She is the only person to have won the Mercury prize twice and is beloved by fans for her constant reinvention. In a rare interview, the musician talks about her wild new album – and what it tells us about the woman behind the myth
Star power is a rare thing in music today, stripped away by social media overexposure and a heritage industry that trades on former glories. But PJ Harvey has an otherworldly air as she walks into a restaurant at the Barbican in London for one of her first interviews about her music in more than a decade. A thunderstorm has broken the June heatwave, and Harvey, 53, had to shelter under a ledge to keep dry on her way here. Still, Harvey looks pristine in a black vest and tiny black leather shorts, her famous dark hair in soft, shoulder-length curls, a fine gold chain bearing two rings around her neck.
This is Polly Jean Harvey off-duty. As a musician and performer, PJ Harvey rivals David Bowie for reinvention. Her fans can plot the moment they fell for her by era-specific archetypes and sounds: was it the austere bun of her debut, 1992’s Dry? Or perhaps the lurid leopard print of 1993’s Rid of Me? For me, it was the white suit, red lipstick and gleeful strut of This Is Love from 2000’s Mercury prize-winning Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, leering out of MTV2 and suddenly making pop music look wan.
