Mute releases a full-length reimagining of Jackson C Frank’s work by Harvey and Acevedo

Transmission 178: Interview with Mick Harvey and Amanda Acevedo

Mick Harvey and Amanda Acevedo return with Golden Mirrors (The Uncovered Sessions Vol. 1), a stripped and reimagined tribute to Jackson C. Frank, out 28 March 2025 via Mute. Initially prompted by a contribution to an Italian compilation, the project grew into a full-length album built from Frank’s minimal originals—mostly just voice and guitar—expanded in Harvey’s North Melbourne studio and mixed by Alain Johannes across LA, Spain, and Chile.

Title: Golden Mirrors
Artist: Amanda Acevedo Mick Harvey
Release Date: 2025-03-28
Genres: Art Rock, Folk Rock, Psych-folk
Label: Mute Records
Description: Interview with Mick Harvey and Amanda Acevedo about Golden Mirrors, a Jackson C Frank tribute, out 28 March 2025 on Mute.

The record follows their 2023 collaboration Phantasmagoria in Blue and includes 11 tracks that trace Frank’s shadowy, half-erased legacy. European tour dates follow in April, with work already underway on original material slated for 2026.

This interview is also published on the issue no. 02 of our free digital magazine RetroFuturista.

How did your fascination with Jackson C. Frank’s music first take root, and what led you to explore his work so deeply for Golden Mirrors?

Mick= Well, really it began through Amanda so she can probably explain better how she came to know about Jackson C. Frank.

Amanda= I remember the song “Milk & Honey” coming up as a suggestion on Spotify while I was listening to something else, when I listened to it, my heart stopped and I was deeply impressed by it. I saved it and kept listening to it and over time I ran across more or his songs in other places. When I put the pieces together, I realised that he was someone I could be very interested in. When I found more about his story, I realised he was a really unusual character with the sort of obscure mind and approach to songwriting that would be worth sharing with Mick and something we could include in our work. Together we discovered more of his work and explored his story even further.

Mick, your career has spanned countless projects and collaborations—what drew you to collaborate with Amanda, and how did that creative relationship first begin?

M= What drew me to collaborate with Amanda was ideas. Initially we were just communicating and chatting across the ether or whatever and then at some point we exchanged some musical ideas and the next thing you knew we were discussing artistic ideas in general. We may already have been doing that. Somehow, we seemed to have a really good connection with that sort of thing and one thing led to another and was a little bit like a snowball effect, you know. You just end up finding that the collaborative process is really easy and that you like each other’s ideas and you’re not really in conflict very much about anything and it’s just a really positive creative process. So it was a bit irresistible to be honest.

Amanda, coming from a background in film studies, how has that perspective influenced your musical expression, especially within this project?

A= I believe that whenever I create something or perform in any artistic discipline, the same sort of impulse inspires me, so my approach is similar. The need to capture a feeling, to tell a story. As I said before; when I sing, more than wanting to display anything about my voice or any technical skill, I’m always trying to capture and transmit something, something that is able to create a mental image or story and raise questions in the same way films or paintings do. I like being as passionate, expressive and committed to the material as I can. 

What aspects of Frank’s recordings inspired you to expand and reimagine them in Golden Mirrors?

M= I think there was something written in the press release where I described how the songs were almost undeveloped. If you want to look at it that way they were. Even the one, proper studio album was just two guitars and singing in that kind of folk tradition and a lot of the songs that were recorded live and on kitchen demos and so forth through the years were just a guitar and voice. So for me as an arranger that offered up a lot of prospects to expand what was happening with the instrumentation. I think I’ve still kept it relatively minimal. There’s only a couple of songs that we really fleshed out into what sounds like a kind of full band but that was certainly available to me, to us, to make them bigger and to make them grow or build dramatically or just have different atmospheric aspects rather than just guitar and singing.

A= I am a big fan of cryptic lyrics, I love being confused about the real meaning of songs, that gives a lot of scope for the imagination and it gives you the ability to tell your own ideas through someone else’s words. Because when you sing you can take them in whichever direction that feels right for you. So it’s easier to feel like it’s your thing as well. His lyrics are very inspiring in that way and also obviously very haunting and beautiful.

The initial recording for the Love & Thunder project led to a full album. At what point did you realize that this was evolving into something much larger?

M= After we did those three songs, initially, we thought we should record a few more in case so there were some more to choose from. So then we had five or six and decided there were definitely prospects to record more and it seem very easy to go through the possibilities and choose which ones we had some connection with and felt could be expanded on or have something interesting done with them.

A= We really didn’t plan it, the songs took over and gave us so much inspiration that we couldn’t stop. We then realised that what we were doing would be very different to the ‘Love & Thunder” project but could still be connected and the projects could support each other. A different approach and audience but both projects are meant to raise awareness about the amazing work of Jackson and all the musicians involved are very passionate and incredible artists so I’m really glad we worked on that album as well. The projects are beautiful.

How did your dynamic develop while working together on Golden Mirrors, and how did the intimate, stripped-down recording process influence your creative interaction?

M= That question almost seems like you’re trying to investigate or define the creative process itself. I’m not sure that I really want to enter into that world. It’s very complicated and hard to pin down or define very accurately.

A= Personally I would say that it helped developing even further what “Phantasmagoria in Blue” started. We discovered new possibilities and became more experimental. Realised that it was not a coincidence, that we genuinely have this amazing working dynamic that we would like to take into new places. I think with “Golden Mirrors” somehow it was a bit further from our comfort zone, but we liked it. 

What emotional or thematic threads did you aim to emphasize when reinterpreting Frank’s songs?

M= I suppose any that we felt might’ve needed emphasising…

A= Haha! Very funny, Mick… I believe he was a very troubled person that against all odds, fought for beauty and wanted to find some comfort in music, maybe understand better the horrible situations he lived through. He was very genuine in his lyrics, but also very surreal. All those are aspects that I value and that I wanted to highlight. 

Mick, given your extensive background in arranging and producing, how did you approach expanding the arrangements of such minimal original recordings?

M= Pretty much in the way I approach any song in its raw form. So for me it was a pretty easy process. I could choose to hear a song as if it were a kind of demo and think about what I would do to that, in the normal process of approaching any song. That’s the beauty, in part, of how sparse the original recordings are because it really offered up that possibility to take it from the outset as being open to any musical interpretation.

Amanda, how did you find your place within these songs, balancing respect for the originals while bringing your own voice to them?

A= I think this answer will be a bit similar to something that I already mentioned. The fact that those songs are so cryptic and surreal allows you to create your own vision with them. Jackson was a very lonely and troubled soul and a bit of a hermit. Things that I could maybe say of myself as well, and even though our stories have been very different, there is a point of connection and relatable aspects for me with what he created. So I consider that I have a lot of respect for the original feel, and this empathy that creates enough common ground to sing it in a way where the original intention can still can come across. But giving a bit of my personal twist to it. Hopefully it will be perceived in that way by other people, and fans of Jackson who might listen to our work.

Were there any specific instruments or equipment that became essential in capturing the atmosphere you wanted for Golden Mirrors?

M= Not particularly but perhaps the basic track guitar that I would record was pretty important in setting the tone and the feel and flow of the song in general. Beyond that it was just following one’s nose to find the solutions or ideas.

Jackson C. Frank’s music carries a sense of solitude and melancholy. How did you each personally connect with these emotions during the recording process?

M= I’m not sure how to describe that. Amanda?

A=   When I listened to the songs for the first time, I was already wondering about what the author might have had in mind.  So learning more of his history was important for us, researching, and talking to experts and people that knew him better. But also like I said, finding our own voices in his work. Mick became inspired by the possibilities of arrangements that were given to him in such a stripped down work and I was inspired by the lyrics and how emotional and creative they were. Lots of aspects for us to connect with the work and with each other through discussions and experimentation.

Looking forward, what can you share about the original material you’re preparing for release in 2026? How is that taking shape?

M= Well, we’re working through a number of sources and writing collaborations so hopefully we’ll just put together a collection of stuff that has been generated from different places. Amanda has written some songs with a couple of other people already and I’ve got a few things that I’ll be presenting and we just work through that as best we can. We certainly have a direction in mind with the record that we want to make. We’ve got a couple of albums, in fact, that we want to make in quite different styles. One would be, quite possibly, psychedelic, or more psychedelic than normal and the other would be quite gloomy and downbeat. So they’re quite different. Depending on what songs we’re writing we can allocate them to the different projects. To be honest there’s more than 2 projects and the songs are still arriving.

A= Well, we are starting the project with some original songs that we already had. That were never released, and we want to write more together. Some of the ones that are currently being recorded are songs that I wrote a while ago, I believe they are very mysterious and very inspired by the songwriters that we have been citing through our recent releases. It’s very exciting for me to be able to write lyrics and create my own stories with the help of Mick and of course witness and sing his lyrics as well. I believe the more time we spend in the studio, the easier it becomes to let creative freedom take over and I believe the work is becoming stronger as we go. So I’m excited to see what happens next.

Photo courtesy of Mick Harvey and Amanda Acevedo

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others