ERIC'S TRIP INTERVIEW ARCHIVE March, 1996 - Moncton, New Brunswick
Personnel
- Interviewer(s)
- Megan Mallett
- Interviewee(s)
- Julie Doiron
Sources
| Publisher | Title | Transcript |
|---|---|---|
| Discorder | Conversation with Julie | Yes |
Transcript
What with playing bass for one of Canada's best bands (Eric's Trip, who have just released their third full length, Purple Blue, on Sub Pop), being married, having a thirteen-month-old baby, having her own side project (Broken Girl), running a record label (Sappy Records), and taking a photography class, one would think that Juli had no spare time. Not true. She took time out between engagements to call me so she could fill me in on her busy life.
So what is the weather like out there?
Well, it was snowing a little while ago, but I think it's stopped. We've been having really weird weather where one weekend it will all melt and it'll be completely dry and then two weeks later we'll get another dump. It was really warm here for a week; it was above zero and everything had melted and it was warm. I went for walks with the baby. It was nice.
How is Ben doing? How old is he now?
He turned thirteen months on the 24th [of January]. He's doing really well. He's not a real confident walker yet; he stands up in the middle of the room and kinda takes like four or five steps. He's really starting to go at it. For about two or three months now he's been walking under the table, holding onto the chairs, but he hasn't really ventured off without holding onto anything until about the last month. He'll walk back and forth to us, but he won't do it on demand. It has to be when he wants to. If you try and stand him up, he'll just sit back down.
So, what is going on with Eric's Trip? I've heard rumours that you guys are thinking of going your separate ways.
We didn't know what was going on with Eric's Trip until last week. We just put out this album and we're going on tour in the spring, so we'll see what happens after that.
Where will you be touring to?
We'd like to go along the east coast of the United States, but I'm not sure yet.
Last time I spoke with you, you mentioned something about an Eric's Trip-Lou Barlow project...
Lou's really, really busy right now. He tours so much, and the Folk Implosion have that big hit right now. When Chris talked to him last time, he said he still remembers, but he has so many projects going on... So I don't know if that will ever happen. It was a nice idea, though.
The last time I saw you play was at that Another Roadside Attraction, where you guys toured in that big tour bus. Would you ever tour that way again?
I don't think there's going to be an opportunity to do that again, which is why we did it in the first place. It was fun. It was different from the tour we did in the fall, which was just us and our sound man. We'd just hop in the van and drive to a different place, and we were in charge of getting paid and everything. It's like two different extremes. [On the last tour] we were also in charge of selling our own merchandise, and at one of the shows in Toronto, an all-ages show, I sold merchandise until about five or ten minutes before we went on stage. It was non-stop, and I had to sign practically everything I sold, so I was pretty tired and dizzy when I got on stage.
Did you ever imagine that one day you'd be signing things that people bought?
No, no, no. I never imagined anything like that. And it still freaks me out. I think Why? Why do you want me to sign this?
So your side project, Broken Girl, seems to be doing really well.
Yeah, I guess. We get letters and people buy the 7-inches, and now I have a full length coming out in February [to be co-released by Sub Pop].
How is Sappy [Records] doing? Is it you and Jon [Julie's husband] running it?
Yeah, Jon and I run it, and we hired Ron from Orange Glass. He comes and works on Saturdays from noon to four. He helps us answer mail and package records and stuff. We still get mail and orders, and I guess now that we're going to be putting out a whole bunch of new stuff, hopefully all the people who have everything else will order this stuff. We're still not making a whole lot of money, and we still have to use a lot of our own money for releases, but it's doing okay, I guess. Stuff gets around; the computers are really helping us. People heard about us a lot from the Internet. We haven't actually posted anything anywhere, so it's strange how we keep getting mail and we don't advertise anywhere.
What is coming up on Sappy's release schedule?
There's a new Orange Glass 7-inch coming out and that should be out next week for sure.
Who exactly is Orange Glass? I keep hearing different reports...
Originally, Orange Glass was just Ron Bates, but now he has a band. It's Tara, Rick's wife, on bass, and Chris Flannigan on drums. It's just him on that first 7-inch and on the new one it'll be the whole band.
What else do you have planned for Sappy?
For the near future: an Inbreds 7-inch, as long as they can find the time to record it - last time I talked to them was, like, three weeks ago, and they were still planning on recording it, but when I called today they were on tour; probably a new Elevator To Hell 7-inch - I was just talking to Rick today and he mentioned that he still wants to, so he's going to start recording it - oh, and The Wooden Stars and THe Mommyheads, they're going to be doing a split with us. I really want to start putting out music that's not so Eric's Trip-related. We put out a 7-inch by MIke (Snailhouse) in October and that's one of our favourite 7-inches up until now. We started Sappy to put out music by people like him - music we didn't think anybody would ever get the chance to hear. But we decided to first put out a few things that people maybe would have heard of, and that we wanted to put out anyway, like Stereo Mountain. We're also supposed to have a 7-inch coming out from a band from Sweden called Lousy, but we don't know what's going on with that now. They sent us a tape and we really likd it, so we wrote them right back and asked them if we could put a tape out on Sappy. They got excited and they sent us a DAT, but when I listened to it at Rick's house, it was full of glitches. We emailed them from a computer at Jon's dad's work the next day, but we didn't hear back from them. And we just wrote them a real letter last week, so now we'll just wait, I guess.
Where did you record Purple Blue?
The first four songs were all done at our homes, except mine was done at Rick's. The rest of the album was recorded at a studio in Moncton. I think it had 24 tracks, but I don't think we used more than eight. I'm not sure though.
Are you happy with the album?
Yeah I am. Sometimes I have mixed feelings about it; like, sometimes I think it's a little too rock and other times I really like it. It all depends on what kind of mood I'm in.
© Megan Mallett, 1996