Quiet Riot

Juliana Hatfield, a hero of the Boston indie music scene, is damn near inescapable these days: Her latest album, How to Walk Away, drops 8/19; a memoir, When I Grow Up, comes out 9/29; and her fledgling music label, Ye Olde Records, is pumping life into some of her favorite bands. It's a big push that, for Hatfield, might as well represent the summer of her discontent. "I'm really conflicted about my role as a front-person," says the blue-eyed brooder, a self-described neurotic. "I hate the attention."

You wouldn't know it from her emotionally raw, highly personal music, which details unhealthy relationships and destructive behaviors. But Hatfield says that's just how she communicates—it's the only song-writing she knows, and she loves it too much to quit. So why pen a tell-all book, too? Because after 20 years in the spotlight, she wants fans to know she didn't do it for an ego trip. "People always assume things about people in the public eye," she says. "I just wanted to set them straight."