Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo Touring New Zealand This Summer

Co-founder of such landmark Australian groups as The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Melbourne multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer Mick Harvey returns to Aotearoa in early 2024, playing five dates nationwide with Mexican singer / filmmaker Amanda Acevedo. They're touring in celebration of their new album Phantasmagoria in Blue, a 14 song album of duets which doubles as Acevedo's auspicious musical debut — "bringing new life to songs which were sourced from existing duets, songs that were never intended as duets, translations from Spanish, songs sung in Spanish, and a sprinkling of original compositions".

Mick Harvey's unparalleled career also includes a notable stint as key member of Crime and the City Solution, co-production credits on PJ Harvey's album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and Let England Shake, multiple soundtrack works with Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld, and ten solo studio long players so far — including three records translating Serge Gainsbourg's songs into English. We recommend swooping on tickets for these special summer performances, brought to you by Strange News Touring and Meow...

Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo

Wednesday 31st January - Wunderbar, Lyttelton
Thursday 1st February - Meow, Wellington
Friday 2nd February - Small Hall Session, Hawkes Bay*
Saturday 3rd February - The Monkey House, Whitianga
Sunday 4th February - The Tuning Fork, Auckland

Tickets on sale from www.moshtix.co.nz
*Private show, contact Small Hall Sessions for details
 

Watch the official clip for Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo's cover of 'Love is a Battlefield' by Pat Benetar, from their new album Phantasmagoria in Blue...

Hit play on Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo's rendition of 'Phantasmagoria in 2' by Tim Buckley...

Press release:

Strange News Touring and Meow are pleased to announce a nationwide tour showcasing the exceptional duets of Mick Harvey and Amanda Acevedo. The tour will see them begin in the brooding harbour of Lyttleton, before travelling up to the capital city’s finest venue, enjoying a Small Hall Session in a mystery location in the Hawkes Bay, and hitting a cabaret bar tucked away in Whitianga before completing the adventure in Auckland.

When Mexican singer and filmmaker Amanda Acevedo and founding member of The Birthday Party and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Mick Harvey met several years ago, they had no idea they would eventually be travelling the world together. Mick was touring with his regular collaborator P.J. Harvey in Mexico City at the time, with the pandemic yet to hit.

Fast forward to 2021, with lockdown in full swing, Mick and Amanda began to share creative ideas and musical notions between Australia and Mexico. Acevedo suggested the pair collaborate on an album of duets, and the rest is sweet history.

Phantasmagoria in Blue is a 14-track album of duets, with Harvey and Acevedo bringing new life to songs which were sourced from existing duets, songs that were never intended as duets, translations from Spanish, songs sung in Spanish, and a sprinkling of original compositions.

Following their initial long distance collaborative work, Harvey and Acevedo met up in Los Angeles so they could continue work in person.

Late last year they continued to work in Melbourne, with Harvey finished mixing the album, and coordinating the mastering with local legend Mikey Young, before Acevedo returned to Mexico.

Phantasmagoria in Blue is lush and sweeping in its emotional content and full of nourishment for the imagination and the senses, reworking and reinterpreting songs from artists as varied as Tim Buckley, Luis Eduardo Aute, Sibylle Baier, Silvio Rodriguez and Pat Benatar.