‘I’m surviving just fine... well, just barely’ — Julie Doiron on the indie economy.

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Julie Doiron with Attack in Black
Broken City
Thursday, January 21 - Thursday, January 21

More in: Rock / Pop

On the eve of her first tour of 2010, beloved New Brunswick-based songstress Julie Doiron is popping pills and reaping the benefits. “Every time I take it, I have the craziest dreams; so vivid, all night,” she says. “It's kind of my chance to hallucinate. I don't do any drugs except this one that makes me dream and sleep.”

With much laughter, Doiron explains that the pills she's describing are melatonin, the non-narcotic, natural hormone that can help with sleep depravation. For the past few days, Doiron has been too stressed to get much rest. Her upcoming tour includes dates in Canada, America and Japan, but it wasn't until hours before our talk that Doiron was sure she could even do it.

“The money that was supposed to be in my bank account to start the tour didn't make it, so this weekend was very stressful,” she admits. “I found some sources to borrow from, but that's always really degrading when you have to call people that you really care about and ask them once again to borrow money.”

“That being said, I'd be pretty screwed if I didn't have a tour booked that started on Monday, because I'm completely broke,” she adds. “That's the only way I make money, by going on tour. I guess that's why I booked a tour for January. I always go overboard at Christmas and I never plan for that transition. I always blow the bank and then I'm like ‘Oh my God! It's January and I don't know what to do!’”

As a mother of three, Doiron's music is a key provider for her family. Fortunately, making quality records and translating those songs into haunting, transparent live shows comes naturally to the songwriter. Since playing bass for Eric's Trip in 1990, she's released nine solo albums and two collaborative records: one with Anacortes, Washington's Mount Eerie and, more recently, one with Attack in Black's Dan Romano and her Calm Down It's Monday bandmate Fred Squire.

That most recent collaboration has resulted in Daniel, Fred & Julie, a 10-song excursion into hushed country territory that saw Doiron contributing vocals to songs written by Squire and Romano. Now, however, she's ready to focus on the followup to her 2009 solo record, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day.

“[They’re] pretty dark,” Doiron says of the seven songs she's written for a new album. “They're pretty heavy, lyrically. But good. Really heavy in a good way. Everything everyone said about the last record being so positive, it's going to be the complete opposite.”

With plans to record in April, she's still considering the album's theme. “I feel like I can say whatever I want now,” she explains. “Right now, I'm singing truly about me. They're not about relationships. In all the songs I've just written, there's one heavy song about the ending of a relationship, and the rest are all about me and my ongoing quest to figure out how to live this crazy life. I'm on an introspective search to figure out who I am, I guess.”

Despite the bleak financial outlook of so many in the music industry, this cycle of writing, recording and touring has turned into a livable solution for Doiron and her family. “A musician only really needs to make so much money to survive,” she says. “You really only need to [pay] your rent and buy groceries and get the kids some new pants and sneakers from time to time. I'm surviving just fine.”

“Well, just barely.”