For Juliana Hatfield, it’s hard to identify when a song is ready. There’s no formula, no standard applicable to every song. “It’s more like an instinct,” she says. Songs are done when they’re done; some take a few hours to complete and others take years. Crafting each is as much about instinct as it is about art.
Hatfield and an array of local, regional, and nationally recognized singer-songwriters will share the art of song with audiences at The Music Hall and The Music Hall Loft from April 16 to 18 during the annual Portsmouth Singer Songwriter Festival. On Friday at 8 p.m., Hatfield and her band, The Juliana Hatfield Three, will join Buffalo Tom at The Music Hall. Citizen Cope will play a solo acoustic show at the theater on Saturday at 8 p.m.
Local and regional musicians will get some love, too. Prolific Seacoast songwriter Guy Capecelatro III will curate Songwriters in the Round at The Music Hall Loft on Saturday at 5 p.m., with guests Mary Lou Lord, Mark Schwaber, and Drew O’Doherty, all from Massachusetts.
“It’s a nice opportunity to get some people into town who don’t normally play around here,” Capecelatro says. “It’s kind of a dream show for me because I’m fans of all three.”
And, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., young songwriters from the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center will get their own round-robin show at the Loft.
The Sound recently caught up with Hatfield to talk about the craft of songwriting, her new album, “Whatever, My Love,” and why she isn’t listening to music these days.
With the evolution of the music industry in the past 10 years, what has remained constant in your writing and what has changed?
I think I’m just not as desperate to do it as I used to be. When I was younger, I was just a lot more unhappy and depressed and moody, and I think songwriting was a way out of my misery … it was a kind of therapy, like a cathartic way for me to purge feelings that I didn’t know what to do with. Now I’m a happier person. Songwriting isn’t a desperate act anymore. … I don’t do it as often, I don’t write as much material as I used to, and I consider that a healthy development, because for me, songwriting was always like a lifeboat and now I’m just getting along better in life. Which is not to say I don’t still love songwriting, I’m just not doing it constantly anymore.
What goes into writing a good song? How do you know when a song is finished? How do you know when a song’s not working?
It’s hard to explain when you know if a song is done or not done. It’s more like an instinct. … If you’re working on it, and working on it and it’s just not feeling right, it can feel like you’re just beating something into the ground, and it’s really frustrating and sometimes you just have to walk away. Some songs I’ve abandoned, and some songs I’ve come back to. … You just kind of know when it’s done.
Who have you been listening to that inspired some of your new work? Who have you recently admired as a singer-songwriter?
Honestly, I have not been listening to anything. I’m not in music-listening mode these days. I’m more into reading a lot. I’m being really honest when I say that I’m not listening to music, and I haven’t been for a while. … I’ve accepted that I’ve lost a lot of interest in music. I was obsessed with music for a long time and I think at some point I just kind of hit the wall and got tired of it. My ears got tired. I just needed a break and I’m still in that period of needing a rest from listening. I’m very sensitive, and a lot of us artists and musicians are very sensitive people. My literal senses get overwhelmed; my sense of sound gets overloaded and I need to take a break and have some silence. It’s a way to recharge your senses, I think, and isolate them. My ears are resting right now, and maybe someday I’ll go back to listening to music again.
How has reuniting with The Hatfield Three changed the way you perform? Has it been helpful in giving you new perspective?
I’m definitely enjoying myself more back with the old band than I have been in recent years on my own. I think it’s nice to feel like I’m part of a gang again. I feel like it’s me and the two guys (bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Philips). … It takes a lot of the pressure off of me as a solo artist and I don’t have to feel like everything is on my shoulders. I don’t know how people perceive the group, if they see it as me and two guys, or if they see it as three people, but I feel less pressured and it’s really enjoyable to me to have their musical personalities and their personalities really contributing and taking up the slack. Because I feel like I’m boring and they’re really helping to energize the situation. I think I’m boring on my own, and the chemistry with them is great and I think it’s adding to the live show.
The song “Parking Lots” tells a compelling story that evokes vivid emotion. Can you talk about the meaning of the lyrics?
That song was interesting for me and kind of out of the ordinary. I did this series of commissioned songs; I offered to write songs for people for a fee. I did a whole bunch of them. It was a songwriting exercise for me because I was going through a period where I was just feeling really bored and burned out and I had nothing to say, so I reached out to people, the fans, and said Ill write songs to, for, and about you. And so (“Parking Lots”) was one of those commissioned songs. A guy sent me a bunch of stuff about his life, he kind of wrote an abridged life story in a couple of pages, and he sent photographs. He had gone through a series of really traumatic events in his lifetime, he had a bunch of hard knocks, and he came through it with a really great positive attitude, and I thought his story was so interesting. So I took what he sent me and I made a song out of it, and it was really a great process for me to try to do that. His story was so interesting that it made for a really interesting song.
Is there a song on the new record that resonates with you more so than others?
I’m sort of attached to the song “If I Could.” That song has been around for a while. I wrote it quite a few years ago, and I demoed it at least three times, possibly four. I kept recording it over and over and over and it never was quite right. I feel like we finally got a version of it on the new album that I’m happy with. I’m just glad I never abandoned the song.
The Portsmouth Singer Songwriter Festival takes place April 16-18 at The Music Hall and The Music Hall Loft. For tickets and more information, visit themusichall.org.