PJ Harvey is set to release her first album since 2016 in 2023.
The 52-year-old musician-and-poet admits it took “a long time” to finish the follow-up to ‘Hope Six Demolition Project’ – which is as yet untitled – but it was worth the wait.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said: “I’m very pleased with it.
“It took a long time to write to get right, but at last, I feel very happy with it.”
The ‘Good Fortune’ singer also revealed she has been inspired by a lot of soundtracks lately, including those by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, while she’s also a fan of the ‘Creep’ group’s frontman Thom Yorke’s solo works and Bob Dylan’s ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’ album.
She said: “I’ve become more and more drawn to soundtrack work. I think because of my love of film and television, I so often become completely under the spell of a soundtrack. Some of the greatest soundtrack writers would be Jonny Greenwood, Mica Levi, Hildur Guðnadóttir, her Chernobyl soundtrack, for example, Ryuichi Sakamoto.”
PJ added: “So I very often am listening to instrumental music from films, but otherwise I think sort of contemporary music I’ve really loved Thom Yorke’s solo projects, but also his work with the Smile. Mica Levi’s bands, her work with Tirzah, her work with Micachu and the Shapes, ‘Good Sad Happy Bad’. Gosh, and I recently came across Anna von Hausswolff’s ‘All Thoughts Fly’, which knocked me sideways. I thought that was amazing. Bob Dylan, I mean “Murder Most Foul” was absolutely astonishing. And I find no greater pleasure than when I see an artist who I’ve admired all my life, doing their best work as their most recent work. I think, ‘Oh, wow.’ That just fills me with such pleasure. And I felt that with Bob Dylan’s entire ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’ album.”