Julie: Growing up I was in an incredibly insular Christian community, and I listened to Sandi Patty, a Grammy-winning Christian superstar. I consider her my teacher. Rock music was strictly forbidden — especially anything with screaming guitars of any sort, AC/CD, Black Sabbath, like that. They even convinced us that the Eagles had backward masking and subliminal satanic messages, with lyrics like "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast." But I also listened to light 70s pop with my Dad, Barbara Streisand, John Denver and Kenny Rogers.
What’s in current heavy rotation in your digs now?
Josh: We're AAR — All About Rufus. Wainwright, that is. We've seen him 5 times in the last year or so, have all his albums and have met him twice on separate occasions, and Julie even got a hug and a kiss from him last time we saw him. We both would sleep with him if I wasn't straight and he wasn't gay and we weren't married or he wasn't single or vice versa, and if he liked big girls, although who the hell knows — maybe he does. Aside from that, we like The Bird and the Bee, Regina Spektor, Amy Winehouse, and I'm re-listening to Nuggets 2. And there is always Desi Arnaz and the Beatles.
How’d you two meet?
Josh: I placed a personal ad in a free newspaper in 1996 and Jules answered it. Our first date — blind, mind you, no photos — was supposed to be for coffee, but wound up being 16 hours long and only ended because one of us had to go to work, I forget who. We've been together ever since.
Recently, Josh, you contributed a size acceptance related essay to Salon and also earlier a song for the first group disc entitled "I Like A Whole Lot of Woman." It's obvious where your sympathies lie, but, working in an industry where appearance is so commoditized (witness the recent manufactured controversy over this year's "American Idol" winner), does Julie ever feel the pressure to be less curvaceous?
Julie: I come from a world where it's about the music, man. The audience that I'm after isn't a mainstream audience — it isn't the one that watches American Idol. I do feel pressure but also a sense of pride, that I represent the big girls. A lot of people have said, "You're up there, unapologetic and dancing around, wearing beautiful clothes — it's an inspiration." At the end of the day it should be about the music.
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