Chords for PJ Harvey on MTV’s 120 Minutes 1993 (full interview)

And welcome back to MTV's 120 minutes.
So happy [E] to finally have as my special [Gb] guest here tonight,
PJ Harvey.
Hello.
[N] Do you like to be called PJ or Polly or Polly Jean?
I really don't mind,
so people call me everything.
_ _ Any of them?
Any of them.
Any of them.
Yeah, I'm going to ask you the most cliched interview question ever. _
How did you decide
on the name PJ Harvey and not just be_
How is that the band name when it's also your name?
It's
kind of very confusing.
How did you end up deciding on that and were there any other names you were
before you?
I think when we first started, we _ were playing around with other names,
but nothing felt right at all or just suggested the wrong type of sound or
um, just wasn't right.
So, and I also felt that I am the songwriter in the band and I know that
I'm going to be wanting to write songs and continue making music for quite a while,
but I can't guarantee that Rob and Steve will want to, or that we'll want to_
Do they know that,
by the way?
Yeah, they know that.
They, I mean, they, you know, they've, they're both
writers themselves.
They would [Ab] like to do [Eb] some things on their own eventually anyway.
I can't guarantee that we'll always want to play together in the same format.
So, um, but I know that [Bb] I'd like to continue writing songs for myself, so it seemed
quite a good move to keep my name for the band [N] anyway.
Yeah, they, they are an amazing
rhythm section team.
I have a couple_ _
[Eb] How _ _ _ do I meet them?
Yeah.
Um, well, we all come from
small villages in Dorset and we tend to know if there are any other [N] musicians in the aria.
Yeah, [Eb] _
they were the only, they were, they literally were the only two people I could
think of to ask and they're playing drum I knew.
I didn't really know them, but just knew of them.
And it just seemed to, to work right away really.
I think because we all come from similar
backgrounds, grown up in similar areas, we've got the same [Gb] mentality, [Bb] same approach to music.
[D] Well, we're going to come back and you have a new video, you have a new album,
and we're going to be talking about that.
Also [Gb] playing [B] Sheila in the gig.
I think we're going
to play [Gbm] Sheila in the gig right now [N] from your first, your first album, Dry.
And anything you
want to say about this song?
Are you tired of seeing it?
Tired of hearing about it?
I'm quite fond of it.
It feels a bit like an old, an old friend or an old dress or something
that you put on occasionally.
Bit of an old bag though.
I'm quite fed up with her now.
Well, and here she is for you to see.
Sheila in the gig from PJ Harvey. _ _ _
_ Your debut album Dry is PJ [E] Harvey with Sheila in the gig here [Ab] on 120 Minutes.
We're here with the
woman herself, Polly Jean Harvey.
And that was only last year [Bb] that [Gb] your debut album was released
and it barely had [N] time to, you know, go away before you had a brand new one.
Why so, that was
a pretty quick turnaround for a second record.
These were bands take, you know, especially coming
up a really great debut album, take like two, three years, two or lots.
It felt like ages to me because I often think it just seems to take so long between when you
actually, if you write a song, when you can actually get it out, it's like a period of a
year and a half.
So it never feels like it moves quick enough for me.
But, um, no, I wasn't aware
that that was a short time.
To me, that was quite long.
It seemed people like just started to begin
to hear of you and then I was like your second album, your second album being almost treated like
a debut album.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I suppose it has been in England as well, [Bb] really.
_ [Ab] _ This album is also a little tougher than the first one.
Um, yes, yes.
I'd say it's probably tougher.
I think as a songwriter, I'm writing
tougher lyrics and musically a lot more direct.
[Ebm] _
I feel quite a lot older than when I wrote the
[Bb] first album as well.
All of [N] one year ago.
Yes, I feel like 10 years older.
Now the producer you chose, Steve Albini, who is actually kind of the controversial Steve [E] Albini,
because of the whole Nirvana thing.
I don't know if you've heard about that.
Yeah.
[N] And he is known
for, I guess, a really heavy, hard, like thick, uncommercial sound.
How did you end up choosing
him?
Was that your choice? _
_ I've never really thought of his sounds being sort of just
uncommercial, heavy or thick.
I've always thought that his sound just sounds like a band.
He's the
only person I know that can record a drum kit and it sounds like you're sitting in front of a drum
kit.
It doesn't sound like it's gone through a recording process or it's coming out speaker.
You can feel the sound that he records.
And that is why I wanted to work with him because
all I've ever wanted is for us to be recorded and to sound like we do when we're playing together in
a room.
And that's never happened before.
And that's exactly how you record the album,
I was thinking.
Yeah, we recorded it.
We put all the tracks down in about three days and we played
them live.
And Steve just recorded it and using the microphone in a way I've never seen anyone
use before.
And in order to capture the feeling of the sound rather than just the sound.
Well, we're going to take a look at _ Pitti Fanquini in the second 60 of 120 minutes.
You're going to continue on with us.
So here we go.
_ [A] _ _ [D] We're on 120 minutes.
We're doing exactly [B] what
Paul likes, talking to the artist, the musician.
[Gb] Paulie June Harvey is here from PJ [Ab] Harvey.
_ [N] And is it true that you turned down Lollapalooza, the big alternative music fest that is playing to
30,000 people and [Eb] above that's currently on the road [Bb] right now?
_ _ [Eb] _ Why? _
I think the biggest reason
is I _ [Bbm] mean, [N] I'd like to have done to tour here in our own right.
We've played here a few times
before.
I still don't think I'd like to establish PJ Harvey in our own show with people that have
come to see us play.
But also I think that _ particularly because we're playing to a lot of
people for the first time and I've heard this before, our music, my music doesn't translate
that well in vast areas to _ _ start off with.
I think it takes people a few times and a few
listenings before they can get to grips with it.
And that was the biggest reason really.
I'd rather
play small shows to a small amount of people who can be much more in touch with what's going on.
Wow.
How many people carry that [F] attitude these days?
[Gb] It's like get [E] it quick [F] and play to as many
people as possible.
[Bb] Did you get a lot of, you must have got a lot of pressure though too.
[E] I mean, that is the ultimate opportunity to be in that slot.
And a lot of [D] bands have really
benefited from it, like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry.
[N] I can see what a good opportunity it
was.
But like I said, I just don't think it's the right way to go about presenting the music at the
_ stage.
The one thing also that's been the one criticism of all of this is the fact that it's
not like, you know, it's [Eb] a male dominated lineup.
[E] I'm sure they probably came after you hard to [N] play.
I didn't realize it was male dominated.
That was the criticism last year.
It was like a Pearl Jam and Chili Peppers.
I was like, you know, rock and roll, you know.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, that's good.
I'm glad to hear that.
And we're going to play 50 Foot Queenie
from your second album.
And it was as your second album, was it, [Bb] did you learn anything
making the [Ab] first record that benefited this second record?
[Eb] Do you like it?
How [A] do you,
how are the two set up to each other?
Do [B] you like one better than the other or
[N] both for different reasons?
Well, I prefer the second album because it's new and because I think
I'm a better songwriter now.
I prefer the songs on there.
They're much closer to me and how I'm
feeling now than the songs on the first album, which I do find some of those songs, just I
wouldn't write them now.
_ _ _ I think we recorded it pretty much in the same amount of time.
It took us a couple of weeks to do each record.
But I think I learned from doing the first album
from when we recorded that I was trying to get as close as possible to a natural sound of how
it was sounding in those rooms in that studio, which didn't really come off.
But again,
you know, I learned from that, doing it that way, that that's not the way to do it.
That's why I chose to work with Albini for the second album.
One little quick question.
I never
thought I would see your hair down. _
[Gm] [Ab] My hair comes down quite a lot these days.
It does it really?
It comes [Gb] down loads of places, yeah.
I mean, I, when you play live, [E] because I haven't seen you
live.
Yes, [N] yes, strictly live.
You have nice hair.
That's a good thing.
Oh, thank you.
Okay, you're welcome.