By Blake Maddux

Whether it has been collaborations with Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws in Minor Alps and Paul Westerberg in The I Don’t Cares, a reunion with her eponymous trio, or the recording of solo albums, Juliana Hatfield has never lacked an outlet for her ceaseless productivity in the most recent of her three-decade long career.

Last April, in the wake of Donald Trump’s assumption of the presidency, Hatfield unveiled Pussycat, a trenchant collection that included songs such as When You’re a Star, Short-Fingered Man, and Kellyanne.

This coming April 13, American Laundromat Records will release Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, on which Hatfield offers her interpretations of jaunty pop songs like A Little More Love, Physical, and Xanadu.

“Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John” is due for release on April 13.

“It’s like a 180-degree turn,” Hatfield, contrasting her most recent albums, recently told The Somerville Times. “It’s like a pendulum swing to the complete other side.”

Adding to the abundance of new Juliana Hatfield product currently on the market was last month’s reissuance of her solo debut, Hey Babe, on vinyl in recognition of its 25th anniversary.

Hatfield’s website indicates that she will not be touring behind Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John. However, the Maine-born and Duxbury-raised musician will treat her fellow Boston-area denizens to a performance at ONCE Ballroom this Friday.

She spoke by phone to The Somerville Times in advance of the show.

The Somerville Times: Have you always wanted to record an album of Olivia Newton-John songs?

Juliana Hatfield: No, I never really thought about it until just before I did it. It was just an idea that popped into my head last year at some point, and I acted on it immediately. I’ve always loved Olivia Newton-John and I’m very familiar with a lot of her material, so it made sense for me to do this album.

TST: Do you think that anything specific caused it to occur to you when it did?

JH: I think the timing was significant just because I’ve been feeling like it’s kind of a dark, confusing time in history, and I think that I wanted to do something that was positive instead of negative. And I think of her music as being a very positive force in the world. So something positive and kind of escapist. I wanted to escape into something beautiful.

TST: Is there very much overlap between your fans and those of Newton-John?

JH: I’m learning that there is a little bit of overlap. Once people heard that I was doing this, a lot of people were expressing their excitement. People that I never knew were Olivia Newton-John fans are kind of coming out of the woodwork to tell me that they love Olivia Newton-John, fans of mine.

TST: Were all of the songs on Pussycat written after Donald Trump won the 2016 election?

JH: I seem to remember that the election had not happened yet. I think I was writing about it during the run-up to the election. I might have started writing it before the election and then kept working on it after.

TST: Were you expecting him to win?

JH: I don’t know what I was expecting. I mean, it was shocking when he won. I mean, I was shocked, but at the same time I wasn’t surprised, because at that point he had gotten away with so much and people were letting him off the hook for so much horrible speech and behavior that I knew that it was a possibility. But it was kind of shocking that so many people would let that happen.

TST: Would you have released the album even if he had not been elected?

JH: That’s a good question, because it seems like maybe it would not have been as relevant if he had not won. But he’s still a pig. It’s not just a record about him. It was inspired by current events, but not just one man, you know. It’s about sexism, misogyny, harassment. It’s kind of an all-around protest record against hypocrisy, abuse, sexism, [expletive deleted], all kind of stuff.

TST: Was it a #MeToo movement album?

JH: When I wrote it, that hashtag didn’t even exist. For me it was just my own disgust, anger, confusion, disappointment. It was just me trying to fight back against things that I thought were destructive and unjust attitudes. I’ve always made protest music. Usually I throw a couple of protest songs on every album, but this was just more of them. It was a whole album of them. But it wasn’t that different than anything I’ve ever done. It was just a little bit more topical, I guess. I wasn’t trying to jump on any bandwagon.  It was just a very visceral, personal reaction to what was going on at the time.

TST: Given how his presidency is going, is it possible that you will write a sequel to Pussycat?

JH: I wouldn’t want to. That’s why I did this Olivia Newton-John record. I want to get away from that negativity. I don’t even want to listen to Pussycat. It was really just like vomiting. I got it out of my system and now I just want to move on, forward toward something nicer like Olivia Newton-John. Something more positive, less ugly. I hope that I won’t have to make another record like that anytime soon. I don’t want to go back and revisit that ugliness, no.

TST: That said, will you still be performing songs from the album at ONCE?

JH: Yeah, we’re going to do a few songs that are not so current events-focused. Like the song Wonder Why, which is more about nostalgia. And maybe a song or two that are less about current events but are just more vague or personal.

TST: Will you be highlighting Sings Olivia Newton-John and Hey Babe in equal quantities?

JH: There will be more Olivia Newton-John songs than Hey Babe songs. We’ll probably just do two or three from Hey Babe, and then a bunch from the Olivia Newton-John record.

TST: It has been 10 years since When I Grow Up: A Memoir was published. Do you plan to write another book?

JH: Well, I’m always writing, and I think at some point I’ll try to get another book together, but nothing is really taking shape yet as a book. But I’m definitely writing all the time. I’ll make another book at some point, but it’s not really happening yet. I’ve actually written a couple books since my last book came out, but I didn’t want to publish them.

Juliana Hatfield with Abbie Barrett. Friday, April 6. Doors at 8, show at 9. ONCE Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville.