Here's a bunch of words to describe Julie Doiron: happy, positive, hopeful, excited, and especially, rocking. Yes, you're reading that right. In the past, people were used to reading things like sad, quiet, acoustic, thoughtful, and reflective. That all changes with her new disc, "I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day". Meet the new Julie Doiron.
"I'm more positive, for sure," she laughs, from her home in Montreal. "I guess it's because I'm happy, pretty much...maybe...finally. I think that I finally figured out how to move around a little easier in the world. I feel a lot happier, and if things aren't going as well, I try to change it. Maybe that's why. I just was starting to write happier songs, 'cause it feels like a new chapter in my life."
Julie Doiron's always been pretty easy to figure out. More than any other songwriter, you can tell exactly what's going on in her life, as she lays it all out in her lyrics. She's direct, and painfully honest, but she can't help it. "I just sing about what's happening," she admits, resigned to her style. "I don't know how to do anything else. I don't know how to write any other way. I've wanted to...I've tried! Because sometimes I feel like maybe I shouldn't be so direct, but I don't know how." In the past, listeners have shared in the heartbreak of loneliness, the break-up of a band, the grind of raising young kids, and the dark fears anyone can slip into during a relationship. While the direct approach is still all over this new album, this time she's almost the happiest woman in town. "I keep saying that it's a change in a positive direction. I've started to love life most of the time, and I'm happy, and I'm having a great time raising my kids. Although I'm in the middle of divorcing my husband, we get along really well, and we have these beautiful children and everyone's civilized and we're all getting along very well. And I think that I feel really positive and really good."
Just check out the titles to get the feeling. The songs include "The Life Of Dreams," "Lovers Of The World," "Nice to Come Home," and, tellingly, "Glad To Be Alive." Doiron, always the most humble, down-to-earth, self-critical performer, is actually pumped about getting this one out, and hitting the road with a band. That's a big, dramatic turn for her. "Either I was afraid of success, or I just didn't want to play the game that you have to play to achieve more notoriety, a more commercial level. I guess I just didn't want that in the past. Now, it's not that I want it now, it's just that it's a good record, and I feel way more confident. I guess that I've matured, and when I give a show, I want to give a really good show, and I want people to really enjoy it as much as I enjoy playing. So, I think I have matured, and I've learned how to do it properly. I've been a bit of a slacker," she laughs. But, it was sort of in spite of myself, because I was always conflicted. Did I want to be a stay-at-home mom? I was always trying to decide what I actually wanted in life. In the last three years, my life has changed, out of my hands, and so I've decided to embrace this whole music thing in a bigger way. And I know I can do it, and I know I can be good at it. So I guess if I've made a record I think is worthy, I should give it my all."
To go along with her great mood, Doiron's made the most rocking disc of her solo career, and certainly since her days with indie heroes Eric's Trip in the '90's. It's part of a desire to get back to her electric days with that band. The past couple of years have seen Eric's Trip regroup for triumphant reunion tours, and a rekindling of her work with Trip mainstay Rick White, who produced her 2007 disc Woke Myself Up, and returned for this album. Eric's Trip, of course, is the little band that could from Moncton, New Brunswick. The first Canadians signed to Sub Pop Records, way back in 1993, Eric's Trip were the ultimate low-fi, DIY quartet, refusing to move out of White's parents' basement, recording everything there, even doing the hand-made cover art. Equal parts volume and emotion, the band's 1993 disc Love Tara is now regarded as an influential classic in Canada and especially Europe, name-checked along with Lou Barlow's work as a low-fi masterpiece. The band broke up shortly after Rick and Julie did, but they remained closer than people knew. "Working with Rick is great, fantastic. Rick and I obviously go way back, we've known each we like, 16, so that's been 18 years. We did kind of work together in more relaxed ways, like when I'd have to do demos, I'd phone him up and say, can I come and record a demo at your house? And he'd say sure, come on over. We were still always really good friends, but I always felt that I needed to distance myself from that other part of my life for a while, in terms of making the albums. And then I think I just decided to embrace what Eric's Trip was, and I still love Rick, he's still a great friend. And I know that he has such a good ear, and he's so good at engineering and getting good sounds. And I can really trust him, and I have full faith."
I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day was recording at White's home studio, in an isolated and beautiful spot northwest of Toronto. Doiron handled the electric and acoustic guitar parts, Rick did all the bass and keyboards, and the only other musician was Fred Squire, for all the drums, and some lead guitar. Squire, from Sackville, New Brunswick, is Julie's bandmate in another of her projects, Calm Down It's Monday. He's the subject of several of the songs on the disc, and one of the big reasons for her current happiness. "The whole thing is kinda funny, because Rick is my ex-boyfriend, and Fred is my current boyfriend, but it's great, because they get along really well. He's my loyal bandmate and special friend, that's safe to say." Typical for Julie Doiron, nothing's a secret.
She's also thrilled with the surprising success of Woke Myself Up. That album brought her to the attention of new fans in the U.S. and Europe, and even bigger crowds in Canada, where it was nominated for the 2007 Polaris Prize, the Canuck equivalent of the Mercury Prize. "There's this whole new group of people that I've never seen at shows before. There was a visible change when I was nominated for the Polaris Prize. It was people that had their ear to the ground. I think people were checking me out because of that. There's definitely some younger people coming out. It's not just people who have been with me all along, we're all getting older together, which is nice, but I think there is a new group of people who are discovering music for their first time, or they're growing into it as well.
"There's something about it that makes me feel really hopeful. Maybe that's partly because of the success of the Woke Myself Up. It got so much attention that I didn't expect. I felt, whoa, people are noticing, and they're buying it, and they're listening to it. I feel excited. Everyone that's heard it seems to love it. For once in my life, everything feels like it's working."
Happy, positive, excited, rocking. Everything is coming together in Julie Doiron's world, from embracing her electric past with Eric's Trip, to embarking on a new and energetic phase of her solo life with some of the most upbeat and inspiring songs of her recording career. More and more people are discovering this honest, direct songwriter, and now that journey is more fun than ever. Julie Doiron Biography The Eric's Trip Years...
Julie Doiron began her career in music in 1990 at the age of 18 in Moncton, New Brunswick Canada playing bass in Eric's Trip, (name from a Sonic Youth song title) a folky yet psychedelic band that was to become the undisputed underground darling of Canadian Music. Eric's trip were the first of many maritime Canadians signed to Sub Pop and found international recognition releasing several albums and touring widely. Following 1996's Purple Blue, Eric's Trip announced their break-up. The Broken Girl Years...
Julie Doiron began to write more of her own songs in 1993 which she released on 7" and performed solo while still in Eric's trip. In 1996 as Eric's trip found it's end she released her first solo album titled "Broken Girl" a temporary moniker Julie adopted to express her feelings at the time. The record was released on her own label Sappy Records. Broken Girl is an intimate record that gave the listener a fuller sense of Julie's personality and vocal style than Eric's Trip did. Following Broken Girl, Julie toured on and off throughout Canada for the remainder of the year.
Back at home, she released records by Moonsocket, Orange Glass, Snailhouse, and Elevator to Hell on Sappy. For her second album, "Loneliest in the morning" Julie decided to drop the moniker Broken Girl, as she began a stronger solo career. She recorded "loneliest" in Memphis with Dave Shouse (Grifters), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Doug Easley, and Davis McCain. Julie used a variety of new instruments on the record, but maintained her earlier sparse arrangements. The record was released in 1997 on Sub Pop. Now...
Julie Doiron and her husband, artist and painter Jon Claytor moved with their two children from New Brunswick to Montreal Quebec and Julie signed to Tree records in the US. Back in Canada, she maintained her label Sappy and in 1999 she released her EP "Will you Still Love Me?" which gained much praise for a new maturity. The album featured contributions from her friends from Ottawa's the Wooden Stars . In March and April of 1999 Julie recorded three Vocal Tracks for The Wooden Stars "The Moon" full-length on Matlock Records and photographed the cover artwork. Everything Julie Doiron has done in the past came together on her Fall of 1999 Sappy Records full-length "Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars". It is the first album she has recorded with a band since her days with Eric's Trip.The delicately powerful effect of the Wooden Stars has given Julie's songs an intensity and vibrancy that was previously only hinted at. On March 12 2000 Julie won a Juno (Coveted Canadian Entertainment Award, for which Eric's trip was nominated) for "Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars" and in January the album was released on Tree in the US and in Europe.
In late 1999 Julie published a book of her photographs with New Brunswick's Broken Jaw Press entitled "The Longest Winter" with words by Ottawa writer Ian Roy. Julie has long been an avid photographer studying photography at Mount Allison University in Sackville NB, Julie often does and has done her own promotional photos and cover artwork along with her husband, painter Jon Claytor. Jon also wrote and directed Julie's new video for "Dance Music". In 2000 Julie has toured Europe, the US and Canada, and recorded three tracks on the latest Tragically Hip record "Music@Work" as well as working with Hip front man Gord Downie on his latest solo record "Coke Machine Glow". Julie also has three songs on the Shanti projects collection 2 on Badman records. She has recorded a new French record "desormais" for release in october, and an English release for February 2002 on Endearing Records in Canada and JagJaguwar in the USA.
Updates to come...
Julie now lives in Sackville New Brunswick with her family.
