JULIA Deans, better known for fronting Fur Patrol, is a dag.
On the phone to Capital Times she asks for a minute.
Then in the background a man (John Toogood, Shihad’s frontman) says: I want to tell you about it.”
Deans laughs. “You can’t tell me about penis balls. I’m just doing an interview.”
They part. She rushes back to the conversation, apologises, and laughs. What are penis balls? “It’s an in joke,” says the gorgeous redhead just back to New Zealand after 12 years in Melbourne.
Deans and the rest of Fur Patrol (Andrew Bain and Simon Braxton) have decided not to “officially” part ways (because then if they get back together they have to “officially” reform) – they’re on a “hiatus”. After all, they’re like family now. The band’s been together more than 12 years, which is, Deans says, “longer than any relationship I’ve ever been in. Longer than any relationship any of us have been in”.
It was just time to move on.
Deans released her first solo album Modern Fables in July and already has plans for her second. Going solo was always her ambition, but that was before “the Fur Patrol thing took on a life of its own”. She’s back to this city on Friday to promote her new album.
“I love Wellington,” says Deans, who casts her mind back to the late 90s. “That’s where Fur Patrol was formed. We played our first gig at Bodega – the pre-motorway Bodega.” So it’s fitting then, that the woman who won’t give away her age when asked - (“I’m old enough to know better”) – will play for the third time at Ruby Lounge.
Her fondest memories come from a flat at the top of Holloway Road in Aro Valley. Deans describes it empathetically.
“I absolutely loved it. It was like a little bit of countryside just on the outskirts of the city. In the winter you’d smell people’s cooking, wood burning fires. Everything went darker, quieter: like you’d gone back in time.”
This lass prefers the old school. She laughs at a pause and realises the interview is not being recorded but taken down the “old school” way: on good old pen and paper (“maybe your dictaphone’s broken”). Her phone cuts out after a minute. It’s one she’s had for six years. And the house she’s lived at in Melbourne for 10 years was a Victorian terrace house that they were “evicted” from because the landlord wanted to renovate.
“It was cheap rent, good location, desperately in need of some renovation and some love. I was very sad to move out.”
So she’s in Auckland now, sitting in her car, three dog-eared maps beside her. She arrived last month, is in the middle of a tour, and has hopes of touring Europe. But, for now, the gorgeous, somewhat scatty, but funny muso is back in New Zealand to stay.
“My cat arrives on the 27th of December. It’s a bit more of a commitment than flying over for a few months.” And besides, she’s got heaps of work to do in this country: her new album, more work with John Toogood, and “scheming schemes for an all girl rock band” with Anna Coddington and Anika Moa. “It’s good to be back in the fold.”
Julia Deans, Ruby Lounge, November 26.