Julie & The Wrong Guys – fronted by Julie Doiron of Eric’s Trip & featuring the rhythm section of Cancer Bats – recently released their self-titled on September 8 through Dine Alone Records.
Following the disbanding of Eric’s Trip in 1996, the career of Juno-winner & Polaris Prize-nominee Julie Doiron has taken in over 10 albums (issued variously by the likes of Jagjaguwar and Sub Pop), alongside collaborative projects with Mount Eerie and Okkervill River. Whilst Doiron has cemented her ‘Godmother of Canadian indie rock’ creds down the years with nuanced, restrained songwriting, ‘Julie & The Wrong‘ guys is actually a belting return to her garage rock roots. This new project finds Julie partnering up with Mike Peters & Jay Schwarzer of Cancer Bats’ rhythm section – the titular ‘Wrong Guys’ – alongside the fuzzed-out guitar sounds of fellow Canadian Eamon McGrath. Check out the album below!
We managed to catch up with the band as they talked about their latest release and more!
So how has your debut release gone so far?
It’s been really great, Very excited to finally get this album out, and playing shows again. I think people are really liking it too.
So you will be releasing it in full next week, how pumped are you for this?
Very pumped! It’s been almost a year since we recorded the album so it’s really exciting to get this out!
Tell us something about the release no one knows? We had written a lot of songs going into making this album, but until we all got together in Manitoba to actually spend 2 weeks together making the album Julie hadn’t listened to any of them. The 3 of us were a little worried about it, but we were so determined to make this album that we put all our faith in Julie pulling it off. In the right situation where Julie could truly let her creative spirit soar she rose up and totally killed it. She had so many amazing guitar riffs and vocal melodies to go with what we had written. We’d jam for a bit and she would do yoga and then come in pick up her guitar and blow our minds.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why
The Constantines, because they are the best, and great people. The combo would be deadly!
So you have a fair few shows coming up, which one are you most looking forward to?
beaus oktoberfest will be really fun. They make great beer, and it will be flowing freely so I’m sure the crowd with be wild drunken maniacs
How does the likes of Eric’s Trip and Cancer Bats differ from the band?
This band is a little more hifi that erics trip ever was and its not as heavy as cancer bats
What was your first gigs you ever attended?
We all grew up in small towns in Canada very isolated from big cities. Jaye was the closest to Toronto and he was still 3 hours away. So we all grew up going to local punk shows. In small cities its all about the local scene. Supporting friends and supporting the scene was very important. If we didn’t do it shows wouldn’t happen. Its very different than living near a big city where big touring bands would come through.
How have the guys at Dine Alone helped you with the latest release?
They’ve been a huge help to get this album out. We are all very busy people, with other projects and families so to have a label that is excited and ready to work on a release is amazing!
What inspired you to create this band?
This band was created out of Julie needing a band for a few shows. We started the band, played her songs very different than she normally did, but there was something special. It was so fun, we didn’t want to lose it. It took us 5 years but we wrote an album and its finally out!