 |
Dates Appearing: July 22 - 30 Current Release: God's Foot |
The elusive strains of the music Juliana Hatfield had long desired to make had been playing in her head for years. And with each song she'd write, reality seemed to come a bit closer to this artistic ideal.
It began with "HEY BABE." Hatfield's '92 Mammoth Records solo debut was part of a musical feeling-out process that coincided with the dissolution of her long-time trio, the Blake Babies. While admittedly experimental, her efforts received widespread critical praise, including three-and-a-half stars from Rolling Stone.
In '93 there was "BECOME WHAT YOU ARE." Her first release through Mammoth/Atlantic framed an emerging musical poise and broadening lyrical scope. "Juliana Hatfield is a woman prone to greatness," declared The Rocket. People called her "an intriguing performer" and praised her for "pop songs with rollicking confidence." It was all so encouraging, but Juliana knew she still had more to prove. "I'm definitely getting closer to what I am" she told an interviewer. Late last year, as she went into the studio to record her third solo album, she wondered what she'd find. "ONLY EVERYTHING" proved the answer to her lingering questions.
"This record felt like a gift," says Hatfield. "Everything fell into place. It seemed like the record was just handed to me as a payoff for all the creative frustration I've had. After eight years of waiting, it finally happened. Here, this is what you wanted to achieve. Oh, finally."
On "ONLY EVERYTHING," Juliana Hatfield has sharpened her knack for hooky pop songs while adding new dimensions of character and emotion to her vocals. Even better, she's putting her foot down on some serious guitar distortion. "I realize now I'm the master of my guitar," says Hatfield. "I have to make it work for me. That's the attitude. There's no reason for me to be afraid of my guitar, because it wants to be told what to do. That's what it's there for." The new balance of power is evident from the first moments of album opener "What A Life," which boasts a riff that's equal parts dirty, nasty, and sweaty. "It's not Black Sabbath, but still It's pretty heavy," says Hatfield.
From the start, the "ONLY EVERYTHING" sessions saw Juliana thriving under a uniquely liberated approach to recording. "Something just happened when I went into the studio," she says. "The record is all really instinctual. I felt relaxed and comfortable like never before. If I was a craftsman, I would have done a record like this a long time ago. But I'm not good at faking stuff. I had to wait for it to feel natural."
Corporeal inspiration came in the form of co-producers/engineers Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie. In addition to their work with Dinosaur Jr., Radiohead, and Hole, Juliana was long acquainted with the pair from their mixing of "HEY BABE" and production work on "BECOME WHAT YOUR ARE"-era B-sides. For Hatfield, who takes her first-ever co-production credit here, the teaming further helped her realize the sound she envisioned. "Sean and Paul make me stop and recognize when I've done something that sounds good," says Juliana. "Otherwise, I would work myself into the ground doing something like a guitar solo over and over again. They help me capture the good energy." "Juliana really hears what she wants," says Kolderie. "The partnership was a good one because we were able to get those things she was looking for." "Plus," adds Slade, "we're pretty firmly into distorted guitar."
As is readily evident, Juliana has dispensed with the concept of her "BECOME WHAT YOU ARE" band, the Juliana Hatfield Three. With the departure of the Three's drummer, Hatfield decided to simply move forward as a solo entity, playing all guitar tracks, keys, and some bass. Drummers Josh Freese (School Of Fish, Paul Westerberg) and Mike Levesque (Tribe, Scarce) and bassist Dean Fisher ("BECOME WHAT YOU ARE") were recruited for sessions that rotated between New York and Hatfield's "second home" at Ft. Apache Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The unhindered creative flow that pervaded the studio atmosphere applied to lyric writing as well. For the first time Juliana was feeling the freedom to improvise and have some fun. On "What A lilfe," Juliana stepped to the mic with a set of scratch lyrics and a general idea about what she wanted to say; what was supposed to be just a trial take ended up being used in the final mix.
Overall, the album represents a lyrical exanination of life's big scheme through a variety of perspectives. On the acoustic-based "Live On Tomorrow," she tries invincibility on for size, feigning an ability to survive endless amounts of physical and emotional torture. Conversely, "Universal Heartbeat," the album's first single, argues that it's better to feel pain than to deny feeling altogether: "a heart that hurts is a heart that works." Less autobiographical are "What A Life," a story inspired by a photograph, and "OK, OK," which is based on an imagined fight between a fictional couple. Given such varying topics and lyrical cues, it's difficult, and even misleading, to attempt to trace Hatfield's lyrics back to her personal life.
"It's futile to try to figure it out because I contradict myself all the time," says Juliana. "The songs don't capture me - maybe little pieces of me mixed up with things I make up that are better or worse than me. I've been accused of being too sincere in the past, like with 'HEY BABE.' You do get ridiculed, and I was probably affected by that. My lyrics are a little more cryptic now, but that's how I like it. It's more interesting. I never meant to be so open."
At this point Hatfield can make a rather encapsulating identity statement just by filling out her tax form. Occupation: Musician. "The process of writing, recording, and playing just feels like the right thing to do," she says. "It doesn't express me as a whole person, but it feels good. So far, my happiest achievements have been tied to music. But," she adds with a laugh, "I hope to achieve some other things in life, too. Or else I might feel like a total mutant freak."
As for her evolution as a musician, Hatfield is already looking at the creative gains of "ONLY EVERYTHING" as an invitation to yet another artistic challenge. "Now that I know I can do this, it's opened up a whole new world of possibillties," she says. "It's not like I'm satisfied. It's like a door I've been beating on for so many years has just opened. I finally got inside... and now there's a whole new level to start from."
Related Links
Return to Lilith Fair Artists