Julie Doiron Is Busy And Happy

Julie Doiron is the type of person who'll never be satisfied working on one project at a time.

In the last two years, Doiron has released a solo record, played with ill-fated indie rock outfit Shotgun & Jaybird, reunited Eric's Trip, made an album with Washington's Mount Eerie and started a new band called Calm Down It's Monday with fellow Sackville, N.B. resident Fred Squire (a.k.a. Dick Morello). Doiron even has trouble staying with one instrument for very long.

"I was just practicing the trumpet," she says, half out of breath. "It's going well.

"I played it for one year in grade 12... I just took it out of the box yesterday and thought, 'Huh, why not?'

"Fred was working on a song on the piano and I just thought, 'I'll get the trumpet out.' We started out with me on drums, but then I moved to the trumpet because it made more sense. Maybe it'll be both somehow."

Doiron and Squire are predicting Calm Down It's Monday's debut album will be finished around the same time Doiron's new solo album, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day, hits stores in March.

I Can Wonder is the ninth full-length to bear Doiron's name, but it marks a number of firsts for the songstress, including covering another artist's songs on disc. In addition to re-recording two tracks she made with Shotgun & Jaybird, she covers Squire's "Spill Yer Lungs" and "Blue."

It's also soaked with more rock 'n' roll attitude than any of her previous albums, and it's the first Doiron record that can be indisputably labelled "happy."

"I am actually happy," she says. "I guess I've grown up a bit and overall I'm much happier than I was for a long time. That's starting to come through in the music...

"It used to definitely be easier [to write depressing songs], but I don't have any reason right now to write sad songs... I just want to have fun making music and have fun doing shows, and I feel a lot better about where I am, performing live, and I kinda just want to have a good time."

Here's where you can join Doiron for a good time:

March 13 Vancouver @ The Biltmore Cabaret w/The Sadies
March 19 Austin, TX @ Mohawk w/Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Foreign Born, These Are Powers and Women (SXSW)
March 25 Hamilton, ON @ The Pepper Jack Cafe
March 26 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern w/$100 and Rick White
March 27 Kingston, ON @ The Grad Club (Queen's University)
March 28 Montreal, QC @ Il Motore w/$100
April 2 Waterloo, ON @ Starlight
April 3 London, ON @ The Alex P. Keaton
April 4 Brantford, ON @ The Ford Plant (all ages)
April 16 Sherbrooke, QC @ Le Telephone Rouge
April 17 Wakefield, QC @ The Black Sheep Inn
April 25 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Hall