Juliana Hatfield wasn’t even planning a new album, but then Donald Trump got elected President, and everything changed. If anyone questions whether the musical world could rise to the occasion and create thoughtful art in response, 2017 should erase those doubts. “I wasn’t planning on making a record,” says Juliana Hatfield. “All of these songs just started pouring out of me. And I felt an urgency to record them, to get them down, and get them out there.”
Hatfield was inspired and even played all the instruments besides the drums. She also produced the album and recorded it 12 and a half days, lending vital energy and purpose to the music. “It was a blur. It was cathartic,” says Hatfield. “I almost don’t even understand what happened in there, or how it came together so smoothly, so quickly. I was there, directing it all, managing it, getting it all done, but I was being swept along by some force that was driving and controlling me. The songs had a will, they forced themselves on me, or out of me, and I did what they told me to do. Even my hands — it felt like they were not my hands. I played bass differently — looser, more confident, better.”
“Impossible Song” is the new single from the upcoming album and it’s a plea for cooperation and understanding. “Why don’t we try to get along / Singing an impossible song.” Indeed. The beautiful thing is that Hatfield never comes across as preachy, rather she’s coming from a purely humanitarian perspective, which we could use more of at the moment.
Hatfield says, “the USA is so incredibly divided right now. It seems like an unsolvable problem like it’s impossible for any of us to understand the other side’s point of view. It takes a real effort to be civil, and it’s almost easier just to fight and hate each other. But we will all probably, at some point, someday, find ourselves depending on the kindness of strangers and I would hope that if some guy whose politics I hate keels over in the middle of the street in front of me, I’d rush to help pull him to safety before he gets run over. And if a guy who doesn’t believe what I believe walks by a burning building and sees me trapped inside, I hope he’ll try to rescue me. We’re all human, bad and good. I don’t have any answers. All I have is music.”
Hatfield’s new album Pussycat releases April 28th via American Laundromat Records just days after she launches her US tour on April 23rd. The record is now available for pre-order.