Juliana Hatfield – Q&A

Just before touring with her reunited Juliana Hatfield Three, Hatfield talked with QRO....
Juliana Hatfield : Q&A

Juliana Hatfield : Q&A

Just before touring with her reunited Juliana Hatfield Three, Hatfield talked with QRO. In the conversation, the singer/guitarist discussed why she reunited with original bassist Dean Fisher & drummer Todd Philips, how she could only use the Three name with them, their new record Whatever, My Love (QRO review), why she’s moved from her solo albums to band work like that or her recent team-up with Matthew Caws (Nada Surf) as Minor Alps, going back on the grueling road, how she was a dog in a past life, “ordinary” fantasies, competition with Veruca Salt, and more…

 

 

QRO: What brought about the ‘reunion’ with Dean Fisher and Todd Philips?

Juliana Hatfield: It was not a big, grand plan. It was just something that kind of popped into our heads.

I was talking to Todd about having him play drums on some of my songs, and he suggested that Dean play bass. Todd just suggested, ‘Yeah, why don’t you get Dean to play bass, and then we can have another Juliana Hatfield Three record.’ And that’s how it happened, really – just kind of a whim…

QRO: Did you always feel that you could only use the name ‘The Juliana Hatfield Three’ when working with those two?

JH: Yeah, I would never use that name with any other people.

QRO: How was making Whatever, My Love?

JH: It was pretty fast, furious. It was fun. But it was a lot of work, because we were working fast. I was playing all the guitars and keyboards. After all the bass and drums were done, I had to do everything else.

It was kind of a whirlwind. It went by in a big blur, but it was really great to be in the studio with Todd & Dean again; it was really nice to spend time with them again.

QRO: Was making Whatever more like making your recent solo records (QRO solo album review), or more like making Become What You Are with Dean and Todd?

JH: Well, it was kind of a combination of both.

It was like making the solo album in that there was no outside producer. When I make my albums, I usually just produce them myself. So, in that way, it was like making a solo album.

But it felt different because it really felt like a band. It wasn’t just me and couple other people, it was… ‘a band,’ it was like we were a group. It felt like a group was getting together; it was sense of camaraderie.

Sometimes I think I relate to dogs more than I do to humans.

QRO: Was making Whatever at all like making the Minor Alps album (QRO review), as that was both recent and not solo?

JH: We used the same engineer/co-producer. This guy Todd Beaujour also engineered and co-produced the Minor Alps record. He was the common link, Todd Beaujour. Both records were made in his studio, Todd Beaujour’s studio in Hoboken [Nuthouse Recording].

But it was pretty different, because Minor Alps, it was me & Matthew [Caws], and then we were using a few different drummers, but then we were also using a lot beats, drum beats, and more acoustic guitar. With Matthew & Minor Alps, we were kind of building these songs up from the bottom, whereas with [Whatever] it drums/bass/guitar, banging them out like that, rather than building them up, piece-by-piece.

 

QRO: I noticed there are two songs with “Dog” in the title on Whatever [“If Only We Were Dogs” and “Dog On a Chain”] – did you just get a dog or something?

JH: I didn’t do that on purpose. Sometimes I think I relate to dogs more than I do to humans.

I’m a fan of dogs. When I see a dog and a person walking down the street, I’m much more interested in the dog. I’ll look at the dog, and not the person.

I dream about dogs a lot. I think I was a dog in a past life, maybe…

QRO: Was it at all weird to play a dog in the video for “If Only We Were Dogs”, because you were in a cage, on all fours?

JH: It wasn’t weird at all – it actually felt really good. I think I’d like to spend more time in a dog cage, actually, very cozy in there.

The Juliana Hatfield Three’s video for “If Only We Were Dogs”:

If Only We Were Dogs by The Juliana Hatfield Three from American Laundromat Records on Vimeo.

QRO: Is “Invisible” meant to be about a boyfriend/girlfriend, or is it a sibling, or just in general about being small next to someone big? I noticed how it didn’t seem specific.

JH: It can be whatever you want it to be, but I would say that it’s not a boyfriend/girlfriend type of situation. I wasn’t thinking about.

It’s kind of like the song “My Sister”: feeling like overlooked, feeling like you don’t measure up, feeling like other people are better than you, feeling underappreciated by other people and maybe by the world – feeling like you’re not appreciated by the world.

The Juliana Hatfield Three playing “My Sister” live at Bowery Ballroom in New York, NY on March 1st, 2015:

QRO: The “Ordinary Guy” you describe in that song seems pretty rare, pretty extraordinary – kind of hard to live up to…

JH: The singer’s boyfriend is a total fuck-up. He’s the one who’s shooting up drugs in her car.

She’s like thinking of an ideal, a fantasy guy who’s got his shit together, who doesn’t really exist.

QRO: When you say a fantasy guy is “ordinary”…

JH: “Ordinary” in quotation marks. ‘Ordinary’ doesn’t exist.

This girl’s boyfriend is such a fuck-up that she’s so sick of the drama that she wants someone quote-unquote ‘ordinary’. So ordinary becomes the fantasy. The fantasy is someone who’s not a fuck-up.

I’m a musician who – I go on tour for months of a time, I pack suitcases and I live out of hotels, and I go on stage at eleven o’clock every night and play this loud, electrified music. To me, sometimes that gets so tiring & draining that I fantasize about office work, that I fantasize about getting up and going to an office at nine every day, and then going home at five every day.

The fantasy is the quote-unquote ‘ordinary life,’ but I also know that ‘normal’ doesn’t really exist. Everybody’s insane.

The fantasy is the quote-unquote ‘ordinary life,’ but I also know that ‘normal’ doesn’t really exist. Everybody’s insane.

 

QRO: What is the set list like for this tour?

JH: We’re playing Become What You Are from beginning to end. That’s the first order of business; we’re gonna play all twelve songs in a row, up front, from Become What You Are, and then we’re going to do some other stuff after that.

QRO: But are you going to play Whatever songs?

JH: Some – some of those, and some other older ones.

QRO: Are there any Become songs that you’ve had to relearn how to play?

JH: Well, yeah. There were pieces that I didn’t remember. I definitely had to do a little bit of homework.

QRO: And what about Dean & Todd – did they have to do their homework as well?

JH: Yeah…

 

QRO: I actually interviewed you in 2010 (QRO interview), just before the shows with Evan Dando (QRO photos), and you said to me that you were going to retire from playing live. What changed your mind?

JH: Oh, it’s like a drug addiction, I guess. I was so determined to quit, but it’s not that easy. There’s no ‘rock rehab’. I just got pulled back into it. I can’t stay sober from rock.

QRO: [laughs] You seemed pretty down on touring. How do you feel about this upcoming tour?

JH: I have some trepidations, because it’s hard for me to maintain my physical health on the tour. I tend to get sick and lose too much weight. It happens to me every time. I just don’t eat. I can’t find the stuff I need to eat, plus I feel stressed, and then because of that, I don’t eat enough. It’s this cycle that, it’s not healthy for me, physically.

That’s a big part of it. I don’t sleep well. And by the end of the tour, I just feel so ravaged and broken.

But we have to suffer for our art, sometimes.

QRO: Is touring going to be easier as part of The Juliana Hatfield Three?

JH: No extra crew. It’s gonna be grueling. We have some long drives that we have to do fast. It’s gonna be tough. It’s gonna be hardcore – it’s not luxurious at all.

QRO: The other thing when I interviewed you five years ago you mentioned was about applying to grad school. Did you ever do that?

JH: I did. I got into this one-year post-baccalaureate program at the school at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I went to school full-time for a year. It was a yearlong program – post-graduate, but pre-MFA.

I still might want to apply for MFA programs at some point, but it’s really expensive.

 

There’s no ‘rock rehab’. I just got pulled back into it. I can’t stay sober from rock.

QRO: Where did the Minor Alps collaboration with Matthew Caws come from?

JH: We’ve just known each other for a while, and we were big fans of each other. We had each taken turns singing on songs of the others in the studio – I had song on a Nada Surf song [“I Wanna Take You Home”], he had sung on a couple songs on my How To Walk Away album. We just wanted to do more, because our voices blended so well, and I loved his songwriting, and he loves my songwriting. We just had this desire to make some music together.

QRO: Would you do any Minor Alps songs on your tour, either this tour or farther in the future?

JH: No, I think that’s a different thing.

QRO: Is it just random that your last two things have been in a band, not solo?

JH: I think I got bored of myself. I just feel like me, solo, is not enough to offer.

QRO: Or were you inspired by any of the many reunions from nineties alternative acts?

JH: I was kind of inspired by– When I heard that Veruca Salt was getting back together and making an album, and they sold out their show in Boston, I felt like, ‘Hey, I wanna do it!’ I felt this competitive instinct, like, ‘Hey, if they can make a record and get back together and sell out in Boston, I wanna do it too!’ The competitive instinct…

QRO: [laughs] Have you at all had to explain to people that it’s the original line-up for The Juliana Hatfield Three, not just you + two other people, and you’re using the name? I know some people who just thought that you were just reusing the name with a different bass & drum section…

JH: That’s funny – ‘cause I’ve never had to explain that to anyone. No one has ever questioned that to me. Everyone that I know just knew that it was Dean & Todd.

I would never use that name for any other line-up. That would just be weird & stupid, because the ‘Three’ is Dean & Todd.

QRO: Do you ever think of it compared to when Evan Dando tours as ‘The Lemonheads’ [which had previously had Hatfield on bass]?

JH: It’s different, because he uses all kinds of different people. It’s different because – how is it different? I don’t know…

‘Cause The Juliana Hatfield Three was one line-up, but The Lemonheads – the difference is The Lemonheads made a whole bunch of records with a whole bunch of line-ups; every record had a different line-up. But the sole Juliana Hatfield Three record had one line-up, so it’s totally different.

 

We have to suffer for our art, sometimes.

QRO: You’re playing South-by-Southwest. What do you think of ‘industry festivals’ like that?

JH: Well, I wouldn’t want to generalize, because every festival’s different. But I would say that SXSW is kind of a nightmare, just because there’s so many damn people – it’s so insane. You can’t get into any show; every show is sold out. All the hotels are sold-out.

It’s bodies everywhere; just bodies. It’s terrifying – the humanity is terrifying.

I would never go as a spectator – I stay as far away from festivals as I can, as a person who’s not working. But I’ll play there, and it will probably be fun, because it’ll literally be a ‘festive’ festival atmosphere. But you couldn’t pay me to attend as a spectator.

QRO: You live up in the Boston area – are you surviving the winter?

JH: I’m alive. I’m still alive. We’re dealing with a lot of snow, still, here.

QRO: For your tour, are you looking forward to getting out of all that snow?

JH: Yes – I like winter & I like snow, but it’s kind of a pain at this point. It’s piled up everywhere, and it’s not gonna melt anytime soon, so it’ll be nice to get away from it for a while.

QRO: Especially since you’re going to California – and Texas for SXSW.

JH: Yeah, but first it’s Chicago & Minneapolis. More of the same…

I think I got bored of myself. I just feel like me, solo, is not enough to offer.

 

The Juliana Hatfield Three tour dates:

2/26/15 – Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall
2/27/15 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
3/1/15 – New York, NY – The Bowery Ballroom
3/2-3/3/15 – Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
3/4/15 – Washington, D.C. – Black Cat
3/6/15 – Cleveland, OH – Music Box Supper Club
3/7/15 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
3/8/15 – St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
3/11/15 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
3/12/15 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
3/14/15 – Napa, CA – City Winery Napa
3/15/15 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
3/16/15 – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy Theatre
3/18/15 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
3/22/15 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
3/23/15 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre
3/24/15 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle

Categories
InterviewsSlider
Album of the Week