HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
[SIMG]http://forum.interference.com/gallery/data//585/11265pj3-sml.jpg[/SIMG]
By Carrie Alison, Editor
2006.10
When Polly Jean Harvey announced in December 2004 that a Paris concert was her "last show" it sent shockwaves (to put it mildly) through her sizably passionate fan base and waves of disappointment for me (an understatement) because I simply revere the woman. And even reverence doesn't quite nail the sentiment for me. Not even close.
The frothing staff of NME reported that she was "retiring" from live performance. A more accurate interpretation was that she was (understandably) exhausted by the emotional and physically draining rigors of touring behind 2004's fantastic "Uh Huh Her" and just wanted to sit a spell. The "retirement' was short-lived, as she has recently begun booking solo festival spots such as the Hay Festival in Wales and playing bass for singer Morris Tepper.
You see, very few female pop stars make me proud of my gender in a purely representative stance; most are insipid (Jessica Simpson), too young (JoJo), awkwardly precocious (Beyoncé), not exactly believable anymore (Madonna or Gwen Stefani) or too promiscuous (Fergie Ferg). But PJ, she's an undeniably talented rock star.
In concert, she proudly wears a cheeky Spice Girls dress, rocks the hot pink pumps, manhandles her guitar and does the damn thing. She wants you to lick her legs 'cuz she's on fire. She wants a pistol. She wants you to know you'll never be rid of her, and she'll also write down some of the most dangerously private and revealing thoughts of the female experience you'll ever come across. She says things like, "This isn't the first time I've asked for money or love/ Heaven and earth/Don't ever mean enough," and "'Til the light shines on me/I damn to hell every second you breathe."
That's my girl. No, sorry. That's my woman; my wonderfully erratic "50 Foot Queenie."
Clad in a conservative black dress—befitting the well-mannered rural, sheep-tending English girl she truly is—Harvey, 37, sat down with Hilton Als, a staff writer and theatre critic for The New Yorker and reminisced about her near 15-year career as a compelling figure on the music scene at the historic Supper Club in New York City on Saturday night for the annual New Yorker Festival.
Before the "show" could start, however, Als gave everyone a little appetizer of Harvey in action, by playing a snippet from her 2005 DVD "PJ Harvey—On Tour: Please Leave Quietly." The chosen song, "My Beautiful Leah," was a perfect way to prepare audience members who might not be familiar with her musical oeuvre and the singular way in which she does it. For "Leah" is a song, built on heavy grinding synth, disarming drum crashes and random yelps to punctuate the short tune. All done by Harvey herself, of course.
It was also a perfect way to allow Harvey to speak about her longtime friend and photographer and video collaborator, Maria Mochnacz, who also directed the recent DVD. Of the ramshackle way in which the DVD was filmed, Harvey noted that the premise she and Mochnacz came up with was inspired by "loathing the way rock DVDs are filmed," they "wanted to avoid boring," and didn't want just two crazy nights to capture the "chaos of touring" and "didn't want to perpetuate the glamorous myth."
(PJ Harvey talks with Hilton Als. Image courtesy of JCP and Carrie Alison for Interference.com)
The resulting DVD of course, is a loving, imperfect, but always genuine, picture of Harvey on tour, including backstage video "confessionals" from the famously shy, weary-looking singer who is obviously out of her social element, but deeply committed to giving her fans a great show. Though she finds touring "stressful," and is "a private person who leads a quiet life of…complete solitude," the "moments on stage…keep her alive and going."
Some tidbits that came out of Als' gentle if not meandering interviewing style touched on her earlier days and "characters" in her records. At 20 or 21 Harvey put her first band together (a folk band in Dorset that performed Irish tunes) and her goal was "to do musically" what she "wanted to see in art." And the "art" of it all was her course of study at university where she was an adept and unique sculptor who enjoyed casting her face and hands, and sticking them “on flying machinery.” Of Harvey's individual records, Als posited that "each record is a character study," and that "after ‘Dry' each record was about different people in different societies." Harvey didn't seem to agree with this assessment, but did offer that as she gets older, she has "felt more comfortable" allowing her lyrics to be more biographical, as opposed to when she was younger, she "tried to shield herself with distance." She also later noted that as she gets on in years, she is getting better at expressing herself in her personal life.
Interestingly enough, though Harvey is considered a feminist icon to her legions of adoring female (and male) fans, Als recalled that Harvey once told him that she "would need to study [the history of] feminism before calling herself a feminist."
Of her need to perform, Harvey revealed that although she is "very shy," even when she was as young as five, she needed an audience. Performing is "the only way" she can "express" herself and that if she didn't have her music and concerts by which to express herself she "would have suffocated."
(Image courtesy of JCP and Carrie Alison for Interference.com)
Towards the end of their discussion, Als wanted to play the "Desert Island Disc" game with Harvey, asking her to comment on selections of music he had chosen. First up was legendary bluesman Howlin' Wolf, whom Harvey considers having the voice and content that is "everything" she needs in music (love, sex, violence, etc.), and that it's the "one record that enables me to connect with my innermost insides." A snippet of Bjork followed, Harvey noting that "I've got a lot to learn from her." Captain Beefheart, a friend, and fellow kindred artist and experimental music auteur was next, with Harvey noting that Beefheart also has "everything I need" in music. Trip-hopper and British compatriot Tricky was last, with Harvey stating that they always bump into each other in Los Angeles and London at grocery stores and walking down the street, where they will call out to each other, "Alright, Tricky," "Alright Poll!"
The discussion wrapped up with Harvey chatting about her new material, and the fact that she has been taking piano lessons that have "opened up a new area of ways to write and sing." A sizeable portion of the new record will be on piano, harp and autoharp, and she warns that with these new instruments, "the gates have been thrown open; there are no limits anymore."
(Image courtesy of JCP and Carrie Alison for Interference.com)
On that note, the petite, delicate-featured Harvey then took center stage to perform "Man-Size," two songs on piano: “The Mountain” and “Bitter Little Bird,” "My Beautiful Leah," "Water," "The Desperate Kingdom of Love" and the classic "Rid of Me" where she commanded all of us to lick her legs ‘cuz she's on fire, lick her legs of desire.
With pleasure, Polly. With reverence and pleasure.
For more information on PJ Harvey, please visit her official website. "PJ Harvey—The Peel Sessions 1991-2004," a tribute to the late, influential British radio DJ and presenter John Peel will be released Oct. 23 in conjunction with the BBC on Island Records. "PJ Harvey—On Tour: Please Leave Quietly" is available now on DVD.
By Carrie Alison, Editor
2006.10
When Polly Jean Harvey announced in December 2004 that a Paris concert was her "last show" it sent shockwaves (to put it mildly) through her sizably passionate fan base and waves of disappointment for me (an understatement) because I simply revere the woman. And even reverence doesn't quite nail the sentiment for me. Not even close.
The frothing staff of NME reported that she was "retiring" from live performance. A more accurate interpretation was that she was (understandably) exhausted by the emotional and physically draining rigors of touring behind 2004's fantastic "Uh Huh Her" and just wanted to sit a spell. The "retirement' was short-lived, as she has recently begun booking solo festival spots such as the Hay Festival in Wales and playing bass for singer Morris Tepper.
You see, very few female pop stars make me proud of my gender in a purely representative stance; most are insipid (Jessica Simpson), too young (JoJo), awkwardly precocious (Beyoncé), not exactly believable anymore (Madonna or Gwen Stefani) or too promiscuous (Fergie Ferg). But PJ, she's an undeniably talented rock star.
In concert, she proudly wears a cheeky Spice Girls dress, rocks the hot pink pumps, manhandles her guitar and does the damn thing. She wants you to lick her legs 'cuz she's on fire. She wants a pistol. She wants you to know you'll never be rid of her, and she'll also write down some of the most dangerously private and revealing thoughts of the female experience you'll ever come across. She says things like, "This isn't the first time I've asked for money or love/ Heaven and earth/Don't ever mean enough," and "'Til the light shines on me/I damn to hell every second you breathe."
That's my girl. No, sorry. That's my woman; my wonderfully erratic "50 Foot Queenie."
Clad in a conservative black dress—befitting the well-mannered rural, sheep-tending English girl she truly is—Harvey, 37, sat down with Hilton Als, a staff writer and theatre critic for The New Yorker and reminisced about her near 15-year career as a compelling figure on the music scene at the historic Supper Club in New York City on Saturday night for the annual New Yorker Festival.
Before the "show" could start, however, Als gave everyone a little appetizer of Harvey in action, by playing a snippet from her 2005 DVD "PJ Harvey—On Tour: Please Leave Quietly." The chosen song, "My Beautiful Leah," was a perfect way to prepare audience members who might not be familiar with her musical oeuvre and the singular way in which she does it. For "Leah" is a song, built on heavy grinding synth, disarming drum crashes and random yelps to punctuate the short tune. All done by Harvey herself, of course.
It was also a perfect way to allow Harvey to speak about her longtime friend and photographer and video collaborator, Maria Mochnacz, who also directed the recent DVD. Of the ramshackle way in which the DVD was filmed, Harvey noted that the premise she and Mochnacz came up with was inspired by "loathing the way rock DVDs are filmed," they "wanted to avoid boring," and didn't want just two crazy nights to capture the "chaos of touring" and "didn't want to perpetuate the glamorous myth."
(PJ Harvey talks with Hilton Als. Image courtesy of JCP and Carrie Alison for Interference.com)
The resulting DVD of course, is a loving, imperfect, but always genuine, picture of Harvey on tour, including backstage video "confessionals" from the famously shy, weary-looking singer who is obviously out of her social element, but deeply committed to giving her fans a great show. Though she finds touring "stressful," and is "a private person who leads a quiet life of…complete solitude," the "moments on stage…keep her alive and going."
Some tidbits that came out of Als' gentle if not meandering interviewing style touched on her earlier days and "characters" in her records. At 20 or 21 Harvey put her first band together (a folk band in Dorset that performed Irish tunes) and her goal was "to do musically" what she "wanted to see in art." And the "art" of it all was her course of study at university where she was an adept and unique sculptor who enjoyed casting her face and hands, and sticking them “on flying machinery.” Of Harvey's individual records, Als posited that "each record is a character study," and that "after ‘Dry' each record was about different people in different societies." Harvey didn't seem to agree with this assessment, but did offer that as she gets older, she has "felt more comfortable" allowing her lyrics to be more biographical, as opposed to when she was younger, she "tried to shield herself with distance." She also later noted that as she gets on in years, she is getting better at expressing herself in her personal life.
Interestingly enough, though Harvey is considered a feminist icon to her legions of adoring female (and male) fans, Als recalled that Harvey once told him that she "would need to study [the history of] feminism before calling herself a feminist."
Of her need to perform, Harvey revealed that although she is "very shy," even when she was as young as five, she needed an audience. Performing is "the only way" she can "express" herself and that if she didn't have her music and concerts by which to express herself she "would have suffocated."
(Image courtesy of JCP and Carrie Alison for Interference.com)
Towards the end of their discussion, Als wanted to play the "Desert Island Disc" game with Harvey, asking her to comment on selections of music he had chosen. First up was legendary bluesman Howlin' Wolf, whom Harvey considers having the voice and content that is "everything" she needs in music (love, sex, violence, etc.), and that it's the "one record that enables me to connect with my innermost insides." A snippet of Bjork followed, Harvey noting that "I've got a lot to learn from her." Captain Beefheart, a friend, and fellow kindred artist and experimental music auteur was next, with Harvey noting that Beefheart also has "everything I need" in music. Trip-hopper and British compatriot Tricky was last, with Harvey stating that they always bump into each other in Los Angeles and London at grocery stores and walking down the street, where they will call out to each other, "Alright, Tricky," "Alright Poll!"
The discussion wrapped up with Harvey chatting about her new material, and the fact that she has been taking piano lessons that have "opened up a new area of ways to write and sing." A sizeable portion of the new record will be on piano, harp and autoharp, and she warns that with these new instruments, "the gates have been thrown open; there are no limits anymore."
(Image courtesy of JCP and Carrie Alison for Interference.com)
On that note, the petite, delicate-featured Harvey then took center stage to perform "Man-Size," two songs on piano: “The Mountain” and “Bitter Little Bird,” "My Beautiful Leah," "Water," "The Desperate Kingdom of Love" and the classic "Rid of Me" where she commanded all of us to lick her legs ‘cuz she's on fire, lick her legs of desire.
With pleasure, Polly. With reverence and pleasure.
For more information on PJ Harvey, please visit her official website. "PJ Harvey—The Peel Sessions 1991-2004," a tribute to the late, influential British radio DJ and presenter John Peel will be released Oct. 23 in conjunction with the BBC on Island Records. "PJ Harvey—On Tour: Please Leave Quietly" is available now on DVD.
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