Juliana Hatfield’s name is solidified in the world of music. The singer-songwriter and bandleader has over three decades in the indie rock scene with bands like the Blake Babies, Lemonheads, The Juliana Hatfield Three — and let’s not forget all of her work as a solo artist.
Hatfield’s latest musical endeavor has been cover albums entirely devoted to an artist or band. Her first cover album dived into Olivia Newton-John and her latest is "Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police." For Hatfield, the cover albums go beyond a simple appreciation for the songs — she puts her own unique interpretation into them as well as performing all the vocals, guitars, keyboards, and over half of the bass and drums.
Hatfield says she found the combination of The Police's catchy melodies with their deeper and darker subject matters intriguing. She's been a fan of the band since high school, so Hatfield was excited for the challenge of devoting an entire album to deconstructing some of their most famous songs.
"I’m serious about it," says Hatfield. "I’m not recording a cover of a big-hit song just as a goof or as a novelty or for shock value, or for any reason other than I just really want to immerse myself in something that I’m fascinated by ... It's really a celebration of love for something that we all shared then and we can still share now."
Hatfield was recently in Milwaukee on tour and she came by the Lake Effect performance studio to share some acoustic versions of songs from her cover albums:
