John Parish (born April 11, 1959) is an English musician, songwriter, composer, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Based in Bristol, he has worked across alternative rock, experimental music, film, television, and theater. Although he is best known for his long association with PJ Harvey, Parish has built a wide-ranging career as a producer, performer, arranger, and composer in his own right.
Parish began recording in the early 1980s with the new wave group Thieves Like Us. He subsequently formed Automatic Dlamini, an experimental band whose shifting lineup included Rob Ellis and, from 1988 until 1991, the young Polly Harvey. The group released The D Is for Drum in 1987 and From a Diva to a Diver in 1992, while an intermediate album, Here Catch, Shouted His Father, remained unreleased in its original form. Automatic Dlamini established Parish's interest in unconventional arrangements, extended instrumental textures, and a deliberately exploratory approach to songwriting.
During the mid-1980s, Parish also began producing records for British independent acts, including the Chesterfields, the Brilliant Corners, the Becketts, and Grape. His reputation grew through work that combined a strong sense of atmosphere with an instinct for preserving the individual character of the artists he recorded. He later contributed to albums by Giant Sand, 16 Horsepower, Sparklehorse, Goldfrapp, Tracy Chapman, and many others.
His creative relationship with PJ Harvey became the central thread of his career. Parish co-produced and performed on Harvey's 1995 album To Bring You My Love, helping shape its stark, dramatic sound. He also played on Is This Desire? and White Chalk, and co-produced Let England Shake, which won the 2011 Mercury Prize. Further collaborations included The Hope Six Demolition Project and I Inside the Old Year Dying. Parish and Harvey also released two credited collaborative albums: Dance Hall at Louse Point in 1996 and A Woman a Man Walked By in 2009. In addition to his studio work, Parish has played guitar, drums, keyboards, bass, percussion, and other instruments in Harvey's touring bands at various points since the 1990s.
Parish's own recording career has been more private and experimental. His solo releases include How Animals Move (2002), Once Upon a Little Time (2005), Screenplay: The Film Music of John Parish (2013), and Bird Dog Dante (2018). These albums range from instrumental soundscapes and fragmented arrangements to more conventional song-based material, reflecting his broad musical interests rather than a fixed commercial style.
He began composing for film in the late 1990s with the score for Patrice Toye's Belgian film Rosie. The work received Jury Special Appreciation at the 1999 Bonn Film and TV Music Biennale. Parish has since written music for films including She, a Chinese, Sister, Little Black Spiders, and The Farmer's Wife, as well as for theater and contemporary dance.
As a producer, Parish has continued to work with artists from different generations and musical traditions. His credits include Rokia Traore, Jenny Hval, Aldous Harding, This Is the Kit, Nadine Khouri, Nada, Dry Cleaning, Arno, and A. Savage. His career is defined less by a signature sound than by adaptability: Parish functions as an instrumentalist, studio architect, collaborator, and composer, often moving between roles within the same project.