Juliana Hatfield (born July 27, 1967) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies, Some Girls,[2] and The Lemonheads. She also fronted her band, The Juliana Hatfield Three, along with bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Philips, active in the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s. It was with the Juliana Hatfield Three that she produced her best-charting work, including the critically acclaimed album Become What You Are (1993), which featured the singles "My Sister" (1993) and "Spin the Bottle".
She has performed and recorded as a solo artist and as one half of Minor Alps with Matthew Caws of Nada Surf. In 2014, she reformed The Juliana Hatfield Three, announcing the new album Whatever, My Love for 2015.
Hatfield was born in Wiscasset, Maine, to Phillip M. Hatfield, a radiologist, and Julie Hatfield, a former fashion editor for The Boston Globe.[3][4] She grew up near Boston in Duxbury, Massachusetts.[5] Despite recording a song titled "My Sister", Hatfield has no sisters but she does have two brothers.[2]
Her father claimed his family descended from the West Virginia Hatfields of the Hatfield–McCoy feud following the Civil War.[6] Her father served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.[7]
Hatfield acquired a love of rock music during the 1970s, having been introduced by a babysitter to the music of the Los Angeles punk rock band X, which proved a life-changing experience.[11] She was also attracted to the music of more mainstream artists like Olivia Newton-John[12] and The Police.[13]
After the break-up of the Blake Babies, she joined The Lemonheads as their bass player, replacing founding bassist Jesse Peretz, and played on their breakthrough album It's a Shame About Ray in 1992. She left the band after about a year but returned in 1993 as a guest vocalist on several tracks of Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
In 1992, she released her debut solo album Hey Babe.
The Juliana Hatfield Three
Her commercial breakthrough came in 1993 when she formed the band The Juliana Hatfield Three. Along with high-school friend Dean Fisher on bass and former Bullet LaVolta drummer Todd Philips, she performed lead vocal and lead guitar duties. The band produced the album Become What You Are and two hit singles, "My Sister" and "Spin the Bottle."
"My Sister" was based on Hatfield's older brother's girlfriend, Maggie Rafferty, who lived with the family while Hatfield was in high school.[14] She enjoyed Rafferty's eclectic record collection. Rafferty also took Hatfield to see the Del Fuegos and the Violent Femmes, which inspired her to form a band.[2]
"Spin the Bottle" was featured on the soundtrack of the film Reality Bites (1994). Hatfield also made the cover of Spin magazine.[15]
Hatfield was profiled in a number of girls' magazines, most notably Sassy, and addressed serious issues faced by young women in her songs and interviews.[16] About this period she says: "I was never comfortable with the attention. I thought it had come too soon. I hadn't earned it yet."[12] She gained notoriety in 1992 for saying that she was still a virgin in her mid-twenties in Interview magazine. In a 1994 interview for the magazine Vox, she said she was surprised by the effect 'outing' herself had: "I think there are a lot of people out there who don't care about sex, but who you never hear from, so I thought I should say it. The magazine I did the interview for is full of beef-cake hunky guys and scantily-clad models, so I thought it would be really funny to say that I didn't care about sex in a magazine that's full of sex and beauty – but no one really got the joke."[17]
Over the years Hatfield's virginity became a recurring theme in her press coverage, often accompanied by speculation that she had lost her virginity to The Lemonheads' leader Evan Dando who had referred to her as his "friend and sometimes girlfriend."[18] In 2006, Hatfield sent a letter to The Weekly Dig in critique of writer Debbie Driscoll's scathing review of Soul Asylum's latest album, The Silver Lining. Kevin Dean from the newspaper responded by bringing up the subject of Hatfield losing her virginity to Dando; Hatfield fired back at Dean for bringing up her sex life, while stating that she and Dando never had sex, and that it was in fact Spike Jonze that she had lost her virginity to.[19] She later admitted that she lost her virginity when she was 26 and "damn ready."[20]
Return to solo career
The Juliana Hatfield Three only remained together through 1994. By 1995, she had returned to solo status and released the album Only Everything, in which she "turned up the volume and the distortion and had a lot of fun".[12] One reviewer describes it as "a fun, engaging pop album".[21] The album spawned another alternative radio hit for Hatfield in "Universal Heartbeat". In the video Hatfield portrayed a demanding aerobics instructor. Before the tour for Only Everything, she released Phillips and hired Jason Sutter on drums, Ed Slanker on guitar, and Lisa Mednick on keyboards. Two weeks into the tour, she canceled the tour due to depression.[5]
In her memoir, Hatfield writes that she was suffering from depression severe enough to be suicidal. She disagreed with the decision to avoid talking about her depression.[22] The drummer was replaced by Phillips, and touring resumed with Jeff Buckley as the opening act.
In 1996, she traveled to Woodstock, New York where she recorded tracks for God's Foot, which was to be her fourth solo album (third if not counting Become What You Are, which was recorded with the Juliana Hatfield Three), intended for 1997 release. After three failures to satisfy requests by Atlantic Records to come up with a single, she asked to be released from her contract. The label obliged but kept the rights to the songs recorded during these sessions.[23] "Mountains of Love" and "Fade Away" were released on a greatest hits collection entitled Gold Stars, while "Can't Kill Myself" was available for download from Hatfield's website. The remaining tracks surfaced on bootlegs, which she disapproved of, and she has rarely played them live.[23]
After the experience of God's Foot, and freed from her label obligations, Hatfield recorded the EP Please Do Not Disturb for the independent label Bar/None. Produced by Hatfield, the album included drummer Todd Phillips, guitarists Ed Slanker and Mike Leahy, and bassist Mikey Welsh of Weezer. The EP included "Trying Not to Think About It," a tribute to her friend, deceased musician Jeff Buckley.
Almost as a reaction to the seemingly endless studio sessions surrounding God's Foot, Hatfield recorded the album Bed in 1998 in six days, about which she said on her website, "It sounds as raw as I felt. It has no pretty sheen. The mistakes and unattractive parts were left in, not erased. Just like my career. Just like life."[12]
In 2000, she released Beautiful Creature. This album left the rockier side of Hatfield's musical personality unexpressed, however, so simultaneously she released Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure with Zephan Courtney and Mikey Welsh. She called the latter album "a loud release of tension" with "lots of long sloppy guitar solos. And no love songs...a not-at-all attractive reaction to the ugly side of humanity, specifically American culture."[12]Billboard called the first "a collection of plaintive demos" and the second "chock-a-block with punk guitar missives."[25]Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure was panned by some critics[26] who preferred the more acoustic Beautiful Creature. On Beautiful Creature, Hatfield worked with musician Davíd Garza who co-produced much of the album. Wally Gagel, a producer for Sebadoh and Tanya Donelly, helped Hatfield record her most electronica-influenced songs, "Cool Rock Boy" and "Don't Rush Me", which added texture to the otherwise acoustic album.
In 2004, Hatfield released In Exile Deo, an attempt at a more commercial sound with input from producers and engineers who had worked with Pink and Avril Lavigne. Hatfield produced the album with David Leonard, receiving co-production credits on "Jamie's in Town" and the bright rocker "Sunshine". The critics praised it, with some calling it her best work since the start of her solo career.[27]
Ye Olde Records
By contrast, the 2005 album Made in China was recorded in Bellows Falls, Vermont and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was released on her own record label, Ye Olde Records. The record had a much rawer feel, with Hatfield playing instruments accompanied by the band Unbusted and other contributors. For the first time, Hatfield also played drums on at least one track.[28]
John Doe of the band X described the disc as "a frighteningly dark and beautiful record filled with stark, angular, truly brutal songs and guitars. This is surely a 'Woman Under the Influence', though I'm not sure of what."[29] Reviews were mixed, with some liking the lo-fi sound and others seeing it as slackness.[30]
The release of Made in China started a trend where Hatfield licensed her music, selling it via her website and with a distribution deal through Red Eye.[25]
In December 2005, Hatfield toured the United States with the band X, whom she idolized during her teenage years.
In 2006, Hatfield released her first live album. Titled The White Broken Line: Live Recordings, the album featured performances from her tour with X. It was Hatfield's third release for her record label.
Hatfield's 9th studio album, How to Walk Away, was released on August 19, 2008, on Ye Olde Records. The album's heartfelt subject on the break-up of a relationship resonated with critics, who gave the album largely positive reviews, with some hailing it as her best album since In Exile Deo.[31]
Hatfield returned two years later as her 10th studio album Peace & Love was released on Ye Olde Records, February 16, 2010. The album's composition, arrangement, performance, production, engineering, and mixing were solely credited to Hatfield.[32][33] The album received mixed reviews, with several complaining the album's low-key moody nature working against the potential of the songs.[34]
In October 2010, Hatfield and Evan Dando played two sold-out acoustic live shows together at The Mercury Lounge in New York. The following month, the duo played sold-out shows in Allston. This tour was followed in January 2011 by five dates on the American East Coast.
PledgeMusic
In April 2011, Hatfield announced her intention to work on a new album via fan-funding platform website PledgeMusic.[35] Fan response was enthusiastic, going over 400% of the original project cost. The album was originally going to be titled Speeches Delivered to Animals and Plants, in reference to a passage in the John Irving novel The World According to Garp, but later Hatfield herself changed it to There's Always Another Girl,[36] in reference to a song in the album of the same name she had written as a defense for Lindsay Lohan after watching her flop I Know Who Killed Me.[37]
There's Always Another Girl was released on August 30, 2011, again independently on her Ye Olde Records label, though a downloadable version was made available to contributors a month before on July 27, which was Juliana's birthday. The album has received mostly positive reviews from critics.[38]
In December 2014, Paste Magazine named her track "Needle in the Hay," an Elliott Smith cover, as No. 10 one of the "20 Best Cover Songs of 2014." The review called the cover "a more upbeat, approachable take on Smith's disparate, wrought-iron classic. But even though it now employs bass, drums, tambourine and synth, the songs stays true to the sorrowful, tension-riddled original."[40] Also that month, SPIN Magazine named the cover one of the "40 Best 2014 Songs by 1994 Artists ," where it came it at No. 36. The review stated "The tempo's a bit quicker, and she double-tracks herself for the song's entirety. But the (tasteful) inclusion of chintzy drum programming and mellotron cleverly point to Smith's eventual creative direction."[41]
In 2014, The Juliana Hatfield Three reunited two decades after it disbanded. She used PledgeMusic to raise funds for the new album, titled Whatever, My Love, the trio's first since 1993's Become What You Are.[42][43] Hatfield said, "We haven't totally reinvented the wheel or anything," and that the tracks exhibit the "stuff I am sort of known for, I guess. But I am a lot more confident now than I was then with the first album. And I had more fun recording this one."[44] The twelve tracks for Whatever, My Love were recorded at Nuthouse Recording in Hoboken, New Jersey with Beaujour and Hatfield co-producing.[43] The lead single, "If I Could," was released in December 2014 and was premiered in Rolling Stone.[43] That month the album was made available for pre-order on American Laundromat Records[43] with an announced release date of February 17, 2015.[43] The band announced they would tour the album in the United States throughout February, visiting cities on both coasts and in the midwest,[43] and appearing at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City,[45] and The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles.[46]
In late December 2014, Stereogum named the album "one of their most anticipated albums of 2015,"[47] and on January 4, 2015, Consequence of Sound named it "one of the 50 most anticipated albums of 2015."[48] On January 9, 2015, Hatfield was featured at Nylon.com, which wrote that the upcoming album came off as "unforced, and with its sly lyrics and mega-hooky coffeehouse-grunge aesthetic."[49] The album's second single "Ordinary Guy" premiered on Consequence of Sound on January 14, 2015.[50]
Recent collaborations and solo work
In 2015, Hatfield and Paul Westerberg announced that they have formed a new group, called the I Don't Cares.[51] They released the album Wild Stab in 2016.
In 2019, Hatfield hinted that her next covers album would take on the work of an American artist, having already done an Australian (Newton-John) and an English band (The Police).[52] In an interview for the book I'm Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Hatfield revealed that she was considering R.E.M. for her next cover album installment.[53] The follow-up ended up being Electric Light Orchestra.[54] The album, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, was released on November 17, 2023.[55]
Musical style
Style and influences
From her work with the Blake Babies to the present, Hatfield's output has been characterized by an alternation between heavy, rocking tunes and songs written in a gentler, more melodic or folk-oriented style. Hatfield has stated that in the 1990s she tried smoking cigarettes for a short time in the hope of giving her voice a rougher quality, but eventually reconciled herself with her distinctive vocal instrument.[56]
Hatfield's musical influences are diverse, ranging from punk groups like X, The Stooges, and The Replacements to more folk-oriented rock artists like Neil Young, whose songs the Blake Babies frequently covered in live shows. Her work has also cross-fertilized with some other contemporaneous indie rock bands such as Dinosaur Jr. and Lemonheads, whose musicians are also friends of Hatfield's. From an early age, she has also had a special love for pretty-sounding pop music. In a 1998 interview, she stated, "I just always liked pop music and really good melodies and major chords. That's just the type of music that comes naturally to me".[57] In a 1993 interview in Melody Maker magazine, Hatfield stated that her enthusiasm for the music of the pop group Wilson Phillips apparently led, at least in part, to the breakup of the Blake Babies.[11]
Lyrics
Hatfield nonetheless describes herself as very shy and somewhat of a loner, and has said that "happy lyrics don't come naturally to me."[57] She has described her music and songwriting as a form of therapy, an outlet that helps her to overcome rough periods and depression.[58]
In 2001, she joined with Freda Love and Heidi Gluck (of The Pieces and The Only Children) to form the trio Some Girls, with which she performs in addition to her solo work; the group has toured the United States twice and has released two albums. The trio is another outlet for Hatfield's more lighthearted material. Their first album, entitled Feel It, was released by Koch Records in 2003. The lead single "Necessito" is a funky affirmation of the power of music, sung in a mixture of English and Spanish. Some Girls' second album, Crushing Love, was released in July 2006.
On March 25, 2008, Hatfield began her own blog through her website titled An Arm and A Leg. The blogs lasted about a year before being removed. Each week, or thereabouts, she revealed the influences behind one of her songs.
Hatfield briefly appeared on an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast entitled "Surprise", which aired on June 19, 1996. Instead of being interviewed, she simply said "uhh" and then was zapped by Zorak.
Hatfield released the book When I Grow Up: A Memoir on September 22, 2008.[63]
Personal life
Hatfield has been a vegetarian for many years.[64] She has been open about her struggles with depression, anorexia, and disordered eating.[5]
She briefly dated musician and collaborator Ryan Adams in 2008.[65]
In 2006, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she continues to live.[66][67]
The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member. After their initial punk-influenced releases and tours as an independent/college rock band in the late 1980s, the Lemonheads' popularity with a mass audience grew in 1992 with the major label album It's a Shame about Ray, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by The Robb Brothers. This was followed by a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", which eventually became one of the band's most successful singles. The Lemonheads were active until 1997 before going on hiatus, but reformed with a new lineup in 2005 and released The Lemonheads the following year. The band released its latest album, Varshons 2, in February 2019.
Blake Babies were an American college rock band formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts. The three primary members were Freda Love, Juliana Hatfield and John Strohm. They recorded three albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed to record a new album in 1999, and again in 2016.
Evan Griffith Dando is an American musician and the frontman of the rock band the Lemonheads. He has also embarked on a solo career and collaborated on songs with various artists. In December 2015, Dando was inducted into the Boston Music Awards Hall of Fame.
It's a Shame About Ray is the fifth album by American alternative rock band the Lemonheads, released on June 2, 1992. The album was produced by the Robb Brothers. At the time of principal recording, the band consisted of Evan Dando, Juliana Hatfield and David Ryan (drums). Though not originally on the album, the band's cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" was added to the album in later pressings after it had become a major worldwide radio hit, and it features a later lineup of the band with Nic Dalton on bass.
Mammoth Records was an independent record label founded in 1989 by Jay Faires in the Carrboro area of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The majority of the acts on Mammoth were executive-produced by Faires and the label's general manager, Steve Balcom. The label was the first independent to produce two platinum records.
Come on Feel the Lemonheads is the sixth studio album by the American alternative rock band the Lemonheads. It was released on October 12, 1993. Produced by The Robb Brothers, the band lineup consisted of Evan Dando, Nic Dalton and David Ryan (drums), along with former bassist Juliana Hatfield singing backing vocals on several tracks. The album was written by Dando and his songwriting partner Tom Morgan. Following the success of their prior album, It's a Shame About Ray, the band had attracted considerable media attention as alternative rock darlings, and some big-name guest musicians appeared on the album as well, including the Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle and funk musician Rick James. The song "Into Your Arms", a cover version of a song written and recorded previously by Dalton's former band, became the Lemonheads' biggest charting hit.
John Strohm is an American musician, singer, lawyer, and music-industry executive.
Ben Deily is an American musician and songwriter, most famous as one of the founders, writers and lead singers of the Boston-based alternative rock band The Lemonheads. Deily and Dando met while students at the Commonwealth School in Boston.
This is a comprehensive listing of official releases by The Lemonheads.
Hate Your Friends is the debut album of the American alternative rock band The Lemonheads. Produced and released on Boston-based indie label Taang Records and licensed for simultaneous release to several other labels worldwide, the album showcases the band's early sound and punk roots. Hate Your Friends is also one of only three albums to feature the Lemonheads' original lineup with Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz.
Creator is the second album by American alternative rock band The Lemonheads. It was issued twice, as an LP in 1988, and as a CD in 1992, which included three bonus live tracks, recorded at the radio station VPRO in The Netherlands. It is one of only three albums to feature the full original lineup of Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz.
Nicholas James "Nic" Dalton is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and record label owner. He was a member of various Australian bands including, The Plunderers (1984–95), Godstar (1991–95) and Sneeze (1991–present); as well playing with Ratcat and The Hummingbirds. He was the bass guitarist for American band, The Lemonheads in the early 1990s. He also runs the record label Half a Cow, which he co-founded 1990. His current bands are The Sticker Club and, until recently, the Gloomchasers.
Earwig is the second album by the Blake Babies, released in 1989.
Josh Lattanzi is an American musician best known for his collaborations with Norah Jones, Ben Kweller, The Lemonheads, Albert Hammond Jr., and The Candles.
"My Sister" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield, recorded with her band the Juliana Hatfield Three, released as the debut single from Hatfield's sophomore album Become What You Are. After a period of working with fellow rock artists the Lemonheads following the breakup of her first band, Blake Babies, Hatfield recruited drummer Todd Philips and bassist Dean Fisher to form the Juliana Hatfield Three, who then recorded Become What You Are and "My Sister". Contrary to the content of the song, Hatfield does not have a sister, and inspiration was drawn from an older woman whom she saw as a sister figure.
Juliana Hatfield is an album of covers by alternative rock artist Juliana Hatfield. The album was released on August 28, 2012, with funding raised by fans through Hatfield's second PledgeMusic drive. 10% of the funding past the goal amount went to IMPACT Boston which offers personal safety and self-defense courses. The album includes tracks written by a variety of artists, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Liz Phair, Ryan Adams, Led Zeppelin and The Who.
Get There is a studio album collaboration by American singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Caws under the band name Minor Alps. It was released on October 29, 2013, by Barsuk Records.
Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John is the sixteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield. It was released on April 13, 2018, by American Laundromat Records. It's a tribute album to Australian singer Olivia Newton-John, in which Hatfield covers thirteen songs sung by Newton-John, most of them originally released as singles. From every sale of the album, one dollar will be donated to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre, Newton-John's own cancer treatment organization. The following year, Hatfield released Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police and Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO followed in 2023.
Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police is a covers album by American alternative rock artist Juliana Hatfield, covering British rock band The Police. The album has been positively received by critics. It is the second of three such albums by Hatfield, following 2018's Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John and 2023's Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO.
"It's a Shame About Ray" is a song by American alternative rock band the Lemonheads from their album of the same name. Written by frontman Evan Dando and his friend and occasional songwriting partner Tom Morgan, the song was inspired by a headline in an Australian newspaper. The song was released as a single in October 1992, charting in the UK. It has since received positive reception from critics.
↑ Graham, Renee (July 30, 1993). "Waif with an Attitude: Juliana Hatfield May Look Wispy, But Her Songs Have a Wry, Sassy Bite". The Blake Babies: Juliana Hatfield | John Strohm | Freda Love. Boston Globe. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Reprinted from: Graham, Renee (July 30, 1993). "Waif with an attitude: Juliana Hatfield may look wispy, but her songs have a wry, sassy bite / Juliana Hatfield, songwriting waif with an attitude". Living/Arts. Boston Globe. Vol.244, no.30 (Cityed.). Boston, Mass.: Globe Newspaper Co. / Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. pp.25, 32. ISSN0743-1791. ProQuest294759383, 403540521 (accession number 02573989), Newspapers.com440721621.
LeRoy, Dan (2007). The Greatest Music Never Sold: Secrets of Legendary Lost Albums by David Bowie, Seal, Beastie Boys, Chicago, Mick Jagger, and More!. Backbeat Books. ISBN0-87930-905-9. ISBN978-0-87930-905-3.
Reisfeld, Randi (1996). This Is the Sound!: The Best of Alternative Rock. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN0-689-80670-1.
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