I was looking for Rock Werchter reviews and found this new, or at least different transcript of the interview with Amanda Petrusich from September 2023


https://www.humo.be/muziek/pj-harvey-ik ... ~b92eb090/

7 years have passed since PJ Harvey last released new music. After 2016's 'The Hope Six Demolition Project', a wrecking ball of a record on which the British singer screamed her indignation about social abuses, she mainly occupied herself with the reissue of older songs. Out of necessity, PJ Harvey explains her trip down memory lane almost apologetically: "There was still a demand for my old records, but in the meantime they were no longer available on vinyl, so I had to go back to work with the material I recorded decades ago. And you know, it was quite nice to have a dialogue with the searching, very young woman that I was at the time.'

With 53 years on the counter, PJ Harvey can no longer claim the predicate very young, but on her tenth album she continues her search with undiminished perseverance. 'I Inside the Old Year Dying' is based on the poetry collection 'Orlam', published last year, in which Harvey lets the innocent, eternally amazed 9-year-old country girl Ira-Abel discover the world through trial and error – in all her wonderful but also ugly guises.

– 'Orlam' was all yours alone, while for 'I Inside the Old Year Dying' you collaborated with John Parish and Flood, your favorite producers. It must have been quite a challenge to transform the fairytale-like beautiful, but at times difficult to fathom poetry of 'Orlam' into playable and listenable songs.

POLLY JEAN HARVEY «Gosh... When you put it that way, it seems like I've converted my collection into a record, but in my head it's completely different. Since I started writing poetry (Harvey's first collection, 'The Hollow of the Hand', dates from 2015, ed.), the boundaries between the different art forms have gradually blurred for me. Poetry, music, photography, painting... They all flow into each other very naturally. By that I don't mean that they are interchangeable. Not every poem can become a song and vice versa.»

– But the poems in 'Orlam' did have song potential?

HARVEY «I didn't want 'Orlam' to ever become a record, but during the writing process I noticed that I was singing more and more at my desk. That's how it always goes when I'm in a creative flow: then the barriers in my head disappear. I look for the music in poetry and the poetry in the music. Sometimes that produces results that make me think: hm, I can do something with this. And sometimes I fiddle and fiddle for hours, and I finally find that I've been at a dead end the whole time. But in both cases, I had a great time (laughs).»

– The boundary between music and poetry has been discussed before, when Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 for his collected oeuvre. Did you think the stinging criticism – 'Dylan is not a writer!' – was justified?

HARVEY «There is a difference between poetry and lyrics. Poetry doesn't need music to exist: the rhythm and melody are contained in the words. Lyrics are imperfect without music. They are not stand-alone messages, they are brushstrokes that can only become a beautiful painting if they are lifted to a higher level by the music.

»No more than a handful of artists have ever managed to write both beautiful poetry and brilliant lyrics: the 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns is one of them, and so is Bob Dylan – without a doubt. I don't think highly of songwriters who stuff their lyrics with double meanings and a hodgepodge of emotions. As a listener, you are quickly left with an oversaturated feeling. But Dylan gets away with it, for the simple reason that he's a genius."

– When I listen to Dylan, I often catch myself not hearing what he's singing – or humming. His deceptively simple lyrics flow into his music until they form a whole, like a kind of mantra.

HARVEY (nodding enthusiastically) «Yes! Really, I feel the same way. It often happens to me that I don't know exactly what an artist is singing: then I just let myself drift with the flow, until I completely submerge. I take a few words from the text and sculpt my own version with them, giving the whole thing a completely new meaning for me. In my opinion, that's the highest you can achieve as a songwriter: that your audience runs off with your songs. And the great thing is: there is no wrong interpretation. Every song comes to each listener differently, and everything he or she feels at that moment is just right.»

ELVIS CHRIST
– The main character in 'Orlam' – and therefore also on your new album – is Ira-Abel, a 9-year-old girl who is trying to find her way in life. As she tries to process the traumas of her past, she encounters a number of new ones. In the clip of 'A Child's Question, August', the first single, some childhood photos of you pop up.

HARVEY "And now you probably want to know if I'm Ira-Abel (laughs). No, 'Orlam' was not an autobiography, any more than 'I Inside the Old Year Dying' is an autobiographical record. I think all artists incorporate elements of their lives into their music. In fact, it's inevitable. But I don't feel the need to share that unfiltered reality with my audience. First, I pour over it a thick layer of the most delicious, powerful sauce there is: the human imagination.»

– Or, as in 'Orlam': the imagination of a 9-year-old girl.

HARVEY (beaming) «Is there anything more beautiful in the whole world? Let a child play in the sandbox, and it will build a kingdom. Let it draw a picture and listen to the stories behind it: you will be amazed at what reveals itself to you. That pure, innocent wonder is an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

»When I sit at my writing table, I always try to evoke the girl in myself. And when I succeed, almost every time I have to conclude that she has a lot more to say than PJ Harvey, the grown woman (laughs).»

– 'Love me tender / Tender love': Elvis Presley also makes an appearance in 'A Child's Question, August'. When Ira-Abel loses track for a moment, she is helped on her way again by Wyman-Elvis, the ghost of a brave knight with messianic allures. And then there's the obvious Elvis reference in 'Lwonesome Tonight', the third song on the record. The King never ceases to inspire you.

HARVEY «How could it be otherwise? His voice... My God, that voice! Tell me, have you ever heard such unimaginable power and beauty from a human mouth? So much pain and tragedy, too. Every time I listen to Elvis – and I do – he hits me amidships. That otherworldly voice of his meanders through my soul until he finds the sensitive chord of the day, and then plays it perfectly. Sometimes soft and tender, sometimes hard and brutal, but always exactly the way I need it at that moment.

»To go back to your previous question, yes, the ubiquity of The King is definitely an autobiographical element, both in the book and on the record (smiles).

»I have very deliberately portrayed Wyman-Elvis, the spirit who leads Ira-Abel back to the right path after she has wandered off for a moment, as a Christ-like figure. In the eyes of the 9-year-old girl, not only does he embody the infinite wisdom, she may also be a little bit in love with him – just like I might be a little bit in love with the real Elvis (laughs)."

– Just like Elvis Presley, you use your voice as a versatile instrument. You sound different on every record. 'I Inside the Old Year Dying' is no exception: your vocal cords vibrate to the jerky rhythm of Ira-Abel's desperate and sometimes desperate search.

HARVEY "When I make something new, it has to be really new. I would hate it if my tenth record was just a carbon copy of the ninth. I want to reinvent myself every time, which of course doesn't get any easier after a career of more than thirty years (Harvey's first album, 'Dry', was released in 1992, ed.). But still, I keep trying, first and foremost because I like to keep challenging myself.

»When I listened to the tapes of 'I Inside the Old Year Dying' for the first time after the recordings, my first thought was: hey, I've never heard myself sing like that before. Mission accomplished! (laughs)»

BARBED WIRE
– Your record is full of found sounds: samples of everyday sounds that are sometimes very recognizable, but even more often a 'Where have I heard that before?' feeling.

HARVEY «Some of the samples I just recorded myself with my phone, during my nature walks. But I owe most of them to sound engineer Adam 'Cecil' Bartlett and friends of mine who provide the sound in the theatre. You name it, they have a file of it! Then I send an email: 'Hey, I want to hear moving barbed wire in the bleak autumn wind. Around the end of November, if possible.' And then they immediately provide me with what I'm looking for: not one, but three or four files with the perfect sound (laughs).»

– How do you incorporate them into your music? When do you know: this elusive sound is exactly what this song needs?

HARVEY "Oh, I never know in advance. It's much more traditional than you think: I locked myself in the studio for a few days, together with Cecil, John Parish and Flood. I bring the lyrics, the chords and the melodies, they bring the instruments and the samples, and then we start mixing everything up randomly until we find something that sounds a bit like music (laughs).»

– In other words: 'I Inside the Old Year Dying' was created by chance?

HARVEY "It was mainly a matter of patience. I sang, John played guitar, Flood tested all kinds of loops on his arsenal of prehistoric synthesizers, Cecil juggled with the cassette player – first one sample, slower and faster again, then another through, more bass and reverb, or just less... Until, after a while, we had to conclude that the combination would come to nothing, and then we changed everything: me on the guitar, John on the bass, a new cassette in the player, and so on. For days and nights on end (laughs). In the end, there was always that one moment when everything fell into place perfectly. Then we looked up, and we saw it in each other's eyes: yes, we nailed it!

»Many of those improvisation sessions ended up on the record in their entirety. Sometimes it was so good that we thought: what could a 'real' recording add? Why would we want to polish this song when it already sounds and feels the way we want it to? Because that's one of the reasons why I'm so happy with this record: when you listen to it, it feels like you're in the studio with us. You can hear us searching, wandering off cursing and with a sigh of relief back on the right path, until we cross the finish line together – sometimes battered, always wonderfully exhausted.»

– Have you always been such an improvisational adept?

HARVEY "Oh no, not at all. It wasn't until 'Let England Shake' (from 2011, ed.) that I felt confident enough of myself to loosen the reins a bit. Until then, I always wanted to be in control: everything had to be done exactly as I had planned it. As I got older, I began to realize that fun and play space are essentially synonymous. The more space you give yourself and your employees, the more energy is released.»

– But that energy can also be negative. When creative minds clash, it is not uncommon for the gensters to fly around.

HARVEY "That's true, but I can count myself lucky in that respect: I've known John and Flood for more than thirty years, since the very beginning of my career, and after all that time we are still on the same wavelength. As artists and as people. Even when I'm at my most vulnerable, it feels safe to throw my ideas into the group: they'll never flatly tear me down. And when the frustrations do drip off the studio walls, because we're hopelessly messed up with a song, after a while someone always comes up with an idea that untangles all the knots.»

THREATENING CLOUD
– A few years ago, you made it seem that you were starting to get tired of music. When you announced in the summer of 2022 that a tenth album was in the pipeline seven years after 'The Hope Six Demolition Project', countless PJ Harvey fans breathed a sigh of relief: their idol hadn't retired after all.

HARVEY "I considered quitting for a while, that's right. ' The Hope Six Demolition Project' had come about after a stiff, frustrating process that I had enjoyed very little. I was quite happy with the end result, and yet I wondered: do I want to do this to myself again? And of course, my age also played a role – I saw the 50 coming towards me like a dark, threatening cloud (laughs).»

– Was that a difficult threshold for you?

HARVEY "In hindsight, not at all. But I was suddenly aware that I didn't have another fifty years to make all my dreams come true. Maybe it was time to change my life?

»I thought back with nostalgia to my teenage years, when I first got my hands on a guitar. I was 16 or 17, and a new world opened up for me. That was the feeling I was missing. Although I still enjoyed my work, routine had crept into my days. I needed that regularity – as an artist you have to discipline yourself – but gradually she also started to limit me. Blunt, even.

»And so, after 'The Hope Six Demolition Project', I threw myself into other projects, such as 'Orlam' and the reissue of my earlier records. That breather has helped me to find passion and wonder again in my work.»

– 'Slip from my childhood skin': in 'I Inside the Old I Dying', the ninth song on your new record, you let Ira-Abel shed her old skin like a snake to reappear as a better version of herself.

HARVEY (smiles) «Okay, in the young girl there may also be a piece of the now 53-year-old woman who came up with her. But for me, that one line sums up the whole album well: the wonderful and frightening thought that life is a succession of transformations. As a child, you are constantly hovering between the little you already know and the much you still have to discover. One moment you're carefree in the clouds of your fantasy, the next you're slamming into the wall of reality. That cycle of light and dark will then keep repeating itself: after the day comes the night, after the night the day. Every version of yourself will die at some point – and form the basis for a new, hopefully better version.»

– Finally, are you looking forward to touring with 'I Inside the Old Year Dying'?

HARVEY «Yes! I love the stage dearly. Thousands of people coming together in a hall or on a meadow to fully surrender to their love of music: it doesn't get any better than that, does it?»