Juanita Stein has shared the video for ‘The Mavericks’, the latest single taken from her upcoming third album, ‘Snapshot‘, which is set for release via Nude Records on 2nd October in all formats.
Talking about the video, Juanita recalls: ‘We trekked up Castle Hill in the South Downs, to capture the setting sun for this homemade video. Majestic and serene. It was the perfect day for capturing ‘The Mavericks’”.
WATCH VIDEO FOR ‘THE MAVERICKS’ HERE
The song carries on the theme that runs throughout the Brighton-based, Australian songwriter’s new album, which was recorded following the sudden loss of Stein’s father in 2019. As Juanita explains: ’’The Mavericks’ is a song that came together over a few years. The first half I’d already had written, the lyrics came in one blessed burst of lyrical expression, then I stashed it away, not knowing quite what to do with it. I was later able to complete it, whilst writing the songs for ‘Snapshot’. With the razor-edged perspective loss can bring, finding the right words became a lot easier for me. Sonically and lyrically, I wanted the song to rise and fall, swell and intensify, mirroring the cyclical nature of life.”
LISTEN TO ‘THE MAVERICKS’ HERE AND ON SOUNDCLOUD
About the album:
It feels fundamental to understanding the devastation and eerie silence thrust upon us after his sudden death,” begins the Brighton-based, Australian songwriter Juanita Stein, discussing the moment of great sadness that inspired her new record. “It was a daunting task to sum up the life of one man such as my father. He was endlessly inspiring, charming, deeply talented and passionately spiritual. He admirably, and at times frustratingly, carried the torch for his own musical career until the very end.”
It’s within this processing of a life well-lived and attempting to wrestle with the tides of her own grief, that what would become the album began to ebb and flow out of Stein, who first became known for her work as singer and guitarist in Howling Bells.
“After I felt I had enough songs,” Juanita explains, “I was moved to reach out to producer Ben Hillier, who I’d been a fan of since hearing records he made with Clinic, Elbow ad Doves to see if he might be interested in making this album with me.”
Unlike her first two solo albums, “America” (2017) and “Until The Lights Fade” (2018), which were made in just a few weeks and both at studios in the US, ‘Snapshot’ was recorded over the course of eight months at Agricultural Audio, not far from Juanita’s home.
As she says, “This allowed me the time and distance I so craved. Ben was deeply concerned with allowing the songs to breathe and to take the right shape. We laid down all the defining guitar parts and vocals which were then beds for the band to come in and lay their parts on.”
As the record began to take shape, Juanita “called on my brother, Joel Stein, (guitarist in Howling Bells) to play lead guitar, I knew only he could harness the exact frenzied energy needed for the songs. Both he and I were both going through something pretty momentous and I wanted to shift that energy into the music. Evan Jenkins on drums alternated between freeform and thunderous on some tracks, light and barely-there on others. Jimi Wheelwright on bass held it all together beautifully.”
The result is a record that feels crafted from a life lived as much as it was clearly excavated from loss. It’s a record that strives to capture more than a passing moment and succeeds in laying its hands on something bigger than most of us will ever fully understand.
WATCH ‘SNAPSHOT’ VIDEO HERE
PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE ALBUM HERE
