PJ Harvey: Siren Rising
by James Blandford
Published in 2004, this biography
covers the career of PJ Harvey thusfar.
Blandford has written biographies of
other artists, including Britney Spears.
Fan reaction to the biography has been
mixed, with some saying it's a waste of
money and others finding it to be informative
and interesting. Check it out for yourself!



Basics
Birthdate 9 October 1969
Birthplace Yeovil, Somerset
Residence Corscombe, Dorset and Los Angeles, CA
Sign "I'm a Libra. That means that I can make a decision, but only after much thought."
Family Father (Quarryman), mother (Sculpter, does inscriptions on headstones), and older brother Saul (Quarryman)
Schooling Yeovil Art College, St. Martin's College of Art & Design (studied sculpture)



Stats.
Height 5'4" (162 cm.)
Weight In 1995, it was 98 pounds (44 kg.). Now she says she's eating more healthy and watching her weight.
Hair Black, with a natural curl
Eyecolor Brown



Interests
Hobbies Gardening, cooking, sculpting (because it's the art form closest to music in terms of physicality), writing poetry
Books/Authors
American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis (inspiration before making To Bring You My Love)
A Good Man is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor (inspiration for songs on Is This Desire?)
Nine Stories JD Salinger (inspiration for songs on Is This Desire?)
The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek (Stories era)
The Bible ("...let your imagination run wild", "Why take a trip on acid when you can read the Bible?")
Osip Mandelstam, Raymond Carver, Ted Hughes
Music
Ralph Vaughan Williams (2007), Arvo Pärt (2007), Henryk Górecki (2007), William Lawes (2007)
Beth Gibbons Out of Season (2003)
Dirty Three (2000), Giant Sand (2000), Will Oldham (2000)
Portishead Dummy (1995)
"Soft Cell singing 'Tainted Love' is probably one of my favorite songs of all time" (1995).
Influences
Classical music (White Chalk era), Captain Beefheart, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithful, Take That ("I think they're really good at what they do because there are loads of bands who do that kind of thing and do it appallingly. They do it brilliantly. They write their own songs which I like. They write good songs and they look good. I just think they look like they've put a hell of a lot of work into their show and I admire that too." -Hot Press, '95).



Projects
Click to see how PJ Harvey contributed to the album

-Automatic Dlamini (pre-PJ Harvey band ft. John Parish)
-Bologna (in which she played saxophone)
-Murder Ballads Nick Cave
-Angels With Dirty Faces Tricky
-Dance Hall at Louse Point John Parish
-The Book of Life (film, played Mary Magdalene)
-Funny Cry, Happy Gift Tiffany Anders
-It's A Wonderful Life Sparklehorse
-Cover Magazine Giant Sand
-Hitting the Ground Gordon Gano
-How Animals Move John Parish
-Desert Sessions 9/10 with Queens of the Stone Age
-Bubblegum Mark Lanegan
-Before the Poison Marianne Faithfull



Relationships
Bandmates Ian Olliver, Steve Vaughan, Rob Ellis,
John Parish, Eric Drew Feldman, Joe Gore, Mick Harvey, Nick Bagnall, Jean-Marc Butty, Jeremy Hogg, Margaret Fielder, Tim Farthing, Dingo, Josh Klinghoffer

Additional Relationships
First boyfriend (and deflowerer, in case you're curious) was at age 21
Joe Dilworth (an English photographer, dated during the Dry/Rid of Me era)
Nick Cave (Lead singer of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, To Bring You My Love era relationship)
Ben T (a DJ, introduced Polly to electronic music before the release of Is This Desire?)
Rumoured to have dated Vincent Gallo in the Stories era.
Rumored to be currently dating bandmate Josh Klinghoffer



Current
Polly is currently performing solo shows in support of her new album White Chalk.

It is rumored that PJ and John Parish will record another album together, much like 1996's Dance Hall At Louse Point.

To celebrate 10 years of friendship, Mochnacz and Harvey are putting together a book of materials (some unreleased) to be published, curating an exhibit together, and making "videos for songs that don't need videos."

Polly recorded with Tricky for his follow-up to Nearly God. Release date TBA.