Julie Doiron & The Wooden Stars take the stage once again
I called Julie Tuesday evening around 7:00 PM, Ottawa time. She had just gotten home from a busy day and has another one tomorrow. She has a 6:00 AM shift at the pool where she works as a lifeguard before an evening photo shoot and a plane to Ontario to catch the following morning. Sheâs yet to pack. We talked for almost an hour straight.
One would think waking up at 4:45 AM would be a loathsome task for a life-long touring musician, but Julie Doiron finds comfort in her routine. Not to mention the steady pay cheque that finds its way into her bank account every two weeksâa first in her adult life. Swimming, on the other hand, has been a constant since childhood, and itâs particularly important to her now.
âI need to keep my body strong in order to feel good, psychologically,â she explains, elaborating on how her schedule also includes teaching a weekly yoga class. When conversation turns to the four show tour she has booked this weekend, she laughs and likens it to a vacation in comparison to her current schedule and the intensity of the touring she did this summer.
Starting Thursday, September 13th in Toronto at the Garrison, Julie reunites with The Wooden Stars for three shows, the second of which will be here in Ottawa Friday night at St. Albanâs. The third on Saturday in Picton for Sandbanks Music Festival along with co-headliners Wintersleep. She will be playing an additional show in Montreal on Sunday at Quai des Brumes, before itâs back home to Sackville, NB for Monday.
âWe tend to get together every two years, nowâ she says of the Wooden Stars reunion, referencing the string of dates they performed together in 2014 after a twelve year hiatus, and another slew of performances in 2016. She goes on to explain that they initially arranged these 2018 shows after accepting the Sandbanks Music Festival appearance and decided to add a few more dates. This series of shows has a greater significance than previousâit marks the last time they will be playing their former album in its entirety, because hal-eh-lou-yer, weâre getting another Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars album.
The Wooden Stars began backing Julie on tour starting in 1997 for her Loneliest in the Morning release. Their jazz-inflected musicality fit in well with her sparse, achey song-writing, and in 1999 they released Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars. It won a Juno the following year for best Alternative Album and saw re-release in 2013.
While the songwriting efforts on that album were Julieâs alone, she believes the writing process will be more collaborative this time around. Co-writing is something not entirely unfamiliar to Julie, who cut her teeth in collaborative writing with the 2017 release of Julie & the Wrong Guys on Dine Alone Records.
âI was really blocked before that albumâ she says, explaining that between 2012 and the fall of 2017, sheâd only written two songs independentlyâboth of which were written on the way to the session where theyâd be recorded. She credits her Wrong Guys collaboration in teaching her âto let go and not be in chargeâ.
Moving forward with new music, she talks of being a lot less preoccupied with the expectations of âmaking it,â writing a hit, or charting.
âItâs liberating, to no longer be burdened with those expectations.â In their absence, she can create the music she wants to create. This she credits to her age and experienceâshe is a 46 year old mother of three with 28 years in the music industry.
I ask her how her relationship with her songs has aged, curious how she feels having to revisit songs from her Broken Girl days, songs that as a listener are still so visceral and raw. âI havenât forgotten what those feelings are like.â She pauses. âBut I have changed a lot, and in a way I am grateful to be able to revisit those feelings from this distance.â
The Showbox Concert Series featuring Julie Doiron & The Wooden Stars and Gianna Lauren happens Friday, September 14 at St. Albanâs Church (454 King Edward Ave.), starting at 7:30 pm. More information can be found on the Facebook event. Advanced tickets are $10 and can be purchased online here, or $12 at the door.