Julie Kember's photostream

Julie Kember is a dreamer.

But she’s not one to mince her words. She uses her music to explain how she’s feeling. “I write with an honest, raw emotion,” she says. “Hopefully it captures a realness that everyone can relate to.”

Kember is no overnight success and she’s definitely done the hard yards.From outback Western Australia to busking in the streets of London, laying down tracks in a studio in Taiwan and now, finally, Sydney.

Kember is determined to get her music out there. It’s been a long time coming and she’s got plenty to say with her debut album – Sugar & Stone.

But Kember’s is no typical story.

She grew up in the small Western Australian mining town of Eneabba – population 1000. She was given her first guitar as a young kid, strumming her first chords to American folk classic The House of the Rising Sun; these chords would prove to be all she needed to start writing her own songs.

Kember was always the outgoing one at school, her friends describing her as “the Big voice”. But at home, in her more reflective moments, Kember developed a knack for writing poetry. Her poetry has formed the foundation for some of her best songs and even earned the talented singer/songwriter a Young Australian of the Year title for creative writing.

She is also a talented artist, with her original works showcased in the artwork for Sugar & Stone. “Art really makes me up as a person,” she explains. “I draw, paint and I sing. It is an outlet for emotion that I couldn’t live without, if I wasn’t a singer, I’d be an artist. I’ve always wanted to get myself out there artistically one way or another.”

Kember scored her first paid gig at the age of 19, fronting a WA band called Shut Up and Kiss Me. That was where she cut her teeth as a performer, learning about life on the road, about setting up gear and loading trucks. “Singing covers was a great experience; it allowed me to travel, penning my own songs along the way.”

After a string of stints in covers bands – all the while working on her own material – Kember auditioned for reality TV show Pop Stars. She made it to the final 15. “I was young and naïve back then, they said I could sing but I couldn’t dance,” she laughs.

It was after Pop Stars that Kember traveled to Taiwan for a six month working holiday and there that she recorded her demo CD.

After returning to Australia she moved to Sydney seeking management. Since achieving this she has been living her dream; playing gigs around Sydney, recording and working on her album Sugar & Stone.
Like most artists, Kember isn’t keen on being pigeon-holed in any particular genre. If forced to define her style, it would be classified as ‘acoustic rock’ with a bit of pop. “These songs are poetry, my feelings, written on paper.”

The first single Crazy lifted from her debut album Sugar & Stone “is a raw and powerful example of a tormented heart singing honestly to the world.”

“I am an emotional condenser. It all obviously comes from my experiences. Songwriting to me is the ability to tell a big story in three and a half minutes, to capture the important bits, just enough to convey the truth of what has happened.”

Sugar & Stone is an amazing body of work, a collaboration produced and recorded by D.N.A, Ian Pritchett (The Beautiful Girls & Angus and Julia Stone) and Lindsay Gravina (Magic Dirt, Living End). It is an album she is intensely proud of, full of raw emotion and stories of Kember’s life on the road, including the highs and lows that have brought her to this exciting point in her career.

“I feel really lucky. Things have always progressed … it doesn’t feel like I’ve ever gone backwards. And I’m still hopeful things will continue to move forward, that’s what life is about.”

“We are forever living on chance.”


Single release date: 2nd August 2008
Album release date: 4th October 2008

Touring July/August/September
Details coming soon

Publicity contact: Tatiana Marchant
Estellar Publicity + Promotions
M: 0410-655-020
E: tatiana(at)estellar.com.au