A soundcloud of her latest album ‘Let England Shake’

PJ Harvey on her new recorded album:

I was looking outwards a lot more. I think a lot of my work has often been about the interior, the emotional, what happens inside oneself. And this time I’ve been just looking out, so it’s not only to do with taking a look at England but taking a look at the world and what happening in current world affairs. But always trying to come from the human point of view, because I don’t feel qualified to sing from a political standpoint… I sing as a human being affected by the politics, and that for me is a more successful way … because I so often feel that with a lot of protest music, I’m being preached to, and I don’t want that.

PJ Harvey went for the church so did the Cowboy Junkies, the space gave PJ Harveys’ music a message, but more artists use strange spaces to record their albums. Katie Melua, by example, ‘Concert Under the Sea’, recorded at the bottom of an oil platform pillar; hundreds of meters under the ocean. Then there’s A Silver Mt. Zion their album ‘Horses in the Sky’ was recored by a bonfire, and you can actually hear it. Jackson Browne, armed with an album’s worth of new songs, recorded onstage, backstage, in hotel rooms and, last but not loeast, on a tour bus. You can even here the bus engine revving in places on ‘Nothing But Time’.

A lot of good music happens when the artist lays down the tracks in a place that is out of the ordinary, adding to the dynamic of the recordings. Then the space can give the music an other dimension.

Records exist to be broken and documented. In 2001 PJ Harvey took the Barclaycard Mercury Prize and now breaking the record for being the first and only artist to win it a second time a decade later on 6 September 2011.

The night of PJ Harvey’s first win was of course overshadowed by the events of that September 11th 2001 day. When she got her second chance, a first time event for any artist to win the Barclaycard Mercury twice, she had some inspiring words to say referencing her first win.

It’s nice to actually be here. I was in in Washington DC watching The Pentagon burning from my hotel window, so it’s good to be here. So much has happened since then. This album took me a long time write. It was very important to me, I wanted to make something that was meaningful not just for myself but for other people, hopefully to make something that would last.

She was also the first to perform at the event on the same night the performer would go on to win it, beating out Adele who was also meant to perform but had to duck out for health issues. Harvey accepted the £20,000 cash prize with a decisive speech and graceful presence. “First of all I’d like to say thank you very much for this award, and the recognition of my work on this album,” she said. Harvey went on to thank “the people that have supported her throughout her career,” her manager, her record company Island, agents and “those who helped me make ‘Let England Shake.'”

This week we feature an interview with Member of the Week Shaun Liddle, check out Groove Armada’s ‘single’ performance at super-club Trinity on Saturday 14 May and then head to The Labia on Tuesday 17 May for RVCA’s ANP Launch, with the screening of the doccie Beautiful Losers. On onesmallseed.TV we feature our controversial What’s Your Story with filmmaker Aryan Kaganof, and also release the behind-the-scenes of Ryan Kruger’s still-unreleased music video of The Parlotones’ – Should We Fight Back.

Competition-wise, make sure you have entered the Feiyue competition to win a pair of funky trainers. Then, for some evening entertainment, we have Seamus Murphey’s 12 short films that he created for each song on PJ Harvey’s new album Let England Shake and an animation short called Chick, which is an ironic take on the everyday male-female interaction.

Relevant links:

Member of the Week – Shaun Liddle

What’s Your Story? – Aryan Kaganof

The Parlotones’ – Should We Fight Back

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake ( 12 songs/12 films )

Chick

Feiyue Competition