MNZ Interview: Julia Deans / Fur Patrol

Fur Patrol, one of Aotearoa’s most beloved bands, are gearing up to hit the road again this March, marking their first tour since 2024. From the release of their debut EP Starlifter in 1998 through to their final album Local Kid in 2008, they’ve carved out a catalogue of unforgettable songs. Their debut album Pet held its place on the New Zealand charts for an impressive thirty weeks, while the genre‑blending hit Lydia famously dethroned Destiny’s Child’s Independent Woman from the number‑one spot and remained on the charts for 19 weeks. Now, with Homegrown Festival (14 March) on the horizon, Julia Deans (guitar, vocals), Andrew Bain (bass), and Simon Braxton (drums) are reuniting on stage once more, joined by longtime collaborator and Pet producer David Long (The Mutton Birds). Ahead of the shows, Muzic.NZ’s Tim Gruar had a kōrero with Julia Deans about what coming up for her personally, Fur Patrol, and ‘hairbrush’ heroes everywhere.

Getting the ‘band back together’, Deans tells me, is a bit of a challenge. After years of living in different cities – and even different countries (Braxton still lives in Melbourne) she says, it did seem like a logistical challenge. Yet it’s turned into something surprisingly joyful. Preparing for Homegrown and a run of warm-up shows has been altogether positive.

“We’ve just been enjoying like hanging out and playing music. And we’ve had, you know, like, just had a couple of like because we live in different cities, and one of us lives in Australia. It’s not as easy as just getting together to have a hangout and have a play whenever. So, if somebody comes and says: “Oh I want you to play this gig or festival, in this case, Homegrown, we sort of need to make it worth our while, and also because we’re not constantly in the same town. So, in playing music like we used to, well, we need a bit of a practice run before we get to the big gigs. We’ll spend a week rehearsing, and then play a couple of smaller shows to help get us back up to speed and also to share the love, because you know, getting together from one show is a bit like that was fun… and we’re thinking, why can’t we do more?’”

Fur Patrol formed in Wellington in 1996, but by 2000 they’d relocated to Melbourne – where they operated for more than a decade. “So, yeah, we were a band in Melbourne longer than we were a band in New Zealand,” she laughs. Those years shaped their sound and their bond, but the years apart have reshaped them too.

Asked how the band’s dynamic has changed, she doesn’t hesitate. “If anything, we’ve softened. There’s more love and more affection now. Simon and Andrew have daughters, and watching those little women run them ragged delights me.” That affection runs deep. “We’ve always had each other’s backs. A lot of my confidence in Fur Patrol came from knowing they were right behind me, supporting me artistically, with the musical decisions and all of that.”

I ask about playing the old material again. Obviously, Lydia and other songs from Pet come naturally, like muscle memory, she acknowledges. But the band has also more recently been revisiting Local Kid – their final album as a three piece. “It was a dark and strange time,” she says candidly. “We’d fallen out of love with playing music because we were just burnt out.” Listening back now brings a completely different feeling. “With distance,” she muses, “they’re really beautiful recordings. I’ve been re-learning some of the songs and thinking, ‘Oh, I actually recorded some really cool guitar stuff!’”

For the upcoming shows, they’ll be joined by long-time collaborator David Long (The Mutton Birds), whose production fingerprint is already part of their history. “He’s amazing. It feels totally natural having him back in the mix.” Long, of course, produced their seminal debut Pet (released in September 2000). It became a major commercial success, reaching No. 7 on the NZ Albums Chart and went on to be double platinum. Long scooped “Producer of the Year” at that year’s New Zealand Music Awards specifically for his work on Pet.

Deans agrees that Long is a natural fit for the band, noting his long history with them, praising his “virtuoso‑level skill”, experimental creativity, and richly textured sound. She remembers that his artistic influence shaped much of what Pet became. She says that having him involved in the current shows feels effortless and entirely right, as though his distinctive musical “flavour” has always been part of their identity. “It’s so it’s nice to listen to these songs that we’ve only ever performed live as a three-piece (Steve Wells, the band’s original lead guitarist, left in late 2004 to pursue a photography career in France), being able to pull in all the extremities that we originally put on the album, which David can now add back in (on stage).”

Alongside the band’s return is a more personal project: her new solo album, Goliath. The album stems from her experience with cancer, diagnosed in 2016. It’s a story she approaches with honesty but also caution. Along with the release concert, scheduled for the upcoming Aotearoa New Zealand Festival, the album, she tells me, will navigate an intimate and deeply personal chapter, exploring themes of love, mortality, and resilience as she moves from confronting the reality of cancer to rediscovering strength and hope. Through this work, Deans hopes to lay bare her experiences while celebrating the hard‑won courage that carried her back to health, offering audiences a powerful portrait of vulnerability transformed into creative force. She’s clear now – and grateful. But the emotional weight remains. “It took me a long time to claw my way back”, she concludes. “I decided that if I was going to get something out of that experience, I should write about it…Music is such a good place for solace. I wanted the album not to be just about me, but about everyone I met who’s been through it, or loved someone who has.”

The release date is still to come – delayed slightly after a rough flu knocked her out over summer – but the album is nearly ready. She’s not quite ready to talk in detail about what festivalgoers will get at the big reveal in March. Which makes it more tantalising, in a way. The pressure’s on, though. Given we’re already nearly through February, “I’m still quite guarded about it,” she admits. “But I’m getting there.”

Over the years she’s been part of many women-led projects and naturally slipped into a mentor role. “I feel like I’ve been doing that for years – encouraging women to make noise. It’s exciting seeing more young women taking centre stage, side of stage, front of house… all these areas that used to be so male dominated.”

Fur Patrol’s audiences aren’t just the loyal fans from uni days and pub crawl singalongs in the 90’s. It’s gone so much wider. There’s a whole wave of new listeners, she’s noticed. “(At our shows) there are kids! With their parents or not. And we love that. It shows the music had more impact than we imagined.” The appeal is multi-generational.

Later this year she returns for another season of Atomic, celebrating the women who shaped generations of musicians. The project has been going now since 2023. There were multiple shows, different towns, and a variety of lineups with Deans and a whole host of iconic wahine including (at various points) Boh Runga (stellar*), Dianne Swann (When the Cat’s Away, The Bads), Vera Ellen, Gussie Larkin (Earth Tongue, Mermaidens), Gin Wigmore, Karen Hu, Rebel Reid, Louisa Nicklin, Mareea Paterson, and Ilayda Tunali (Ladyhawke). Deans says she missed Joan Jett when she was out here recently. But her music was part of their set. Had to be – she reckons. “These are the songs we danced around our bedrooms to with a hairbrush or a wild guitar,” she says. Her own hairbrush heroes, she says included Joan Jett (of course), Robert Plant, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, and Debbie Harry – artists whose influence still echoes in her sound.

So, there’s plenty for fans to consume in the coming months. Deans’ dance card is filling up quickly. And whether as a solo artist, as lead singer in Fur Patrol or as part of the upcoming Atomic shows, she’s not just simply ‘reappearing’. Julia Deans is stepping into a well-earned spotlight.