John Parish

John Parish (born 11 April 1959) is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer.
Parish is best known for his work with singer-songwriter PJ Harvey. He has also worked with such artists as Eels, Aldous Harding, Tracy Chapman, Giant Sand, and Sparklehorse. His sister is the actor Sarah Parish. Parish was born in Yeovil, Somerset and lives in Bristol. In 1980s, his girlfriend was Maria Mochnacz.
Career
His first record release was a single "Mind Made" by the British new wave band, Thieves Like Us (1980). In 1982, he formed the band Automatic Dlamini, with Rob Ellis. The changing line-up of Automatic Dlamini included Polly Harvey from 1988 until 1991. Automatic Dlamini recorded three albums: The D is For Drum (1987), Here Catch Shouted his Father (1990 – unreleased but available as a bootleg), and From A Diva to a Diver (1992). By the time From A Diva to a Diver was released, Harvey had left to form the PJ Harvey trio with ex-Dlamini members Rob Ellis and Ian Olliver, and Parish was playing guitar with Marc Moreland's band The Ensenada Joyride.
In 1986 Parish had begun a parallel career as a record producer working with UK bands including The Chesterfields, The Brilliant Corners, The Caretaker Race and The Becketts. In 1995 he co-produced PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love", on which he also played guitar, drums, percussion and organ. He co-wrote and produced The Eels album Souljacker (2001), and played guitar on the world tour that accompanied its release. He has produced and/or played on a number of Howe Gelb / Giant Sand albums and frequently appears onstage with them. Parish produced the Giant Sand album Chore of Enchantment (2000), and a photograph of his wedding in Tucson in 1998 was used as the cover for the 2011 re-release of the record.
He also began working as a film composer in 1998, writing the score for Belgian director Patrice Toye's debut film, Rosie. Parish's score won the Jury Special Appreciation prize at the 1999 Bonn Film & TV Music Biennale. He has since scored another ten soundtracks.
Parish has now worked on seven albums with Harvey, including two co-written albums: Dance Hall at Louse Point (1996) and A Woman A Man Walked By (2009). He played in the PJ Harvey touring band (guitar/drums/keyboards) from 1994 to 1999, from 2009 to 2012 and from 2015 to 2017. He co-produced and played on To Bring You My Love (1995), White Chalk (2007), the Mercury Prize winning Let England Shake (2011), The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016) and I Inside the old year Dying (2023).
He has produced and played on two albums by New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding, two This Is the Kit albums and two albums by Malian artist Rokia Traoré. He has also collaborated several times with two established European stars, the Italian singer Nada and Belgian singer Arno.
Partial discography
Solo
Rosie (2000)
How Animals Move (2002)
Once Upon a Little Time (2005)
She, A Chinese Original Soundtrack (2010)
Screenplay (2013)
Bird Dog Dante (2018)
Scores
Rosie dir. Patrice Toye (1998)
Water dir. Jennifer Houlton (2004)
Waltz (2006) dir. Norbert Ter
Nowhere Man dir. Patrice Toye (2008)
Going South dir. Sébastien Lifshitz (2009)
She, a Chinese dir. Xiaolu Guo (2010)
Little Black Spiders dir. Patrice Toye (2012)
Tench dir. Patrice Toye (2019)
Sister dir. Ursula Meier (2012)
The Farmer's Wife dir. Francis Lee (director) (2012)
Le Passé Devant Nous dir. Nathalie Teirlinck (2016)
Collaborations
John Parish & Polly Jean Harvey – Dance Hall at Louse Point (1996): Writer, Producer, Various Instruments
Spleen – Soundtrack To Spleen (1997): Co-writer, guitar, percussion
Spleen – Little Scratches (1998): Co-writer, guitar, percussion
Eels – Souljacker (2001): Producer, co-writer, various instruments
PJ Harvey & John Parish – A Woman a Man Walked By (2009): Writer, producer, various instruments
Playing Carver (2014): Producer, guitar, vocals
Kira Skov - Spirit Tree (2021)
Eels – Extreme Witchcraft (2022): Producer, co-writer, various instruments
Productions
PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love (1995): Producer, Guitar, Organ, Percussion, Drums
16 Horsepower – Low Estate (1997): Producer, Various Instruments
Giant Sand – Chore of Enchantment (2000): Producer
Bettie Serveert – Private Suit (2000) : Producer
Thou – Put Us in Tune (2000): Producer, mix
Dominique A – Auguri (2001): Producer, various instruments
Morning Star – My Place in The Dust (2001): Producer
Sparklehorse – It's a Wonderful Life (2001): Co-Producer, Various Instruments
Tracy Chapman – Let it Rain (2002): Producer
Thou – I like Girls in Russia (2004): Producer
Morning Star – The Opposite is True (2004): Producer
Jennie DeVoe – Fireworks and Karate Supplies (2004): Producer
Nada – Tutto l'amore che mi manca (2004): Producer
Afterhours – Ballate per piccole iene (2005): Producer e guitar on Ballata per la mia piccola iena
Dionysos – Monsters in Love (2005): Producer
PJ Harvey – White Chalk (2007): Producer
Tom Brosseau – Cavalier (2007): Producer
Magic Rays – Off the Map (2007) : Producer
Marta Collica – Pretty and Unsafe (2007) : Producer
Afterhours – I Milanesi Ammazzano il sabato (14 ricette di quotidiana macabra felicità) (2008): Producer
Jennie DeVoe- Strange Sunshine(2009): Producer
This Is The Kit – Krulle Bol (2008): Producer, drums
Cesare Basile – Storia di Caino (2008): Producer, guitar.
Marta Collica – About Anything (2009): Producer
Maika Makovski – Maika Makovski (2010): Producer, guitar, drums, bass, banjo
Kira – Look Up Ahead (2010): Producer
Zender – Sunday Kids (2010): Mix
Nive Nielsen and The Deer Children – Nive Sings (2010): Producer, drums, guitar, bongos
Peggy Sue – Acrobats (2011): Producer
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (2011): Producer, guitar, drums, vocals, keyboards, trombone
Arno – Future Vintage (2012): Producer, guitars, drums
KT Tunstall – Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon (2013): Mix
Jay Diggins – Searching (2013): Co-Producer with Jay Diggins, various instruments
Mazgani – Common ground (2013): Co-Producer with Mick Harvey, various instruments
Jenny Hval – Innocence is Kinky (2013): Producer, guitar, drums, variophon
Rokia Traoré – Beautiful Africa (2013): Producer
Jennie DeVoe – Radiator: The Bristol Sessions (2014): Producer
Arno –Human Incognito (2016): Producer
PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016): Co-Producer, various instruments, backing vocals
Rokia Traoré - Ne so (2016): Producer
Nadine Khouri – The Salted Air (2017): Producer, various instruments, backing vocals
Aldous Harding – Party (2017): Producer
This Is the Kit - Moonshine Freeze (2017): Producer
Nada – È un momento difficile, tesoro (2019): Producer, Various Instruments
Aldous Harding – Designer (2019): Producer
Jesca Hoop - Stonechild (2019)
Arno - Santeboutique (2020)
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg (2021)
The Goon Sax - Mirror II (2021)
Aldous Harding – Warm Chris (2022): Producer, Various Instruments
Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork (2022)
PJ Harvey - I Inside the old year Dying (2023): Producer, Various Instruments
Featured musician on
PJ Harvey – Is This Desire? (1998): Various Instruments
Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain (2000) : guitar, drums
M. Ward – Transistor Radio (2005) : drums
M. Ward – "Primitive Girl" on A Wasteland Companion (2012): drums, percussion
Perfume Genius - "Too Bright" (2014): drums
References
External links
Official website
Cat On The Wall Interview
June 2009 Interview with L.A. Record
PJ Harvey and John Parish interview with The Guardian writer John Harris
1959 births
Living people
People from Yeovil
Musicians from Bristol
Eels (band) members
British record producers
English record producers
English rock guitarists
English multi-instrumentalists
People educated at Yeovil School