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The old saying goes, "Behind every great man there's a great woman." In the case of John Parish and PJ Harvey some would say "Behind every great woman, there's a great man." I'm going to be both politically and musically sensitive... John Parish and PJ Harvey stand side by side in their illustriousness. Over a 20+ year career, the team of PJ Harvey and John Parish have laid down a trail of musical genious. Though best known for his work with PJ Harvey, John Parish has also worked The EELS, Tracy Chapman, Sparkelhouse, Goldfrapp and many others.

After a very successful run of sold-out shows in Europe, John Parish and PJ Harvey are coming for a limited set of performances here in the United States in support of he and PJ Harvey's outstanding new cd "A Woman a Man Walked By."

I had the opportunity to speak with John by phone as he and PJ were winding up their European tour. Check out our conversation below, and by all means grab a ticket to a show if you can.

Musicpix: Your new album with PJ is just outstanding...I've been a fan from the beginning and after all these years, it's great to hear you two making great music!

John: Thanks, I appreciate you saying that…

Musicpix: Your collaboration with PJ Harvey hit a high point in 1995 with "To Bring You My Love" yet your musical relationship began in 1988 with your band "Automatic  Dlamini" of which Polly Jean was a member.  Can you talk about your beginnings as musicians and being kindred spirits so to speak?

John: My band used to play a lot of gigs where Polly was growing up and there was a club called Electric Broom Cupboard that everybody from Polly's neighborhood used to go to.  Polly started coming to our shows and she was just then starting to write her own songs and she started giving me tapes of her stuff.  I was really impressed with her singing and she was only 17 at the time.  Her voice was really mature and had an emotionally engaging quality to it.  We became friends and we used to hang out after shows and then after a few months, we needed somebody do back-up vocals and she was the first person I thought of to be in the band.  So she joined us straight up and left school....We found out pretty immediately that we could discuss music and discuss things in general and that we could trust each other's opinions.  Polly became a sounding board for me and my songs and likewise for her songs.  That was the beginning of a relationship that spans to this day even when we're not actively working together but we still rely on each other's opinions.  We still send each other copies of what we're doing and we’re curious to hear each other's opinion.  We use each other as sounding boards and trusted friends of reference.

Musicpix: The first time I saw you live was in Chicago in Oct. 1995 on the "To Bring You My Love Tour." In fact, the set list from the show with a guitar pick framed and hung in my office. At that time, your contributions were not as well known to the general public. Is there a difference to you when you appear as member of PJ Harvey's band vs. appearing as PJ Harvey and John Parish?

John: Yeah, there's definitely a difference.  It's our way of making it clear that when I'm given equal billing on either a record or on a concert then we're going to be performing songs where I have written the music and Polly has written the words   If it's a PJ Harvey show or PJ Harvey record, Polly would have written the music and the words.  Basically that's the difference.

Musicpix: In my opinion, “A Woman A Man Walked By” ranks up there with one of your top albums. You wrote the music and Polly Jean composed the lyrics.  Which comes first?

John:  I would write the music first in pretty completed instrumental versions of the songs and then she would write the lyrics and sing them over the top of those demos that I've given her.  Then we would go into a studio later by either recording or put the recordings that we made individually together if we felt that they were the right recordings or not.

Musicpix: "Pig Will Not" is a great song and reminds me of Was Not Was, "Dad I'm in Jail” combined with Patti Smith. Your music is so unique... Can you speak to some of your influences?

John: On a track like that you can definitely hear the influences of Captain Beefheart because he made the introduction to Abstract Rock for lack of better phrasing for what he does.  He was the first artist that made music that I completely didn't understand.  It sounded like different songs being played simultaneously.  It took me quite a long time to actually love the music.  At first, I just found it fascinating but I didn't really know if I liked it or not.  But after awhile, it was like hearing a foreign language.  When you’ve heard enough, it starts to make sense.  You don't know why you didn't understand it before.  He was been an influences on me as I have been a fan of his for years and years.  I think you can hear that on "Pig Will Not."  Obviously there are many influences but there are almost too many to mention because I've been listening to music for almost 40 years and everything that I've listened to and enjoy has seeped in to some degree.

Musicpix: As they say there is nothing new…

John: Yeah, it's just recycling.  You hope that your own personal collection and your personal way of sifting through makes something unique in the end.

Musicpix: There is a simpleness, a primitiveness if you will to your music that makes it very complex.  Is that something you strive for... not over producing to let someone's emotions take root in your seeds?

John: Yes, I guess it is...it's not something that I do particularly consciously, but I am aware that when I am writing and recording things that I don't feel.  To give you an example, I wouldn't just put a bass guitar on a track because there was no bass guitar on it.  It would have to be doing something in order to define its position.  And I really like to hear the idiosyncrasies of instruments so I don't like to cover things up with a lot of general sound to make it sound bigger.  I don't like to use anything to smooth the sound out...I like the rough edges.  Those are the parts that are interesting to me and I'm drawn to them and I have always been drawn to that.  When I was a kid and listened to pop music, I was always drawn to records with a slide guitar on it.  It was the way that it would play notes that are between notes and I was really drawn to that.  For me, that's always been appealing.  I don't want to cover those things up.

Musicpix: Being a producer and being behind a recording console vs. performing are two very different things. Perfecting the recording vs. the spontaneity and inherent flaws that occur during a live performance are so different.  Do you have a preference?

John:   I don't really have a preference because I see them as very different things.  It's almost like saying 'do you prefer main course to first course?'  It’s not things that I would necessarily compare.  I get different things from either working in the studio or from working on stage.

Musicpix: You've worked with a number of artists.... The Eels, Tracy Chapman, Sparklehorse... and (I'm from Indianapolis, so I have to mention Indianapolis' own Jennie DeVoe) to name a few. How do you go about determining who you work with?

John: Generally people approach me and I either accept or decline depending on whether I like the music and I can get along with the artist and how I can contribute in some way and that varies from project to project.  Like the Eels project .  I co-wrote more than half of the songs on the record and played a lot of the instruments and it was very much collaboration vs. other records where I could be called an old style producer that's there to be an impartial critic to give and objective viewpoint.  To tell people, 'yeah that was the take.'

Musicpix: Are there any artists that you haven't worked with that you like to get involved with?

John:  That's a difficult question to answer...I can't really tell until I have made contact with somebody because I just don't know what it would be like.  Of course, there are loads of people whose music I love but they are already making fantastic records without me and they obviously don't need me...[laughing].  Whether they could make something better with me or equally better with me, we probably could....

Musicpix: So you need a human synergy factor?

John:  Exactly...it has to work to make a really good record.

Musicpix: The title song from your latest album "A Woman a Man Walked By" is incredible... yet for obvious reasons the lyrics will not get you any radio play. There are artists who break their necks for radio play and phenomenal artists like you who forget that aspect and just make the music that's in their soul.  Is that a conscious decision you and PJ make?

John: We don't think about whether something will play on the radio when we're making it...we write what we feel at the time.  We can't write something that is great as it possibly could be.  It's usually someone at the record company that suggests that it will never get on the radio.  I think that Polly is a very established artist and people will be interested with or without me.  Whether it gets on the radio or not is not our way of thinking.  But we don't deliberately set out to make things non-commercial either.  We just try to make music that we find interesting and inspiring and then hope that other people discover it.

Musicpix:  “A Woman a Man Walk By” was also released on vinyl. I am a huge fan of vinyl and to me, no digital medium sounds as good. Is there an audiophile side to John Parish?

John: Yes definitely.  I don't like it just for the sound but I like it for the awkwardness of the format and the beauty of the format.  To me, it's a very tangible object that you can love in a way that you can't love a download.  Like anything, of course the more effort you have to put into something the reward is likely to be greater.  The simple fact is that you can't play a record anywhere.  You have to go into a specific room where your record player is and clean it put it on.  After you've gone through all that, you'll probably sit down and listen to it with a certain degree of concentration vs. listening in the car or where you do your laundry.  So it's the experience of listening to a record that is very different than experiencing any kind of digital format.

Musicpix: You're in the final stretch of a highly successful European Tour and virtually every city was sold out. In June, you'll be hitting 14 cities in the US in three weeks. What's next?

John:  We haven't planned beyond the US Tour at the moment....we've been working since February when we started rehearsals and have been working ever since then.  At the end of the US Tour, we might reconvene and do some shows in the autumn.  Polly's working on material that I'll be producing in the New Year but that's a little way off yet.  For right now, we're concentrating on getting the US Tour dates done and spending a little bit of time with our family.

Musicpix:  If you were limited to one sentence to sum up your relationship with Polly Jean over the last twenty years what would it be?

John:  Basically the thing between us is that there is a really unshakable level of trust since we became friends and that it's just grown over the years.

By
Steve Mitchell