Background
Doiron started playing guitar (later switching to bass) in Eric's Trip at the age of eighteen, having joined the band at the insistence of her then-boyfriend, Rick White, also of Eric's Trip. Shortly before the band's break-up in 1996, she released a solo album under the name Broken Girl, which followed two previous 7" EPs also released under that name. All of her subsequent material has been released under her own name. Although most of her solo material has been written and performed in English, she also released an album of French language material, Désormais.
In 1999, Doiron 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. She shared a Juno Award 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 (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. She has also released a split record co-credited to the alternative country band Okkervil River, and collaborated with American musician Phil Elverum on the 2008 Mount Eerie album Lost Wisdom. She played with indie rock band Shotgun & Jaybird until their demise in 2007, but she and Frederick Squire have continued as Calm Down It's Monday.
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. They both live in Toronto, Ontario, with their three children Ben, Charlotte, and Rose. At various points in her life, Doiron has also lived in Moncton, Montreal and Toronto.
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, 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 her tour to support her 2009 album I Can Wonder What You Did with Your Day, the mayor of Bruno, Saskatchewan proclaimed June 7, 2009 as "Julie Doiron Day". She performed at the local All Citizens arts centre on that day.
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