Biography
An English musician, songwriter, composer, and Mercury Prize-winning record producer, John Parish maintains a longstanding creative bond with PJ Harvey that encompasses co-production and instrumental contributions on To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire?. His dual path as performer and producer, however, stretches back to the mid-1980s through engagements with Chesterfields, the Brilliant Corners, and the Becketts. Although he has carved an elusive solo trajectory whose narrative remains closely interwoven with Harvey’s, he has also shaped well over 150 albums, among them projects by the Eels, Sparklehorse, Tracy Chapman, and Giant Sand.
Born and raised in Yeovil, England, Parish secured his earliest studio experience in 1980 as a member of the new-wave outfit Thieves Like Us. He subsequently formed Headless Horseman, a group that later morphed into the experimental ensemble Automatic Dlamini, which persisted into the early 1990s and eventually counted Harvey among its members. Parish simultaneously launched his production work in the mid-1980s, collaborating with the Becketts, the Brilliant Corners, and Grape. In 1987, Automatic Dlamini guitarist Jeremy Hogg encountered the teenage PJ Harvey at a social gathering; the band soon befriended her, and she passed along demo tapes to Parish. Harvey joined Automatic Dlamini shortly thereafter and remained until 1991. Following the group’s dissolution, Parish resumed producing and accepted a position as a college lecturer.
By then Harvey had already issued two well-received albums. Seeking a fresh sonic direction after prior work with Steve Albini, she turned again to Parish; the partnership yielded 1995’s To Bring You My Love, her most commercially successful release to that point. In addition to their album work, the pair issued the 1996 duo recording Dance Hall at Louse Point, for which Harvey supplied vocals and lyrics to music Parish had originally composed for theatrical use.
Parish’s debut solo outing arrived in 1998 with the soundtrack to the film Rosie. He continued contributing to releases by Sparklehorse, Giant Sand, 16 Horsepower, and the Eels. His second solo album, the experimental How Animals Move, appeared in 2002 on Thrill Jockey; it incorporated sampled fragments, arrangements for a twelve-piece ensemble, field recordings of Spanish girls singing, and murmured spoken passages in place of conventional vocals, with guest appearances by Harvey and Howe Gelb of Giant Sand. A more austere follow-up, Once Upon a Little Time, surfaced in September 2005.
In 2007 Parish produced Tom Brosseau’s Cavalier and Harvey’s White Chalk, joining the latter tour for select performances. The next year he helmed I Milanesi Ammazzano il Sabato for Italian indie-rock band Afterhours. A second Harvey collaboration, A Woman a Man Walked By, emerged in 2009, the same year he produced and performed on Jennie Devoe’s Strange Sunshine. He composed and recorded the score for the feature film She, A Chinese in 2010 and co-produced Harvey’s Mercury Prize-winning Let England Shake in 2011. Spring 2013 brought Screenplay, a Thrill Jockey compilation of his film music.
In 2018 Parish announced Bird Dog Dante with the single “Sorry for Your Loss,” a duet with Harvey honoring their late friend Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. After serving as musical director for the expanded PJ Harvey ensemble on the Hope Six Demolition Project tour and producing acclaimed albums for Rokia Traore, Nadine Khouri, Jenny Hval, and Aldous Harding, he began tracking his first song-focused album in ten years across multiple locations. Mixing took place during a ten-day interval amid touring commitments, and Bird Dog Dante was released on Thrill Jockey in late spring 2018.
Born and raised in Yeovil, England, Parish secured his earliest studio experience in 1980 as a member of the new-wave outfit Thieves Like Us. He subsequently formed Headless Horseman, a group that later morphed into the experimental ensemble Automatic Dlamini, which persisted into the early 1990s and eventually counted Harvey among its members. Parish simultaneously launched his production work in the mid-1980s, collaborating with the Becketts, the Brilliant Corners, and Grape. In 1987, Automatic Dlamini guitarist Jeremy Hogg encountered the teenage PJ Harvey at a social gathering; the band soon befriended her, and she passed along demo tapes to Parish. Harvey joined Automatic Dlamini shortly thereafter and remained until 1991. Following the group’s dissolution, Parish resumed producing and accepted a position as a college lecturer.
By then Harvey had already issued two well-received albums. Seeking a fresh sonic direction after prior work with Steve Albini, she turned again to Parish; the partnership yielded 1995’s To Bring You My Love, her most commercially successful release to that point. In addition to their album work, the pair issued the 1996 duo recording Dance Hall at Louse Point, for which Harvey supplied vocals and lyrics to music Parish had originally composed for theatrical use.
Parish’s debut solo outing arrived in 1998 with the soundtrack to the film Rosie. He continued contributing to releases by Sparklehorse, Giant Sand, 16 Horsepower, and the Eels. His second solo album, the experimental How Animals Move, appeared in 2002 on Thrill Jockey; it incorporated sampled fragments, arrangements for a twelve-piece ensemble, field recordings of Spanish girls singing, and murmured spoken passages in place of conventional vocals, with guest appearances by Harvey and Howe Gelb of Giant Sand. A more austere follow-up, Once Upon a Little Time, surfaced in September 2005.
In 2007 Parish produced Tom Brosseau’s Cavalier and Harvey’s White Chalk, joining the latter tour for select performances. The next year he helmed I Milanesi Ammazzano il Sabato for Italian indie-rock band Afterhours. A second Harvey collaboration, A Woman a Man Walked By, emerged in 2009, the same year he produced and performed on Jennie Devoe’s Strange Sunshine. He composed and recorded the score for the feature film She, A Chinese in 2010 and co-produced Harvey’s Mercury Prize-winning Let England Shake in 2011. Spring 2013 brought Screenplay, a Thrill Jockey compilation of his film music.
In 2018 Parish announced Bird Dog Dante with the single “Sorry for Your Loss,” a duet with Harvey honoring their late friend Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. After serving as musical director for the expanded PJ Harvey ensemble on the Hope Six Demolition Project tour and producing acclaimed albums for Rokia Traore, Nadine Khouri, Jenny Hval, and Aldous Harding, he began tracking his first song-focused album in ten years across multiple locations. Mixing took place during a ten-day interval amid touring commitments, and Bird Dog Dante was released on Thrill Jockey in late spring 2018.
Albums
Bird Dog Dante
2018
Sorry For Your Loss
2018
Screenplay
2013
She, A Chinese
2011
A Woman A Man Walked By
2009
Once Upon A Little Time
2005
How Animals Move
2002
Dance Hall At Louse Point
1996
Singles
