← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
'Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO' (Listening Party)
00:22:07
Singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield joins us for a Listening Party of her latest tribute album, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO.
Loading summary
Transcript60 lines
- [00:00]
Michael's Store Announcer
Attention party people. You're officially invited to the party Shop at Michael's where you'll find hundreds of new Items starting at 99 cents with an expanded selection of party wear, balloons with helium included on select styles, decorations and more. Michaels is your one stop shop for celebrating everything from birthdays to bachelorette parties and baby showers to golden anniversaries. Visit Michaels store or michaels.com today to supply your next party.
- [00:27]
Radio Listener/Caller
I'm going to put you on, nephew.
- [00:29]
David Fuerst (Host)
All right, unc.
- [00:30]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?
- [00:32]
Radio Listener/Caller
Been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.
- [00:43]
Marshall's Store Announcer
Oh my gosh. Have you been to Marshall's lately? They have all the brand name and designer pieces you love, but without the jaw dropping price tags. Alright, so here's the truth. You should never have to compromise between quality and price. And at Marshall's, you don't have to. Marshalls believes everyone deserves access to the good stuff and that's why their buyers hustle around the clock to make it happen for you. Visit a Marshalls store near you or shop online@marshalls.com.
- [01:15]
Radio Listener/Caller
Listener support WNYC Studios.
- [01:29]
David Fuerst (Host)
This is all of It. I'm David Fuerst filling in for Alison Stewart. And here's some new music that you might not be able to get out of your head.
- [01:49]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
Midnight on the water I saw.
- [02:04]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
The.
- [02:05]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
Ocean'S daughter Walking on the wave Shaking, staring as she called my name and I can't get it out of my head no I can't get it out of my head now my whole world is gone for.
- [02:44]
David Fuerst (Host)
That'S our next guest singer, songwriter Juliana Hatfield performing Can't Get it out of My Head, originally by the Electric Light Orchestra, way better known as elo. And the song comes from Hatfield's latest album, accurately titled Juliana Hatfield sings ELO. It's Hatfield's third covers album, a practice that she started in 2018 with Juliana Hatfield sings Olivia Newton John and followed up with Juliana Hatfield sings the Police. And she's going to be performing at City Winery coming up in late January. But she joins us right now for an All of it listening party. Welcome to all of It, Juliana Hatfield.
- [03:23]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Hi, how are you? How is everyone?
- [03:26]
David Fuerst (Host)
Great. And it's a treat to have you with us. This is your third covers album after, as I mentioned, Olivia Newton John in 2018, the police in 2019. You've also been recording lots of your own material during all of that time. But what got you into this covers career almost 30 years into your recording career?
- [03:49]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Well, I think, like a lot of artists who write, I've always been, you know, once in a while I'll play a cover live or I'll record a cover. I would record a cover live. And I think it's just. It's just fun and interesting to explore other people's music. And when I decided to make the whole first album of covers, which was Olivia Newton John, I think I was just thinking about her a lot because I'd loved her all of my life, and her. She had been on this journey of cancer coming back and then going away and coming back, and her cancer came back. And so I was thinking about her a lot. I saw that she was coming to play on tour, and a friend of mine went to go see her, and it was the first time I'd ever seen her on tour. And that was wonderful. And then. So then I was just listening to all her music again. And at that moment, I thought it would be a great project for me to pay tribute to my love for her, my lifelong love for her at that moment, you know, and it was the first and possibly last concert that I might ever get to see of hers. And, yeah, I just had Olivia on the brain, and that's how the first one happened. And it was. It ended up being very fulfilling for me.
- [05:04]
David Fuerst (Host)
That's really interesting. Did you always picture it turning into a series or. It really didn't start that way.
- [05:10]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
No, I never thought of it past, you know, the first album, the Olivia album. I wasn't thinking past that at all. I just wanted to do that as well as I could. And then, like I said, it was so fulfilling. Very challenging and yet fulfilling. And it seemed not to piss anyone off. You know, I think all of her fan, a lot of her fans were cool with it and even maybe liked it. And I think that some people who were not fans of hers kind of liked my versions. So it was just all around. It was a great experience for me. And then after that, I made another album of originals of mine, and then I wanted to do covers again. And then I decided the Police would be good. And then it just became something I want to keep. I want to keep doing it in between. I'll make an album of originals in between. And that seems to be the pattern now. Covers, originals, covers, originals.
- [06:08]
David Fuerst (Host)
And so why ELO this time? You've kind of crossed that Xanadu bridge from Olivia Newton John to elo. They both appear on that soundtrack, of course.
- [06:19]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Yes. And I recorded the song Xanadu for the Olivia Newton John record. And as you know, ELO is backing Olivia Newton John on that particular song, Xanadu. But at the time I was recording it, I wasn't really thinking ahead to recording any ELO proper. I was just thinking, this is such a great song, you know, and ELO is amazing. This song is amazing. And then I did the Police album, and then I was kind of planning on doing Remote. And I keep talking about this publicly, so I don't know if I should, because I ended up not doing the REM album. I was thinking of it, and I was researching and I was planning and choosing songs, and then I decided REM's too. A little bit too daunting at this moment. For me. It's just like there's such a deep, wide bread. Bread width of material that I was not familiar with. I think I was. I'm very familiar with the first half of their discography. And then there's a lot of blank spots later. So I was gonna have to do a lot of listening anyway. The long, long story short, shorter, is that when I kind of became overwhelmed with the idea of REM at that moment, I thought, elo, why not elo? It really was like a whim. It just kind of. The idea popped into my mind.
- [07:50]
David Fuerst (Host)
I love it. Yeah, I mean, I'm interested to hear what you wanted to do with the ELO's music. You know, the chief singer, songwriter, guitarist, architect of ELO is Jeff Lynn. And his sound is so identifiable. Right. This layered mix of vocal harmonies, synthesizers, and strings just filled with pop hooks. Can you talk about what you wanted to do with these songs?
- [08:15]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Well, I'm not a very conceptually. I'm not very conceptual, so I tend to just dive into things without thinking too much. I'm very intuitive in that way. I think that's the only way I would really have the guts to take on projects like this. Because if I really thought about. In the beginning, if I thought about the genius of Jeff Lynn's production techniques and all of the instrumentation, you know, if I was. If I were thinking about that initially, I think I would just. It would be too scary and overwhelming to dive in. So I think I just focus on. I'm thinking about that. The hooks that you were. That you mentioned, I think about all the wonderful hooks and all the wonderful harmonies, and, you know, the material is so strong. And that gives me the confidence that I will be able to make something of my own out of it, you know, if the songwriting weren't there underneath all the production jazz, you know, I. I wouldn't have anything to work with. So, yeah, I just take the. The hooks and the melodies. That's kind of what I start with. And then I. I kind of. I. I break it down. I. I play a song on guitar, acoustic guitar, and I sing it a bunch of times, just me and an acoustic guitar, and I kind of come up with my own feel a little bit. And the melodies may change a little bit as I sing them over and over again, but it's just about trying to become comfortable, and it's. Until the songs kind of start to feel like my own in a way, and then I go from there.
- [09:59]
David Fuerst (Host)
Let's listen to a little bit of another song. This is an absolute yellow classic. This is Telephone Line.
- [10:25]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
Hello. How are you? Have you been all right through all those Lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely yes, that's what I say I tell you everything if you pick up that telephone yeah, yeah, yeah hey, how you feeling?
- [10:59]
David Fuerst (Host)
Oh, I just want to play the whole thing. I love just talking about the choice at the very beginning. I love how you synced up. The old phone is off the hook sound perfectly with the rhythm of the song at the top. That's a detail not even Jeff Lynn took advantage of in the original.
- [11:16]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Well, you know, I have to give credit to the guy who mixed the songs, Pat DeSenzo. He. I didn't. I recorded that. I have a landline still, and that is the sound of my childhood. And with this music, I was kind of going back to my childhood, but I didn't know how to sync it up, so Pat did it. I told Pat to sync it up, and he did that for me.
- [11:38]
David Fuerst (Host)
That's a great detail. And you absolutely. We'll hear more of it as we're playing more music, but you absolutely nail all of these layered, airtight Jeff Lynn harmonies, and it just sounds like pure fun. But how challenging was that to sort out and to sing and perform?
- [11:57]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Well, I have to say that I'm not. I don't think I'm copying exactly all of his particular vocal harmony lines. I'm kind of taking. I'm picking and choosing. I'm using some of his. I did this on all his songs. I. I take some of his harmonies, but then I kind of change them around a little bit to suit my own vocal range and my own. Just like my. My whims again. But. Sorry, I forget the rest of your question.
- [12:26]
David Fuerst (Host)
That's perfectly okay. I just. The harmonies are so great throughout this collection.
- [12:31]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Yeah, it was. And it was fun. It's so. It's so much fun.
- [12:35]
David Fuerst (Host)
Oh, that's good to hear.
- [12:36]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
That's kind of my. I feel like that's my specialty is vocal harmonies. I feel like I could. Like, I kind of. My dream job would be providing vocal harmonies for people. I would love to travel around and just, like, layer. Stack vocal harmonies on top of their lead vocals. That's so. It's. But it's. It's fun, but it's also, like, challenging in the way that a puzzle or a math problem is challenging because, you know, there's, like. It's, you know, once you have two or three vocal harmonies, then it becomes, you know, adding more. After that, it becomes a real puzzle. Like, how do I fit in notes? How do I find notes that aren't there yet? And how do I fit them in with what's already there?
- [13:14]
David Fuerst (Host)
We're speaking with Juliana Hatfield here on all of it on wnyc, and you mentioned that the back and forth that. That you have going on right between albums of original material and these covers albums, is there something therapeutic about playing and singing these songs like the covers? Is this, on some level, a way to recharge between your albums of original material? You've been tackling some tough topics since the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Your albums, Pussycat, Weird and Blood, each one was followed by one of these covers projects.
- [13:51]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Yeah. And all three of those of those albums are. They are pretty dark. And. And so, yes, doing the covers albums in between my own dark albums, it's dark thematically. It is a kind of escape escapism for me to go into these songs from my youth that gave me so much joy and, you know, pleasure when I was growing up and listening to the AM radio and still all. All this. That stuff still thrills me whenever. And whenever I listen to Olivia John or elo, It's. It has the same spark for me. Like nothing. Nothing is lost for me. It's all still so wonderful. So, yeah, it's escaping from the realities of life, I think. But it's also. Whenever I make a covers album, it's also very much a big challenge for me. It's not easy. It's. It's, you know, because you want. One wants to respect the original. You know, I don't want to make a mockery of anything. And then you also want to make something new out of it, but you don't want to be trying so hard that it sounds inauthentic. You know, I want it to feel like my own. So it's. It's definitely, definitely challenging, but it's also a wonderful escape from the realities of adult life.
- [15:12]
David Fuerst (Host)
And then you have to pick, you know, which songs are you going to cover? There's, you know, there's only a limited number. There are 10 songs on this album. You've got some of the. The big hits from ELO's heyday, like Don't Bring Me Down, Can't Get it out of My Head, Telephone Line. You've also got some deeper cuts like Bluebird Is Dead, songs from lesser known albums like Time and Secret Messages, and I want to play a little bit of this one. This is one of the deeper cuts. Ordinary Dream from the fantastic 2001 album Zoom. This is your take.
- [15:53]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
I couldn't really understand it. All the writing on the wall from you to me. A jigsaw puzzle of a twisted tale. That said it's lonely sail from you to me. Cause I tried to get the message but it's not understood why they fall in so far away. It mattered at the start Until I realized it's dead. A flying, a troubled sky. Watching you as you go back in an ordinary dream. I'm sailing on a troubled sea. Watching you as you watch me in an ordinary dream.
- [16:59]
David Fuerst (Host)
That's just a little bit of ordinary Dream. Juliana Hatfield's take. Is that one of the real kind of pleasures of getting to do an album like this, that you could introduce people to a song like that that perhaps slipped through the cracks?
- [17:14]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Yes. And I really hope that people will. People will check out the ELO version of that song in that album, Zoom, because it's such a wonderful song. And I was completely unaware of this album, Zoom, until I started working on my album of ELO songs. I discovered all these albums that I didn't know, like albums from this millennium, you know, and. Or. And from the 80s, you know, the stuff that I never listened to, so. And it's so great to know that Jeff Lynn hasn't lost any of his musical power. You know, he's still totally on top of.
- [17:56]
David Fuerst (Host)
Oh, man, Zoom is just packed.
- [17:59]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Yeah, it's great.
- [18:01]
David Fuerst (Host)
And I have to. Julianne, I have to read you this. We just got a text. Someone. This is from Helen in New Jersey saying, just wanted you to know that the name of that hook sound. Helen says, I worked for the telephone company for years. It's called the Howler Tone. So there you go.
- [18:16]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Howler Tone.
- [18:18]
David Fuerst (Host)
I can't verify. Helen says it's called the Howler Tone. So now we know that sounds like a potential future song name for you.
- [18:25]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Yeah, Howler Tone. That's great to know. Thank you.
- [18:29]
David Fuerst (Host)
Thank you for that. Helen and I want to play. Let's play a little back and forth right now, very quickly. If we have. I think we have time for this. Let's listen to a little bit of one of elo's really big signature hits. This is their take, the original version of Don't Bring Me Down.
- [19:00]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
You got me running Going out of my mind you got me thinking that I'm wasting my time don't bring me down no, no, no, no.
- [19:14]
David Fuerst (Host)
And let's hear Juliana Hatfield's version from Juliana Hatfield sings elo.
- [19:34]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
You got me running Going out of my mind you got me thinking that I'm wasting my time don't bring. No, no, no, no, no. I'll tell you what's more, before I get off the floor, don't beat me.
- [19:55]
David Fuerst (Host)
Down and Jewel, I'd love to hear some of your thoughts about how you wanted to tackle this song. But just to talk a little bit about Jeff Lynn, the songwriter, right. We talked about how his sounds are so recognizable. There's a certain sound. He's been a big producer as well, for Tom Petty, George Harrison, Regina Spector, Dave Edmonds, Traveling Wilburys. There's a certain Jeff Lynn signature sound. But what do you think the magic is of Jeff Lynn as a songwriter?
- [20:26]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
Well, part of it for me is just the sound of his voice. It's such a. Well, iconic, but it's more per. It's more simple than that. It's really just like something in his voice really goes to some spot in me that make. It makes so much sense. It's like a. It's like a drug or something, you know, void. A voice that hits me like the best drug in the world. Not that I've ever taken many drugs, you know, it's like. It's something you can't really put your finger on why it hits, why it feels so good. But his voice has that effect of me, like, God, I love that voice. And when he stacks them in harmonies, it's like even that much more of the drug. It's. It's like so great. But he. He's just like. He has a knack, you know, he has a knack for writing these songs that are so well constructed and yet they seem so simple and they're not overworked. They're not. I know people think of him as this, you know, genius in the studio, but I think that there's a lightness to, to a breeziness to the feel of a lot of his stuff that I think it's deceptively. I think it seems like maybe it's more complicated than it really is. And I think that he doesn't do a billion takes of everything. I feel like a lot of it has a lightness that maybe, maybe means there were not a ton of takes and it's kind of fresh, fresh sounding.
- [21:53]
David Fuerst (Host)
Well, I have so many more questions I want to ask you, but just as we wrap up, what's next for you? An album of new material. Then what do you think? Another covers album? What might be get we get maybe that REM collection.
- [22:07]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
It's possible. I am working on an album of originals right now. So that's what I'm focusing on. And when that's done, I will get to work on another covers album. And I mean, I keep talking about REM I probably shouldn't because if I end up not doing it, I'll just.
- [22:22]
David Fuerst (Host)
Be like, you're setting yourself up here.
- [22:25]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
I'll be the girl who cried REM.
- [22:29]
David Fuerst (Host)
The girl who cried REM well, luckily we have the brand new album. Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO this is real. And you're going to be coming to City Winery here in New York in January. You're going to be there on January 28th. And as we wrap up today, let's hear some more music from your new album, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO thank you so much for joining us today on.
- [22:52]
Juliana Hatfield (Interviewee)
All of was great to be here. Thank.
- [23:28]
Michael's Store Announcer
Attention party people. You're officially invited to the party shop at Michael's where you'll find hundreds of new Items starting at 99 cents with an expanded selection of party wear, balloons with helium included on select styles, decorations and more. Michaels is your one stop shop for celebrating everything from birthdays to bachelorette parties and baby showers to golden anniversaries. Visit Michaels store or michaels.com today to supply your next party.
- [23:55]
Radio Listener/Caller
I'm gonna put you on nephew.
- [23:56]
David Fuerst (Host)
All right, unc.
- [23:57]
Singer Juliana Hatfield (performing songs)
Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?
- [23:59]
Radio Listener/Caller
I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.