PJ Harvey Collaborator John Parish Holds Masterclass

We were really happy to welcome a much-admired local success story into BIMM Bristol.

John Parish is a long-time trusted collaborator with PJ Harvey, as well as a talented producer and multi-instrumentalist, and he came in to share his experience with our students.

He spoke about the many artists he’d collaborated with and explained his approach to work plus his overall musical ethos, whilst revealing some fascinating tales from the studio.

John’s worked with PJ Harvey for a quarter of a century, collaborating closely on her most successful and critically acclaimed work.

Her classic albums ‘To Bring You My Love’, ‘Is This Desire?’ and the Mercury Award-winning ‘Let England Shake’ all featured John’s musical input and careful production.

John was a brilliant Masterclass guest: he’s also worked with a fantastic array of artists from Eels to Tracy Chapman as well as highly lauded current artists like Perfume Genius — and he’s recording a series of film soundtracks.

So, as you’d expect, he was full of great advice for our students, especially on having the confidence to push your own musical boundaries, saying:

“I get called a multi-instrumentalist, but what that amounts to is: I’ll have a go at anything!”

We love that approach at BIMM, and we loved having John visiting too. Our students left the masterclass fired-up and aiming at the Mercury Prize themselves!