Julia Deans (Fur Patrol, The Adults) Photo: Pete Monk
When she was 14, Julia's mum came home from a garage sale carrying a “crappy little nylon string acoustic” and a book on how to play.
Attracted to the idea of an instrument she could play in her room away from siblings and parents, Julia spent hours exploring the instrument and the thoughts in her head. She says it just felt like the natural thing to do.
Julia recalls an early gig with her first band Banshee Reel.
“At sound check, the guitarist [from another band] hopped off stage and said to me, ‘Be careful you don’t turn the guitar amp up too much because it’ll distort.’ To which I just went, ‘Yeah, right! OK,’ got up, turned the amp up to 10, plugged my guitar in and was like, ‘F**k you buddy!’
"I’ve never been a fan of what I call gratuitous ‘widdly-widdly’ - you know Steve Vai and that kind of thing. I get why that sort of virtuosity is astounding but it just seems to me to be attached to a whole lot of posturing and you know, ‘my gun’s bigger than yours.’
“I don’t know if there was maybe a hint of resentment that I felt totally excluded from that club. But also musically it just didn’t appeal to me - it felt like it was all brain and no heart.
"Over the years people have come up to me and said, ‘oh man it was so awesome to see a woman playing electric guitar and owning it’ … It makes me feel amazing. Like really quite humbled and stoked
"At that time there weren’t that many women out there doing it I suppose and it wasn’t my intention to make any bold statements or anything. I just really f***ing enjoyed playing loud guitar."
Music details:
Artist: Julia Deans
Song: A New Dialogue, Modern Fables, Skin (everything is coming to a halt).
Composer: Julia Deans
Album: Modern Fables
Label: Tardus
Artist: Fur Patrol
Song: Andrew, Man in a Box
Composer: Julia Deans & Fur Patrol
Album: Pet
Label: Warner
