In 1996 Julie Doiron launched a breakup track. A long time later, it is gone viral

When she was 21, singer-songwriter Julie Doiron broke up with considered one of her bandmates and wrote a melancholy track about it.

Not for a second did the Moncton musician suppose her track could be heard tens of millions of occasions almost 30 years later. 

“We had just finished touring,” mentioned Doiron, who was the bassist for the enduring indie-alternative band Eric’s Journey again within the early Nineteen Nineties.

And what occurred subsequent supplied the inspiration for the track August 10, which appeared on her 1996 album Damaged Woman.

“I can remember the drive back from the tour … where we decided that we were breaking up.”

In mid-November final yr, Doiron discovered from considered one of her daughters that the track appeared to be rising in reputation.

“Mom, I think maybe one of your songs is starting to go viral,” her daughter, Rose, advised her.

When trying to find “Julie Doiron August 10” on TikTok, video edits and covers with tons of of 1000’s of views present up. (TikTok)

The track was beginning to acquire traction on the video app TikTok and at that time had been used beneath a thousand occasions in movies. 

And when she checked Spotify, a music streaming service, the numbers had been nonetheless comparatively regular — at round 20,000 streams.

However as the times glided by, these numbers went up. And up. 

“I didn’t even tell my management team for the first week or so,” Doiron mentioned. “I just didn’t want anyone to mess with it. I just wanted to see what would happen kind of naturally.”

As of Thursday morning, Spotify streams for the track clocked in at greater than 41 million.

Greater than 33,000 movies have been created utilizing that track on TikTok — not counting the quite a few cowl variations of August 10 which were posted to the app.

Doiron has just a few reveals coming as much as rejoice the reissue of two of her albums on vinyl. She says it will likely be attention-grabbing crafting a set listing with songs she hasn’t carried out in years. (Jordi Vidal/Getty Photos)

Her different songs have obtained a lift due to the renewed curiosity, however none evaluate to August 10. Her second most-streamed track on Spotify, Quickly, Coming Nearer, has just below 900,000, additionally from the identical album. 

The numbers proceed to develop by the day, and Doiron mentioned her workforce is placing Damaged Woman and her second album, Loneliest within the Morning, out on vinyl. 

She has just a few reveals coming as much as rejoice the vinyl releases, and it will likely be attention-grabbing to revisit all of the previous songs that she hasn’t performed in years. 

She thinks the explanation persons are connecting with the track is that it’s not “a big production, let’s say, and I think that it’s intimate.”

Doiron additionally seen nearly all of folks streaming her track are aged 18 to 24 — the identical age she was when she recorded the songs on Damaged Woman. 

The album contains the viral breakup track, in addition to songs about discovering out she was pregnant for the primary time and about her grandmother, who died earlier than the child was born. 

Pay attention | Hitting the music charts after a three-decade wait:

Shift – NB14:34Julie Doiron goes viral!

New Brunswick indie rocker Julie Doiron has reached the Billboard charts for the primary time in her profession with a track from almost 30 years in the past, after it went viral on-line. We’ll ask her why she thinks the track is resonating with folks proper now.

For Doiron, it was rather a lot occurring unexpectedly, and she or he nonetheless felt like a child discovering her approach the world for the primary time. 

“I think that 21-year-old Julie, when she would have been writing these songs, I mean, she had to write them,” Doiron mentioned. 

“That’s part of how you get to the next place in your life — is letting that stuff out and letting it go.”