PJ HARVEY

'Polly Jean Harvey' (born 9 October 1969) is a Mercury Prize-winning English musician and songwriter. She began her career as part of a trio (with drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Steve Vaughan). She has since recorded as a solo artist under the name PJ Harvey.

Contents

Origins

Career

Early years

Solo works

Collaborations

Other works

Off-stage persona

Discography

Albums

Virtual albums

Other releases

Audio samples

Notes

References and further reading

External links

Origins

Harvey was born in Yeovil, Somerset, United Kingdom and brought up in nearby Corscombe, Dorset. The daughter of a stonemason and a sculptor, Harvey grew up on a small sheep farm in Dorset.^[1] At an early age her parents introduced her to the blues, jazz and art-rock which, she told ''Rolling Stone'' in 1995, would later influence her: "I was brought up listening to John Lee Hooker, to Howlin' Wolf, to Robert Johnson, and a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Captain Beefheart. So I was exposed to all these very compassionate musicians at a very young age, and that's always remained in me and seems to surface more as I get older. I think the way we are as we get older is a result of what we knew when we were children". She later spent a period of time listening to rock bands such as U2 and The Police as well as Soft Cell, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. In her teens she became a huge fan of the seminal US indie guitar bands Pixies, Television and Slint, though not, as many critics have suspected, Patti Smith (a frequent comparison that Harvey dismisses as "lazy journalism"). More recently she has claimed inspiration from Russian folk music, Italian soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone and classical composers like Arvo Pärt, Samuel Barber and Henryk Górecki.
She studied saxophone for about eight years, and contributed sax, guitar and backing vocals to her earliest Somerset bands Bologna, the Polekats, the Stoned Weaklings and Automatic Dlamini (John Parish's band).¹ At the age of 18 she began writing her own songs. In January 1991, she formed the original PJ Harvey three-piece band, with herself on vocals and guitars, ex-Automatic Dlamini bandmate Rob Ellis on drums and Ian Olliver on bass (though Olliver was swiftly replaced by Steve Vaughan). The trio's debut gig –  at a skittle alley in Sherborne's Antelope Hotel  – was so disastrous that the proprietor begged the band to stop playing as nearly all his customers had fled the venue.
By that time Harvey had also completed a foundation art course at Yeovil Art College and had applied to study sculpture at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, still undecided as to her future career.

Career

Early years

Harvey released her debut single "Dress" on the independent label Too Pure in October 1991. It was voted Single of the Week in ''Melody Maker'' by guest reviewer John Peel, who admired "the way Polly Jean seems crushed by the weight of her own songs and arrangements, as if the air is literally being sucked out of them ... admirable if not always enjoyable". The following spring she released an equally acclaimed second single, "Sheela Na Gig", and her first LP ''Dry'' in 1992. At that time she also released a limited edition double LP containing both ''Dry'' and the demos for ''Dry'', called ''Dry Demonstration''. The trio’s raw, guitar-driven hard rock –  which mixed elements of punk, blues and grunge  – quickly won rave reviews and a strong cult following on both sides of the Atlantic, with ''Rolling Stone'' naming the then-22-year-old Harvey the year's Best Songwriter and Best New Female Singer.
She drew fire in April 1992 when she appeared topless on the cover of the British magazine ''New Musical Express''; until then she had been assumed to be unambiguously feminist. Harvey quickly avoided being adopted as a feminist spokesperson, telling ''Vox'' that "I wouldn't call myself a feminist because I don't understand the term or the baggage it takes along with it. I'd feel like I really have to go back and study its history to associate myself with it, and I don't feel the need to do that. I'd much rather just get on and do things the way I have been doing them", adding that "I think I'd find it quite patronising to be called a Riot Grrrl if I was one of them, but they obviously don't think so."^[2] More recently she told ''Bust'': "I don’t ever think about [feminism]. I mean, it doesn't cross my mind. I certainly don’t think in terms of gender when I'm writing songs, and I never had any problems as the result of being female that I couldn't get over. Maybe I'm not thankful for the things that have gone before me, you know. But I don't see that there's any need to be aware of being a woman in this business. It just seems a waste of time." She added, "I don't offer [support] specifically to women; I offer it to people who write music. That's a lot of men."^[3]
Harvey then signed to Island Records amid a major-label bidding war. In 1993, she released two albums in quick succession: ''Rid of Me'' (engineered by Steve Albini at Pachyderm Recording Studio) with the original trio; and, later in the year, the solo release ''4-Track Demos'', which contained eight of the homemade 4-track demos that would become ''Rid of Me'' alongside six previously unreleased tracks.

Solo works

After the departure of Ellis and Vaughan in August 1993, Harvey embarked on a solo career exploring collaborations with other musicians. ''To Bring You My Love'' (1995) was produced by Flood and John Parish, and quickly became a staple of alternative rock. ''To Bring You My Love'' was a worldwide success, selling over one million copies, according to BPI. A more bluesy record than its predecessors, it saw Harvey broadening her sonic palette to include strings, organ and synthesizers. It also generated a surprise modern rock radio hit with the single "Down by the Water". The album received a glowing critical response and ended up being voted Album of the Year by ''The Village Voice'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''USA Today'', ''People'', ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. Harvey was also voted Artist of the Year by ''Rolling Stone'' and ''Spin''. Her album was ranked third in ''Spin's Top 90 Albums of the '90s, behind Nirvana and Public Enemy.
Around this time, Harvey began experimenting with her image and adopting an elaborate, theatrical, almost cabaret edge to her live shows. Where she once performed onstage in simple black leggings, turtleneck sweaters and Doc Martens, she now began performing in ballgowns, pink catsuits, wigs and garish, vampish make-up (including false eyelashes and fingernails), and using stage props like a broomstick and a Ziggy Stardust-style flashlight microphone. She denied the influence of drag, Kabuki or performance art on her new image, a look she affectionately dubbed "Joan Crawford on acid" in a 1996 ''Spin'' interview, but admitted that "it's that combination of being quite elegant and funny and revolting, all at the same time, that appeals to me. I actually find wearing make-up like that, sort of smeared around, as extremely beautiful. Maybe that’s just my twisted sense of beauty."^[4] However, she later told ''Dazed & Confused'' magazine, "That was kind of a mask. It was much more of a mask than I’ve ever had. I was very lost as a person, at that point. I had no sense of self left at all", and has never again repeated the overt theatricality of the ''To Bring You My Love'' tour. She also sang the theme song from Philip Ridley's adult fairy tale, "The Passion Of Darkly Noon" (released in 1996).

In 1998 she released ''Is This Desire?'', which met a mixed critical reception but which Harvey herself cites as her personal favourite; it saw her temporarily leaving the guitars behind and focusing on building dark, studio-based mood pieces around electronics, keyboards, piano and bass.
She reunited with her old bandmate Rob Ellis and multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey (no relation) for her 2000 album ''Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea''. Written in Dorset, Paris and New York, the album was a critical and commercial success, selling over one million copies worldwide and taking the Mercury Music Prize in the following year. It mixed uncharacteristically lush, melodic pop rock sounds with the gritty, thrashing, guitar-driven punk energy of her earlier records. Radiohead singer Thom Yorke was featured on three of the album's songs; he took lead vocal duties on "This Mess We're In", and provided backing vocals for two others.
In 2001 she topped a readers' poll conducted by ''Q'' magazine of the 100 Greatest Women in Rock Music. Her latest album, ''Uh Huh Her'', was released May 31, 2004. For the first time since ''4-Track Demos'', Harvey produced it alone and played every instrument bar the drums. The album, which was a sparser, more intimate, lo-fi and low-key affair than its predecessor, met with a generally positive response from critics and fans. She told ''Rolling Stone'' "when I'm working on a new record, the most important thing is to not repeat myself ... that's always my aim: to try and cover new ground and really to challenge myself. Because I'm in this for learning."^[5]
Accolades she has received for her work include the 2001 Mercury Music Prize, six BRIT Award nominations, five Grammy nominations and two further Mercury Music Prize nominations. In a recent issue, ''Hot Press'' magazine praised her for crafting "some of the most erotic, powerful and positive love songs ever written".
In 2004, Diplo extensively sampled "Down by the Water" for his remix of "Still Tippin'", the breakout single of Houston rapper Mike Jones (also featuring Slim Thug and Paul Wall). Diplo used the sample again in 2006 in "Now I Hollar" by the indie hip-hop group Plastic Little, a track featuring Spank Rock and included on the album ''She's Mature''.
In May 2006, Harvey played her first UK gig of the year, revealing that her new album would be almost entirely piano-based. New songs taken from the as-yet-untitled forthcoming album include "When Under Ether", "The Mountain" and "Bitter Little Bird". Later in 2006 she released her first concert DVD, ''Please Leave Quietly'', directed by Maria Mochnacz, which contained songs from her entire career as well as behind-the-scene video clips between performances. On October 23, 2006 she released ''The Peel Sessions 1991-2004''.
In November 2006 she started working on her eighth studio album, ''White Chalk'', with Flood, John Parish, and Eric Drew Feldman. It is due for a release in late September 2007. The album marks a radical departure from her usual style, consisting mainly of piano ballads.^[6]

Collaborations

Besides her own work, she contributed to eight tracks on ''Vol. 9 & 10'' of Josh Homme's ''The Desert Sessions'' and appeared on Nick Cave's ''Murder Ballads'' (on the song "Henry Lee" and the Bob Dylan cover “Death Is Not the End”) and Tricky's ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (on the song "Broken Homes"). She lent guitar, bass and background vocals to Sparklehorse's album ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (on the songs "Eyepennies" and "Piano Fire"). In 1996 she recorded a collaborative album entitled ''Dance Hall at Louse Point'' with Parish under the name Polly Jean Harvey. Parish wrote all the music, and Harvey the lyrics, with the exception of the song "Is That All There Is", which was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and made famous by Peggy Lee in 1969. Harvey has since gone on to produce Tiffany Anders' ''Funny Cry Happy Gift''. Harvey produced, performed on and wrote five songs for Marianne Faithfull's 2004 album ''Before the Poison''. Harvey sang vocals on two tracks of Mark Lanegan's 2004 album ''Bubblegum''.

Other works

Outside of the better-known musical career, Harvey appeared as Magdalena, a modern-day character based on Mary Magdalene in Hal Hartley's 1998 film ''The Book of Life'', and had a cameo as a singing Bunny Girl in the Sarah Miles-directed short ''A Bunny Girl's Tale''. She is also an accomplished sculptor who has had pieces exhibited at the Lamont Gallery and the Bridport Arts Centre, as well as a published poet.

Off-stage persona

Offstage, Harvey has cultivated a reputation for eccentricity to match her music; Steve Albini claimed she ate nothing but potatoes while making ''Rid Of Me''. For her part, Harvey describes herself as "an extremely quiet person, who doesn't go out much, doesn't talk to people", and rejects the notion that her songs are autobiographical. She told ''The Times'' in 1998, "The tortured artist myth is rampant. People paint me as some kind of black witchcraft-practicing devil from hell, that I have to be twisted and dark to do what I am doing. It's a load of rubbish". She later told ''Spin'', "Some critics have taken my writing so literally to the point that they'll listen to 'Down by the Water' and believe I have actually given birth to a child and drowned her." In 2006, ''Blender'' included her in their list of the hottest women of rock, calling her a "blues-rock sorceress trafficking in social politics and dark, tormented songwriting."^[7]

Discography

Albums

Virtual albums

★ iTunes Originals - PJ Harvey

Other releases

★ 1991 - Backing vocals on ''Maths & Passion'' EP by UK band Grape (Song title - "Baby in a Plastic Bag")

★ 1992 - Appears on ''Too Pure - The Peel Sessions'' with other Too Pure artists Stereolab and Th' Faith Healers

★ 1992 - ''Dry/Demonstration'' (limited-edition demo version of debut album ''Dry'' which was given away free with initial copies; now extremely rare)

★ 1992 - Backing vocals and Bass on "From A Diva to A Diver" by Automatic Dlamini

★ 1991 - Backing vocals on ''Furthest From the Sun'' album by UK band The Family Cat (Song titles - "Colour Me Grey" and "River of Diamonds")

★ 1994 - Backing vocals on ''The Sound Your Eyes Can Follow'' album by UK band Moonshake (Song titles - "Your Last Friend in This Town", "Just a Working Girl", "We're Making War", "Right to Fly", "Into Deep Neutral". She shares lead vocals on "Just A Working Girl".)

★ 1995 - The soundtrack of the movie Strange Days, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, has 2 PJ Harvey songs ("Hardly Wait", from 4-Track Demos and "Rid Of Me", from Rid Of Me album). However, both songs were really sung by the actress Juliette Lewis.

★ 1995 - "One Time Too Many" was featured on the Batman Forever soundtrack.

★ 1996 - '' (unofficial bootleg release with John Parish from ''Dance Hall at Louse Point'' tour)

★ 1996 - Produced and performed the song "This Is Mine" for the movie Stella Does Tricks, directed by Coky Giedroyc.)

★ 1996 - Appeared on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds's album ''Murder Ballads'' (Song titles - "Henry Lee" and "Death Is Not the End")

★ 1997 - Appeared on ''September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill'' (Song Title - "Ballad Of The Soldier's Wife")

★ 1998 - Appeared on Tricky's album ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (Song title - "Broken Homes")

★ 1998 - Appeared on Pascal Comelade's album ''L'Argot Du Bruit'' (Song titles - "Love Too Soon" and "Green Eyes")

★ 2001 - Produced, played on and sang backing vocals on Tiffany Anders's album ''Funny Cry Happy Gift''

★ 2001 - Appeared on Sparklehorse's album ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (Song titles - "Piano Fire" and "Eyepennies")

★ 2001 - Appeared on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back's Soundtack (Song title - "This is Love")

★ 2002 - Appeared on Giant Sand's album ''Cover Magazine'' (Song title - "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline")

★ 2002 - Appeared on John Parish's album ''How Animals Move'' (Song title - "Airplane Blues")

★ 2002 - Appeared on Gordon Gano's album ''Hitting the Ground'' (Song title - "Hitting the Ground")

★ 2003 - Appeared on ''Desert Sessions Volumes 9 & 10'' (Sings on "I Wanna Make It Wit Chu", "There Will Never Be a Better Time", "Crawl Home", "Powdered Wig Machine" and "A Girl Like Me"; plays various instruments on "Dead in Love", "Holey Dime" and "Bring It Back Gentle")

★ 2004 - Wrote/co-wrote, produced, played on and sang backing vocals on Marianne Faithfull's album ''Before the Poison'' (Song titles - "The Mystery of Love", "My Friends Have", "No Child of Mine", "Before the Poison" and "In the Factory")

★ 2004 - Appeared on Mark Lanegan's album ''Bubblegum'' (Song titles - "Hit the City" and "Come to Me")

★ 2006 - Live Concert DVD "Please Leave Quietly" with interviews between the performances. The song selection spanned her entire career.

Audio samples

Notes

1. Yahoo! Music biography - PJ Harvey. Retrieved 13 March 2006.
2. Polly's Pulling Power. ''Vox'' magazine, 1993. Retrieved 13 March 2006.
3. Christina Martinez "Polly's Phonic Spree", ''Bust'' magazine Fall 2004.
4. "PJ Harvey Interview" ''Spin'' magazine. 1996
5. Brian Orloff. PJ Harvey Talks Tour. ''Rolling Stone''. 5 October 2004. Retrieved 13 March 2006.
6. Stubbs, D. "Return of the Native" in ''The Wire'' 283 (September 2007), p.34.
7. "http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=2295&src=blender_ed

References and further reading

★ ''PJ Harvey Siren Rising'' by James R. Blandford ISBN 1-84449-433-0

External links

★ The Official PJ Harvey Site @ Island Records

★ Pj Harvey.net

★ pollyharvey.co.uk

★ Sirens Rising

★ PJ Harvey LiveJournal community

★ Russian PJ Harvey fans on LiveJournal

★ The Garden - PJ Harvey Community

★ Profile at the Dorset Page

★ Profile at About.com

★ Concert photos by Laurent Orseau (Black Session)

★ Concert photos by Laurent Orseau (La Route du Rock 1998)

★ Amaeru Fallout 1972, a 1997 film by Sarah Miles featuring Polly Jean Harvey singing 'When Will I See You Again' (includes clips)