Juliana Hatfield

Juliana Hatfield ranks among the enduring figures from the alternative rock period, a vocalist and composer whose steady output has yielded an eclectic and bold body of recordings. She launched her path in the late 1980s fronting Blake Babies, a Boston-based college rock trio whose contemporaries included Pixies, Throwing Muses, and Lemonheads. Hatfield stepped out alone in 1992 with her first solo album, Hey Babe, timed to the moment alternative rock surged commercially. Visibility followed quickly through features on Sassy and Spin covers, placement in MTV's Buzz Bin, guest spots on My So-Called Life and The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and the inclusion of "Spin the Bottle" on the soundtrack to Ben Stiller's Gen-X romantic comedy Reality Bites. That grungy pop number came from the Juliana Hatfield Three, whose 1993 album Become What You Are marked her initial major-label release. The 1995 solo effort Only Everything, which yielded the modest chart success "Universal Heartbeat," closed out her time with a major. Across the subsequent three decades she stayed rooted in independent circles, issuing a run of exploratory and emotionally direct albums across multiple labels. While frequently working alone, she also joined forces with various groups, reviving both Blake Babies and the Juliana Hatfield Three, pairing with ex-Blake Baby Freda Love in Some Girls during 2003, forming Minor Alps alongside Nada Surf's Matthew Caws in 2013, and drawing Paul Westerberg into the I Don't Cares in 2016. With time her output turned more explicitly political on 2017's Pussycat and 2021's Blood, a direction she balanced by honoring influences through tribute albums that began with Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John and reached 2023's Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO.

Hatfield grew up in an upper-middle-class Massachusetts household where her father practiced medicine and her mother served as a fashion editor at The Boston Globe. Piano lessons began in childhood, and high-school years included guitar work in the cover band the Squids before alternative rock entered through the Velvet Underground. After graduation she enrolled at Boston's Berklee College of Music to study voice. There she encountered guitarist John Strohm and drummer Freda Boner, forming the Blake Babies in 1986. Over the next six years the band's engaging jangle pop earned steady college-radio attention. Hatfield exited in 1990, after which Strohm and Boner started Antenna.

Right after leaving the Blake Babies, Hatfield supplied several lyrics to Susanna Hoffs' first album. The next year she played bass on the Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray, which became the group's commercial breakthrough. That success in 1992 heightened interest in Hatfield's solo debut, Hey Babe. Issued on Mammoth Records, the record echoed the Blake Babies sound yet carried more intimate and confessional material. Critical acclaim followed, along with college-radio and MTV traction that secured an Atlantic contract.

In 1992 Hatfield assembled the Juliana Hatfield Three with bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Phillips; the trio cut its Atlantic debut under R.E.M. producer Scott Litt. During the sessions Hatfield attracted minor media notice, her songs viewed as approachable, listener-friendly expressions of the feminist alternative-rock wave known as riot grrrl. Fashion spreads in Vogue and Sassy appeared, accompanied by tabloid speculation about a romance with Lemonhead Evan Dando and her own statement that she remained a virgin at age 25. Amid such coverage, many anticipated that the 1993 album Become What You Are would deliver mainstream success. A denser effort than its predecessor, it achieved moderate sales as "My Sister" and "Spin the Bottle" received frequent MTV and modern-rock airplay, though the set stopped short of star-making impact.

Only Everything arrived in spring 1995 just as alternative rock's commercial peak began to fade. Reviews were uneven, and only "Universal Heartbeat" gained notable radio or MTV traction, after which the album slid quickly from the charts. Hatfield resurfaced in 1997 with the EP Please Do Not Disturb and issued the full-length Bed the following year. Spring 2000 proved active: she released the introspective solo album Beautiful Creature alongside Total System Failure, a louder and pop-oriented collection, on the same day. Total System Failure introduced the trio Juliana's Pony—comprising Hatfield, former Weezer bassist Mike Welsh, and drummer Zephan Courtney—in the mold of the Juliana Hatfield Three.

Her subsequent undertaking revisited an earlier chapter: a 2000 reunion with Freda Love and John Strohm produced a Blake Babies tour and the album God Bless the Blake Babies. The reunion proved brief, yet Hatfield and Love persisted in the group Some Girls, which also included Heidi Gluck of the Pieces. Some Girls delivered the 2002 LP Feel It and undertook moderate touring.

Hatfield then resumed solo work. The 2004 album In Exile Deo arrived as an unexpected highlight, ranking among her most assured and seasoned efforts after years of varied projects. That maturity extended into 2005's Made in China, a stark and unfiltered set she produced herself and released on her own Ye Olde imprint, paired with the Sittin' in a Tree... EP recorded alongside Boston alt-country band Frank Smith. Live recordings appeared as The White Broken Line: Live Recordings, and 2008 brought two releases: the solo album How I Walk Away and the memoir When I Grow Up: A Memoir, which chronicled her peaks and valleys over decades in music.

In 2010 she issued another solo album, the self-produced Peace & Love, again on Ye Olde. For the next record she turned to supporters, using Pledge Music to fund the project and directing part of the proceeds to animal shelters. There's Always Another Girl emerged in 2011. Two further Pledge Music LPs followed within two years—an untitled covers collection in 2012 and Wild Animals in 2013—before she formed the duo Minor Alps with Matthew Caws of Nada Surf. Afterward she reconvened the Juliana Hatfield Three for Whatever, My Love, the group's first album in 22 years, which appeared in February 2015. Following a 2016 collaboration with Paul Westerberg in the I Don't Cares, she returned in 2017 with the politically focused Pussycat.

Early in 2018 Hatfield honored Olivia Newton-John—the first pop star she had admired—with Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John. A year later came Weird, a celebration of reclusive living. At the close of 2019 she released her second covers album, Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police. In May 2021 she issued Blood, recorded at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Her third tribute set, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, arrived in 2023.