The Epitome Of Ultra Glamour And Razor Sharp Wit Julie Of The Julies
Interview By: Ginger Coyote
When I arrived in Los Angeles and got White Trash Debutantes back playing, one of the bands we often played with was The Julies…
Julie the main focus of the band was so nice and supportive. She sey glamour with a wicked sense of humor. She reminded me a lot of Julie Brown (The Homecoming Queen Has got A Gun) She recently made contact with me after we had lost contact due to her abduction…I knew I had to interview her to let all her fans know just what and where she has been doing.
Punk Globe: Thanks so much for the interview. Are you a California girl? Or are you from other parts Julie?
Julie: Hey, thank you! I’ve lived in LA for most of my life, but I was born in Texas. My family moved to Florida when I was a baby, so I lived there till I couldn’t stand it anymore. Luckily when I was 15 I escaped to a cool boarding school outside of Boston. Then I went to RISD in Providence, RI where I got to know Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads & her sisters Laura & Lani, all 3 sisters of Tom Tom Club. After that I went to Cal Arts outside LA where I was close friends with Billy Ranson, who became “Vex Billingsgate” of The Suburban Lawns.
Punk Globe: Tell us how you decided to form The Julies.
Julie: I’d been sidelined from music for quite a while by conceptual art, painting & film. But then I had an explosion of musical ideas. I started writing songs again, quite furiously this time. After a while, I started playing out at remote gigs. I wanted to start The Julies by playing the way I was recording my songs, just me on electric guitar & a drum machine. After playing a bunch of shows solo as The Julies, I put together the initial lineup of the band which changed drastically over the years.
Punk Globe: Give the readers some details about you and The Julies.
Julie: There are a lot of things about me and The Julies no one knows anything about. Things they wouldn’t understand. Things they couldn’t understand. Things they shouldn’t understand.
Punk Globe: Had you been involved with any other musical endeavors prior to The Julie’s?
Julie: When I was eleven I got the thing I wanted most in the whole world, a guitar. Only it wasn’t a guitar, it was a ukulele! >: ( At 12, I finally got a real guitar & started writing songs and performing solo gigs when I was 13. Occasionally I’d play gigs with a friend of mine, Cookie Sutton.
Punk Globe: Who are your influences musically?
Julie: Oh my god, there are so many that have influenced me either as songwriters or as musicians, but I’ll keep this as short as possible: Hole, The Kinks, Patti Smith, The Pixies, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Iggy Pop, The Troggs, Blondie, The Ramones, B-52s, Butthole Surfers, Bowie, X, The Cramps, Them, Devo, Nirvana, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, The Centimeters, Tom Waits, Dick Dale, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Dylan & a lot of 60s garage bands.
Punk Globe: The Julies were at one time playing so many shows and you were at all the shows but you disappeared. Do you care to tell the readers what happened?
Julie: Not really. It’s pretty traumatic, but I’ll tell you. After my last show, I was feeling pretty ill, so I stepped out into the alley for some air when I was unceremoniously kidnapped, blindfolded, hog-tied & held for ransom, which didn’t work at all. They ended up selling me to some liver thieves, which was weird cuz my liver was totally rotted. I think they ultimately just chucked it. Strangely, I felt way better without it! Unfortunately, they shipped me off to Uzbekistan for the slave market there which, not to brag, is one of the top three slave markets in the world! Really! Look it up. But after several months nobody had made a single offer to buy me, which was a real kick in the pants for my ego. So there I was in Uzbekistan finally freed, feeling bitter, depressed, and frankly more than a little hurt. However, I was able to work my way back to the US hitching a lot of very iffy rides. It was a long, slow & very sad winding road home, I can tell you that.
Punk Globe: Tell us who was in The Julie’s and what did they do in the band.
Julie: It’s more like who wasn’t in the band. I generally kept it a 3 piece, so most of the musicians were bass or drums. The turnover with drummers was insane. I don’t even remember half their names. If I weren’t on the other side of the world right now, I could give you a better list. But there was Robbie Rist of The Andersons & a million other bands. He was also “Cousin Oliver” on The Brady Bunch. Evan Rion, Martha somebody… On bass, there was Dan West, the best multi-talented musician I’ve worked with. He also produced 5 of The Julies songs. Mark Fletcher of The California Navels (a depression-era band I fronted as “Miss Lulu of Hollywood”) & The Walker Brigade, and Kristen McCord. On the very occasional 2nd guitar, The Rev. Dr. Melvin B. Davis (of Synical), Roy Randall & I was thrilled to do a one-off with Robbie Quine & Bernard Yin of Sex With Lurch. On the 5 recordings, I made with producer & musician Brian Haught, 2 of my favorite guitarists played, David Arnson of The Insect Surfers and Jason Shapiro of Celebrity Skin & Redd Kross.
Punk Globe: During the band’s high-profile career you played some killer shows. Please tell us some of your personal favorite shows.
Julie: Well, the most memorable show was at The Garage in 1999 when our sometimes guitarist, the dangerous to-know, Dr. Rev. Melvin B. Davis from the deep bayou was suddenly taken over by one of his many voodoo spirits putting him in some sort of a zombified state in which he carried out some gruesome gris-gris ritual. It started out with the hanging & torture of his guitar & ended up in the near destruction of not only the venue itself & the horrified crowd, but an eventual slow-motion scorching of the very earth upon which it stood. To this day the spot remains evil dead & The Rev. Dr. was never seen again.
Punk Globe: During the time you were playing with The Julie’s what were your favorite venues to play?
Julie: The ones with the nicest ladies’ rooms.
Punk Globe: Did the Julies have any releases?
Julie: Yes, but they were never released.
Punk Globe: Did you film any videos?
Julie: In fact, quite a lot of the shows were videoed. I’ll be putting some out on YouTube extraordinarily soon.
Punk Globe: Do you think we might see a resurgence of The Julies?
Julie: Definitely in videos and recordings. Most of our live shows were videotaped and I’ve only just started to embark on releasing some of that material on Youtube. I’ve also begun to edit some music videos of my produced songs that’ll also be released. I’ve written around a hundred songs and only 10 have been produced, so my immediate goal is to properly record and produce a great deal more of them for release. I do perform occasionally for special events and it’s always possible that a renaissance of performing could follow.
Punk Globe: Describe yourself in three words Julie.
Julie: Three words? Yikes.
Punk Globe: Do you have any internet addresses you would like to share with readers to contact you?
Julie: Sure. I can be contacted at Thejulies@aol.com.
Punk Globe: Punk Globe is turning 46 years old this month any thoughts you would like to share?
Julie: I want to congratulate Punk Globe and Ginger Coyote for this amazing magazine created just for us depraved miscreants! It’s been 46 years of pure punk magic! Thank you from me, from all The Julies that ever were, and from your entire tireless readership!