White Chalk

Late 2006 saw PJ Harvey in the studio working on her eighth album and follow up to 'Uh Huh Her' with Grammy nominated 'To Bring You My Love' producers Flood and John Parish. The eccentric sorceress of British songwriting, Harvey co-produced the eleven songs which were recorded in Wet London. The outcome, 'White Chalk', features performances from long time associate Eric Drew Feldman and Jim White of Melbourne's Dirty Three. The new material has been written mainly on piano rather than guitar, marking a change in direction for Harvey.

'White Chalk' marks a startling change of direction for Yeovil's premier cult indie heroine. Based almost entirely around stark, minimal, repetitive piano & organ figures and featuring almost no guitars or percussion at all, the album stands at the intersection between contemporary classical + Victorian American vaudeville. Sounding like it was recorded a hundred years ago, 'White Chalk' proves once again that Polly Jean Harvey is an artist totally out there on her own.

"If I had any musical direction, it was more of a 'non-direction' - my only goal being not to repeat myself and hopefully not to sound like anything else. I was trying not to use techniques which I have used before, to make a song work. There seems little point to me these days, in making something, unless it is 'new'. There is too much music in the world to just add more of the same, or more of what has already been done better. I wanted to make a new sound that I hadn't heard before. A new kind of music."