It was time ! After nine years of waiting, Canadian indie rock icon Julie Doiron is finally offering a new solo album, the luminous I Thought of You. The musician’s grunge fiber is momentarily erased in favor of folk and country-rock tones introduced by the musical personality of her collaborators, the Ontario rock singer-songwriter Daniel Romano, her brother Ian, and Dany Placard on bass. . The gesture rekindled her inspiration, confides the musician who sees the year 2022 with several other musical projects.
This solo return to recording took shape in September 2019, in Rouyn-Noranda. Julie and her lover, Dany Placard, then gave a duo concert at the Agora des arts, at the end of the festival, a singing tour followed by performances by singer-songwriter Daniel Romano and rock group The Sadies.
“We all hung out behind the room before the show, says Julie. For some time now, Dany had started… well, not to put pressure on me, but in any case to encourage me to start thinking about making an album because he knew that I already had a lot of songs. Me, I was not in a hurry or even motivated to go back to the studio. So imagining that we could find a studio for the winter, Ian said he would like to play drums on the album. Daniel walked in front of us to get to the boxes; he turned around to shout: “Worse me, I’m going to play the guitars!” So I was like, “OK, I guessthat I have a band now !” “
The first song they recorded in February 2020 is the one that opens the album, You Gave Me the Key. A strummed electric guitar, the vibrating timbre of Julie’s voice unfurling: ” There was never a plan / No need to explain / And here I am, starting over again She sings before the rest of the orchestra blows over the rock song like a hot flash.
You Gave Me the Key set the tone for the recording of what would become the ninth solo album in career by the Acadian, co-founder of the legendary and influential Halifax band Eric’s Trip, the first Canadian band to be signed by the label Sub Pop in 1993, for the release of the album Love tara. She had previously recorded some guitar-voice demos in the shed in Placard, but the color of the disc was revealed during recording.
“I had sent the demos to Daniel and Ian, but they didn’t want to listen to them before the session, to keep something spontaneous, fresh,” said the musician, who had total confidence in her collaborators. “They are the ones who arrived with their scores, it was very improvised. They created the sound, the color of the album, but I had a little idea, when I entered the studio with these three musicians, how it was going to ring. It’s important when you record to surround yourself with musicians with whom you feel comfortable, because you want to be supported, in the studio. It’s a place where we sometimes feel vulnerable, because these are our songs and we love them. “
I Thought of You sounds like a new start for the musician who took nine years before offering this new album made up of old songs, some of which have already been released on singles and EPs (like Ran, Good reason and Cancel the Party), and very fresh, among which the tender And my love, a folk-rock on drums that purrs. The electric and acoustic guitars, the country-rock cadence of the rhythm section, Doiron who walks between these intimate songs that she knows so well how to render and the more electric passages that bridge the gap with the rest of her solo work.
“When I started composing again, around 2017, I had hardly written any songs for four years,” she admits. The rest between projects has done me good, creatively, and I think maybe that’s why my new songs seem mature to me. Besides, I really wanted to start writing again – everything came out naturally, without straining. “
The pandemic has also rekindled his need to write. After the recording of the album, the first confinement returned the musician to her land, in Memramcook, a suburb of Moncton. Dany Placard had found it there, taking with him enough material to record a complete duet album which will be released next April. “A nice mix of grunge and softness, in French and in English. It really is cool », Tells us the musician, who is also working on an all-French album, in addition to planning a new studio session with her friend and collaborator Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie), the pair having offered us the exquisite Lost Wisdom pt. 2 in the fall of 2019.
“I have lots of projects in the future – I will not take so long before launching a next album”, promises Julie Doiron.