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"FacebookPinterest\n\nFacebookPinterestFacebookPinterest\n\n Anyone foolish enough to require proof that PJ Harvey is the preeminent rock goddess of the past 20 years only needs to be shown the video for her bluesy 2000 anthem \"This Is Love.\" Banging skillfully on a guitar and wearing a tassled white jumpsuit that would have made Elvis jealous, the spindly Brit seductively stomps around the set, meshing the unpredictable swagger of Iggy Pop with the defiant vulnerability of Chrissie Hynde. The performance also provides a nice glimpse at a legend-to-be in mid-career: nine years after her arrival on the scene with \"Dress,\" a shimmering, Cobain-like dirge that introduced us to the haunting wail that has become her signature; and 11 years before her lyric-writing prowess had developed the strength to pull off an album as politically charged as Let England Shake, which won her Britain's Mercury Prize for an unprecedented second time in September. Just don't expect Harvey, 42, to squeeze back into that killer jumpsuit anytime soon. In the course of a career whose only through lines are vision and nerve, that second Mercury Prize is the first time she's repeated herself.\n\n\n\n\n\nYour browser does not support iframes.\n\n |||\n\nGQ: Let England Shake is a major departure from your earlier work, not just lyrically but vocally. When did the notable change in pitch begin to take hold?\n\n PJ Harvey: It took me a long time to figure out how to sing these songs because I worked on them just as words on a page to begin with. When it came to recording, I didn't know how to find the correct voice for them. If I used too much of a breadth in my voice, then it made the songs too self-important, too dogmatic straight away. So it was a very delicate balance to sing them in a way that was purely playing the role of a narrator and not trying to inflect the words with any particular bias.\n\nGQ: You mention playing a narrator. Were you doing that on your older songs, too, even the ones most people assume are autobiographical?\n\n PJ Harvey: Oh, yes. I think a lot of my albums are me casting myself in other people's shoes, taking on and looking at the world through different perspectives. So in some ways, this record is an extension of where I've been with many other works in the past. But obviously this record is dealing with very specific themes.\n\nGQ: You make multiple references to Gallipoli. Did you get obsessed with World War I during the making of this album?\n\n PJ Harvey: As I was doing my research to write this record I realized quite quickly I needed to gather a lot of historical information in order to understand more about our current-day wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, for example. So I started going through my history books and became so interested in the Gallipoli campaign. It really resonated in me. I felt like I could relate it in a way to some of our contemporary wars and I learned a lot by looking at it, but also just the sheer scale of the mismanagement of that campaign and the scale of the loss of life affected me very deeply. And I really wanted to write about it.\n\nGQ: Did your Gallipoli obsession take you as far as watching the 1981 Mel Gibson movie?\n\n PJ Harvey: [laughs] I did. Yes, I did. I actually thought he did a very good performance. Obviously, I haven't marked it up as one of the greatest films of all time, but I enjoyed it because I was so involved in reading so much of the material around the campaign.\n\nGQ: You're the only artist to win two Mercury Prizes. Is that important to you?\n\n PJ Harvey: I was really delighted and surprised. It made me very happy to have my work acknowledged in that way, particularly this album, which is dealing with very serious subject matter at a time when things are actively and vibrantly taking place. For that album to get the award right now, I find extremely hopeful.\n\nGQ: \"You Said Something,\" from 2000's Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, has become a staple at weddings here in Brooklyn. Did you know that?\n\n PJ Harvey: Really? That's lovely. That's really lovely to hear. I didn't know that anybody had used it at a wedding. That's fantastic!\n\nFacebookPinterestundefined\n\nGQ: You should be getting royalties, or at least some cake.\n\n PJ Harvey: [laughs] I actually played at my brother's wedding. And the song that they requested for me to play was \"Rid of Me.\" That's a true story. My own brother.\n\nGQ: Speaking of which, you don't play as many songs off Dry and Rid of Me in concert anymore. Why?\n\n PJ Harvey: Well, I find that I can only play the songs that I can sing with any authenticity still, my being a 42-year-old woman. Some of the words of those songs were written when I was very young and they no longer feel honest for me to sing now at this stage of my life. When I sing for people I want to be able to feel that I can inhabit the song during that performance and in order to do so I need to believe in it. So I only sing the songs that I can still believe as I sing them.\n\nGQ: Do you ever find yourself getting nostalgic for that era of your career?\n\n PJ Harvey: I don't get nostalgic, really. I'm somebody that enjoys living in the present moment that I'm in. In fact, I very rarely reflect because it all feels part of me still. My past feels part of the ongoing journey towards where I'm going next.\n\nGQ: So I take it you don't still pull out your old Doc Martens from time to time?\n\n PJ Harvey: I don't, no. That was definitely what I was enjoying wearing when I was 20 years old but I don't wear them now. I'm not even sure what happened to that pair of boots.\n\nGQ: Awesome. You come across as fairly serious as an artist, but you clearly have a good sense of humor. What makes you laugh?\n\n PJ Harvey: I love a lot of comedy programs. One of my favorite comedians is Dylan Moran. And I really like Seinfeld. What else do I really laugh at? All of the Monty Pythons. You can't go wrong with that.\n\nGQ: Can we expect a comedy album soon then?\n\n PJ Harvey: We'll have to see. I never say no to anything. I keep an open mind.\n\nGQ: Where do you keep your awards, by the way?\n\n PJ Harvey: They all live at my mother and father's house. I say \"they all.\" It's not that many, actually. But they live there. That's where the collection is.\n\nGQ: Would you call it a shrine to your greatness?\n\n PJ Harvey: It's not a shrine. It's a shelf. It's a shelf above their record collection. That's a good a place to be.\n\nFacebookPinterestFacebookPinterest"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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