Julia Stone

Julia Stone
Julia Stone performing at the 2011 Southbound Festival in Busselton
Background information
Birth name	Julia Natasha Stone
Born	(1984-04-13) 13 April 1984 (age 33)
Origin	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Genres	Folk, blues, acoustic
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, trumpet, mandolin, piano, harmonica
Years active	2005–present
Labels	EMI, Flock/PIAS, Nettwerk, Discograph
Associated acts	Angus & Julia Stone Angus Stone
Website	juliastonemusic.com

Julia Natasha Stone (born 13 April 1984) is an Australian folk-blues singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She is the sister half of Angus & Julia Stone and is also a solo musician. Her debut solo album, The Memory Machine, was issued in 2010. Her second solo album, By the Horns, appeared in May 2012, which peaked at No. 11 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

Julia Natasha Stone was born on 13 April 1984 and grew up in Sydney. Her parents, Kim and John Stone, were both folk musicians. John was a builder and later became a music teacher, who also performs in a covers band, Backbeat. Kim has an Honours degree in Science, worked as a marine biologist, high school teacher and singer, spent 20 years as Head of E-marketing, Marketing and Investor Communications in institutional funds management until commencing a career as a Non-Executive Director. Stone's older sister is Catherine (born ca. 1982) and her younger brother is Angus Stone (born 27 April 1986). Stone attended Newport Primary School and Barrenjoey High School. At primary school she joined the school band with her father teaching and her siblings accompanying. At family gatherings when the children performed, Stone played trumpet, Catherine on saxophone and Angus on trombone with Kim singing and John on keyboard or guitar. At about the age of 16 years her parents separated and she had a turbulent personal relationship with her boyfriend which broke up after a year.

After finishing secondary school and while on a holiday with her brother in South America, Stone was impressed by his musical talent, "[Angus] was writing amazing songs ... [he] had shown me how to play guitar in Bolivia, and those songs had gotten me through that year". Subsequently Stone started writing her own songs. By 2005 Stone was playing at open mic nights, sometimes Angus performed backing vocals – their first such gig, at the Coogee Bay Hotel, they performed "Tears". After playing split sets with each singing backing vocals to the other's material, in 2006, they formed a duo, Angus & Julia Stone. In March that year the pair recorded their debut extended play, Chocolates and Cigarettes, which was released in August. Since then the group has released five EPs, a compilation album and three studio albums.