Juliana Hatfield

Never afraid to wrestle her personal demons into songs, Juliana Hatfield has carved out an impressive musical career with her brand of self analysis. From her work with indie darlings the Blake Babies and her critically acclaimed solo albums (beginning with 1992’s Hey Babe), to last year’s Some Girls side project, Hatfield has won fans with songs that blend bright, infectious melodies with lyrics drawn from life’s chaos and confusion. While her latest album continues to mine that dark yet appealing vein, In Exile Deo also represents a breaking of new ground for the popular and influential singer-songwriter.

“I’ve always been pretty confused about love and life,” admits Hatfield, with typically refreshing candor. “But I’ve been digging deep into myself and my past to get to the bottom of things and I’m beginning to understand things much better.” She adds: “Before, I was completely unaware of what I was doing—I was just this idiot savant, spitting out these songs that I wasn’t really thinking about. Now, I’m more aware of what I’m saying and have more control over what I’m thinking. And the self awareness is making me a more confident songwriter and performer.”

Some of the songs on In Exile Deo examine dysfunctional, even destructive tendencies. The urgent opening “Get in Line” reflects the wounded protagonist’s raw vulnerability, while the shuffling “Forever” finds the narrator failing to break bad habits and depressing behavioral patterns. And the title character in the pulsing “Jamie’s in Town” represents the side of oneself that withdraws when the going gets tough. “I crawl into my cave with bloodshot eyes,” sings Hatfield, “little sugar pills to ease my mind.”

Other numbers serve as cautionary tales or wistful admissions of past regret. The soaring pop of “Some Rainy Sunday,” featuring a mellifluous chorus and surging organ fills, looks back on the lingering emotions of a former relationship—a theme also explored on “It Should Have Been You.” Meanwhile, the humorous “Dirty Dog,” about personal boundaries, and the sad “Singing in the Shower,” about a 40-year-old man’s midlife crisis, act as warning signs for what can lay ahead in life.

But in stark contrast to those sobering messages, several songs rank among Hatfield’s most positive compositions. The chiming “Tourist” is a self-affirming anthem, while the driving “Don’t Let Me Down” expresses an admirable resolve. And the upbeat, piano-laced pop of “Sunshine” basks in a joyous, giddy optimism, as Hatfield sings, “I’ve been sleeping through my life, now I’m waking up and I want to stand in the sunshine.”

Now 36, Hatfield has clearly had some revelations about both life and her art. “Time and age only add richness to the whole endeavor,” she says. “As long as you have something to say artistically, personal growth deepens what you’re doing creatively. For me, it was coming to terms with the fact that it’s a personal choice to get your life together and become happy, or else let it continue to run its own, screwed-up course. I could either end up like the guy in ‘Singing in the Shower,’ or take a chance and struggle and try and turn it around for the better.” The 13 songs on In Exile Deo were written and produced by Hatfield herself, except for “Jamie’s In Town” and “Sunshine,” which were co-produced by David Leonard (Avril Lavigne, John Mellencamp, Shawn Colvin). Dave Way (Sheryl Crow, Macy Gray, India Arie), and Dave Cooke (B-52s, Nick Cave, Graham Parker) mixed the remainder of the album. Her musical collaborators include keyboardist Peter Adams, bassist Josh Lattanzi and drummers Damon Richardson and Steve Scully. Hatfield’s sound was further enhanced by Jill Kurtz’s surging blues harp and Gary Burke’s dreamy string arrangements.

Hatfield first emerged on the pop scene with Boston-based college radio favorites the Blake Babies, teamed with John Strohm and Freda Love. After going solo, Hatfield garnered widespread critical acclaim with solo albums like Hey Babe, Become What You Are, Bed and Beautiful Creature, and such radio-friendly tunes as “My Sister,” “Supermodel,” “Addicted,” “Universal Heartbeat” and “Everybody Loves Me But You.” Meanwhile, her popular song “Spin the Bottle” was featured on the million-selling Reality Bites soundtrack.

With In Exile Deo, the celebrated confessional singer-songwriter admits that she’s reached a creative turning point. Says Hatfield: “I’d always clung to my music because I was so desperate—it was my lifeboat. I always felt that music was some kind of weird knack that I had, that I somehow didn’t deserve.” She adds: “Now I feel like I’m in partnership with my music, that we’re equals, and I’m finally worthy of it. It’s as if I’ve reached the point where I feel I deserve to make music and it’s a beautiful thing.”

After Juliana Hatfield disbanded the jangle pop trio the Blake Babies in 1990, she launched a solo career, performing similarly melodic indie guitar pop. Singing in an endearingly thin voice, Hatfield married her ringing hooks to sweet, lovelorn pop and startlingly honest confessional songs. Her 1992 solo debut, Hey Babe, became a college radio hit, and its follow-up, 1994's Become What You Are, was primed to become a crossover success in the wake of the commercialization of alternative rock. Although Hatfield had a handful of modern rock hits, including "Spin the Bottle," she never managed to gain the mainstream audience of peers like the Lemonheads did, and by the late '90s, she had settled into a cult following.

Hatfield was raised in an upper-middle-class home in Massachusetts; her father was a doctor and her mother was a fashion editor for The Boston Globe. As a child, she learned how to play piano, and during high school, she played guitar in a covers group called the Squids before discovering alternative rock through the Velvet Underground. Following high school, she attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied voice. While at Berklee, she met guitarist John Strohm and drummer Freda Boner, with whom she formed the Blake Babies in 1986. Over the next six years, the Blake Babies and their charming jangle pop became college radio favorites. Hatfield left the band in 1990, and Strohm and Boner formed Antenna.

Immediately following her departure from the Blake Babies, Hatfield contributed several lyrics to Susanna Hoffs' debut album. The following year, she played bass on the Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray, which turned out to be the band's commercial breakthrough. The success of It's a Shame About Ray in 1992 stirred interest in Hatfield's solo debut, Hey Babe. Released on Mammoth Records, the album was very similar to the Blake Babies, yet the songs were more personal and confessional. Hey Babe was critically praised and became a college radio and MTV hit, leading to a major-label contract for Hatfield with Atlantic.

In 1992, Hatfield formed the Juliana Hatfield Three with bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Phillips, and the group recorded its debut for Atlantic with R.E.M.'s producer, Scott Litt. As she worked on the record, Hatfield became a minor media sensation; her songs were accepted as friendly, more accessible distillations of the feminist alternative rock movement known as riot grrrl. Hatfield appeared in fashion layouts in Vogue and Sassy, and she became the subject of gossipy tidbits about her speculated romance with Lemonhead Evan Dando and her assertion that she was still a virgin at the age of 25. In light of such exposure, many observers expected her 1993 album Become What You Are to be her mainstream breakthrough. A heavier record than its predecessor, Become What You Are was a moderate hit, as "My Sister" and "Spin the Bottle" earned heavy airplay on MTV and modern rock radio. Nevertheless, the album failed to make her a star.

Only Everything followed in the spring of 1995 as alternative rock was beginning to decline in popularity. The album was received with mixed reviews, and only "Universal Heartbeat" managed to make much headway on radio or MTV, causing the album to slip down the charts quickly. Hatfield returned in 1997 with the EP Please Do Not Disturb, followed a year later by the full-length Bed. Spring 2000 was a busy time for Hatfield; she released the quiet, reflective solo album Beautiful Creature and Total System Failure, a collection of louder, poppier material, on the same day. Total System Failure featured Hatfield, former Weezer bassist Mike Welsh, and drummer Zephan Courtney as a new band, Juliana's Pony, which was a trio along the lines of the Juliana Hatfield Three.

Hatfield's next project was a return to one of her first: she reunited with Freda Love and John Strohm in 2000, launching a Blake Babies tour and recording an album entitled God Bless the Blake Babies. The reunion was short-lived, but Hatfield and Love continued to work together in a group called Some Girls, which also featured Heidi Gluck (the Pieces). Some Girls put out the Feel It LP in 2002 and also did a moderate amount of touring. After that, it was back to the solo game for Hatfield. 2004's In Exile Deo was a bit of a surprise, however, since after all her restlessness it was easily one of her strongest, most mature albums to date. That mature streak continued with 2005's Made in China, a raw and direct effort that she produced herself and put out through her own Ye Olde imprint, as well as the Sittin' in a Tree... EP, which was recorded alongside the Boston-based alt-country band Frank Smith. A collection of live recordings called The White Broken Line: Live Recordings followed, and 2008 saw the release of two Hatfield products: first, a solo album entitled How I Walk Away, and second, an autobiography detailing her highs and lows throughout multiple decades of music-making. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide