Mick Harvey

I do. I thought about that aspect and felt in the end that it worked together in some way. But I’m the last person to be able to be fully objective about that. I hope so.

I did some remixing of the things. There are a few pieces that I shortened or crossfaded and things like that. But they are actual mixes as they appeared in the original productions.

Yeah, that’s one of the few that’s actually been made available in America. I’m not sure about the other feature films but that one certainly was.

It was Eric Bana’s first leading role. I think he made one or two movies before that in very small supporting roles and had done a lot of television. So it really was his first big acting job, apart from his being a TV comedian. But people really didn’t know whether he’d be able to pull off an acting role of that nature. Each film is a bit different. For that film they pretty much entered into it and thought that they would not require any score music. So they got to a point fairly late in the post-production where they suddenly realized that actually they did need some score [laughs]. They really only needed one theme and a few pieces of incidental music. So in some ways it was a small job but in other ways it was a bit more difficult because what was required was very specific. You can’t really experiment a lot, you have to come up with something that was going to be just right. It was the only real piece that you’d hear of that nature. So it wasn’t like a full movie scoring was, it was more like half of one.

It depends. Most people who do film soundtracks put themselves on the market and they get an agent and are put on short lists. I don’t really do that. In fact, I tend to just ask not to be contacted. I don’t really need the work. I’m happier if filmmakers come directly to me or ask for me specifically. I do have a agent in Melbourne now, who looks after loads of film composers and my basic outline to them was “Don’t send me out to any filmmakers on a short list of half a dozen potential composers, I’m not interested.”

I don’t think so. I think people assume that I wouldn’t be interested and that I’d be impossible to contact. That’s not really the case. If someone were genuinely interested in me doing their soundtrack then I’d watch their film. But if I accepted all that people wanted me to do, I just wouldn’t have any time to do my own stuff. Likewise if I were on the market to do film scores then I would just be reading film scripts from people who are not necessarily interested in what I could do for their film, they just need a composer. I prefer to keep it scarce. I think I’ve done three feature films since Chopper so I’m not doing too badly.

The content of the film. For instance, [Deliver Us from Evil director] Amy [Berg] contacted me about doing that documentary. I remember playing hard to get but it was obvious to me that she was keen on me specifically helping her get together a musical concept. I asked her to send me the rough cut of the documentary so I could see what I think of it. I’m very opinionated in that way. At the same time I thought it was a very important documentary. It was very full on, powerful and possibly important piece so I reluctantly got involved [laughs]. I really like Amy and I really like the film she’s made. But it’s a big job when you get on a film even with a small one. The time it takes away from my own music and family is substantial. Amy was actually willing to come down to Australia specifically to spend four or five days in the studio going through it all. We put it all together and that all seemed to go well.

A film is another person’s project in a way and when you enter into one, you have to enter into the world of their obsession because these people have usually been working on these things for three or four or five years. It’s the most important thing in the world to them. To me it’s something which has a different level of interest to being the most important thing [laughs].

It has similarities. Collaboration with the filmmaker is probably more like an opinionated A & R department but I don’t actually have to do that. We don’t have an A & R department at Mute Records. It is just [founder] Daniel Miller, who gives us full artistic freedom or whatever you call such a thing. That’s also why I tend to work with people I know. Either friends or contacted through mutual friends so there’s a better understanding and good communication about what they might want. I’m very wary of entering into projects with strangers because the communication level is so complex. You really need to be able to discuss things very precisely and get a very good, mutual understanding. That’s why I’ve steered clear of being involved in anything from America or at least from Hollywood. I don’t think I would enjoy that system at all.

That’s a documentary about an Australian filmmaker and photographer. That was an English, German, Australian co-production. It was produced for television so it’s been shown on television in all those places but probably not in America. Have you heard of the Shackleton Expedition?

Hurley is the man who actually made the film. It is an early silent black and white film from 1914 or whatever. So it’s quite famous in Australia.

I have because I made an album that came out about 18 months ago and we did a few dates in Europe. We did a whole lot of dates last May and I’ve been enjoying it a lot. I have a live band that I’ve managed to gather together so it’s all been working quite well. Most people didn’t seem to even notice that I had released an album. It went well under the radar. I think it was crawling through the underground but the fact is that’s all very exciting for me. I have another album coming out in late April.

It’s similar, yeah. With the band together now a lot of the tracks have been recorded live in the studio as opposed to the first album, which I recorded all by myself. I stopped playing shows in 2005 for a while and since then I’ve done a lot of solo stuff. It’s what I’ve been focused on for the last year or so.

No, not really. I don’t think that’s one of the things that I’m driven to do. I’m not a prolific songwriter in any way, shape or form. I write things occasionally but it’s something that comes to me now and then and I’m happy for it to be that way rather than forcing it. Some people aren’t.

Yeah, things seem more relaxed now. It’s usually not as hectic or stressful as it once was. I hope it will be more like that. I think I’m following my nose like I’ve always done. There’s no master plan or any particular long term plan.

He’s six.

No, he’s mostly doing comic strips and making up characters and films and stuff. He seems to be developing into a bit of an artist.

Let me ask him, “Do you play music sonny?”

He makes up little songs occasionally.

They’re looking at recording a Bad Seeds album in the summer. Nick isn’t doing much until then. He says he wants to write lots of songs for the album. I think I’ve got a European tour in May and I suppose the next thing would be the Bad Seeds album.

Yeah, we get along fine. We’ve always had a lucky setup. There isn’t a lot of the normal internal pressures. We have a group structure where there’s no preconception of a democracy. The idea of a band doesn’t really conform to the democratic process. I’m fully for and completely in favor of the members of the group having a voice but it is not very practical.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

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