JULIANA HATFIELD Out of the Blue
By Tom Lanham photos by David Doobinin
I
t was a great lesson to learn during the pandemic : Sometimes , if you ’ re open to it , the Universe will reward you with small , subtle signs that everything – despite any outward appearances to the contrary – is alright with the world at that particular moment . Even something as insignificant as a digital clock can prove monumentally uplifting when glimpsed at significant hours , like 12:34 , your birthday ( 5:11 for me ), or the purportedly magical reading of 11:11 . And during lockdown Hey – you took those feel-good messages anywhere you could find ‘ em . So naturally , it made perfect symmetrical sense to choose as possibly my last-ever interview after 46 heartfelt years of rock journalism my old acquaintance Juliana Hatfield , who I ’ ve helped through so many album campaigns I can barely remember them all , either as a solo act or anchoring various outfits like The Blake Babies , The Lemonheads , Minor Alps , The I Don ’ t Cares , and The Juliana Hatfield Three . A wonderfully quirky , lissome-voiced composer with a keen intelligence , feisty spirit , and droll misanthropic wit , the Boston-bred , Cambridge-based Hatfield felt like warm , familiar comfort food this dark , foreboding year when humanity seems to have forgotten any existential wisdom we ’ d assumed it had gleaned and digested back in 2020 . Underscoring the Universal Reward concept ?
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After cutting two solid covers album , Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John in 2018 and Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police a year later , the singer is now issuing an even more passionate third set , Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO , revolving around the earworm work of that band ’ s brilliant symphonic-rock mastermind Jeff Lynne . And she didn ’ t make it easy on herself ; she chose to tackle complicated cuts like “ Telephone Line ,” “ Strange Magic ,” “ Sweet is the Night ,” “ Don ’ t Bring Me Down ,” and lesserknown numbers like “ Bluebird is Dead .” And way back in 1977 in Indianapolis , my adventures in rock journalism accidentally kicked off when I spontaneously hand-wrote ( yes , you read that right ) an album review of ELO ’ s then-new Out of the Blue double-record set , dropped it off on the desk of my college newspaper ’ s entertainment editor , and arrived on campus the next day to find it in print , word for word , with my first byline ; within a couple of weeks , I was off on my first interview assignment , Nazareth , quickly followed by The Ramones , Angel , Lowell George , Van Halen , you name , and my life has not slowed down since – I hope I ’ ve turned some of you faithful readers onto some great music in the ensuing decades since I ’ d like to think my life actually counted for something . But my unexpected ELO connection with Hatfield at 56 just felt right , appropriate , the perfect closing of an
open time-warped loop . So without further ado , here is that conversation , just a couple of serious listeners rhapsodizing over one of their favorite bands . Enjoy …
IE : Full disclosure , my friend – you are , for all intents and purposes , at this point in time , my very last interview . Ever . JULIANA HATFIELD : Oh ! You ’ re retiring ?
IE : Well , not exactly . But after getting diagnosed with Parkinson ’ s in early 2018 , then getting prescribed a horrific behavior-altering drug for it called Mirapex that had nearly killed me by the end of 2019 , then helping every artist I possibly once the pandemic hit , and getting nothing but thankless grief and opposition for my efforts , I ’ ve pretty much had it with the so-called Music Business . So I ’ m just unplugging from it all for a while , maybe permanently . JH : Yeah . It is a nasty business . And I complain a lot to my friends and to everyone I grew up with , basically , that you can ’ t live in a pure world . Like , I wish I could just make music and make money and not ever have to talk to anyone because publicizing things is NOT fun . I mean , it ’ s nice talking to people like you , where it ’ s not so awkward , and we go back a ways . But I can ' t reconcile art and commerce – for me ; you just can ’ t reconcile them . Some
people can – some people are cool with it , but I feel like I ’ m already compromising my integrity , purity , everything . And it is a business , but what can you do ? Everyone has to make a living ; everyone has to do things that they don ’ t wanna do sometimes just to pay the bills . Unless you ’ re born with the right kind of trust fund or something , but even then , you ’ ll wind up suffering in other ways . So everything really is a trade-off – I have the benefits of being able to be independent and do really self-indulgent things , like make an album of all ELO songs . And I do so much less promotion than other people do , like people who are more prominent and famous . So I should probably not complain .
IE : Just watching project promotion from a major TV network perspective ; first , you ’ ll see Artist X discussing their timely new work on a flagship morning show , usually with pop-fluff questions , before said performer pops up – in a different stylist-chosen outfit – on a proceeding talk show , then a second one , often answering the exact same queries , before closing out their New York publicity run with an appearance on the network ’ s nighttime program , perhaps with an uncomfortably inappropriate Game Concept tacked on . And you rarely hear any really remarkcontinues on page 22