Name: Mark Harwood
Nationality: Australian, London-based
Occupation: Performer, recording artist, founder at Penultimate Press
Current release: Mark Harwood's two new albums or, Urim (Penultimate Press) and Two Actors (Akti) are out now.
Recommendations for Berlin, Germany:  
Art: Caspar David Friedrich at Staatliche Museen
Food: Villa Rixdorf
Beer: Milchbar
Topics I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: Many things, I am endlessly ranting on about things to my friends, lately, mostly Alexander Grothendieck and Lupe Fiasco.

If you enjoyed this Mark Harwood interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on bandcamp.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For me I do not know if there is a particular tangible impulse I can locate related to the act of creating.

I can be pottering around the house talking to myself and suddenly 5 seconds later I can be on the floor painting. Sometimes I really have an urge to do it whilst at other times I don’t even think about it. It can come on first thing in the morning, or later at night, less so during the day.

I am not sure I have a guiding force like dreams or politics. Like all, I am always thinking and without reason the thoughts materialise outside. I would say it’s more a flow or amalgam of things that float around, build up and come out with and without clear foresight, in tandem.

I have been painting quite a lot in recent years and I can see that inspiration there lies, not in artworks but other images like the images coming from the James Webb telescope, Rorschach tests and those old Magic Eye images that appeared in newspapers/magazines back in the day.

I have always liked optical and auditory illusions. It is funny for me to see the same shapes, patterns or ideas materialise in both the artwork and music I make nowadays.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I never have an idea in mind prior to initiating a project, it is usually the case that a single incident, or rather accident, will lead to a chain whereby a thread unfolds. Chance is my best friend.

Planning with sound seems too Soviet or Democratic for me.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

No. It just comes. I don’t have any tools and I don’t know how to play a single instrument, except what I was born with.

For me the initial recording is always spontaneous. I have never sat down in order to record. I don’t really do drafts per se, I have periods where I am playing around with music a lot.

The first half of 2025 was a case of this. I finished the LP or, Urim and sent it off for manufacturing when Akti records asked me for a release. I went back and listened to all the things I had done prior to the LP. As it turned out I thought they made a good counterpoint to the LP.

So not drafts but constant experiments.  In hindsight I saw these smaller pieces as pieces of a puzzle that would become more expanded in or, Urim. They sound nothing alike really, but some kind of atmosphere or intent is in both.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Coffee sure, wine also agreeable to this instrument I was born into. Coffee in the morning, wine in the evening. I rarely do any creation during the day but I am working on changing that. Maybe it will be Pad Thai influence then.

Really it just happens when it happens and I have no clear dictation or methodology of controlling when it happens.

Tell me a bit about the way the new material developed and gradually took its final form, please.

This new LP came about as I had two tabs open on my computer playing different things on YouTube, one was a 70s German prog rock record and the other was of radical electroacoustic music. This unlikely mash up sounded great so this was the path that opened that I continued to pursue.

This chance encounter opened up reflections on plunderphonics, copyright, internet scraping, authenticity, ownership, the future etc. Accidents are a great tool to have in the box.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

It certainly feels out of my hands and it kind of creates itself. I have very little control bar tidying up at the end of the process.

My new LP and CD both came about from throwing things in the pot and seeing what brews from it. Some worked, others not, but the majority stuck rather well and were included in the final products.

There’s not been a lot of bonus tracks for the deluxe reissue in 80 years.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

It’s a strange one. I can understand where someone like Stravinsky says it did not come from him. It paradoxically feels like it is intrinsically you and outside simultaneously. By spiritual we are not speaking about religion but a feeling or essence which appears from within oneself.  

My records are never wholly machine aligned and always some out sounding like me no matter what I do. I don’t think it is possible anyone could make these as a reproduction of something intrinsically personal, no matter the construction.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

Good question. Yes, when I think I have finished something I always need to let it bake in the oven for some time before I can listen again with innocent ears again. I usually wait a couple of weeks before listening again.

I will plonk it on a private soundcloud link and in the following days I will listen when doing my grocery shopping, cooking dinner, riding a train or having a glass of wine in the evening.

If it still excites me, then, I know I like it and it is ready for this wretched world.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?

I am really into all pieces being a part of a whole. I like albums that flow. I like a thematic whole rather than just a bunch of random works thrown together with no purpose. Sequencing, flow and an overall arch all mean a lot to me.

All that audio stuff that comes after other people do, I am not such a technical person. I make it, mix it, my way, then someone else masters it and that's what you’ll hear.

Music and the accompanying artwork are often closely related. Can you talk about this a little bit for your current project and the relationship that images and sounds have for you in general?

I started making visual art last year, it really shocked me. It felt like my eyes came alive, something I never saw myself doing before. It was really nice.

I think there has to be a relationship with art and audio. I do not like labels so much that have their guide branding on every release. That does not make sense to me and only feels like an advertising/branding gesture. I see the audio and artwork as an entire part of the piece so I could not imagine allowing someone to interpret their visual brain on top of my audio brain.

With these new ones, the artwork is very different. I did the art for both but the LP is a painting whilst the CD features some photos of mine. The painting  could be seen as an abstraction of the mind whereas the photos are more realistic of the real world.

Or, Urim is the mystical / psychedelic record whereas Two Actors is the more conceptual playful record. There is a crossover of  themes over both these releases.



After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Yes, I definitely know the nervousness leading to a mild euphoria diving into emptiness, I hope as I get older I get used to it, we will see. Either way it passes and life goes on.

I do like revisiting things I've made after a significant period of time passes. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I have never been embarrassed by exposing my brain.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from  listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about or the impact it had on them – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I sent my new LP, or, Urim, as a bandcamp code to a friend last night and I woke up this morning with a message saying “it sounds like Plato’s Symposium”. That was incredible for me to hear. A very funny response for anyone to come back to after hearing a record. Also, I kind of got why he would say that.

On the other hand, whoever wrote that review of Kendrick Lamar’s Mr Morale and the Big Steppers in The Wire magazine without a single ounce of deeper thought made me give up on traditional media. That was that. This is now.

I do not get much coverage in the mainstream press but usually when I do it is understood what I am doing. I was concerned that people would not know  what the hell I was up to with these two new releases but I think people get the general vibe. There is so much information now coming so quickly I hope these retain enough energy for further investigation down the line.

I am always happy to see any response, both consequential or inconsequential. Any reading is fine by me.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

There's a noticeable yet intangible difference between the act of doing without purpose and the act of doing with purpose. One feels much more rewarding, guess which?

Music is just the mundane taken to a slightly higher plane.