Interview - Juliana Hatfield Brings the 'Magic' to Her Olivia Newton-John Covers Album - PopMatters

Juliana, interviewed by David Chiu for PopMatters:

PM: Did you have a particular criteria in selecting the songs?

JH: It was stuff that I knew. I was choosing [songs] from those five albums that I know well and spent the most time listening to. And then it was either the songs that I liked or the songs that I liked the most, or the songs that I think I can shake up a little bit and give a new spin, like "I Honestly Love You", "Dancin' 'Round and 'Round", or "Totally Hot". The songwriting is still great, and there's something in them that I thought I could make the songs my own.

Interview - Juliana Hatfield Indulges Her Sweet Tooth on New Olivia Newton-John Covers Album | Paste

Juliana, speaking to Geoffrey Himes for an article in Paste Magazine:

“For my whole career, without consciously realizing it,” Hatfield says, “I’ve been trying to integrate Olivia and X, the sweet pop and the messy punk. I’ve always had those two sides to me, not only in what I play but also in what I listen to. I veer back and forth like a pendulum. On this new record, I felt the need to rough up Olivia’s songs, to muss up their hair, to add a little grime. Because that’s who I am; I’m not as pristine or as strong a singer as her. So I had to play to my own strengths—to my scrappiness.”

 

Somerville, MA - April 6, 2018 - Photos, Set List

Juliana played ONCE Ballroom in Somerville, MA last night (April 6) in a show to celebrate her new Olivia Newton-John covers album and the vinyl reissue of Hey Babe.

What a set list:

  • Failure
  • If I Could
  • Somebody Is Waiting For Me
  • Cry In The Dark
  • Wonder Why
  • Magic
  • Suspended In Time
  • Please Mr. Please
  • Hopelessly Devoted To You
  • Have You Never Been Mellow
  • I See You
  • Forever Baby
  • Remember November / Rain
  • Just Lust
  • Everything Is Forgiven
  • Short-Fingered Man
  • I Honestly Love You
  • A Little More Love
  • Physical
  • Xanadu
  • Totally Hot
  • Universal Heart-beat
  • Necessito
  • Singing In The Shower

Thanks to Charlie for the annotated set list photo (and info: "The order of the last two was swapped... five piece band (2g, b, d, k) with sometimes a sixth member (ag or 2nd k) and sometimes a seventh (bv)... solo means guitar solo, not alone!")

All other photos courtesy of David Young of Dry Eye Photography.

Interview - Juliana Hatfield has no time for your sexist bullshit | Vanyaland

Juliana, interviewed by Victoria Wasylak for Vanyaland:

VW: As someone who’s been an influence on you, what qualities of hers [Olivia Newton-John] have you tried to put into your own music?

JH: I don’t know if I’d call her an influence, it’s more like I liked what her music made me feel. It made me feel happy in a visceral way, like the sound of her voice was just very pleasing to my sensibilities. I just felt an affinity with her sense of melody and harmony, because I also love to sing really wide-ranging melodies, with lots of layers of harmonies and vocals. I think it’s like a shared sensibility, maybe. Her voice is not rock and roll, and my voice is not rock and roll either. I always wanted to have a rock and roll voice but I didn’t, so I guess I was truly drawn to her because she also had a kind of non-rock voice, and that was part of the affinity I had for her.

VW: When you went about recording this album, did you change anything in any of the songs?

JH: It was a challenge to decide with each song how much I wanted to veer away from the original and how close I wanted to stay. There were choices I was making for each song. Some of them are pretty faithful to the original versions, whereas other ones I kind of reinterpreted a little. There’s a song called “Make A Move On Me,” which Olivia’s version is kind of swing, but we straightened it up so it’s more of a caveman rock feel. “Hopelessly Devoted To You” is really pretty close [to the original], I didn’t change a whole lot, except I added one distorted guitar in the chorus. Just little choices. It depends on the song how close it is to the original. Like an instinct, each song seemed to tell me what it needed.

 

Interview - From ‘Pussycat’ to Olivia Newton-John: Juliana Hatfield lightens the mood | The Somerville Times

Ahead of Juliana's show at ONCE Ballroom on April 6, she has been interviewed by Blake Maddux for The Somerville Times. Topics include the new album, further reflective thoughts on Pussycat, and this little curiosity about writing:

TST: It has been 10 years since When I Grow Up: A Memoir was published. Do you plan to write another book?

JH: Well, I’m always writing, and I think at some point I’ll try to get another book together, but nothing is really taking shape yet as a book. But I’m definitely writing all the time. I’ll make another book at some point, but it’s not really happening yet. I’ve actually written a couple books since my last book came out, but I didn’t want to publish them.

Radio Interview - WFMU

Juliana was interviewed by Joe Belock for WFMU's Three Chord Monte show yesterday:

Juliana's stellar 30-plus year career as a singer/songwriter/guitarist has included work with the Blake Babies, the Lemonheads, The Juliana Hatfield Three, a dozen solo records and many other collaborations. Her latest project is "Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John," and she checks in with Three Chord Monte to discuss how hopelessly devoted to the Aussie pop legend she is.

Want to know which album by another artist Juliana has thought about covering in its entirety? Listen away. As well as the interview, you can hear 5 songs from the upcoming album: Have You Never Been Mellow, Totally Hot, A Little More Love, Hopelessly Devoted To You, and Physical.

It's a 3 hour show but handily there's a playlist so you can jump straight to the timestamps for the interview and song segments.

Quiet storm: why Juliana Hatfield’s Hey Babe roared as loud as the riot grrrls | Culture | The Guardian

Laura Fisher, for The Guardian on the 25th anniversary of Hey Babe:

Hey Babe was among the most successful independent releases of the year; 25 years on, it remains a largely forgotten minor masterpiece. But the release of a newly remastered Hey Babe on the American Laundromat label this month will reintroduce listeners to a coming-of-age album for the solitary female misfit. At the time of Hey Babe’s release, the riot grrrl movement was normalising the expression of female rage, offering a crucial framework of empowerment for female listeners. But Hey Babe offers a landscape of emotion – self-disgust, second-guessing, depression, cautious optimism – that has no place in a reception model so narrowly hinged on “empowerment”.

These words are adapted from Laura's exceptional 2013 essay at The New Inquiry.

Sounds Around Town: Juliana Hatfield gets 'Physical' onstage and on record

In an article by Ed Symkus for Wicked Local, Juliana talks about her band line up for next week's Somerville show showcasing the Olivia Newton-John album:

“Usually at my shows it’s me, bass, and drums,” said Hatfield. “But this time I’ve got more people than usual. I’ll be singing and playing guitar, and there’s Ed Valauskas on bass, Magen Tracy on keyboards, Mike Oram on guitar, Eric Edmonston on drums, and a couple of other guests. We’ll do a lot of the new album, but not every song. And we’ll probably go as far back as my first (solo) album ‘Hey Babe,’ which was just reissued for its 25th anniversary.”

There's also reference to planning her next album.

Juliana Hatfield on Her Olivia Newton-John Covers Album: 'I Wanted to Escape From All the Horrible Negativity' | Billboard

Juliana, interviewed by Robert Ham for Billboard about the new album:

RH How was the process of recordings these songs? To hear the album, it sounds like it was a lot of fun to put together.

JH It was actually very challenging, especially after coming off of my last album. With Pussycat, the recording of that was really fast and seamless. This stuff was really challenging. The songwriting, for one thing. Some of it is pretty complex. A lot of chords and melodies. I wanted to do as many songs as I could in the original key she sang them in. Some of the melodies are just so sick, a lot of stuff is really high in my range which is kind of a weak spot for me. It was hard. There were moments where I thought, “I don’t know if I can do this.” I almost wanted to quit because it was so challenging. For me, it was just a puzzle. What do I want to reinterpret? What do I want to copy?

Then there was the problem that some of the songs were so iconic, like “Hopelessly Devoted To You.” My first instinct was to just copy all of her vocal inflections exactly. But then I thought, “I can’t because it’s too iconic. There’s no way I’ll ever measure up.” It’s a little bit my own but I’m not disrespecting the original.

RH Were there songs you wanted to do but had to abandon because they were too hard to pull off?

JH There was the duet with Cliff Richard, “Suddenly.” That one has like a billion chords. It’s kind of nuts. We recorded the basic tracks and then there’s the question of who can sing it with me. I asked a few people. One person said, “No,” and a couple of others were interested. Then other songs needed my attention so I ended up abandoning it because it was just going to be too complicated. I hope to get back to it eventually and finish it.

The interview also touches on the Hey Babe vinyl reissue, Become What You Are, and Pussycat.

Juliana Hatfield is “Hopelessly Devoted” to Olivia Newton-John | Tidal

For Womens History Month, Juliana has written an article for Tidal about Olivia Newton-John's impact and influence throughout her life:

Olivia was sweet and strong. Quietly confident from the very beginning, she did the work on each stage and in every appearance, without any hurried desperation for attention.

Some people don’t understand that Olivia is a soulful singer. They think she is a sugary confection, empty calories. That this is not serious. That her songs don’t acknowledge the dark side. But they do. There’s darkness all over the place. It’s just that she doesn’t aim for it and stew in it like some of us do. She gives it a nod and then turns away from it and toward the light.

 

Video - Physical

The second song to be released from the forthcoming Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John album is Physical, and it's wonderful.

There's a video, again directed by David Doobinin, which premiered today at Stereogum, and where Juliana commented:

Olivia Newton-John’s lusty “Physical” is a groovy, bouncy song, but my take on it is darker, more aggro, because I don’t think of lust as fun or funny; I think it’s dangerous and disruptive and mostly unwelcome. So that is my interpretation of “Physical”: the human condition is a bummer, and desire a frustrating impediment to serenity. My visual take on the song is not as conceptual as Olivia’s 1981 colorful workout video. Mine is more of an impressionistic exploration of my own awkward and self-conscious physicality (especially self-conscious in front of the camera/other people).

The first song, A Little More Love, was released in January.

The album is due for release on April 13, 2018 via American Laundromat Records.

Boston, MA - February 3, 2018 - Photos, Set List, Links

Here's a set of photos by David Young taken at last weekend's Hot Stove Cool Music event at Boston's Paradise Rock Club.

With Freda Love Smith on drums, Juliana peformed a set featuring Some Girls songs together with a preview of her upcoming Olivia Newton-John tribute album. UPDATE - with thanks to Charlie P, here's the full set list:

  • Necessito
  • Feel It
  • Robot City
  • Poor Man's You
  • Wonder Why
  • Short-Fingered Man
  • Physical
  • Magic
  • A Little More Love
  • Xanadu

Thanks as always to David (Dry Eye Photography) for sharing his work here.

There's further photos of the event by Joshua Pickering at Innocent Words and a short review with a photo at the Boston Globe.

Prior to the concert, Juliana spoke to Jay N Miller for The Patriot Ledger, where she touched upon the new album:

“I’m not able to conceptualize going in a particular direction, I just have ideas and follow them,” Hatfield explained. “When I have ideas, I make them come to life. I keep moving and keep working. You have to keep working - you’re only here a short time and you have to be open to new possibilities. The idea of doing an Olivia Newton-John record popped in my head, so I went and did it. Unconsciously, I guess it might have been a reaction against the feelings surrounding ‘Pussycat,’ which were disturbed and full of anger. You could see it as the pendulum swinging back. I just wanted to do something that felt good.”

Juliana also talked to Brett Milano for the Boston Herald:

“It’s hard to say why I like her, but I’ve always had a visceral reaction. Something about the sound of her voice and the melodies really hits a pleasure center in my brain,” Hatfield said. “I think there’s also an innocence about her that I’ve always related to. In most of the relationships I’ve had in my life, I tend to be drawn to complicated, troubled people. I saw something in her that was different from that, so I felt an affinity — she was more like the light in the darkness. Her songs are really gorgeous and sweet, and they match my affinity for melodic pop songs, but she acknowledges that there is a dark side.”

Hatfield conceived of the album after a Newton-John concert she’d planned to attend last year was canceled due to the singer’s illness. She’s made the album a partial benefit for Newton-John’s cancer foundation, and received a nice tweet from her in response.

“I really appreciated the welcome from her camp, but I really did this for myself. I love the songs and wanted to record them. That’s really the only reason I ever do anything I do. But I didn’t know how many chords she has in her songs. In terms of their being impressive and challenging to play, there’s some pretty sick songwriting going on there.”

Video - A Little More Love

Juliana's new video and first song from her upcoming Olivia Newton-John covers album is released today, via a premiere at npr music.

It was filmed and directed by David Doobinin in NYC, and as this Instagram post from a couple of weeks ago shows there's another one to come: