Juanita Stein will release her fourth solo album ‘The Weightless Hour’ on 29th November via Agricultural Audio. The Howling Bells front-woman has just finished a UK tour supporting Evan Dando and has confirmed a series of in-store shows in November, before joining Travis on their UK dates in December (full dates below).
Having recently released first single ‘Mother Natures Scorn’, today she shares new album track ‘Carry Me‘. Juanita recalls: “One of the most fluid and magical songwriting experiences I’ve ever had. Whilst escaping the hard lockdown in England, August 2020, myself and family, who were in France at the time, decided that instead of returning home, we would keep driving in the direction of Italy and take our chances. 14 hours later, we ended up at an isolated house in the middle of Tuscany. It was one of the only houses left to rent on Airbnb that day. It was situated at the top of a huge vineyard, it was the kind of dry, scorching heat that is described so beautifully in escapist novels. There was a constant soundtrack of cicadas, birds, and distant boars burrowing their way through the twisted vines below. After a couple of days exploring, I grabbed my guitar one afternoon and went to sit on a lone bench away from the house, overlooking the vineyard. It was about 35 degrees I recall, but there was still a slight rustling of the trees around me, of which the scent of figs and pines emanated. With the surrealism of the pandemic and the recent sudden death of my father lingering in the background, I was strangely at peace with my surroundings and myself in that moment. It was one of the few times in my life when I picked up a guitar and played a song without thinking about intent or process. It babbled out of me like I were rehearsing something I’d played a hundred times before. When I play it live I’m able to evoke the spirit of that moment in time. It’s about deep reflection and stillness. When recording it in the studio, the chorus of birds that just happened to be chirping in the background made it onto the track. The words, “carry me” are not so much a call to be carried by anyone in particular, but rather a call to carry oneself in the present moment”.
The single is accompanied by a video Juanita put together “using all the holiday footage during that period, including the moment my daughter led us on a trail to the vineyard”.
’The Weightless Hour’ sees Stein join forces once more with long-time collaborator, the producer Ben Hillier (see also: Depeche Mode, Doves, Blur, Elbow). After originally teaming up for 2020’s Snapshot, Stein’s third record, which was built from collected fragments of grief following the loss of her father, it was Hillier’s penchant for minimalism – his instinct for risk-taking while stripping sounds back to their gleaming bones – that aligned with her vision for her fourth project.
In removing most instrumental additions beyond the guitar (and you will notice there are no drums on the LP), with ‘The Weightless Hour’, Stein made a subconscious choice to make the project entirely her own. In the space freed by the stripped-back instrumentation, her storytelling bleeds freely like watercolours across a blank page. The album is an intensely human document with a profound sense of dignity. A record on which Stein has found that exploring a more restrained side can yield work that is armed with experience and yet is all the lighter for it, where your attention isn’t demanded and yet is effortlessly claimed. Every sound, every choice, has earned its place.
“I think making records is a really powerful way of letting go of experiences,” Stein notes. “I’m allowing myself to kiss things goodbye.” Through these converging chapters of her life, ‘The Weightless Hour’ feels like an arrival for Juanita Stein: “I’ve finally learned to be okay in space and be loud in my experiences.”
THE WEIGHTLESS HOUR – TRACKLISTING
1. The Weightless Hour
2. Mother Natures Scorn
3. The Game
4. Old World
5. Carry Me
6. Motionless
7. Daily Rituals
8. Ceremony
9. Driving Nowhere
10. Delilah
Juanita Stein Live Dates 2024:
NOVEMBER
Weds 27th – LIVERPOOL, Jacaranda (Instore – Unplugged Session)
Fri 29th – LONDON, ROUGH TRADE WEST (Instore – Unplugged Session)
Sat 30th – BRIGHTON, Resident Records (Appearance, signing)
Sat 30th – LEWES, Union Music Store @1pm (Instore – Unplugged Session)
Sun 1st DEC – BRISTOL, Rough Trade @5pm (Instore – Unplugged Session)
DECEMBER
Thu 5th – LEEDS, o2 Academy (with Travis)
Fri 6th – MANCHESTER, Albert Hall (with Travis)
Sun 8th – LIVERPOOL, Olympia (with Travis)
Mon 9th – WOLVERHAMPTON, The Halls (with Travis)
Tue 10th – NOTTINGHAM, Rock City (with Travis)
Wed 11th – MARGATE, Dreamland (with Travis)
Fri 13th – LONDON, o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (with Travis)
Sat 14th – LONDON, o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (with Travis)
Sun 15th – BRISTOL, Beacon (with Travis)
Tue 17th – EASTBOURNE, Winter Gardens (with Travis)
Wed 18th – SHEFFIELD, Octagon (with Travis)
Thu 19th – NEWCASTLE, City Hall (with Travis)
Sat 21st – GLASGOW, OVO Hydro (with Travis)
Album cover – Photo Giovanna Ferin