherness with the crowds and having people sing back songs across all of these years that means something different to everybody and their own lives,” Stone says.

After the tour, they headed to the Greek island of Hydra for a break, with a studio nearby in case inspiration struck.

It did.

Karaoke Bar - Angus & Julia Stone — Karaoke Bar – Angus & Julia Stone

The first song was “Karaoke Bar,” drawing on the sights and characters around them and eventually giving the album its name.

Canadian songwriting icon Leonard Cohen, who spent several years living in Hydra, has long been an inspiration to Stone. Being on the island, not far from Cohen’s former home, added another layer to the experience.

“Leonard Cohen was the master of making universal ideas feel personal,” she says. “The way he pieced lyrics together to tell stories but was always speaking of a deeper truth, the light and the dark that exists in the world and exists within each of us.”

That same idea of finding something bigger in everyday moments runs through “Karaoke Bar,” which is filled with the small details of a night out: Lipstick marks on cigarettes, stories on bathroom walls, neon lights on sticky floors and strangers becoming old friends for a night.

The album moves between folk songs, softer moments and a few unexpected turns, but it never feels far from what they do best.

The songs are built around melodies, harmonies and observations drawn from everyday life.

Some of those details come from things that catch Stone’s attention in the moment.

“Occasionally in real time something strikes me as incredibly touching and I want to remember the feeling or I want to remember the words that came into my head when I saw it, heard it, felt it,” she says. “So I write it in notes on the phone or record the idea.”

Others surface later in the studio.

“When we’re just trying things, I’m drawing on memories and feelings that pop into my head as I’m singing,” she says.

That loose approach suits the duo. They don’t start a record by deciding what it will mean. They make the music and figure out what it’s about later.

Their way of writing together has also changed over the years. Early albums were largely written separately, but producer Rick Rubin encouraged them to start a song together from scratch while making their 2014 self-titled album. “Heart Beats Slow” became their first fully co-written song, and they continued that approach on Snow in 2017.

Karaoke Bar takes it further.

“Probably the most complete, fully written together,” Stone says. “Nobody had an idea before they showed up.”

After more than 20 years of making music together, Angus and Julia have formed their own shorthand in the studio. Stone says she has similar creative relationships with other longtime collaborators, but there is something particular about working with her brother.

They tend to notice the same things, too. In a busy place, something happening off to the side might catch both their attention. One will mention the memory or thought it brings up, only to discover the other was thinking about the same thing.

“It’s not supernatural,” Stone says. “It’s just so many years and shared experiences that the mind travels to those memories.

“I’m endlessly surprised by Angus’s creativity. I think I know where he’s taking an idea and then it’s something different. He’s a truly phenomenal songwriter.”

Music was part of their lives long before they started performing together.

Growing up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, their father played in a rock band, so rehearsals were a regular part of life at home. The garage had the PA system, while the living room was where the siblings worked on acoustic arrangements and harmonies.

They grew up listening to four-part harmonies on Fleetwood Mac, Little Feat and Neil Young songs.

“It was a really great way to normalise singing in front of people,” she says. “And the joy that live music brings.”

They still see that same connection when they perform, especially when a crowd starts singing along to “Big Jet Plane,” one of their best-known songs.

“When we play it live and the whole crowd are singing along, it’s as much us listening to them as them listening to us.”

Stone has watched that connection change over the course of her career. The early years were a time of figuring things out in public, while she was still finding her voice as a songwriter and performer.

“I loved it when we started out, discovering songwriting and learning so much all the time about being a songwriter, a performer, starting a business … It was a raw time. Both incredibly fun and also incredibly challenging.”

She remembers the scrutiny that came with sharing her work before she had fully figured out who she was.

“Becoming a writer and performer is both deeply rewarding and deeply humiliating,” she says. “I was exposing myself regularly as I was refining my craft.”

Looking back, she’s grateful she went through that process. What she’s happy to leave behind is worrying so much about what other people thought of her work.

There is one thing she misses, though: The days before smartphones and social media.

“That was awesome,” she says, recalling when touring also meant reading an actual map.

A lot has changed since then. Since their 2007 debut, the siblings have worked with Rubin, scored the ARIA Award-winning soundtrack for Life Is Strange and sold out venues including London’s Royal Albert Hall, L’Olympia in Paris and New York’s Town Hall.

Now they’re looking ahead.

Next year marks 20 years since the release of A Book Like This, their first album. In 2027, they’ll take Karaoke Bar on a world tour.

“It’s going to be such a fun record to perform live,” Stone says. “Also next year is 20 years since we released A Book Like This, our first album. So pretty special time.”

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:: connect with Angus & Julia Stone here ::

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Stream: ‘Karaoke Bar’ – Angus & Julia Stone

QUICK TAKES WITH JULIA STONE

Atwood Magazine: What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever had a song idea hit you?

Julia Stone: In a dream

Who’s more likely to forget a lyric on stage?

Julia Stone: Me.

What’s a sound in one of your songs that still makes you smile?

Julia Stone: The cut up trumpet at the end of “Nothing Else.”

What’s your go-to “reset” song when you’re stuck creatively?

Julia Stone: “I Remember” – Damien Rice

If “Karaoke Bar” were a real place, what’s the house band like?

Julia Stone: Shit hot

What’s a habit the other one has in the studio that always makes you laugh?

Julia Stone: Always having a movie playing on a huge screen when singing.

What’s the most chaotic moment you’ve had while recording?

Julia Stone: Definitely doing vocals backstage right before a show.

What’s a song of yours that feels a bit like a secret inside joke?

Julia Stone: I wouldn’t say we have a song that feels like an inside joke. But maybe something more like songs that only we know what they’re about, something like “The Start.”