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Juliana Hatfield swung by to talk with Kyle Meredith about Lightning Might Strike, her 20th album and one of her most revealing yet. Written during a year that saw major loss, depression, and a move from her longtime city apartment to a quiet house in the woods, the record finds Hatfield turning personal rubble into power-pop gold. Listen to the episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
If Hatfield sounds unusually direct on these songs, it’s because she was writing from the eye of the storm. “I felt like I was having a long, slow nervous breakdown,” she says. The honesty runs through tracks like “Falls Apart,” “Ashes,” and “Constant Companion,” which were often written on the fly as she recorded. “The music comes easy, but the lyrics take longer,” she admits. “I’ll just stop mid-take to fill in the melodies with words.” Even the deceptively sunny “Popsicle” — which she says is “actually about my mind melting, not nostalgia” — shows how she counterbalances heaviness with crunchy, upbeat chords.
Living alone in the woods gave her freedom but also slowed her process down. “The technology drains me, so sometimes I’m only good for an hour of work a day,” she says. Still, Lightning Might Strike arrived right on time, and she’s already thinking about what’s next — including the next chapter of her covers series. “R.E.M. is who I want to do next,” she reveals. Through it all, Hatfield stays grounded about her past and present: “I think of my musical persona as its own creature,” she says. “It’s outside of myself, and I’m still fascinated by it.”
Listen to Juliana Hatfield talk about Lightning Might Strike, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.
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