Here is the Orlando-Cubitt-directed video for Juanita Stein’s latest single “The Old World”. The moody visual captures the sombre, reflective atmosphere of the song. There’s a compelling, haunting feel to the instrumental layers and Stein’s melodic voice, supported by ethereal backing vocals that rise up towards the end.
Stein says of the song: “This was a song that was written in one long breath, in a room, in a house, in a village in the South of France. After having taken a long walk through the woods, the light streaming through the pine trees, I found myself reflecting on what it means for me, to have ended up living and travelling in Europe, like so many of my family before me. This song recalls the first time I travelled to Europe, which was with my family when I was 16. Having lived a life in Australia, a country in its infancy by comparison, I was confronted with a rich and bloodied history whose roots ran centuries underground. The generational trauma that came with learning about my own family history there, was a reckoning. We brought along my grandmother, who hadn’t returned to Czechoslovakia since she was 14, when she was forced to flee the Nazis. We visited the crumbling house she grew up in. I stood in the streets of many Jewish ghettos and burnt out synagogues that were forced to become churches. I visited Holocaust Memorial museums, I learned of the slow rise of right-wing fascism reawakening in a new Europe, all of this coupled with the acknowledgement that I had relocated to Europe myself to start a family and the conflict that causes within the body. I learned what it felt like to be the “other”, to be hated for the religion you were born into, and simultaneously, to also be hated for being perceived as a Westerner, as when someone yelled at me, “bloody American” when they looked down at my ripped jeans, or when me and my brothers were hauled into a police station in Prague for potentially spying when using our disposable cameras outside a cemetery. This was not Australia. This was The Old World.” Stein’s thoughtful reflections on her experiences are threaded through the lyrical depth of “The Old World”, a beautifully-composed response.
The single is taken from Stein’s recent album “The Weightless Hour”, her excellent fourth solo release, which is out now. It’s a more restrained, stripped-back collection with the focus on her words, stories and beautiful voice. She says: “I think making records is a really powerful way of letting go of experiences. I’m allowing myself to kiss things goodbye. I’ve finally learned to be okay in space and be loud in my experiences.” The Howling Bells front-woman is in the middle of a UK tour, sharing these absorbing new songs. Check this out.
