In the 10 years since Blake Babies [ tickets ] last released an album, frontwoman Juliana Hatfield [ tickets ] scored hits with "My Sister" and "Spin the Bottle." Meanwhile, drummer Freda Love and guitarist John Strohm released records as Antenna, before going on to new projects. The trio--which emerged from the Boston scene in the early-'80s--regrouped in 2000 and quickly found that its chemistry hadn't faded.

The latest Blake Babies album, "God Bless the Blake Babies" (Zoe/Rounder), released last month, boasts the same harmonies that the band was known for in its heyday, and features a guest spot from the Lemonheads' Evan Dando on the song "Brain Damage," which he co-wrote with Ben Lee. The group--augmented by touring bassist Daniel Johnston, formerly of Verbena--recently wrapped up a brief club tour to support the album, and will return to the road in June.

LiveDaily correspondent Colin Devenish spoke with Hatfield about how the Blake Babies reunion came about.

LiveDaily: When the Blake Babies split up the first time, did you ever think you'd get back together?

Hatfield: I definitely did not think that we’d ever get back together. When you break up, you never think you’re going to get back together. You break up because you don't want to do it anymore. We all went our separate ways. I just figured we would all move on, and then I became involved in my own solo career, which was pretty fulfilling for all those years. I never felt the urge to get back with the Blake Babies.

What changed? How did you come together?

For me, I think that finally after eight or nine years of having been apart from John and Freda, I kind of missed them, and I also was getting sick of my own music. I was sick of being myself, Juliana Hatfield. Finally the idea of working with a different band, especially one that I knew I had chemistry with, sounded like a really fun idea.

Had they approached you at all over the years?

John hadn’t, but I had talked to Freda before about maybe getting together and recording with her band, the Mysteries of Life. But that never happened. But we were both pretty excited about getting back together and recording some stuff.

Who made the call?

It was Freda. We were writing, working on songs separately, and we sent some tapes of demos to each other to see what we had.

Each of us had songs that were completely done, which we recorded, and there were other songs we wrote in the studio together. John sent music, I wrote words. And then Evan brought in a song--we recorded a song of his. It was really kind of a total collaboration--whoever had something, we'd try it out in the studio.

Could you give me an example of a song that worked that way?

I think, "Until I Almost Died" was one of those songs. John had this chord progression he'd actually sent to me in the mail earlier, so I was familiar with the chord progression. So once we were in the studio, I think I wrote the bridge, and then we got a form together, and then we all got together and recorded the new mix. I was playing piano, Evan was playing bass, John was playing guitar. I took it home that night and I wrote words. That's how it would work. And then I would come in the next day, and I'd sing the words and add on overdubs.

I saw you in Austin, and I was really struck by the chemistry. It wasn't like seeing a band that was reuniting, it was like you'd been together the whole time. Was that something that was there right away?

Yeah, totally. It was like riding a bike to be back with them. It's an amazing thing--the chemistry is so totally there. And you know, if it hadn't been there, we wouldn’t be touring now, because there would have been no point if the chemistry had been gone. We never had a ton of fans, and it's not like there's a lot of money in it, so there would have been no reason to do it if the chemistry hadn't been there.

We didn't even know if anyone would put out the record. We kind of paid for it ourselves and then hoped someone would put it out. We didn’t want anyone to get involved until we were finishing the record. We didn't know if the record was going to be good or not.

The harmonies on this album are really impressive. How important is that to you?

I think we just love that kind of thing. If there's opportunities to add on vocal harmonies, we'll do it, just because it's fun and it sounds good. It's not something I think about. If there's a good melody, I'll add stuff. I’ll do it because I love the sound. It's kind of an afterthought.