Why do you think I'm a depressed little girl? a Feature by kylie (Kylie Higgins) Talkin' guitars, god and depression with Juliana Hatfield. Juliana Hatfield Obviously she's been using her Macleans. (submitted by kylie.) What have you been up to today? Well, we flew from Sydney to Melbourne, had some lunch and bought some books and clothes. What books did you buy? Well, it's just one book - The Perfect Storm. It's a true story about a hurricane that happened, I think off the coast of Massachusetts and I'm really into storms, I love storms. I was reading before that people haven't asked you about guitars and guitar playing, so let's say that I want to buy my first guitar. How should I go about it? I'll tell you how I got my first guitar. I bought a guitar that looked exactly like my hero's guitar. Who was your hero? I used to be in love with this band called The Replacements. They played on this television show once and he (Paul Westerberg) was playing this black guitar and a couple of days later I saw a black guitar that looked just like it. It was cheap, so I bought it. What do you think about the guitars that are coming out now like Kurt's Jagstang and Courtney's Vista Venus? Would you buy something like that? I don't really go for guitars that have people's names. I like the old standbys like Gibsons, Les Pauls, really reliable sturdy guitars like that. Why did you write a column for Guitar World? They asked me to, and I thought it would be fun to show people where my ideas come from so the process doesn't seem so daunting. I just wanted to show people that ideas can come in many ways. How is the new material that you're releasing and working on different to the older stuff? Well, it's more . . . there are more colours involved, because I'm not doing all the guitar playing on the new recordings. I've gotten some different people to add their creativity on guitar and it's just more eclectic, and goes to more different places. Why are you planning on calling your new album Gods Foot? I just think it's a really cool image. It conjures up so many different thoughts in my head. It's a phrase that I took out of Moby Dick and it just makes you think of a lot of different things. Staying with the religion thing, there was mention of you in a Ms. Magazine article about a group called "True Love Waits" that is based in America. Their main mission is to have people stay virgins until they get married. It was mentioned in the article that one of the main reasons why people are doing it now is that people like yourself have been role models. How do you feel about that? Well, for one thing, I don't believe in marriage, so I could never belong to that group. I don't believe in marriage so I couldn't believe in waiting to have sex until I got married. I think it's silly. I think that each person has to make their own choices depending on how they feel. Some people have sex when they're younger and some people just aren't ready and they wait. Everyone's different. I don't think it's a bit deal, and it's nothing to do with religion. It's a personal moral issue. What do you think of the new releases of people that you've worked previously with, such as John Strohm (from the Blake Babies, Juliana's old band). I haven't heard John's album yet, but I'm a big fan of his songwriting, and his guitar playing. He's very talented. The drummer in the Blake Babies - her new band is called The Mysteries Of Life and I think they're really good. They're going to open some shows on my next tour in the US. I think the Lemonheads are really good - Evan's a really great songwriter. What other stuff have you been listening to? I been listening to a band called Third Eye Blind. Have you heard of them? Yeah I have (one of the bands currently being flogged on JJJ). I've been listening to their record, and I'm kinda obsessed with it. I'm loving it. What do you like about it? It doesn't fit into any one kind of genre. It's got like . . . you can tell it's been inspired by so many things. Lyrically it's full of life, that's what I love about it. (I start laughing) What's so funny? I was thinking that it seems so different to you. Often you're talking or singing about death, and depression and suicide and the down side of things and to hear you talking about this cool record that's so full of life - it's like you've changed. Why do you think I'm a depressed little girl? Why would you think that? What about some of the songs that you've done? Like Nirvana? But that's so happy! It's not a sick song. It's about being inspired to live. What about Kurt Cobain? He seems to have been a real inspiration to you and someone that you really liked. His life wasn't exactly happy and in some instances your life hasn't been happy either. Sometimes you have talked about suicide, being depressed . . . I think that's normal to have those thoughts. It's normal to feel like this world isn't always a nice place. How could you possibly think that everything was great all the time? I think I have a very optimistic attitude and I have a lot of faith and hope that a lot of people don't have, that I guess Kurt didn't have. He ended it. So what are your plans for the future? To put out this album in 1988 sometime. And to tour and get better at singing and playing and writing. To never stop learning the craft of music. We stop recording, and I launch into this conversation with her about the Myers Briggs test - it's a psychological test normally used for recruitment/career purposes to give an idea of what a person is like. You can take a similar test yourself here. The freaky thing is, I'm pretty sure I already know what Juliana's profile is - INFP, same as me, same as Kurt, same as 1% of the population, which has a higher chance of suicide and psychological problems. While it may be normal to have thoughts about suicide, Juliana's nervous breakdown, eating disorder, and her thoughts on suicide (covered brilliantly in the book "Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop & Rap" edited by Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers) for them to be considered normal, it seems to be pushing things a little. Maybe she does have faith and an optimistic attitude. I certainly hope so. Related Web Site Created on Tue, 4 Nov 1997 and last modified on Fri, 27 Feb 1998.

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