PJ HARVEY

“You can sing a very aggressive word in such a way that it’s very funny. You can change words, completely turn them around on their head so that they mean exactly the opposite of what they are written down. There are endless possibilities which I think Diamanda Galás is doing already. She turns everything upside down by the way she sings it. She makes you feel nauseous or horrified or ridiculous just by her voice. I think that’s an incredible power.”

Source: ‘Melody Maker’, by Simon Reynolds, Joy Press, December 25 1993/January 1 1994, pg 5

“Another reason for the Robert Plant histrionics might be that Harvey’s been taking opera lessons for eight months (two retired opera singers happen to live in her village). But if rock opera summons up fright mare images of Meat Loaf or Freddie Mercury, think again. Polly really admires and aspires to the hair-raising, marrow-curdling vocal acrobatics of Diamanda Galás, the avant-garde demon-diva who’s closer to a sorceress or shaman than Maria Callas.”

Source: ‘What Makes Polly Scream?’, by Simon Reynolds, i-D, October 1993