The first song I remember hearing
Midnight Oil – ‘Beds Are Burning’
“My dad and mum are both big Midnight Oil fans and that record came out when I was three or four. They played it a lot in the house and when I was a bit older, it was the one that got everybody dancing. It’s obviously an extremely political song but it’s also got such an amazing energy. The whole ‘Diesel And Dust’ record is pretty punchy and drivey but ‘Beds Are Burning’ still gets to me.”
The first album I ever owned
‘William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet – Music From The Motion Picture’
“I remember the movie coming out and everyone was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. We all had posters up and went to the mall to buy the soundtrack because it was such an amazing film, but it [also] had such an incredible soundtrack. When I hear songs from that now, it still takes me right back. I would have been 12 or 13 and I probably [used] my own money [to buy it] because I had started teaching trumpet to little kids in the school band.”
The first gig I went to
Jebediah, community centre in Western Sydney, Australia, in 1999 or 2000
“I went to my dad’s gigs as a kid but that probably doesn’t count! The first gig that I bought a ticket to go to was the Australian band Jebediah. They were kind of a big deal when I got to high school and I remember getting on a bus with friends, dressing all in black. It was an under-18 [event], probably in a school hall or community centre. The lights were on, it was daytime and we were all moshing to Jebediah.”
The song that reminds me of home
Post Malone – ‘I Had Some Help’ (feat. Morgan Wallen)
“When our daughter was born – she’s a year old now – we brought her home from the hospital and randomly started listening to Morgan Wallen. It must have been suggested on Spotify and we listened to him so much. It was the music we would put on to put her to bed and it seemed to work. We’d be bouncing around to his newest release, which is called ‘I’m The Problem’. But the song that most reminds me of home now is the collaboration he did with Post Malone, ‘I Had Some Help’. Whenever I hear that, I just think of [my family] back at home.”
The song I wish I’d written
John Prine – ‘In Spite Of Ourselves’
“Probably any of his songs but I would say ‘In Spite Of Ourselves’ is the perfect love song. He’s such an extraordinary songwriter. I love songs about love, and it feels like such a detailed, funny song that really captures the beauty of a long-term relationship with somebody that you’re still deeply in love with. It’s just magic.”
The song I can’t get out of my head
Johnny Cash – ‘Folsom Prison Blues’
“Straightaway my head went to ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ by Kylie Minogue! But I’ve done a bunch of silent meditation retreats and with a Vipassana, you’re in silence for 10 days. You don’t have a phone, you can’t write anything and you can’t look at anybody. It’s quite intense. During the retreat, I [sometimes] get a song stuck in my head and it is torture. I just had part of that Johnny Cash song (‘I hear the train a-comin’, it’s rolling ’round the bend’) going round and around in my head and I wanted to die.”
The song I can no longer listen to
Elliott Smith – ‘Between The Bars’
“Recently I put on the album ‘Either/Or’ and I just couldn’t listen to it. It took me back to a place in my life where I just felt extremely anxious and maybe a little bit depressed. I would have been around 16 [when I heard it] and there was parents getting divorced, first heartbreak, trouble at school and just everything compounding into this storm of deep loneliness and sadness. Elliott Smith felt like being seen in that space and it was really helpful. But now I don’t want to feel that.”
The song that makes me want to dance
Dua Lipa – ‘Don’t Start Now’
“Whenever I hear it, I get very dancey energy. It’s such a great pop song, and it really makes me want to move, for sure!”
The song that makes me cry
Bon Iver – ‘Re: Stacks’
“The thing I find incredible about Bon Iver is that I often don’t know what the lyrics are, and I feel like I’ve been a really lyric-interested listener all my life. When I heard him perform and when I listened to the record, I often didn’t understand what he was saying. But it didn’t matter. It was the feeling of the music, the way that he was expressing himself, it got under my skin and brought me to a place of extreme catharsis. It’s not easy for me to really cry. If I need to cry, I’ll go for a drive and I put on ‘Re: Stacks’. I also chose for my daughter to be born to that song, so it’s now got this added weight of the beauty and intensity of life.
The song I do at karaoke
Alanis Morissette – ‘You Oughta Know’
‘Jagged Little Pill’ was a big record for most people of my generation. The funnest one is ‘You Oughta Know’. I like that the way she sings is different to my voice, so I get to be somebody else. I still feel a little bit like I don’t really want to get up and sing [at karaoke]. So it takes quite a few drinks and suggestions from friends to do it. And then I still think, ‘My friends are going to be judging me!’ ‘You Oughta Know’ is so angry, and I can really make my voice sound different to how my singing voice normally sounds.”
The song I want played at my funeral
Bill Frisell, Grégoire Maret and Romain Collin – ‘Re: Stacks’
“They released a record in 2020 called ‘Americana’ and they cover all these different songs. It’s a great record, but the cover they do of [Bon Iver’s] ‘Re: Stacks’ is so moving. It’s got no vocals in it; it’s just instruments and it also makes me cry.”
Angus & Julia Stone’s new album ‘Karaoke Bar’ is out September 4 via Virgin Music.
