Juanita Stein, who is already known as the singer-songwriter with Howling Bells, has recorded her debut solo album America, and it is set for release on Nude Records on the 28th of July. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and was produced by Gus Seyffert who has previously worked with Beck and Ryan Adams.
Juanita Stein grew up in Sydney with her parents and twin brothers. Her first studio recording was aged five, singing on a song of her father’s, and Peter Stein in fact wrote one of the songs on the album, the country music-drenched Cold Comfort. Stein formed Howling Bells with her brother, Joel, and friends when they moved to London together in 2004. After four albums, headline tours and festival shows around the world, Juanita Stein took a break from Howling Bells around the arrival of her first child. This break also saw the first shoots of her solo work start to emerge.
Says Stein of the album: “This record is an ode to the dark heart of America. Of times gone and times to come. Dusty trails, a whimsical 50s suburbia and the haze of the 1960s. I’ve forever idealised American life – growing up in Australia we were fed the American dream through film and television. The dichotomy between what was real and a dream is forever intriguing to me. The music of Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Lee and Nancy and Patsy Cline all informed my musical sensibilities. They opened up this wide screen universe for me.”
Following recent tours with Michael Kiwanuka and Richard Hawley, Stein will follow a North American tour in May with a series of UK festival dates including opening a little way down the bill for Tom Petty in Hyde Park and culminating with an appearance at the Jon Boden curated Cambridge Folk Festival.
The first single from the album is Dark Horse, and it’s out now.
https://soundcloud.com/nuderecordlabel/dark-horse
UK Tour Dates – July 2017
Fri 7th July – Bluedot Festival, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire
Sun 9th July – British Summer Time with Tom Petty, and the Heartbreakers – Hyde Park
, London
Sun 23rd July – Deer Shed Festival, Yorkshire
Sat 29th July – Cambridge Folk Festival – Cheery Hinton Hall, Cambridge
