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Baker's Dozen

Driving Home: Anika’s Favourite Music
Stephanie Phillips , July 21st, 2021 08:53

In this week’s Baker’s Dozen, Anika guides Stephanie Phillips through the records that made her, from the power of Grace Jones, Courtney Love and PJ Harvey, to the soothing effects of Goldie and Guru

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PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love

My dad is not very good at talking generally, but he plays guitar and makes guitars sometimes and he loved music. He'd always watch Jools Holland, so sometimes I’d try and stay up and watch it too. PJ Harvey was on it a lot and I just loved her performance and loved the music. It was somehow a bonding thing, because my dad had a lot of PJ Harvey CDs. I've just listened to her for years. It's been a constant throughout my life.

This album specifically I never had until a couple years ago. I was more listening to other ones, like Rid Of Me, and for some reason this was the only one that I hadn't really listened to much. Recently, I've been listening to it on repeat, so I thought I had to put this one in.

I have a lot of respect for her and she's a great performer live. Just the fact she plays guitar and is just bad ass, genuinely, but then totally sweet in real life. She was the first person where I was like, proper nervous when I accidentally met her backstage at an ATP. I was playing a Portishead curated one in 2011 or something ages ago, but there was a weird situation where I bumped into PJ Harvey in the back. She was saying ‘Am I allowed to go onstage’ or something and I was too nervous to say no to PJ. I just was like, ‘I think the door's over there’. She was so sweet, and I just thought ‘wow’. I remember hearing that she learns a new instrument with each album. That sort of approach is cool, when you create your own challenge with each one. It has a reason and a purpose and you can hear that with all her albums.