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Juanita Stein has already released Dark Horse, the first single to be taken from her debut solo album, America. Stein, who is known as the singer / songwriter with Howling Bells, recorded the album with Gus Seyffert (Beck, Ryan Adams) in Los Angeles, and Dark Horse gives an exquisite first glimpse of what fans can expect from the album when it is released on 28th July (Nude Records).

Following recent tours with Michael Kiwanuka and Richard Hawley, Juanita Stein will follow a North American tour in May with UK dates over the summer including a show with Tom Petty in Hyde Park and a set at Cambridge Folk Festival.

Of America Stein says, “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.”

An evocative and beautiful record, Stein’s honeyed voice weaves stories of heartbreak and optimism, from the unmistakably Western-influenced Dark Horse, to the moody love song, Cry. Florence is inspired by a real-life photograph by Dorothea Langue, taken during the Great Depression, of the eponymous Florence Owens Thompson, a tale of a struggle for themselves and their children that’s as relevant to women of the world today as it ever was. The songs on the LP tell tales of characters real and imagined, Stein’s own experiences woven amongst them.

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 (read Juanita talking about Peter on the brilliant My Old Man blog here).

Stein formed Howling Bells with her brother, Joel, and friends when they moved to London together in 2004. Four acclaimed albums followed, along with headline tours and festival shows around the world, and huge support dates including several US tours with Coldplay and The Killers. A break from Howling Bells around the arrival of her first child saw the first shoots of her solo work start to emerge, and now we find ourselves here. America, an unpredictable place, forever bound up in a uniquely widescreen hope and romance.