Juliana Hatfield – Peace & Love
An opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day. After the release of her latest album “Peace & Love”, we were able to grab some of Juliana’s time to answer some questions about her music and uncover why she decided not to tour for this album.
Tuned-Out: Over your long and very productive career as the member of at least three bands and creator of ten solo albums you’ve always managed to stay sounding like yourself – do you feel that you established your identity early on? Was that easy for you?
Juliana Hatfield: I had a certain sound and a certain shtick, if you will, but it was always completely uncalculated and natural and naive. I think my sound has evolved on its own over the years, as I have evolved as a person. I still have certain instincts like, say, with melody, that have always been there but I think my voice has changed.
TO: Your new acoustic album “Peace And Love” was composed, arranged, performed, produced, engineered and mixed by you – what are the key ingredients of the Juliana Hatfield sound? How easy is it for you to recreate your studio sound live?
JH: I knew I couldn’t recreate the sound live and that’s partly why I didn’t tour for this album.
TO: I love James Parker’s written introduction to the new album on your site, the part about recording “in your second-floor Cambridge apartment, faintly multitracking your own voice and guitar, keeping it down so as not to disturb the neighbors” and references to your dogs “wandering about somewhere, ticking across the wooden floors, or watching you perhaps in that quizzical doggy way” create a really nice, homely, warm backdrop to this very intimate record. What was it that attracted you to (literally) home-record the album? Was it an enjoyable experience? How did it compare to previous recordings you’ve made?
JH: It was cheap and that was a large part of the attraction. Recording at home was pretty much a necessity, economically.
TO: Do you have a favorite song on the album?
JH: Not really.
TO: Is there one song on the album that sums up where you are emotionally right now?
JH: No but a funny thing is that “I won’t give up on peace and love”- the chorus of the title track- is so not me. I have never really believed in love or in peace. Don’t believe they are possible or even really real, to me.
TO: You recently started blogging on your website – is this your first blog? What attracted you to start?
JH: I’ve actually kind of stopped doing it. I felt it was starting to become a distraction from my work.
TO: On your blog you recently wrote about fame, your glimpse of it in the 1990s and your attempt over the past fifteen years to “get unfamous”. You said “I believe that seeking the approval and applause of large numbers of total strangers is a weakness and a character flaw, a sign of immaturity”. Do you think it’s possible to be an artist these days without being immature in this way?
JH: Yes , I do.
TO: In the last decade independent musicians have been creating more sustainable models to the major labels’ way of doing things – can you talk about how you moved on to running your own label in recent years? How is it working out?
JH: No label would have me on my terms, in the end, so I started the label out of necessity. It was never my dream to run a business and it’s not really all that fun for me, if you want to know the truth. I’m an artist, not a businessman. Musicians are not known for their business sense. My label is basically a really bad investment in myself.
TO: Did your negative experiences with Atlantic Records in the mid-nineties inform the decision to become more independent? How do you feel about the majors now that you run your own label?
JH: I wouldn’t say that my experience with Atlantic was negative. I made friends there (hi, Bobbie!) and they let me do what I wanted and they sold a bunch of my records so I can’t complain. The Atlantic team did a lot of work for me that I now have to do for myself. Major or indie, there are both pros and cons.
TO: Do you think having commercial success and subsequently deciding not to court that attention has freed you artistically, or were you always sure about your musical aims?
JH: I was always free, artistically. I made sure of that. I wanted success on my own terms and I never compromised but I also failed to achieve lasting success on my own terms. But I failed with integrity!
TO: If you were starting out as a musician today do you have any thoughts on how you’d go about making it your livelihood?
JH: I wouldn’t do it. I would go to medical school. Do something useful.
TO: You’ve collaborated and performed with a host of amazing musicians and bands during your career, from Jeff Buckley to Evan Dando to Belly – do you have a favorite memory you’d like to share of those times?
JH: I have a really bad memory but I loved them all, all those guys. I feel lucky to have known them.
TO: To artists like myself who spent their teens listening to artists like you, Belly, Throwing Muses, Pixies and all of those great bands the nineties seem like an idyllic time to have been making alternative, grungy music – is that a rose-tinted view? Is it always just about being good or are we at the whim of the zeitgeist?
JH: It was kind of fun at the time but it wasn’t fun every second of every day and I never really got into the Pixies.
TO: Canine welfare is a subject close to your heart – your recent article for the Huffington Post, “Save The Satos”, highlighted the issue of dogs being dumped and left to fend for themselves in Puerto Rico and you have been using your website to try and find a home for a puppy you found there. Did you manage to rehome the puppy? What can people do to help the Save The Satos campaign?
JH: The puppy was sent to a shelter in Massachusetts and was adopted up here. People can send money to the Save a Sato website if they want to help that way. The shelter can always use donations.
TO: You published a memoir, “When I Grow Up” in 2008. [I'm sorry to say I didn't know it existed and have just ordered it online!] I think it’s wonderful that someone is writing about the reality of life as a musician – the idea that people should hide all the normal stuff in favor of building up some fake, puffed up mythological creature is idiotic and really unhelpful to artists trying to establish themselves independently of the pop world. Were you happy with the reaction the book got? Do you have plans for a follow-up?
JH: I’m working on another book but I wouldn’t call it a follow-up. It’s a different subject.
TO: Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
JH: Here. Still here.
TO: And where do you see the music industry in ten years’ time?
JH: One label, one artist.
Juliana breaks down Peace & Love track by track for us:
PEACE AND LOVE
I try always to learn from painful experiences, and to forgive- both myself and others- and to move on, with an open heart and mind. At some point one realizes that anger is a real waste of energy, it’s draining and damaging, and one learns to deliberately let go of it, and the letting go brings a lightness, a new freedom and hopefulness that may unfortunately be hard to sustain at all times. Peace and love are ideals toward which we reach.
THE END OF THE WAR
I love the 5/8 time signature. I love how it bounces and propels itself forward. The “war” here could be seen as a metaphor for two people not getting along. When it’s over there is a quiet calm and it’s really sweet and nice but the sweetness is bitter because you’ve suffered a lot to get to the end of the fighting. But you fought fair and that feels good and your sanity and integrity are intact, and even strengthened.
WHY CAN’T WE LOVE EACH OTHER
Pretty self-explanatory, this one. Trouble makes me wonder why it’s all so complicated when it seems that something as universal as love should be so simple.
BUTTERFLIES
I had a dream that I was standing in a hilly field surrounded by dead butterflies. Butterflies represent…what? Souls? In this song I bring all the butterflies back to life.
WHAT IS WRONG
I want to solve the unsolvable problems. I always think moodiness must be explained to be mastered. I sensed he wanted out but he never vocalized it or gave me any reasons and so in this song I try to figure it out myself. I ask him, I ask the universe, What is wrong? What is wrong with us and with everything but also what is wrong with me for getting myself into yet another complicated and unhappy situation?
UNSUNG
I’ve always wanted to put an instrumental on an album but for some unknown reason never got around to it until now. I recorded the electric guitar direct into the 8-track machine, foregoing any amp, and the result was this dweeby guitar sound. I think it’s charmingly dweeby. I’m a dork, okay? And I’m not afraid to show it.
EVAN
I recently got together with my old friend after we’d been estranged for a few years. Seeing him again made me realize that we will be bonded forever, through bad and good, no matter if we fight or never even talk to or see each other ever again. It is a friendship that we have not exactly nurtured over the years but nevertheless we have a history and a connection that transcends time and distance and circumstance. At the roots Evan is still the same Evan I met when we were just kids first starting bands and I’m still the same girl who was drawn to him for all his darkness and light; for his remarkable, original mind and his talent and his humour and the way he liked to play with words and his utter lack of judgment of other people. Did I get all that in the song? I think you have to read between the lines forthe details.
LET’S GO HOME
This is a true story- I really was sad on the train; I really swept under the couch (in advance of his visit) and stocked the fridge with his favorite foods, etc. He thought I had a messy, dusty, unorganized home and I tried to make it warm and comfortable and sparkly for him so he would want to be there. But his distaste for my bohemia was just an excuse masking our larger problems, and I couldn’t solve them with the Windex and paper towels he bought me.
I PICKED YOU UP
Two people who had kind of given up on other people find each other by accident.
FAITH IN OUR FRIENDS
Friends are good to have when everything falls apart, or seems to. Your friends accept you as you are, with all your faults and weaknesses and pimples and bad habits and breakdowns. Friends are invaluable in times of crisis and grief. It’s a simple concept, but so true.
I’M DISAPPEARING
This one is told from an anorexic’s point of view. I’ve suffered from this in the past and people would say things to me like “You’re shrinking” or“You look so small”. In this song I try to explain what it’s like to be that person- how it feels to be smaller than I should; smaller than I used to be,and how weird and scary and baffling and overwhelming and how literally self-defeating it can be.
DEAR ANONYMOUS
This could have been called “Sympathy For The Devil”. It’s addressed to a stalker, name unknown, written by the stalkee. This victim, who doesn’t consider herself a victim, contemplates why she is being harassed. She doesn’t know who the perpetrator is- he’s a stranger to her- but she knows not to take it personally; she realizes with an impressively level head that she is the random innocent target of her tormentor’s own pathology. Having sympathy for one’s antagonist initially requires a lot of forgiveness and generosity of heart and mind, but then it becomes sincere curiosity (Why are you like this? What made you this way?) and empathy (I’m screwed-up, too- we are more alike than you know.)
For more information on Juliana, please use the following links:
http://www.julianahatfield.com/
http://www.myspace.com/julianahatfield
Note: Realizing the gravity of this opportunity, I opened up to the readers asking them if they wanted to contribute questions for Juliana. Laura Kidd stepped up to the plate and we want to thank her for helping us out!
Laura Kidd: strident purveyor of grungey dystopian gloom-pop as solo
artist She Makes War, vocal chameleon for The Young Punx, Redroche,
Michael Gray and Super Mal, ex-bassist for Tricky, I Blame Coco and Alex
Parks, filmmaker, photographer, social media reporter and proud owner of
Mister Benji the Miniature Schnauzer.
She Makes War http://www.shemakeswar.com
filmmaker, photographer, social media reporter http://www.laurakidd.co.uk
