Juliana Hatfield finds Peace & Love in her apartment with an 8-track recorder

The 20-year veteran talks touring, riot grrrls, and My So-Called Life

By Dana Raidt
Published: March 7th, 2010 | 9:00pm

Musicians are often praised for “making it,” the “it” usually signifying a stereotypical rock star life: fame, fortune, and fans. More than 20 years into her career, Juliana Hatfield’s version of “making it” — and in fact, almost everything about her — is anything but stereotypical. For Hatfield, the rock and roll fantasy doesn’t include partying, traveling the world, or employing an army of personal assistants. In fact, it doesn’t even include leaving her apartment.

While Hatfield’s 2008 album, How to Walk Away (Ye Olde), was glossy, lush, and full of well-known collaborators (including guest vocalist Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs and producer Andy Chase of Ivy) — Hatfield created her newest album, the scaled-down Peace & Love, alone in her Cambridge, Massachusetts home. It was a move that not only cut costs, but also cut out all the parts of the music industry she’s learned to loathe.

“I don’t always play well with others,” Hatfield says matter-of-factly. “I’m not the most diplomatic or fair person. I can be an anti-social dictator.

“The music business is so complicated,” she adds. “I want a really simple life. …The theme of the past few years [has been] a process of reclaiming my freedom and independence and being totally self sufficient.”

Born of this take-charge nature plus Hatfield’s own introversion and a desire to pare down her life are 12 bittersweet songs that Hatfield recorded, engineered, and mixed herself on a digital 8-track recorder gifted by her brother (along with detailed instructions) when he moved out of state. Making a record alone has always been “a fantasy” for Hatfield, who enjoyed recording How to Walk Away and got along “incredibly well”with her collaborators — but this time she wanted a different approach.

“[Chase] did most of the work [for How to Walk Away], and I’d be lying on the couch saying, ‘I like that, I don’t like that, fix that,’” she says before noting her tactic on Peace & Love. “I jumped into it. I had to learn as I went, and I made it work with this little machine.”

Hatfield gained national attention in the late ‘80s as a member of college-radio stars Blake Babies. In 1991, she launched a successful solo career and before long was lumped into the “girl plus guitar equals feminist statement” category while simultaneously being lauded as the sweet and approachable anti-riot grrrl.

“The riot grrrls probably hated me,” Hatfield says, laughing.

And what about her influence on the next generation of female musicians? She doesn’t see it. She says she’s heard herself cited as an influence for artists like Avril Lavigne and Paramore but, “I’ll bet a million dollars that they’ve never heard of me. I’m maybe more of an inadvertent trailblazer.”

Hatfield’s slightly aloof (yet still relatable) demeanor and her reluctance to blindly fit anyone’s stereotypes — whether it be riot grrrl, mass-marketable sexy rock star, or innocent singer/songwriter — empowered young women who, like Hatfield, didn’t fit a mold and didn’t want to. She soared to alternative radio superstardom with 1993’s Become What You Are (Mammoth) and 1995’s Only Everything. “My Sister” and “Universal Heart-Beat” were staples of MTV and of adolescent Walkmans everywhere.

“Spin the Bottle” even made it on to the Reality Bites soundtrack and led to her cameo role on My So-Called Life. Hatfield, who is now in her early forties, writes music with a refreshingly realist perspective that often mirrors the darker parts of her own life. She has never been afraid to tackle personal subject matter (including a 1992 Interview article in which she infamously admitted to being a 23-year-old virgin), nor has she ever apologized for doing so.

In 2008 she published her memoir, When I Grow Up (Wiley). Initiallya tour diary, the book chronicled Hatfield’s journey from music student at Berklee College to alternative-rock megastar to harried musician just trying to make ends meet. She frankly discussed her struggles with depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, and her doubt over whether she could continue living the life of a touring musician. Turns out she couldn’t.

“Right now I have no desire to hit the road,” Hatfield says. “I literally can’t handle it anymore.” She’s “finally” accepted the fact that touring is detrimental to her mental and physical health.

For many musicians, the end of touring might as well mean the end of a career. But for Hatfield it was an opportunity for reinvention and a chance to prove that with some hard work and a little help from the Internet, even an introvert can connect people to her music and survive as an artist. She continues to write with a second nonfiction project in the early stages and a blog she regularly updates on her website. Plus, with her trusty 8-track recorder, Hatfield may never have to leave her apartment after all.

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Juliana Hatfield official site

Juliana Hatfield MySpace page

Ye Olde Records

Mammoth Records