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
My whole life was writing, recording and touring over and over again. At some point I realised I wasn't enjoying myself any more.
Writing helps me process things that are happening to me.
Songwriting is like editing. You write down all this stuff - all this bad, stupid stuff - and then you have to get rid of everything except the very best.
When I start writing, I'll have a vague concept or I'll just have a title, and the song just goes on its own direction. Usually it goes in many directions within each song. They get really convoluted sometimes.
My guitar playing has not developed as much as I think it could because I never practice. I only play when I'm writing or recording or when I'm playing on tour. When I'm sitting around at home, I never play.
When I first started making music, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just wanted to write songs. I didn't have a concept. I didn't think it through. I was just flailing around doing what comes naturally. It took me a really long time to step back and deal with what I was doing with any kind of perspective or self-awareness.
In looking back at the relationship, I can see that there are all these things happening, that I didn't want to admit or acknowledge, and I think that stuff got into the music,
I wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl - long before I was a musician and a songwriter.
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.
Sometimes I feel like a human pin cushion. Every painful emotion hits me with ridiculously exaggerated force. And the anxiety feels like hands inside of me, squeezing my guts really hard.
Puerto Ricans who find they can no longer afford to keep their pets often choose to drop their dogs, sometimes even whole litters of puppies, at a beach - sometimes under cover of night, in secret - rather than surrender the animal to a city or state-run shelter where the animals will face grim conditions and almost certain death by euthanasia.
You can learn so much just by doing, not by listening to anybody.
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?
You find yourself approaching middle age, playing another scuzzy rock club.