Julie Ann Masi is a Canadian musician, principally known as a percussionist and vocalist with The Parachute Club. She was also a co-writer of several of the band's songs. She is notable as being part of a female-driven movement mixing music and political activism, emanating from Toronto in the 1980s. She continues to perform and record on occasion.
History
Julie Masi was born Julie Opocensky and raised on a farm near Dominion City, Manitoba. She commenced performing at the age of 11, initially in choirs. Her father then bought her a drum kit and her sister Janet an electronic keyboard. She started performing with her sister and older brother Bobby on guitar at house parties in southern Manitoba. Following the death of their brother in 1968, Masi, at the age of 14 and her sister joined a bandcomposed of members from the neighbouring communities of Emerson, Letellier and St. Pierre-Jolys. The group performed regularly throughout southern Manitoba, as ManMaid, between 1968 and early 1970. The band was distinctive at the time in having two female members, both musicians, one of whom played drums. Masi moved to Winnipeg in 1970, following high school, and sang various musical genres in local bands for a decade. She also obtained regular work as a session vocalist, including singing jingles and recording sessions with Burton Cummings and Tim Thorney. Masi relocated to Toronto and adopted the surname Masi following her marriage to Agostino Masi, a Winnipeg entrepreneur, in the early 1980s. She joined The Parachute Club in 1983, after its initial founding members, Billy Bryans, Lorraine Segato and Lauri Conger, had been offered a management and recording contract with Current Records. She was with the band between 1983 and 1986, leaving after the band's Canadian tour in support of its third album. Some of the songs she co-wrote while with the band include "Slip Away", "At the Feet of the Moon" and "Secret Heart ". She has contributed to the recordings of Martha and the Muffins and Raffi, among others, and has also collaborated with the band Images in Vogue. Subsequent to her departure from The Parachute Club, Masi was involved in session work for various artists, including Dan Hill, Bruce Cockburn, Shirley Eikhard, Alannah Myles, Leonard Cohen, Ken Whiteley and David Foster. From 1990 to 2005, Masi resided in Temecula, California, where her husband had an interest in a restaurant. Based in Kelowna, British Columbia as of 2005, Masi continues to perform, including occasional reunions with the Parachute Club. She also continues to contribute to the recordings of others. She is active in supporting those affected by HIV/AIDS, and is also a supporter and fundraiser for Bicycles for Humanity, a Kelowna-based charitable organization providing bicycles to impoverished persons in Africa.
