Eric's Trip Interview Archive Nov 17, 1995 - The Volcano, Kitchener, ON, Canada
Personnel
- Interviewer(s)
- Carol Nishitoba
- Interviewee(s)
- Julie Doiron
Sources
| Publisher | Title | Transcript |
|---|---|---|
| In The Meantime...#3 | ERIC'S TRIP | Yes |
Transcript
All right kids, here it is, theee interview with Eric's Trip! Hailing from Moncton, New Brunswick, this quartet proved to be very loud and powerful on stage. If you want to know what they sound like, pick up a copy of their latest release on Sub Pop, Purple Blue. While you're at it, you might as well pick up the rest of thier stuff. (I'm the bad interviewer who has only one release, Forever Again, which I bought the night of this interview...btw, it's a totally cool album). Mid-November, they came to the Volcano in Kitchener, and after their soundcheck, Julie (vocals, bass) talked to In The Meantime...
Carol: Okay, my first question is: What do yo think about your fans because um.. this is a quote that I read by Chris Murphy from the zine Joey Joey
Julie: Uh-huh... Oh no! [laughter]
Carol: And he was saying that you guys have such "freakout diehard fans. Like if anyone said Eric's Trip sucked they would go "I will kill you".
Julie: ...Chris Murphy said that?
Carol: Yeah, Chris Murphy said that about your fans!
Julie: Wow!
Carol: So, what do you think?
Julie: I don't know! I think we do have some fans who will buy everything we put out. Like, I think we have some people who really, really like us and other people who just think we're kinda cool. But yeah, I do think that there are some that like to follow everything we do. But I mean, I don't think that, I don't know how dramatic they are about it or how... I don't know if they're insane or something. I don't know if any of them would ever kill anyone. [laughs]
Carol: Let's hope not!
Julie: Hmm!
Carol: How has the touring been so far? Have you just started?
Julie: Our first show was on November 9 in Montreal so we've been out since like, we left home November 8, and then we'll be arriving back home on the 26th. So it's about 3 weeks of shows. It's been going well so far but we've had lots of bad luck, like my amphead broke and Rick's guitar broke and Chris' pedal broke and everything's been breaking so... But's going well. We've been playing well.
Carol: Do you want to play any place in particular? Maybe not this tour, but maybe on the next tour, or whatever?
Julie: No, just wherever. I'd kinda like to go into the States a little bit.
Caorl: Oh yeah?
Julie: 'Cause we don't go there very often. But there's no place I actually fantasize about playing at or anything [laughs]. No.
Carol: Ok. Do you like winter?
Julie: Personally, I do, yeah.
Carol: Yeah?
Julie: Well, I like every season but my favourite season is spring. But I like every one because by the time I get tired of it then the new one starts and then it gives you something to look forward to. If it was always exactly the same thing then it would get really boring.
Carol: Do you like any kind of winter sports? Skiing, sledding, snowball fights...
Julie: Sledding. I like sledding - crazy carpeting and tobaginning. Um... I've done cross-country skiing in gym glass. That was fun. And I went downhill skiing a couple times which was fun too, but it was only with my high school, like, I don't have any skis or anything. But yeah, I like playing in the snow. It'll be fun when Ben's a little older and he could play in the snow! [laughs]
Carol: What kind of contract do you guys have with Sub Pop because you're releasing various things on other labels, like that recent one being the single on Sonic Unyon.
Julie: Well, with Sub Pop we have a four album contract. But we're allowed to do 7-inches and samll releases like that with independent labels and stuff. As long as it's not like David Geffen or something.
Carol: Oh, ok.
Julie: Yeah. Anything that's not in competition with Sub Pop we're allowed to do, but we're not allowed to release a full-length album with another label. We do our full-length albums with Sub Pop and then we can release 7-inches with Sub Pop as well as independent labels. So it's pretty cool. They're really good to us in that way.
Carol: Ok, you new album is coming out in January. What is it like? Any sneak previews?
Julie: Well, the songs, they're not really like Forever Again. It's kinda different; It's a lot thicker, and there's some guitar solos in it and stuff. Um... I don't know, it's pretty neat. It's not at all like Forever Again. If anything... I don't know what it's like really, it's hard to explain... We each have a fair amount of our own songs on it and it's pretty neat. We recorded it in a studio but that was good 'cause we were all able to play live together at the same time, so that was fun. Well, we mixed it ourselves. But the songs, I don't know what to compare them to.
Carol: And do you have any idea about a first single for the album?
Julie: I think it's gonna be called "Sun Coming Up", and it's one of Rick's songs and I guess that's what we're doing a video for too so I don't know... Have you heard the new album?
Carol: No. I have to wait until January to hear it.
Julie: Oh. I thought maybe France had given you a promo or something. [laughs]
Carol: On the topic of music videos, what music videos have you put out? I think you have one for "My Room", and one for "View Master".
Julie: Yeah and there's one for "Stove", and there's one for "Girlfriend" too but Much Music never recieved it, it's still in Seattle.
Carol: Really!?
Julie: Yeah, it's still in Sub Pop, the head office. So we're finding out about that right now, like we're finding out about why it never got played on Much Music. So we have four.
Carol: And what do you think about music videos as a medium?
Julie: I don't know. If they're done nicely they can be really nice, but there's a lot of bad videos and....yeah, I've seen some beautiful videos as well but they don't get played. The beautiful ones don't get played very often. But, I guess it's okay if you're lucky enough to get your video played, then it really helps record sales then. But I mean, if you don't get your video played, then it doesn't really help out. But I guess it's an okay medium. Like, it's cool.
Carol: When you were younger, did you always want to be a rock star, or rock musician?
Julie: No. But I... Well, there was one stage in my life where I actually did used to sing a lot and I wanted to be a singer but I was about 7. But the rest of the time, no.
Carol: What did you want to be the most?
Julie: I don't know - everything! I wanted to be a teacher.
Carol: I think you would've made a great teacher.
Julie: Thank you!
Carol: Ok, tonight is going to be my first ever Eric's Trip concert. So as a first time concertgoer, what... I don't know, what should I expect? A lot of fun, a lot of rock, lots of...
Julie: I don't know, it's different everytime. Tonight we're going to be using normal stage lights. Usually we have two light bulbs but we forgot them. So you're gonna miss out on that.
Carol: Oooohh....
Julie: But next time. Um,.. Our show is gonna be pretty different every night but I guess it's going to be kinda loud and noisy. But we do a lot of songs now that are kinda quiet too, so there's a pretty good mix now.
Carol: Is there a lot of moshing at your shows?
Julie: Well, a lot of times the audience gets really crazy, but on this tour the audiences have been really nice. They've either just danced or they just watch, like they haven't been killing each other or anything. It's good.
Carol: What do you like the most about live shows over albums, and vice versa?
Julie: Well, they're both pretty different, and they can be a lot different. That's one thing about our new album is that it kinda sounds the way we do live whereas all our other albums have sorta been.... It was obvious that they were albums and then our live show is a live show, but our new album kinda sounds like our live show a little. So I guess now for us, there isn't as much difference, but I don't know. At home you can listen to something and you could be in a completely different mood. And when you go to a show, the music's loud and you're surrounded by people, so it's two different experiences all together, even though they sound the same now on our new album.
Carol: Ok, your plans for 1995? [ed.'s note: read the entire interview] You could even think of it as New Year's resolutions.
Julie: Hmmm... I guess to do everything that we still want to do and stuff, and I guess we'll be going on tour a little bit more in the spring, and I think our video is going to get done before 1995 though. I'm not sure. Resolutions... I just want to make sure that I do everything that I want! [laughs] Yup, in 1995... well, forever, actually! So I guess I'll start making sure I do that. [laughter]
[At this point, I have no more questions, so I asked questions for the zine Joey Joey]. Tara was kind enough to let me use two of the questions I asked for her. Thanks again, Tara!
Carol: Are there any new upcoming projects for everyone?
Julie: Yeah. I guess that there's a new Elevator To Hell record coming out. Chris and I have a split 7" coming out.
Carol: Is it coming out on Sappy?
Julie: No, it's coming out on Eek Records, from Boston. And I have a record coming out in February.
Carol: Will that be on a format other than vinyl? or...
Julie: It's going to be vinyl and CD.
Carol: Oh!! Great!!
Julie: Yup. It's going to be Sappy/Sub Pop on CD and Sappy/Cinnamon Toast on vinyl.
Carol: So I can listen to something! [laughter]
Julie: Yeah! And that'll be out in February. Finally it's actually going to be out. And I think Purple Knight might have a 7" coming out with Sub Pop probably too, yeah.
Carol: Ok. I guess I can ask somebody to buy the Broken Girl album for my birday.
Julie: Oh! When's your birthday?
Carol: It's in February.
Julie: Oh, great! Well hopefully it'll be out on time. If it is out on time, I might actually be on tour for it with Plumtree maybe.
Carol: Really!? Hit Ottawa, because although I'm in school right now, I'm in co-op so I'll be working in Ottawa.
Julie: Oh, really?
Carol: For the next four months, yeah.
Julie: Oh, well we probably will be. I don't know, they're booking it. If I just tag along I guess I could just play a couple on my own, but... But i would assume that we would play there. [laughs]
Carol: Great! Are you going to have an exhibit of your photos anytime soon, or have you ever done that? And do you think you'll ever do a book of them 'cause Tara says you have a way of capturing moods rather than poses on film.
Julie: Well, my dream was always to release a book of photos that I took but, um... ah... I don't remember the first question, But I [laughs] oh; no, I have never done an exhibit but I am planning on it eventually. I was always planning on doing a book, but now I have this idea that I think what we might do is like Sappy Publishing and have four photobooks a year come out, like seasonal - [music comes on] Oh! I love the Smiths! Oh, I'm so excited about this! Ok, um, anyway I want them to come out seasonally and I want them to be about 5 inches by 5 inches and have about 4 or 5 different photographers in each one that I know - I know quite a few photographers - and put about 6 photos by each of them so that they could get their photos out. And I would get them really well printed. I haven't talked to very many photographers but I've made a long list of everyone I know who would probably be interested. And I think that would be cool, because there are a lot of the ones that I know that are kinda known and then I would put those in the same books as people who have never been heard of before so that way everyone could get exposure so... I think that would be good. I think that's the only way I'm ever gonna get some of my photos out aside from publishing them in records, like for now. But I have to try and get a grant for that 'cause I think it's going to cost more money than I can afford. That's my project for maybe 1996, that's something that I'm working on for... did you say 1995 a while ago? It's going to be 1996.
Carol: Did I say 1995!?
Julie: Yeah. I didn't even realize - I was thinking, God, it made sense to me, but yeah!
Carol: Yeah, I meant 1996!
Julie: Yeah [laughs]
Carol: That's ok. I only had 4 hours of sleep, so...
Julie: Oh, I can understand! [laughter]
© Carol Nishitoba, 1995