Juanita Stein is lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist in Australian indie rock band Howling Bells.

Stein attended school in Sydney before obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in literature at university in the city, where she also studied Theatre Performance and an electronic music course.

"[2] Juanita Stein was brought up listening to all kinds of music but the first song she remembers hearing was Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier".

Then "at one point I really wanted to stop playing other people's music" so, after a brief stint in a group called Dirty Boots, in 1999 she and Joel Stein formed Waikiki, the name chosen by picking a random word out of an encyclopedia.

Juanita Stein used the pseudonym Kikisun on the EP, on which she sang lead vocals and played bass.

Brandon left the band in 2003 and was replaced by bass player Brendan Picchio, at which time Juanita Stein moved to playing rhythm guitar.

She sang on two songs for Australian group The Givegoods' album, I Want To Kill A Rich Man: the title track and "Black and Blue".

[15] In September 2010, she performed a duet with Australian singer and songwriter Steve Smyth live on stage at The Days of Decadence in Shoreditch, London[16] and also contributed backing vocals on the track "Stay Young" on his 2011 debut album entitled Release.

Juanita performed backing vocals on "Up With the Birds", which features on Coldplay's fifth studio album Mylo Xyloto.

She also sang backing vocals on the track "Angel Tears" on Barrie-James O'Neill's 2016 album Cold Coffee.

[17] In January 2015 Stein played with Brandon Flowers of The Killers at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"[19] Stein has named Nirvana as "my all-time favourite band"[20] and her musical influences have included Françoise Hardy, Björk, Kate Bush, Air, Siouxsie Sioux, The Slits and Magazine.

She cites the films Leon, Frankie and Johnny, Jaws, Edward Scissorhands, Chinatown and Vivre Sa Vie as amongst her inspirations.