In a revealing and candid interview with Quietus writer Julian Marszalek over at Spinner, Mick Harvey has been speaking about new album Sketches From The Book of the Dead and its lyrical concerns. He also found time to talk to Julian about his time in the Bad Seeds, and when our man asked how on earth the Bad Seeds managed to get so much done in Berlin when there was a lot of heroin: "Well, the point about that period in Berlin was that people may have been taking heroin and stuff and drinking and all that but there was also all this East German-government produced speed that was pretty good for working. We were busy, you know?," Harvey said. "It was the best speed in the world. And the East German government was supplying West Berlin with this stuff in an attempt to undermine the moral fabric of the youth of West Berlin. And that’s been established from the Stasi [East German secret police] files that they sent this speed straight from government labs into West Berlin. And it was just the best quality stuff that you could get. I didn’t hardly ever take it because the comedown was horrible after being up for two days but guitarist Blixa [Bargeld] and Nick were like [makes snorting sound]." Mick Harvey plays XOYO for ATP in June, for ticket information go here
Bad Seeds Fuelled By Communist Speed
Mick Harvey on the band's time in Berlin
