PJ Harvey speaks to XFM

In a rare and exclusive interview with Xfm's John Kennedy last night PJ Harvey revealed that for her last album alone she wrote over 50 songs.

"I find that I have to write more and more songs these days in order to find what I'm looking for. And I think that's for a couple of reasons; one is that I've written so many songs now that it's easy to write something you feel you've already done before, but just using a different character.

"So for this record ['White Chalk'] I was really hard on myself and really didn't want to put anything on it that doesn't feel entirely new. So I must have written about 50 or 60 songs before these eleven tracks felt like a strong body of work."

"It's almost as if you're a painter and you have an exhibition of your latest work, that's what it feels like. As if you're gathering your pictures in a room and that's your exhibition for this year."

As for when we may be getting a glimpse of some more new material from the seasoned artist, Harvey was typically uncommital.

"I could never say when a new record will be ready", she admitted. "It takes as long as it takes. It's very important for me to feel I'm moving into new ground and that can take a year or ten years.

"Having said that I have got a record written with [long time collaborator] John Parish which is all written and being recorded in January which we're hoping to get that out in September 2008 and we might play a few dates with that as well."