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For Hatfield, Some Girls is no vanishing act
Sept 17, 2003Take
away the Rolling Stones reference
there are no glitzy,
decadent grooves to be found here
and it's hard to
imagine a more anonymous band name than Some Girls. That
makes Juliana Hatfield very happy.
"I wanted," she
says, "to vanish within a group."
Hatfield
onetime college-radio darling, former almost rock star,
prolific songwriter, and local hero
has formed a female rock trio with former Blake Babies
cohort Freda Love on drums and bassist Heidi Gluck. But it's
hardly a disappearing act. Hatfield's stamp is all over Feel
It, the band's debut: the oddball marriage of her
waifish voice and gritty guitar work, her subversive words
set to bright hooks. The project was, however, a true
if long-distance
collaboration, carried on via mail between Hatfield, who
lives in Cambridge, and Love, at her home base in
Indianapolis.
"Freda and I both put
ideas on cassette tapes," says Hatfield, 35. "We
would send them to each other, add stuff on, and send it
back. We don't think alike, and that's part of why it works.
I don't always know what she's trying to say with her
lyrics, but I feel that it's something meaningful. I can add
on to the mystery without feeling like I have to be so
clear. With my own music I feel like I have to explain
everything."
Hatfield and Love had been
talking about working together for years, and after a brief
Blake Babies reunion in 2000 they decided to continue,
recruiting Love's friend Gluck to play bass. Hatfield
describes the chemistry as natural, if not exactly
effortless.
"I haven't
collaborated with a lot of people," says Hatfield.
"With Evan [Dando, her longtime friend and sometime
bandmate], we never really wrote together because we both
have such strong ideas and songwriting personalities.
There's a prickliness under the love we have for each other.
But Freda's such a wonderfully centered person. It's calming
for me to just be near her, and I think the record has a
more relaxed and bubbly feeling than some of my recent
music."
Recorded in 10 days, Feel
It was self-financed and subsequently licensed by Koch
Records. Some Girls is not, Hatfield emphasizes, trying to
create hits for the masses. Goals are modest: playing great
shows, making another record. Paying for the album
themselves meant limited recording time but plenty of
creative latitude, allowing them to make an album they love
and then offer it to labels on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
Koch inked a two-album deal with the band.
"We signed Some Girls
because we felt strongly about the music," says Bob
Frank, president of Koch Entertainment. "Juliana
Hatfield is an artist with immense talent, and the reunion
with Blake Babies drummer Freda Love made it even more of an
important record."
While Feel It is
largely a collection of stripped-down alt-pop tunes, the
disc closes with a sweet, psychedelic cover of Robert
Johnson's "Malted Milk," a staple of Hatfield's
live shows. Her singing is woozy with feeling.
"I feel such an
affinity for what he's saying, and that might sound strange
because we come from very different places," says
Hatfield. "I know he's probably talking about malt
whiskey, but I've had problems with ice cream. I've eaten
way too much ice cream. It's the idea of being out of
control and feeling like you're [expletive] up and can't
stop yourself."
Hatfield's next solo album
is nearly finished. Some Girls will tour and then return to
the studio next year to record the follow-up to Feel It.
Hatfield is also playing bass in Dando's band and writing
more songs. And trying to decide what to do with her life.
"It's a beautiful
thing to be able to go through life with something wonderful
like music while I figure out what I want to do," she
says. "Some Girls is one experiment. It's a process of
getting closer and closer, and hopefully I'll never reach it
because if you do, what's the point of living?"
Joan
Anderman
Reprinted from the
Boston Globe
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