The Juliana Theory On Tour…

THE JULIANA THEORY will forever hold a spot in the rarefied ranks of emo’s most influential artists. Like their peers Sunny Day Real Estate and Rival Schools who also helped create and define the genre, they never went on to play stadiums; yet are revered and name checked by all the bands that followed in their footsteps and did go on to become stadium bands.

This July will see The Juliana Theory and The Spill Canvas join forces for a three date Australian tour to celebrate the anniversaries of two of their most iconic albums, The Juliana Theory’s immense masterpiece Emotion Is Dead; and The Spill Canvas’ landmark second release, One Fell Swoop. Brett Detar from The Juliana Thoery talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

It feels like it’s a long time between drinks since the last Australian tour. You must be feeling a bit excited and relieved.
Oh, I can’t wait man. We love Australia.

Has it been just one of those logistical things just trying to make it all happen?
Well, the band broke up and didn’t really do anything for thirteen years. So that had a lot to do with it. Then there was Covid and everything, so it just felt like we’ve really been trying to figure out a time to come back and this just has worked out so far, I guess.

Touring with The Spill Canvas, that’s a makes for an awesome double bill.
I agree. We’re really excited. We love those guys. We have toured with them in the States once in 2019 we did, but it we played acoustic as just a two piece. It’s the only time like we’ve really ever done that. This will be the first time that we’re like all in rock band land with them.

Celebrating twenty-five years of Emotion is Dead is a fantastic milestone. Can you believe how much has actually happened in that time?
It’s crazy because there’s times where I think that it was not long ago, it’s all the same and then I think, wait a second. We didn’t have GPS, we didn’t have YouTube, we didn’t have social media, we didn’t have cell phones that could text on them, let alone take pictures. When you start to really think about like the milestones that have happened in the world since then, anything from even like 9/11, it’s just like, oh yeah, okay, a few things have happened, it’s changed a little bit.

What do you remember from when the album came out? Could you believe how much things would change for you as a band?
It’s weird because it, when Emotion Is Dead was coming out and right about to come out, and right after it came out, we felt a pretty seismic shift in how many more people would come to our shows. We would go play a city and three or four months later we’d come back to the same town and there would be a line around the block and there would be three times as many people there. This was like, not super early internet, but because there was no social media yet, there wasn’t even MySpace at that point. You didn’t have a sense necessarily on the internet of how something might be happening. It’s not like you can look at Spotify and see this song’s blowing up. The only way we knew was feet on the ground and showing up somewhere and then you’re like, wow, this is crazy. So yeah, it was a really special time for us and I feel like it was a special time for a lot of bands and music at that time period.

It’s definitely one of those albums that stood to test the time, I guess even at the time did you ever think that it would have such a powerful legacy and be so influential to a lot of other bands and other artists?
Not at all. I was twenty when we made the record. The amount of time that since we made the record is longer amount of time than has was passed in my life at that point in time. It was impossible for us to know at that point in time if anybody would even like it. I think it’s funny, there’s a lyric on one of the songs, first line on the song To The Tune Of 5,000 Screaming Children, we knew you would hate this before we wrote it because I literally just felt like our fans aren’t going to like this record. I don’t think there was any way we could’ve ever expected that, that people would care about it. Now it’s really humbling to be honest.

Do streaming numbers and things like that, that you, you start sort of connecting with an even younger fan base, you know, particularly through this album and others?
I feel like in the last couple years since we’ve started touring again and started playing shows, I’ve definitely been seeing more younger people at our shows or people who weren’t alive when the record came out. Sometimes they were raised with it, their parents were fans of the band or super fans. They named their kid after the band or whatever. But there are definitely people discovering us who I don’t really know how they found us and I just assume it’s how things spread. I’m starting to see more of that, like people that probably weren’t around at all when it came out, which is also crazy to think of.

How does it sit with you being name checked by other bands and your album being significant to them?
I had a conversation with my wife the other day. I don’t usually think on terms like this because I just don’t necessarily think it’s a healthy way to look. But I remember a couple years ago we played Furnace Fest and Jeremy Enigk from Sunny Day Real Estate played a solo set. Sunny Day is like a mythical band to us and was so influential. I remember Jeremy was backstage and I had never spoken to him before and normally I don’t really go up to people that I don’t know and talk to him and I just felt like I should go up and tell him how important his music is to me. Not that he hasn’t heard that before, but who knows, maybe he’s having a bad day and maybe if I say that it will make him feel better.

A week ago we played a show and there was a lot of people that came up and talked to me that I don’t necessarily know or haven’t met before. A couple of them said things that was like, Emotion Is Dead is my favourite album of all time. I’m just happy to meet people and I’m just happy to speak to them, but I’m not really necessarily processing when they say that. I went home and it hit me like a day or two later and I told my wife, I was like it doesn’t really register to me, but there are a couple people out in the world that may feel the same way about my band as I felt about talking to Jeremy Enigk about Sunny Day Real Estate. When I put it in that perspective then I’m like, yeah, this is crazy and humbling for sure.

With that album were you ever worried about the second album blues?
It probably crossed our mind if I recall, but I think we had very contrarian like streak in me that I really can’t help but to have. I think we kind of had this attitude of like, alright, this is what you think our band is. Now we’re going to try to expand on that, and maybe confuse you or show you we’re not what you think we are. We weren’t really thinking necessarily about that second album slump, but we were just thinking about what’s the best thing we could do for ourselves. Like what’s the most the strongest, most creative move we could make at that point in time? That’s really what we tried to focus on for the most part, I think,

Can you listen to the album like a fan would?
I can’t say that I could ever even understand what it would be like to listen to it from a fan’s perspective because I’m so tied into the creation of any of those songs that I can’t separate myself from that I don’t think I can sit back and listen at times and say, oh hey, this is better than I thought it was, or why did we put this on the record? I can think like that, but I don’t really know if I could ever separate myself from it.

On the Australian tour are you looking to do this album start to end?
No, we’re going to do the record from top to bottom and then we’ll then we’ll do some other stuff as well.

How do you find that process of playing it start to end? Is it harder or are there some songs that take a bit of relearning how to play live?
At one point we did have to relearn a few things because there were a few songs that we hadn’t played for years. There’s a little bit of that, but one thing that’s nice about it is you don’t have to obsess over the bulk of the set list. You’re like, well, we don’t really have to think about what we put on the set list. We know what we’re playing, that part’s nice for sure.

Is there any new music on the horizon?
Yeah, there’s going to be a, a new record next year. It’s a fair way along at this point I would say.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The Juliana Theory on tour with The Spill Canvas this July, tickets from The Phoenix…