Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfieldis an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area. She was formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies and Some Girls and now performs as a solo artist, and as one half of Minor Alps, alongside Matthew Caws of Nada Surf. In December 2014, Paste Magazine named her cover of the "Needle in the Hay", a song by Elliott Smith, as No. 10 one of the "20 Best Cover Songs of 2014."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth27 July 1967
CityWiscosset, ME
CountryUnited States of America
It costs a lot of money to make an album in a studio in New York with a producer and musicians. I have to pay a publicist every month. I have to pay for mastering, production, the manufacturing of the discs. Then, to promote an album properly, you have to spend a lot of money.
Every song brings back memories, like I remember where I wrote all these songs. 'Universal Heartbeat' was my apartment in New York City. 'My Sister' was at my apartment in Boston. I remember places and I remember what I was thinking when I wrote it.
I have been a bridesmaid. Fortunately, the outfits were pretty tame. They were cream and black, but I still wouldn't wear them out in public, though.
From the beginning, I've always had a knack for catchy melodies. But I went through a period when I was trying to be rock n' roll and have a rock n' roll attitude. I was fighting my nature by trying to play really hard and sing really hard. But at a certain point, I realized that I loved syrupy pop music with tons of harmony.
Harmonies come really naturally to me. I don't have to labor too hard over them. I'll sing a lead vocal, and then I will immediately have all of these other ideas for vocal harmonies. I think that some of the most fun parts of recording, for me, are the vocal harmonies.
Playing a show is a monumental hassle. You've got to schlep all your heavy equipment into the van, then you've got to drive for five hours, then you have to schlep all the heavy equipment out of the van, onto the stage, set it up, do the sound check, hang around for three hours, then play the show, which is incredibly draining.
You can feel that in the music, just the unease and the distrust of the things that satisfy people, and make people feel good.
People need meanings to everything. People want you to intellectualize every choice you make.
People in L.A. don't have to brace themselves against the cold; they slack off permanently, and their brains turn to mush.
Some of the songs are so crazy, the words are so crazy... it's hard to believe I was so crazy.
I think everyone's pretty much the same underneath. The collective unconscious is a real thing. There's only a few emotions, and we all have them. There's, like, seven emotions. So personal is universal. Everyone experiences confusion, joy and pain, just in different forms.
I still have a lot of those depressive thoughts, but now I have the foresight to tell myself, 'Don't think like that,' and things seem better.
What does it mean to a person whose identity is very wrapped up in the music she makes, if her worth is measured by how many records she sells?
I don't feel bad or scared about getting older in terms of my looks or anything like that. I'm not afraid of my face changing. I enjoy seeing my face change. I think it's really interesting. I wouldn't want to have same face for my whole life. It would be boring to look at the same face in the mirror for 80 years.