Mick Harvey: You don’t just start doing shit versions of the songs
Mick Harvey: A lot of the songs the band were playing were short-cut simplified versions of favorite songs of ours that were just an easy way to play them live … and they weren’t testing or making the band work hard to create a great piece of music anymore … It was just like, we can just bash out Deanna like that and everyone will love it anyway, so who gives a fuck? I did not like that attitude. I thought it was really poor… I understand it’s difficult when you’re in a really really big 5,000 stadium to do subtle music … well then, fuck it, we shouldn’t be playing in 5,000 capacity stadiums we should be playing in smaller venues where we can play the music properly. And you don’t just start doing shit versions of the songs because you can’t be bothered and it’s not worth it anyway. That’s really a death to me…
… and the attitude about my feeling like that was that I should just shut up.
(Mick Harvey, Paris, March 1, 2010)
ANNIE VIGLIELMO’s 3-part Podcast with Mick Harvey is under the cut!
Live interview with Mick Harvey in Paris – February 24, 2010:
Part 1. New Projects and more… (30 min)
Listen or Download
Live interview with Mick Harvey in Paris – March 1, 2010:
Part 2. Some reasons [why he left] Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds…
Listen or Download (25 min)
Live Live interview with Mick Harvey in Paris – March 8, 2010:
Part 3. On the music – from Birthday Party to Bad Seeds…
Listen or Download (32 min)
*THANKS to Annie at The Melting Pod. (Updated 11 March 2010)
Sad to hear these comments from Mick about his relationship with Nick in the past 18 months. Obviously this is just his version of events, but it’s a shame to see such a brilliant musical collaborationship ove more than three decades come to such a bitter end. It’s amazing how often Mick used the phrase “not nice” in relation to Nick’s attitude to him. Well, at least we have 35 years worth of great music from them working together. I know Nick has detractors with regard to his recent stuff, but I still think he’s one of the most vital and briallant musicians around.