The music of Angus and Julia Stone has a strange effect on some people. After listening to them, many begin to think of the Sydney-based brother-sister duo as “their” band.

When their music was playing at a recent party, I mentioned to the guy manning the iPod how much I liked them. The stranger’s unsmiling response? “Well, I’m sure I like them more than you do.”

Admittedly, I am not immune to the possessive instincts their music can sometimes instill and selfishly tried to keep this band to myself after hearing them on a trip to Australia in 2007. But, two albums later and with an appearance on the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack, the secret is officially out.

Their new album, Down the Way, has given fans much to be possessive about. In “And the Boys,” Julia’s warbling voice croons about “the gold falling from the ceiling of this world/ falling from the heartbeat of this girl/ falling from the things we should have learned.” Listeners everywhere fall in love with Angus on the album’s single “Big Jet Plane,” as he implores you, in a smoky voice, to, “Be my lover, my lady river/ but can I take ya, take ya higher”.

Their simple acoustic ballads about love, lust, and loss seem to typify the twentysomething romantic experience to the point that it often feels the songs were personally written to accompany the feelings of infatuation, relationships, and heartbreak.

Speaking from New York, the current stop on their North American tour, the charming Julia Stone described her difficult relationship with the English language. Though their poetic lyrics may hold a lot of resonance for their fans, Julia does not find satisfaction in the spoken word.

“I’ve always felt a little bit unfulfilled expressing things through words,” says Stone. “I never feel like I can fully connect the intention between what I want to say and the actual sound of it.”

Fans seem to think otherwise, and the band’s ability to connect to their listeners has won them legions of loyal followers on the festival circuit from Australia to Canada to Britain, where they currently live.

The siblings, who have been collaborating since 2006, have a fairly unconventional working relationship. The two write their songs separately, split the album between their different songs and work together in the studio on the musical arrangements and harmonies.

Though their lives are now very much intertwined, Julia said it wasn’t always that way, and growing up, the two didn’t exactly get along—something Stone attributes to their troubled childhood.

“Family relationships are so extreme because usually your parents’ dynamic comes into your sibling relationship,” she says. “You grow up watching dysfunctional behaviour between two adults and then you become adults and you’re playing the same roles.”

A love of music eventually brought the siblings together and allowed them to “use this very strange set of circumstances where we’re living together and working together to try and let this stuff go.”

Angus and Julia Stone play Le National on Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18-20.