Musician and Producer Mick Harvey is probably best known for his work in The Birthday Party, Nick Cave & The Badseeds and for his own solo work. He has been heavily involved in the music industry since the 70s.

Mick Harvey has an extensive musical background, having been involved in both mainstream music, cult bands, and written and produced soundtracks to movies, the likes of which include Ghosts Of The Civil Dead, Chopper and To Have And To Hold.

He has also written and produced music for many established artists, Anita Lane, PJ Harvey and Rowland S. Howard are but a handful, and of course throughout the duration as a member of the Badseeds. At the time of writing, Mick is currently in the process of writing music for another three albums, producing and writing songs for PJ Harvey’s upcoming album, and he is also undertaking research for a proposed documentary.

Mick was gratious enough to answer some songwriting and production questions for me, which I hope will give other musicians and producers an insight into his own production and songwriting processes. My thanks go to Mick Harvey for taking time out of his busy schedule to provide this mini-interview for MusicalBanter.com.

Mick Harvey songwriting/production Interview

1 – You cover a lot of songs by other musicians, but always manage to put your own unique spin on them – does this come naturally, or do you have to carefully make a point of doing something different?

No, I just follow my nose. I think it’s logical that I would choose the songs in the first place to which I feel I can bring something new or personal to.There are many great songs out there that would be nice to play but there’s really no purpose to it if you can’t make it your own in some way or present it from a new angle.

2 – When writing your own songs, how do you generally begin writing a track? Do you start on the guitar, or piano, or does it vary from song to song?

When writing I usually start with a lyrical idea and then see if there’s a musical starting point or atmosphere in which to place it. Mostly I write music but when I’m writing a song it seems to be that way around

3 – You have a very mellow vocal, which always fits very well in your mixes, and also sounds very natural. What microphone do you tend to use to help accomplish this sound?

At home I have a cheap chinese diaphragm mike – Audiotechnica I think is the brand, but this is essentially to do guide vocals. I trust my engineers to get a good vocal sound as I’m not that interested in engineering myself. They usually use some kind of Neumann. That said I bought the Audiotechnica so that any guide vocals i did could be used if the performance was good enough.

4 – Many of your tracks have a very cinematic feel to them. Is this something that you are overly aware of when you record, or do you see this a byproduct of your production style?

I think it’s just my natural inclination. I’m a big fan of certain types of film music and this spills over into my work I guess.

5 – I love your cover of Robbie Fulks’ Bethel Ridge. Please may I ask how you accomplished the airy, synthy backing noises, and what you recorded them with?

They are a couple of noises that were in an old keyboard I had, but really I think it’s the combination of all the elements. On that song I did something I’ve never known anyone else to do which was to use the same effect, not just a reverb, on every instrument. It was an unusual effect, with some harmonic and delay characteristic, and putting it on all the instruments and the voice made everything sound like it was in the same weird space.

6 – You have written music for various movies. What advice (if any) can you give musicians/producers looking to get into the movie soundtrack business? And/or, how does writing music for film differ from writing/producing a standalone album?

Well, if you are happy to compose music on request then you won’t mind some of the rubbish you have to put up with from film makers. I try to work with people who are either my friends or have really requested me specifically as they know my work. I’m not really that interested in composing to order, I would rather make something that is to my own taste and have it accepted on that basis. To be quite frank I’m not that interested in doing much soundtrack work anymore, I just find most film makers obsessive, irritating and deluded about their own work.

For me, when I have a good situation, composing for films is very similar to the way I work on songs and that can be most enjoyable. As you suggested earlier, much of my music is very cinematic. I would like my experiences of making film music to be similar to those I have when making my own albums. I shall be endeavouring to achieve the conditions for that kind of situation in any future film work I do.

7 – Do you have a favourite plugin or effect unit that you use in most of your productions that you just can’t live without?

Reverb. Big and small.

8 – What part of the production or songwriting process do you struggle with the most (if any), and how do you turn this to your advantage/into a positive aspect of your productions?

I don’t think I have a struggle with any aspect of production or songwriting that is a big enough hurdle to bother me. I guess writing lyrics is something of a novelty for me but for that very reason I am quite relaxed about it. I don’t have big expectations of myself in that area.

9 – Do you play any other instruments that you would love to record a song with, but have not yet written/found the write song for it?

No.

10 – Do you suffer from writers block or loss of inspiration? If so, what do you do to get your inspiration back?

No, don’t suffer from that either. I suppose at times I’m less inspired than at others but it’s not like a huge dip. Everyone has days where they feel a bit flat. But I don’t have that problem. Sorry

A many huge thanks again for Mick Harvey for taking time out of his schedule to answer these questions.