Ex-Bad Seed and PJ Harvey collaborator Mick Harvey talks about his new concept album about death and a song for Rowland S Howard.
The opening song on his album Sketches From The Book Of The Dead is called ‘October Boy’ and Harvey admits that it was written for and about the late, great Birthday Party guitarist and solo artist Rowland S Howard.
“Most of the songs are about people who are long gone, so there are not really songs about recent bereavement,” he explains.
“The subject matter of the album, to me, isn’t about grief or loss at all, in fact,” he continues, “so writing a song about Rowland was entering borderline territory which is why it’s written rather flippantly and with a sense of fun about it. That was the only way to make it fit with the nature of the other material.”
“To me the songs aren’t necessarily about sadness,” he says, “There’s naturally some collateral damage, collateral sadness, there but they’re not really about that. They’re about what you’re able to carry on in your life with and manage, in a way – the memories that you take with you and continue to function.”
“It’s really about, in a bizarre kind of roundabout way, being able to function,” he laughs.
Harvey goes on to talk about the concept behind Sketches From The Book Of The Dead, working with PJ Harvey, and the process of writing lyrics and songs.
Check out the whole interview below.
