Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo Interview: “It was a journey of a lot of discovery and experimentation”

Mick Harvey needs no introduction. A vital cog in the machine during one of the most dangerous periods of music over the last 40 years, Harvey was a part of the maelstrom that brought us The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, whilst also helping underpin Simon Bonney’s Crime and the City Solution during its seminal years.

As a founding member of The Bad Seeds alongside Cave and Blixa Bargeld before parting company with the band after 26 years in 2009, the Australian multi-instrumentalist has always straddled interesting sound worlds. His work with the likes of Anita Lane, Tex Perkins and, most notably, alongside PJ Harvey, both as band member and co-producer where their work together has spawned Polly Jean’s landmark releases, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) and Let England Shake (2011).

In and around his more renowned work, there have been a raft of film scores, including Suburban Mayhem (2006), and more recently the two-part score, providing music to the harrowing ABC documentary, Waves of Anzac, featuring Sam Neil, and The Journey – a four-part composition released in support of the #KidsOffNauru campaign.

Harvey’s latest creative endeavors see him team up with Mexican singer and filmmaker, Amanda Acevedo, who makes her stunning musical debut on Phantasmagoria in Blue – an album, for the most part, containing reinterpretations of past classics.

On Phantasmagoria in Blue Harvey and Acevedo completely make their mark on these songs. Harvey’s wiry vocals wrapped around Acevedo’s thick, vibrant melodies, to the point—unashamedly, I must concede—where I initially thought many of them songs were originals!

Perhaps that is a hallmark for all good covers, and Phantasmagoria in Blue, a string heavy affair exploding with a rich cadence, contains many; the sweeping balladry of the Holly Knight and Michael Chapman song, Love is a Battlefield to Luis Eduardo Aute’s Al Alba where Harvey and Acevedo add magic Morricone-inspired inflections.

It continues during the broken blues of The Decadence of Lust (one of the two originals on the album – the other being the equally charming The One & Only), where Harvey and Acevedo open the kind of sound portal where you just know that this is only the beginning of this journey.

Perhaps the best showcase comes during Tim Buckley’s Phantasmagoria in 2. A striking duet where the pair unfurl a new wave of emotion (“Everywhere there’s rain my love/ Everywhere there’s fear”). Traditional broken-hearted balladry that, whether you’re a lover of music or not, everyone can relate to it. And that’s exactly why this album will hold a special place in the heart of many.

As they ready their first U.K. tour in support of Phantasmagoria in Blue, including a show at Liverpool’s IWF Substation, Harvey and Acevedo kindly answered some of our questions about their debut collaboration.

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S13: You both met while Mick was touring in Mexico with PJ Harvey. How long was it before you started writing music together?

Amanada Acevedo: “We met in 2017 and kept in touch every once in a while, after that, it was until 2020 with the pandemic that we started talking more. I asked Mick for artistic advice in general and I showed him my writing and recordings but the first thing we did together was work on a cover of an already existent duet. We continued working on things like that for a while, and when we got more familiar with each other we slid into the work some original things but it hasn’t been the main thing we have been doing so far, hopefully we will do more of it in the future.

Mick Harvey: “Yes, it was a while before we started writing together. Probably began with The One & Only. First, we started recording versions and adaptations of other people’s songs. The album does not contain many of our co-writes – two to be exact – but we have been writing songs together as well.”

S13: Can you tell us about the process behind Phantasmagoria in Blue?

MH: “Essentially, we just started sharing ideas around songs we would like to engage with. Some were Spanish songs or songs with Spanish versions, and we set about presenting them with translations and in duet form where they were not already like that.”

AA: “It was a journey of a lot of discovery and experimentation. When we realised our voices worked well together and felt such a great connection, we couldn’t stop having ideas and eventually we created a concept and our new choices started shaping it. All that was online through file sharing and when we had enough songs, we decided to meet at a studio in L.A. to record the vocals more professionally and after that we worked in different places during trips on the mixing and mastering.”

S13: It’s such a vibrant record. I imagine you both realised early on that you caught lightning in a bottle, so to speak. Once the first song was done, did things really flow from there?

AA: “The first cover song we recorded didn’t make it to the final cut, but when we heard it for the first time we knew our work had potential. It wasn’t evident at first what would it become or where would it fit with other things, we were just having fun really and it wasn’t until we recorded the song Phantasmagoia in 2 by Tim Buckley that both of us, almost telepathically through the aether, knew we had a very unique and important project that needed to be out in the world and be a proper record. It was like the fifth or sixth song we did together.”

MH: “I thought it was about the third. But perhaps I have misremembered that. It was quite early on that we realised there was something a bit magical about the combinations we were playing with. I suppose that gave us confidence to try out more unexpected ideas like Love is a Battlefield and it’s great, when you can really be attempting unexpected things. Some of the more left field ideas worked but, in some ways, the potential atmosphere and type of material we found with Phantasmagoria in 2 has remained our principle guidance.

S13: It’s one of those records that freezes everything around you. With the version of Milk & Honey and The One and Only, you’ve created your own world and pulled the listener right in. Was this something you wanted to achieve when mapping out ideas?

MH: “We were definitely hopeful of creating our own world in terms of mood and the type of dialogue exchange between us in the songs.”

AA: “For me it was important that the album had a strong concept that was personal but also not too difficult to understand and relate to. We picked songs with a specific vibe and theme that was mostly ‘the human experience told through the enigmatic and surreal’, which meant having a lot of natural elements and creatures mentioned in the songs but with love, fear and loss as the things that would tie them together. For me, the concept is a kind of fairytale told through songs, starting with the creation of this magical world, the characters meeting and daydreaming together and then both having to face their personal fears and the complications of the external world. Until they reach a point of acceptance and understanding of things.”

S13: Alain Johannes recorded the album. With Mick having done production work in the past, firstly, is it hard to relinquish this side of things; and secondly, how important was it to get another perspective with these songs?

MH: “We worked with Alain on the recordings in LA and did a few songs with him there from scratch, but I was in charge of the production throughout. At least, that’s how I remember it.”

S13: My mistake. I originally misread there. My apologies.

MH: “Alain is a great producer but knows his role depends on what the dynamic and personnel in a particular project is. I find myself in that position too, sometimes. Alain was guesting and putting in some beautiful, unexpected contributions to some of the songs. I would have to say, though, that I produced the album with Amanda.”

AA: “Yes, Alain had some incredible contributions. I would say the songs where his presence changed the result the most would be She Won´t with his amazing wild bass line and Milk and Honey with the sound of his Portuguese guitar, although he also added magical sounds to many songs like Creators of Rain. Mick was the one in charge of the way things sounded though, he would consult with me in case I had any feedback that would help him find the next move and I did have a few opinions, but the incredible arrangements are his.”

MH: “‘A few opinions’ [laughs]. Very important opinions.”

`Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo - Phantasmagoria in Blue`

S13: The Blue Unicorn and Indian Summer have a wonderful cross-over with Amanda singing in Spanish language. These moments really underline the whole record, I think.

MH: “It was important, and we liked the idea of mixing the languages. It brought with it another level of dialogue between myself and Amanda. In The Blue Unicorn it was obviously a running translation which felt like a sweet and poignant way to handle that.”

AA: “Indian Summer was the first song we did in both languages; it was important for me to pay tribute to my roots, and I thought it was one language missing in Mick’s discography. The Blue Unicorn is a song that I have heard for many years thanks to my family´s love for Silvio Rodriguez, it is a song that can have different meanings, but it is clearly about losing a very meaningful treasure or a powerful bond the value of which might not be understood by others. It’s a deeply personal song about despair and loss.

“The metaphors Silvio wrote are smart and touching and very surreal and magical which totally fitted our theme. We already had Song to the Siren so I thought the only thing missing was to sing about a unicorn to keep the dream characters going and this song appeared in my mind, The original Spanish version is devastating and i just wanted to translate it so i could also sing it with Mick, but he had the brilliant idea of mixing both languages.”

S13: If I were to recommend a Mick Harvey performed song to someone it would be Creators of Rain. It really has it all, and with Amanda’s performance, it adds another dimension.

MH: “My friend Conrad Standish led me to it. He was hoping to have me play vibraphone on a version he would record with his wife, Jonnine Standish of HTRK, but I stole it.” [laughs]

S13: I Lost Something in the Hills feels like a vital moment on the record led by Amanda. There is a real locality to the song. Were your direct surroundings a clear influence on this song, Amanda?

AA: “Yes, I spent three years of entire isolation during the pandemic, and I felt I was missing out on a lot of things in life. The lyrics of that song truly captured that feeling. I also picked it because in my fairy tale idea this song reveals the darkness of the female character after an idyllic encounter with the male where they think everything is perfect, it follows Indian Summer on the record, and she opens up to him about her fears and pain and negativity earned in life and he somehow wants to push her to move forward. Then he needs to decide whether he stays there or follows his own path, maybe people won’t get this like that but that’s the way my mind worked and why I chose it, I’m sure there will be plenty of interpretations for it.”

S13: You’ve both been involved in so many different things over the years, from film making to record production. Does your approach to creating differ from one art-form to another?

MH: “Inevitably, but once does carry one’s own sensibility into anything one does, and that often leads to similar feelings being engaged and similar ideas being put forward regardless of the medium.”

AA: “Yes absolutely, my filmmaking lessons were extremely present during this album. More than a singer I consider myself a person who needs to express ideas and I do it in whichever form that feels right in the moment. I picked the songs like writing a script, imagined the characters as if I were painting and I had the chance to edit and work on music videos for it, so for me it feels like the album is not trying to display my vocal skill at all, but mostly my storytelling and my concept.”

S13: Have your creative processes changed over the years? Are there new challenges or has it become easier?

MH: “For me it has been a slow and gradual process – the change. But it has changed. Hard to put my finger on those sorts of things.”

AA: “I am quite young, and this is my first professional project so it’s hard to answer. I always had a similar drive and ambition, but I definitely learned a lot recently that I will change the way I carry myself around art forever. Working with Mick opened up my mind and made me feel so comfortable and brave and helped me realise which are my priorities while creating and the sort of people I fit in with. He is extremely professional, but he is also open minded and full of curiosity and respect for things so even if this album wasn´t the obvious move for him, he committed to it in such an inspiring way and made me feel like if I truly knew what I was doing because my ideas were really important for him. After that experience it will be impossible to settle for less.”

Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo (photo: Matthew Ellery)

S13: With your writing process, once you enter into that creative zone, do you feel like certain aspects of it are out of your hands?

AA: “In my case yes, I heard a lot of songwriters who say they feel the songs already exist somewhere in the aether and what they do is just bring them into this world more than actually working on them. Not sure if it’s true, but I feel in a similar way. Sometimes ideas just arrive into my head and I try putting them together without understanding which direction they need to take and the more I think about them the more I understand what they are and it’s as if they revealed themselves to me.

“For example, this happened with Decadence of Lust, it was originally made for a school assignment and a schoolmate did the guitar track, when I heard it random words came to my head and I wrote them down… eventually I understood what the song was about. It is an apocalyptic song that describes the feeling of losing your remaining hopes in life and how desire and lust are fading so there is not much else keeping you going. It’s a song about giving up I guess, but I certainly didn’t know that at first, I just knew it fitted perfectly with the concept.”

MH: “Not sure about the creative zone taking things out of one’s hands, perhaps out of one’s mind. Especially with music I find that once I get started the music is suddenly there and I’m not totally sure when I wrote it. Especially with film music. Suddenly there are these motifs there and it’s like, ‘When did I write that?’”

S13: To me the songs from the album feel like they will even be stronger in a live sense. What should we expect from this tour?

AA: “Well it’s hard to say, sometimes it feels like that and sometimes it doesn’t. Before working with Mick, I never performed with a full band like that before, so I struggled first to understand my place there and the right way to perform the songs, but Mick made me feel so free to try different things and supported my process entirely, so I feel more confident live, now, and more familiar with the stage and the songs. So hopefully it will only get better. Even though most people really appreciated our early performances, so I guess it depends on who you are asking.”

MH: “It also depends on the setting. The shows we are doing now with J.P. Shilo and Sometimes with Others are very powerful, but there is no string quartet to replicate aspects of the recordings, so it is a little different at the same time. We are growing into the live interpretations, and it will no doubt become stronger very quickly when we are playing our own shows in Australia later in the year.”

Phantasmagoria in Blue is out now via Mute. Purchase from Bandcamp.

Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo play Liverpool’s IWF Substation on Sunday. Purchase tickets here.

U.K. tour dates: