hello...
it is a strange thing to write a letter to you. our manager, cathy, asked us if we would like to write a
personal note when she went to send out the information about the new record... and i thought that
perhaps it would be something i might like to do. i like writing letters to my friends when we are
away-and you have become, in some way, a friend of ours, so this can be something like that... a letter to a friend to tell you what we have been doing...or at least a little bit about how this record came to be made.
the songs have been written all over the place... in stormy corners of backstage rooms and rusty windows of old hotels in sleepy towns...they have been written in the back yard at our dad's place in avalon-and in the heart of lands where we are truly strangers...and places where we have felt like visitors... drifting through without more than a few words to a local farmer....or just a few chords to a sleepy highland cow.....i could be more specific, but you know how specifics take up space-and do you really want to know about the waxed table tops and dolly parton fan clubs?
the recording of the record happened also over two years in different places between tours.....the place where my heart skipped beats, and i think angus feels the same, is the little town of golant, where we found the studio 'sawmills'-- a converted old sawmill that you had to access by boat on the high tide...we had been living in east london and had been playing festivals here and there... we had a couple of weeks off, a few hundred songs in our hearts.... we wanted to see the ocean and record music at the same time.....so we drove down past stonehenge on our regular south bound route to the ocean and settled in by the river foye...... we cooked, we drank tea...and we made music... we recorded 'the devil's tears', 'walk it off', 'black crow', 'yellow brick road', 'for you' and 'on the road'- plus other tracks that didn't make the record like 'the wedding song' and 'take you away'-we had with us clay and mitch- laying down the drums and bass for these tracks...a great engineer who lived onsite, tom...so our gang was a joyous one... when we ran out of food we jumped in the green canoe and paddled twenty minutes into the beautiful town of foye at the river mouth..... it is just too much to put into words the feeling of looking out across the cornish countryside and over the sparkling ocean, whilst castles lingered on the edge of it all, tempted to swim with the seals....
we then went on tour with martha wainwright in europe... it was a great tour for many reasons... she is something extraordinary'-a strong woman, a beautiful woman... - she also toured with a great band- which was where we met matt johnson and brad albetta who we ended up recording with us down the track in new york...eeek... how can i squeeze this all into a regular sized e-mail... now that i've started i want to tell you about it all.... the garden with the ducks... the roof tops of barcelona.......
after the europe tour we went on tour in the states and canada-...at the end of a couple of months in a bus with 12 boys... we ended up at brad's studio in brooklyn, where we recorded 'hush,' 'i'm not yours', 'draw your swords' and 'and the boys'-with matt on drums and kimon on bass (a great bass player, who we had a random jam with at a friend's house when we were visiting los angeles)... then to queens with another rowdy gang at the buddy project where we recorded 'hold on', then to battery park at rob and janie's home where we played 'santa monica dream' and 'old friend' in the home studio in angus' room late at night when the city was kind of quiet......-and then back in the water tank with finny up in coolangatta for 'big jet plane' .....
i am going to stop now... not because i don't want to tell you everything-- more perhaps because i am starting to feel the strange sensation of trying to squeeze elephants into size six ballet slippers and teach them to tango.....all these places and people need books written about them... they have all taken such good care of us... we both hope you enjoy this record---as much as we have enjoyed making it...
with love from,
julia (and angus)
The first single ‘And The Boys’ from the forthcoming album ’Down The Way’ is available now on Itunes with 2 exclusive tracks.
You can also view the video for ‘And The Boys’ at Youtube now. The video was shot around Angus and Julia’s hometown in Australia.
Tour dates are still being planned for this year – can’t wait to see you on the road.
‘Down The Way’ Out in March.. xx
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