Julie & The Wrong Guys, who recently announced their self-titled LP, have shared the album’s second single, Love & Leaving. The band, which is fronted by Julie Doiron of Eric’s Trip, and features Eamon McGrath and members of the Toronto hardcore band Cancer Bats, will be releasing their album on September 8th on Dine Alone Records.Take a listen to Love & Leaving via Soundcloud below.
Doiron’s partnership with the Wrong Guys began with the band backing her up on shows playing material from her solo records, but for a veteran collaborator like Doiron – whose career has seen her work with a range of artists including Chad VanGaalen, Phil Elverum (a.k.a. Mount Eerie), Gord Downie, The Wooden Stars, Shotgun and Jaybird, and The Tragically Hip – it was perhaps inevitable that their creative relationship would deepen. Searching together, they have found a distinctly harmonized voice that weaves throughout and acknowledges the vast array of influences across their backgrounds, paying obvious homage to the music that drove these four unlikely collaborators together. As each member approaches the material with their own very literal insight of endless days across the world’s highways, they’ve come out of the woods with one of the most exciting debut records of 2017.
“I come from a noisy, energetic background playing in Eric’s Trip,” says Doiron. “It’s kind of ironic that people refer to me as a solo performer or singer-songwriter because that’s not what I feel that I do. I made a couple of quiet records after Eric’s Trip broke up because I didn’t want to try to replicate it. Then I played with The Wooden Stars and made two quiet records after that. Every time I’ve ended a collaboration I’ve done that, and people still pigeonhole me as a singer-songwriter, but I love playing loud, heavy music.”
Love and Leaving, the album’s leadoff track, provides a propulsive example of the way Doiron and her collaborators pull each other into exciting new shapes, with the rhythm section of bassist Jaye R. Schwarzer and drummer Mike Peters provide a ferocious contrast to Doiron’s precise vocal before taking the reigns in the song’s explosive third act.
As Doiron tells Noisey, the song (like the rest of the album) was written by the band during a retreat to the Manitoba wilderness: “Love and Leaving is about admitting out loud that you are ready to actually learn and you are actually ready to love but maybe you still recognize that you might be a little bit afraid to actually do it. We wrote it at (drummer) Mike [Peter]’s cabin in Manitoba, which was a great experience. I love everything about playing with the Wrong Guys! I feel strong and supported in this group with the freedom to play as loud or heavy as I want. It’s super fun for me, and these guys always have my back. It’s the best!”
Julie & The Wrong Guys self-titled debut LP will be release on September 8th on Dine Alone. It is available for preorder here.
