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Our Lady Peace

Julia

That was one of those amazing songs. We had a demo of a couple songs that I guess got us signed. The demo was pretty close to what ended up being on the record. We re-recorded it, but it was another thing on that theme of 'Naveed' and 'Denied' and people in my life, just watching them — like you said, at that point in time in your life, you’re surrounded by people who are going through that phase where it’s confusing, it's tough being that certain age. So there was this girl I knew and her name wasn’t Julia. She’d tried to take her life and she was just always this girl in high school where, when you look at her, she had so much going for her on the outside but she had that dark soul.

It was really unfortunate and I kind of lost touch with her, but that song was always — because it was written so early, even as a demo, even as a songwriter, I still kind of feel some sort of guilt because you’re taking their story. I guess it was a bit of a watershed moment for me because I was like, yeah, these are the kinds of songs I want to write and my life experience isn’t always going to be exciting or interesting enough to write about, so I was really reaching for someone — I wasn’t even really great friends with this person in school, but just as an observation, watching her go through this few years and seeing her get to this point where she tried to kill herself was so heavy. I borrowed her story for the song in a way.- Raine Maida, CBC, 21 Mar. 2014

Lyrics

Can you see her standing there? Well she's trying to find just anywhere
The flowers in her hands but she doesn't know why
And offered is advice to you and all you do was fake it
Mother, she's only yours tonight and she never cries mother, I know there's hurt inside Julia

Drowning in her own visions, she's begging the past to stay behind
A black cat in the night and there's a black cat in that sky
Offered is advice to you, you left but I don't blame you

We're digging up the past
To cross that line
To bury it one last time
I know there's pain inside that truth but you just got to shake it

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