– a goofy joke in Cochran's Summertime Blues half a century ago and a bitter one now — an ocean away in New York the UN Security Council was debating what to do about the rebellion in Libya. Following the tour for Rid of Me, Polly Harvey parted ways with Robert Ellis and Stephen Vaughn, leaving her free to expand her music from the bluesy punk that dominated PJ Harvey's first two albums. I just use it for very specific purposes when I know exactly what I'm looking for. PJ Harvey has described wearing a veil, while filming on location in Afghanistan, as a "freeing experience". I knew what I didn't want. I mean, what would we have if we give up on that? Apart from her short, inevitably public relationship with Nick Cave (they fell in love while filming the video to their 1996 duet "Henry Lee"), her private life is terra incognita. Always pushing boundaries, singer-songwriter, poet, composer, and occasional artist PJ Harvey announced on Monday that her anticipated follow-up to Let England Shake (2011, winner of the Mercury Prize) will completely break the barrier between studio-produced LPs and live albums.Through a four week long living art exhibition “Recording in Progress,” Harvey, alongside … 'England', for example, espouses a love and hate relationship with her country, claiming "I love England" one moment and bemoaning its "bitter taste" the next. February 15, 2011 • British singer-songwriter PJ Harvey watched hours of war footage before writing the songs for her eighth album, Let England Shake. Her next two (To Bring You My Love, Is This Desire?) So I'm very disciplined. "It strikes me every time we play that song," she says. PJ Harvey (born October 9, 1969) is the stage name of seminal British indie/alternative rock musician Polly Jean Harvey, who through steady critically-acclaimed releases has become of the one most revered artists in the genre, hailing from Bridport, Dorset, England. But it's very much today; I wanted to deal with the world that we live in now. Tweet on Twitter ‘Uh Huh Her’ is the seventh album from PJ Harvey and the follow-up to the hugely successful ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’ which won the 2001 Mercury Music Prize. I haven't drowned my daughter in a river, and I haven't crawled across the desert for 40 years either. "Had she not got a record deal she would have gone on to do fine art at St Martins. Toronto outdoor interview with Kim Hughes. Descripción. ", Even so, I wonder if she ever misses the jolting release of strapping on an electric guitar, turning it up loud, and bashing out a song in a couple of hours. PJ Harvey interview + Let England Shake Skavlan 2011. English singer-songwriter PJ Harvey rarely gives interviews, and the rollout of her latest album The Hope Six Demolition Project hasn’t been any different. And I think of myself as somebody that continues to carry hope. The launch event for Lancaster Words, a three-day celebration of all things literary. Sometimes, it's difficult to write about issues without becoming dogmatic. I knew I didn't want the words to tip into becoming too dogmatic or self-important, and I wanted to leave them very open to interpretation. PJ Harvey Interview Q&A. When, in 1992, she was promoting Dry, whose torrid, abstract expressions of female sexuality were new to indie-rock, she found herself fielding questions about when she lost her virginity. If you love what we do, you can help tQ to continue bringing you the best in cultural criticism and new music by joining one of our subscription tiers. For the majority of her live appearances, PJ Harvey tends to use a Vox AC30 and an Orange Retro 50 head into Marshall 4×12 cabinets, creating an immensely saturated tone. I'd always be following the news and there'd be so many firsthand accounts from soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bookended by a cup of green tea on her side and a Dictaphone on ours, it's a physical gap of roughly eight feet; at times, though, it feels closer to 80. But she is almost as exacting when it comes to interviews. Equally I laugh out loud quite a lot and I love comedy. "There wouldn't be any point in me trying to persuade her to take the steps that I thought were necessary to get her into football stadiums," says Paul McGuinness. That's what I wanted to be heard – people who had been eyewitnesses through all different periods in history. But I do feel at this stage of my life, it feels very important to give voice to things that really matter. She is not cool so much as contained, with a hint of underground streams foaming away beneath the surface. In the studio, Harvey uses various Marshall, Fender, Mesa-Boogie and Baldwin amps, as listed in an interview that appears on her website. I wanted the songs to be open enough for people from other countries to find a way in. I get angry, I shout at the TV, I feel sick', Polly Jean Harvey in March 2011. I'm already writing, and the writing feels like a continuation at this stage, but by the time I've got the strongest words together it might go somewhere else. Discover releases, reviews, credits, songs, and more about PJ Harvey - Interview at Discogs. A poem like 'American Football' or 'The Disappeared'. So that's the link. https://www.theguardian.com/music/video/2011/sep/08/pj-harvey-video When I finally found the voice, I knew how the music should be. It took quite a long time to find out how to sing these songs. PJ Harvey's reissue of her 'Dry' demos show how she developed a unique vision for her career early on. Let England Shake is too hazy historically and geographically to be pinned down solely on her, shifting throughout different time periods, countries and perspectives; it's too conflicted. Hip Online - February 9, 2008. Does something about working in Dorset make you reconnect to childhood? I knew that although, obviously, I'm an English woman and I live in England… what does that mean, anyway? 'Burning in the ovens in world war two.' I can't not finish a book. "I literally left school and went straight into music via art college for a year, and I've been so involved in my job of writing songs that the more actively involved part became channelled into standing on the stage and saying things that way. Even embracing a more narrative approach to her lyrics, most notably with To Bring You My Love, hasn't stopped over excitable critics trying to glean autobiographical meaning from her work. It's almost like being a sponge and you just have to absorb everything in order to have all of the goods to make something out of that. She planned to go there, and to other first world war battlefields, but never got around to it. Is that something you were concerned with? This listing is for a copy of the March/April 1995 issue of OPTION MAGAZINE, with PJ HARVEY on the cover and in a feature interview. With Lewis Largent. View PJ Harvey interviews, articles and reviews from Rock's Backpages: The ultimate library of rock music writing and journalism. "I'm probably much more influenced by film-makers and painters than I am by other songwriters or poets," she says. PH: I think probably, yes. PJ Harvey and John Parish interview: Part two. Her next album, 2004's Uh Huh Her was a raggedy scrapbook of disparate ideas, less a coherent statement than an exercise in creative house-clearing, and with White Chalk she opened a whole new chapter. Like you said, with a few exceptions, playwrights and film writers aren't actually in their own work. Along with the other sudden pressures of entering the music business, it precipitated a nervous breakdown. PJ Harvey: Well, the record is dealing with a lot of things that are happening in the world right now-- conflict, shifts in power, the change in society and in countries' relations to each other. Her subsequent record - 1995's To Bring You My Love - marked two enduring distinctions in her career: the genesis of working relationships with producer Flood, John Parish and Mick Harvey (all of whom helped to record Let England Shake), and a predilection for theatricality and constant aesthetic and musical reinvention. By. "She's not, quite honestly, that interested in success. Also in the February edition: Mastodon, Franz Ferdinand, Judas Priest, Darren Hayman, The Damned, M Ward, Dan Deacon, Grandmaster Flash and more. Is it still frustrating when people try to read autobiographically into your work? PJ Harvey PJ Harvey - PJ Harvey Interview . I wanted to get better, I wanted to be more coherent, I wanted there to be a greater strength and depth emotionally, and all these things require work – to hone something, to get rid of any superfluous language. Like White Chalk, it was recorded in Harvey's home county of Dorset, but the ghostly, gothic aesthetic befitting of a bleak rural wilderness is gone, and in its place is a warmer and fuller sound. Really she's working to satisfy herself. 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' was released 20 years ago, and broke new ground for the English songwriter, who scooped that year's Mercury Prize. And so there can be times when you can feel too full of the piece that you're making. In the same interview, Costello heaped praise on Harvey’s 4-Track Demos, which included eight demos from Rid Of Me, saying the former is “20 times the version of the songs on [Rid Of Me], in terms of intensity and intent.” He added: “What matters is her, what PJ is doing. You said earlier that you spent longer on the words for this record than any others. I remember thinking about money a lot, and how this thing that meant so much was just a piece of paper." Q&A with Polly discusses the autoharp, thom yorke, josh homme and mark linkous 19.10.07 part 8 full set Q&A with Polly Discusses playing piano, live performance and experimenting interview live sets 2007 part 4 download the full set . were spooky and sensual. Polly Jean Harvey chooses her words carefully. I do react to things. Another question - this time about the personal significance of the 19th century church the album was recorded in - is knocked away with a straight bat, too. The only personal detail I can remember extracting is her unexpected love of Wife Swap. PH: I really hope so. "I've done my part, really," she says softly. Wood-panelled, lined with stern oil paintings and ranks of unread books, it's so remote from the 21st century that even the mineral water bottles on the table between us seem anachronistic, and my Dictaphone looks like something that fell off a spaceship. ", She knows so much about Gallipoli, the subject of at least three songs, that she could probably write a doctoral dissertation on the fiasco. Still, it's a surprising image: Polly Harvey on a demo, holding a placard. PJ Harvey has a walloping, 50-foot-tall legacy — musicially and emotionally raw when stadium angst was a boys club; opening the door for everyone from Alanis to Karen O. She leans forward, freshly excited. TS Eliot of course. Hip Online - February 9, 2008. I remember hearing that when I was very young and wondering, what's he singing about? ", Listening to her talk about Let England Shake, it sounds less like a record than a novel or an art exhibition. olly Jean Harvey chooses her words carefully. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automatic Dlamini as a vocalist, guitarist and saxophone player. PH: Mmmm. I like to roll around laughing with tears streaming down my face. I wrote the words first… for about two years, I did nothing but words. But I've given it a lot of study and I work very hard at it. EFFECTS "Certain Neil Young songs like 'Southern Man' or 'Ohio', I'd go looking for the meaning behind them. Her parents, a quarryman and a stonemason, were friends with Rolling Stone Ian Stewart and their remote Dorset farmhouse (she has said that even a day trip into town would make her dizzy) was often home to visiting musicians. "I don't feel I have to explain the intentions behind anything". Follow. At 41, Harvey is revered for what she does not give away. [Laughs] Because I really didn't want to do it badly, because there's nothing worse than a bad song dealing with such things. This time she is warmer – literally so, because the fire in Kensington's Gore hotel is on full-blast despite the sunshine outside. Just unbelievable. The line "What if I take my problem to the United Nations?" She indicates a volume of Harold Pinter's poetry that she has brought with her. The album is stained with blood throughout, whether it's the "Young men/ Hit with guns/ In the dirt" on 'In The Dark Places' or the lands "ploughed by tanks and feet" on 'The Glorious Land'. Whatever Harvey thinks about the Libyan intervention, or about any specific political controversy, she keeps to herself but the richness and ambiguity of Let England Shake allows listeners to make their own connections. Photograph: Seamus Murphy. Watch the video for Interview by PJ Harvey for free, and see the artwork, lyrics and similar artists. "With songs I almost see the images, see the action, and then all I have to do is describe it. But why is that, do you think? You almost have to hand over your soul to that action. ", I wonder how she was affected by researching Let England Shake. So it does perplex me sometimes, as to why songwriters aren't afforded the same way of looking at their work. There seems to be so much to do, and I just want to keep uncovering things. WB Yeats. PJ Harvey scores first number one album Listen: PJ Harvey and Seamus Murphy interview with Miranda Sawyer "Because I hadn't really done that before. "I knew the area very well," she answers simply. "It wasn't a church I went to, but it's quite near my house and it's on a place I often walked through". A diminutive figure swathed in black and sat on a vast settee, she's determined - as ever - not to give too much away. There are dodgy continents, great expanses of secluded territory onto which journalistic trespass is not permitted. With images of blood-sodden battlefields and fallen soldiers strewn throughout Let England Shake, her steadfast territorialism seems somewhat apt. Who could blame her for pulling up the drawbridge in later years? But whatever I do - and I've always been like this, and I am as a visual artist as well - I want to learn and see how much I can uncover in the short life-span that we seem to have. There’s nobody like her.” "It's been overwhelming," she says. One of the most startling things about White Chalk was the sound of your voice, which sounded infantilised, almost childlike. on Pinterest. Harvey still likes to draw and paint, recently contributing illustrations to Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope: All-Story magazine, and owns paintings by Christopher T Wood and Alasdair Wallace. "I wanted to remain a narrator." People don't allow the metaphor, the imagery, all the things that you work with as a writer… standing completely outside, as the narrator of a story. 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