There have been few interviews in recent memory for which I have been as antsy with anticipation as my meeting with Juliana sparked. I've heard the stories of her being a tough interview and I honestly didn't know what to expect. It's been a few years since she graced the cover of Spin, when her sex life (What? Where? Evan? Ever?) was probed with the voraciousness of a Starr investigation. Since removed from the "next big" female media onslaught, a spotlight which obviously caused he much discomfort, and similarly ruined fellow Beantown buzz Evan Dando, she now seems much more at ease with herself and her music.
Now signed as a one-off deal with nascent Boston indie Zoe Records, a Rounder import distributed by mercury, she is finally, for the most part, getting acknowledged for her music and not the marketability of her strikingly demure looks. Her new disc, Bed, is her most confident, easy to embrace yet. Mediated by my Blake Babies (her first band, you ignorant fool) Wonder Woman Pez dispenser, I quizzed Juliana in the Mercury offices high in the sky over Manhattan.

Interviewer: So I listened to the new record, Bed, and I'm on to you with the song 'Sneakin' Around' (in mock interrogation tone)...

Juliana: Well, I'm not hiding anything.

Interviewer: A little hint of 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around'?

Juliana: Just the first line is a reference to that, but the song really doesn't have anything to do with that. it's not meant to be hidden...sort of an homage.

Interviewer: The new record sounds much looser than anything else I've heard.

Juliana: Ever?

Interviewer: No, of yours, you big #$%$@! Here's an analogy: There's going on a first date with someone, and there's getting drunk with that person on your first date--it's a lot looser, flowing.

Juliana: It's like being drunk on a first date rather than being sober?

Interviewer: Yes!

Juliana: Ohh, cool!

Interviewer: The other records seem a bit tighter, more cautious.

Juliana: That's true, I just like, released the bone. A friend of mine used to have an expression, 'dude, release the bone!' He was referring to Pebbles in 'The Flintstones.' You know how she has her hair up in a bone and it was really tight? I don't know, I just relaxed. I tried to let the songs have more of a groove. I wasn't so frantic about it.

Interviewer: Did that have anything to do with the fact that it wasn't under the more pressurized major-label microscope?

Juliana: Possibly. I never thought of that, but it is possible. I'm just more confident now in what I'm doing. It's just like something in me broke. Like something was released...someof the tension was released. And, just through the passage of time, I became more relaxed and comfortable with music. Some people have that from the beginning, and they make a brilliant first album, and they are never that good again.

Interviewer: The Violent Femmes syndrome?

Juliana: I don't want to name names.

Interviewer: You have said you can't listen to any of your records for pleasure yet. Can this be the one?

Juliana: Yeah, so far it is. I'm definitely proud of it and it doesn't make me cringe--yet. My voice was really tight and thin on the older records, and I pushed it way too hard.

Interviewer: Smoking took care of that, right?

Juliana: No. That experiment didn't prove successful in the end. In the end I just had to stop smoking, I was on tour and I started to get this pain in my throat when I was singing. It got really scary, so I just stopped.

Interviewer: You say on the new disc, 'You think you understand what makes a boy become a bad man'? What would that be?

Juliana: I was thinking of a couple of things. in the song I was talking bout being mugged. Someone pulled a gun on me and mugged me last year. And I was thinking, 'oh, this is why people do bad things,' because they were probably mugged. Because that just made me so mad I just wanted to hurt somebody.

Interviewer: I bet you wish you had her on your side (pointing to my Blake Babies Wonder Woman Pez dispenser).

Juliana: Yeah. And the song is also about how I screw up. Like, I'm a screw up or a fuck up for thinking like that.

Interviewer: I agree. 'Cos on 'Serial Killer' week on A&E, one common thread all these nuts had were they were all raised in seriously abusive households.

Juliana: Ted Bundy was on last night.

Interviewer: Saw it. On to something completely different. The Police were a big influence. Like their old stuff, your music is really upbeat, but the lyrics are actually pretty depressing.

Juliana: I just always liked pop music and really good melodies and major chords. That's just the type of music that comes naturally to me. Happy lyrics don't come naturally to me.

Interviewer: Anymore acting in the future? The appearance in 'My So Called Life' was interesting.

Juliana: I don't think so. It was really interesting, but really hard. Acting does not come naturally to me, and I don't think I am really good at it.

Interviewer: Would you go back to major label again if the situation arose?

Juliana: Sure I would. I got used to certain things like having a larger budget o record with so I can spend more time in the studio, which is nice. And they really got all the CDs and records in the stores. The record is just a one-off with Zoe. If the right thing comes along, I'm still looking for the right thing. There's a lot of pluses, you just have to take advantage of them, but then you are also taking the risk of being abandoned or not appreciated. but there's just as many problems being on an independent label.

Interviewer: Sure. Rollins says he toured non-stop with Black Flag and the never saw a penny of the earnings--completely robbed.

Juliana: Yeah, Mammoth Records won't give me my royalties for Hey Babe because John Strohm's (ex-Blake Babies bandmate) other project didn't recoup yet. Stuff like that I think is very sleazy. I'm just making the point that sleaziness has no boundaries.