Juliet Trail

Where did you grow up?
Greensboro, North Carolina.

What is spinning in your cd player right now?
A trip-hop compilation of remixes done by various dj's made by a friend of mine.

What was the best live show you have ever seen?
That's a hard one, because it depends on the genre. I've been completely blown away by Portishead (1997, in Atlanta, at the Roxy), Tori Amos (on her birthday in 1996, Greensboro NC, at the War Memorial Auditorium), and the Indigo Girls (on multiple occasions, the most recent being on my own birthday in 2005 at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, VA). I was also completely captivated the first time that I saw Cirque du Soleil's "Mystere" (in 1993 in Las Vegas) and Blue Man Group (in 2004 in Boston). I'm expecting to be utterly devastated by getting to see Dead Can Dance live in Boston at the Orpheum this October.

What's your favorite colour?
I used to say rainbow, when I was 5. I would have said black, from 15-20 or so. The past decade I would definitely say "Scarlet is my signature color." But I do feel a rush of aqua coming on.

What's your favorite food?
I love anything well-prepared and try new things all the time. My favorite thing would actually be to just have the money to eat the kind of food I consider good as often as I'd like.

Do you have a motto?
I collect quotes, so I have mottoes the way birds have feathers. In general, anything by Rumi, or Thoreau, or Starhawk would do. I do really love the quote by Nietzsche "You must have choas inside yourself to give birth to a dancing star."

What group contributed the most to the "rock" of the last millennium?
Impossibly broad question. Our present reality is like a stained glass window: every musician and band and artistic creator is represented there. The mega-stars might have a huge chunk of red or gold or blue, but every shade and every shape make up our current perception of art, history, culture, and the world. I've paid more attention to some of the smaller pieces than the huge ones, and I hate debates that can't be won, so I'll leave it at that.

Where is your favorite vacation spot?
You may see it coming by now: who can choose just one? I'm a complete nut about travel. Some of my most blissed-out and captivating travel destinations have been Positano (Italy), Brugge (Belgium), Edinburgh (Scotland), Prague (Czech Republic), Santa Barbara CA, Savannah GA, and New Orleans. I'm a Carolina girl though, so Wilmington and the Outer Banks are also close to my heart. Upcoming travels should take me to Hawaii, Spain, back to Italy, and to New Zealand, in the coming years. That's the short list.

How do you spend a day off?
First you pull out your wallet . . . no, no, that's not it. I love sun and I love water, when those aren't available I love friends or romantic time away from the world. Solo I dig practicing music, reading, petting the cat, etc. Guilty pleasure is watching Buffy on dvd, including bonus features.

Do you have any non musical hobbies?
Poetry, reading, walking, swimming, yoga, dancing. Talking has always been a big past-time for me, though these days I'm more of a recluse that I used to be, so it's mostly internal.

If you could play with any other musician or group of all time, who would it be?
There are many collaborations that would be amazing. Limiting it to those still living, I'd have to say Peter Gabriel or Lisa Gerrard.

Got any tattoos? Describe.
Nope - only a few piercings. I've been envisioning a set of 4 tattoos that would use goddess imagery to represent the four directions/four elements and have those placed on the four quadrants of my back. But since it'll be there for life, I'm not rushing the planning stages.

What's the worst lie you've ever told?
I second Jenn on this one. I never, ever lie.

Worst job you ever had?
Any one where the boss was stupider than I am, but just bright enough to realize the imbalance and therefore pull a power trip to make life living hell in order to try and convince us all that (s)he should actually be in charge. Happily, not remotely part of the picture in my current work.

What's your sign, baby?
I was born of the first day of the Pisces-Aries cusp. I was pretty watery for years, but life progresses you on into the next sign, so I'm full-on fire these days. Bascially, I'm still totally empathetic, but have much better boundaries now.

Name your poison.
I really enjoy an extra-dirty Bombay martini staight-up, with olives, but they can get me in trouble.

What's it like, being in a band with the other members of Clare Quilty? It's wonderful to collaborate with musicians who are extremely talented, and have the potential to truly handle professional-caliber music writing and performance.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a musician?
Perhaps in the womb, but my memory is hazy. I began begging my parents to buy me a piano when I was 3, and refused to tell them any other present that I might like instead until they gave in and bought me my first upright Kimball for my fifth birthday.

Given the economical and social changes in eastern culture over the last 300 years, describe the influences western civilization has had on the industrialization of Eastern civilization. Site no less than six examples that directly support your argument.
I'm not really a huge fan of the industrialized world, although there are obvious benefits to technology that are hard to walk away from completely. I have considered it, however. Rather than answer this question, I would encourage people to read The Spell of the Sensuous, by David Abrams, and The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk. The important thing isn't just to recap how we got here, but to make more conscious choices about where we want to go from here.

When did you first get excited about music?
Hearing my grandmother play and sing at all family gatherings: she was an entertainer and lounge-singer and could remember anything she'd every heard sung or played. She was my inspiration.

What excites you now?
Hope, travel, love, family, friends, performing. The ocean.

How do you feel about the French?
Probably a dated question. I'm very proud of the way that they have consistently refused to buy in to the preposterous rhetoric that our political "leaders" and info-tainment industries spew out. I'm proud of anyone and any group who will do that, actually. parfait

Is there a song that you wish you had written, or a part you wish you had played?
I'm still exploring the songs that I will write and the part I will play in my own life. There's some music that I crave but that I haven't been a part of yet, but I'm hoping to stay on the path to helping create it.

What's your favorite movie?
Turn off your televisions and go and read The Cultural Creatives by Sherry Ruth Anderson and Paul Ray. http://www.culturalcreatives.org/book.html There are thousands of brilliant movies out there, many that I love, but this is much, much more important.

Beatles or Stones?
Both.