Mick Harvey, formerly of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, was born in Rochester. Photo: Supplied / Matthew Ellery
Australians recently picked 100 of their favourite homegrown tracks, and on Saturday, July 26, one of Rochester’s own was among the acts to receive a nod.
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The Hottest 100 of Australian Songs was counted down by triple j and Double J, with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds taking out two coveted spots.
Multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey was born in 1958 at Rochester Hospital, the son of the local Church of England minister.
“My family moved there in ’56 or early ’57,” he said.
“(My dad) was the Church of England minister, and he was at the little church there, which is now a car park.
“I was born in ’58 at the Rochester Hospital, it was August 29th and apparently the Campaspe was flooding.
“My father got a phone call in the morning, and they said, ‘don't come to the hospital, the roads are covered in water’.”
Mr Harvey’s father also delivered services at the Kyabram Church of England, where his great-uncle was the minister decades before.
His local connection extends to great-great uncle John Henry Harvey, an architect who designed a handful of buildings in Rochester, including the post office.
My Harvey’s family relocated to Melbourne during his childhood, where he met future bandmates Nick Cave and Phil Calvert.
Together, they formed groups The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party, before Mr Harvey and Cave collaborated with German guitarist Blixa Bargeld and English bassist Barry Adamson.
“We were in the band at school together,” Mr Harvey said.
“That eventually morphed — after we left school — into The Boys Next Door, and we started playing around Melbourne and then eventually we moved over to Europe and changed our name to The Birthday Party.
“Nick and myself were still in the band, then that broke up and Nick asked me to continue working with him and we formed The Bad Seeds eventually.
“For me, it was a kind of continuous connection from when I was very young.”
Mick Harvey performs at Echuca’s Riverboats Music Festival in 2015. Photo: File.
It was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds that solidified Mr Harvey’s role in the Australian music scene, releasing 14 albums and taking out multiple ARIA Music Awards with the group.
The Hottest 100 of Australian Songs named 1994 track Red Right Hand at number 98 on the list, while 1997 song Into My Arms took out the number 44 spot.
Mr Harvey said he was glad to see these tracks resonating with listeners some 30 years after their release.
“It’s nice when other people get something out of it and continue to,” he said.
“There’s not a lot of control you have over that, and those songs are just a couple of examples ... of music that I’ve made and that Nick’s made and that other people I’ve been connected with have made which have survived.”
Mr Harvey is also conscious to not be fixated on external recognition, such as awards and Hottest 100 countdowns.
“That’s nice that there are a couple of songs in there, but it’s a little bit like winning awards,” he said.
“The songs that get recognised, they’re not different or more important than the other things you’re doing, so in a way that kind of thing can be a bit of a distraction from what you’re really doing.
“So it’s nice on one level, but on another level I think you just need to be able to put it aside and not pay any attention to that. ”
Since leaving Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2009, Mr Harvey has pursued different collaborations, along with solo projects.
More recently, he has worked with Mexican singer Amanda Acevedo and a new band called Bleak Squad, set to release an album in coming weeks.
“You just keep making things, and some things persist or resonate or get picked up, and you really can never figure out which ones those are going to be,” he said.
“Red Right Hand, for instance, we knew it had a kind of nice atmosphere ... but we didn't really expect it to become used in the way it’s it has been.
“It’s used in so many films and TV shows, and really it’s quite ubiquitous.
“People know that song, even if they are not sure where they know it from.”
To hear Mr Harvey’s new releases and view his tour dates, visit his website: mickharvey.com
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