Julie Elaine Doiron (born June 28, 1972) is a Canadian singer-songwriter of

Acadian The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern American region of Acadia, ...

heritage. She has been the bassist and co-vocalist for the Canadian indie rock band Eric's Trip since its formation in 1990. Doiron has also released ten solo albums, beginning with 1996's '' Broken Girl'', and is also the lead singer for the band Julie and the Wrong Guys.

Early life

Julie Elaine Doiron was born in

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. Th ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

. She graduated from École Mathieu-Martin, a francophone high school in

Dieppe Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...

, in 1990.

Career

Doiron started playing guitar (later switching to bass) in Eric's Trip at the age of 18, having joined the band at the insistence of her then-boyfriend, Eric's Trip guitarist Rick White. Shortly before the band's break-up in 1996, she released a solo album under the name Broken Girl, which followed two previous 7-inch EPs ("Dog Love, Pt. 2" & "Nora") also released under that name. All of her subsequent material has been released under her own name. She started her own label, Sappy Records, to release several of her solo efforts. Although most of her solo material has been written and performed in English, she also released an album of

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

material, ''Désormais'', as well as several

EPs An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

of material sung in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

In 1999, Doiron performed at the 1999 Stardust Picnic festival at Historic Fort York, Toronto. That year she recorded an album with the Ottawa band Wooden Stars, which was the first time she had worked with a band since the end of Eric's Trip. Also in 1999, she was featured in a film, entitled Salt, which was filmed that fall. The film was created by the National Film Board of Canada, and released in 2000. She shared a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

for ''Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars'' in March 2000. Eric's Trip reunited in 2001, and have played shows periodically ever since. She has also appeared as a guest musician on albums by

The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, was a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassis ...

(2000s '' Music at Work''), Gordon Downie (2001's '' Coke Machine Glow'', 2003's '' Battle of the Nudes'' and 2010's '' The Grand Bounce''), and Herman Düne. In 2006 she helped launch SappyFest with Paul Henderson and Jon Claytor as an extension of the reinstated Sappy Records. She has also released a

split record A split album (or split) is a music album that includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There are also singles and EPs of the same variety, which are often called "split singles" and "split EPs" respectively. Split albums differ from "v ...

co-credited to the

alternative country Alternative country (commonly abbreviated to alt-country; also known as alternative country rock, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative) is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that diffe ...

band

Okkervil River Okkervil River is an American rock band led by singer-songwriter Will Sheff. Formed in Austin, Texas, in 1998, the band takes its name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya set on the river Okkervil in Saint Petersburg. They bega ...

, and collaborated with Frederick Squire and American musician

Phil Elverum Philip Whitman Elverum (; born May 26, 1978) is an American musician and songwriter known for his Independent music, indie bands the Microphones and Mount Eerie. Based in Anacortes, Washington, in the mid-2000s he began to spell his surname Elv ...

on the 2008 Mount Eerie album '' Lost Wisdom''. She played with indie rock band Shotgun & Jaybird until their demise in 2007. She also played drums as part of a short-lived duo with Fred Squire. Initially called "Blue Heeler", they changed their name to "Calm Down Its Monday", and released a split 7-inch EP on K Records, with two solo Doiron songs on the flip side. Apart from her musical career, Doiron is an avid photographer, having published a book of her photographs entitled ''The Longest Winter'' with words by Ottawa writer Ian Roy. She often does her own promotional photos and cover artwork along with her ex-husband, painter Jon Claytor. Her album '' Woke Myself Up'' was shortlisted for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize. In 2009, Doiron told a reporter from ''The Strand'', a college newspaper at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, that she and Chad VanGaalen were exploring the possibility of collaborating on an album. She appeared on a track from VanGaalen's EP of '' Soft Airplane'' B-sides that year, but no further news pertaining to a potential album collaboration has been released. During the tour to support the 2009 album '' I Can Wonder What You Did with Your Day'', the mayor of

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Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

proclaimed June 7, 2009, as "Julie Doiron Day". Doiron performed at the local All Citizens arts centre on that day. Over the three-year period between ''I Can Wonder'' and her 2012 album '' So Many Days'', Doiron moved several times, residing at different times in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and Sackville. While living in Toronto, she had difficulty making ends meet due to the city's high cost of living,"Saving Julie Doiron, one small show at a time"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', January 10, 2012. and began teaching

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

classes, and performing a weekly residency at the Saving Gigi club, to help pay the bills. By the time ''So Many Days'' was released in the fall of 2012, she had moved back to Sackville. In July 2014, Doiron's song "The Life of Dreams", from ''I Can Wonder What You Did with Your Day'', appeared in an

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

commercial. In 2016, Doiron collaborated with musicians Jon McKiel, C.L. McLaughlin, Michael C. Duguay, James Anderson and Chris Meaney on the project Weird Lines, whose self-titled album was released on Sappy Futures in July. She then collaborated with Eamon McGrath, Mike Peters and Jaye Schwarzer on the project Julie and the Wrong Guys, which released a self-titled album in 2017 on Dine Alone Records. In 2017 and 2018, Doiron has also released several EPs of

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

renditions of her own previously recorded songs. In 2021, Doiron released the album '' I Thought of You''.Matt Bobkin
"Julie Doiron Announces 'I Thought of You,' First Solo Album in Nine Years"
''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'', September 21, 2021. Her first full-length solo recording in nine years, it includes musical contributions from Daniel Romano and Dany Placard. The song "August 10" from ''Broken Girl'' became popular on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

in late 2024 and early 2025, leading to the song reaching number 12 on the ''

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Hot Rock & Alternative Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of ...

chart on January 16, 2025. In February 2025,

the Numero Group The Numero Group is an archival record label that creates compilations of previously released music, reissues original albums, and creates album reconstructions from a variety of musical genres. The label, known as Numero, was founded in 2003 ...

announced a campaign to reissue ''Broken Girl'' on vinyl for the first time and ''Loneliest In The Morning'' back in print for the first time since its initial release cycle in the 90s. The Numero Group also announced that Doiron would be joining the line up for the Numero 22 anniversary show in April 2025.

Personal life

Doiron has moved several times throughout her career, living in Montreal for six years until moving to Sackville in 2004 with the release of '' Goodnight Nobody''. When she was married to Jon Claytor, they had three children. As of 2022, Doiron was in a relationship with Quebec-based musician Dany Placard, with whom she released a collaborative album '' Julie & Dany'' that year.

Discography

Studio albums

Solo albums

Collaborative albums

Extended plays

Singles

Guest appearances

Other charted songs

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doiron, Julie 1972 births Living people 20th-century Canadian singer-songwriters 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian bass guitarists 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters 21st-century Canadian women singers Acadian musicians Canadian folk rock musicians Canadian indie folk musicians Canadian indie pop musicians Canadian indie rock musicians Canadian photographers Canadian rock bass guitarists Canadian women bass guitarists Canadian women guitarists Canadian women pop singers Canadian women rock singers Canadian women singer-songwriters French-language singers of Canada Jagjaguwar artists Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year winners Musicians from Moncton Singers from New Brunswick Spanish-language singers of Canada Sub Pop artists