Jump to content

Nick Cave


Midnight Man
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...

Filmed performance of Carnage I coming by the sounds of it:

CARNAGE is incredible. I saw Warren say the songs came together over two and a half days. How does that feel? To be working at that level of intensity with someone. Are you even yourself in those moments?
DAVID, COVENTRY, UK

Any plans for Carnage?
LISA, SHENZHEN, CHINA

Dear David and Lisa,

The main reason Warren and I went into the studio was not to make a record. I think, more than anything, we just wanted to spend some time together. It had been a long time since we had seen each other and we were eager to continue the musical conversation we’d been having all these years. So, we met at the studio, greeted each other, and began.

To be honest, I don’t really remember what we did in those first couple of days - we just played and played in a kind of fogged fury, each paying witness to the stir-crazy other, and allowing our music to do its thing, advancing us toward our better selves. At least, it seemed that way. Music can do that. Make you better.

Warren texted me a couple of days later.

“Have you listened to this stuff?” he asked.

I had been busy writing Red Hand Files or drawing frogs or being a ceramicist or choosing fabric for The Vampire’s Wife or writing poetry or meditating or something, and said I hadn’t.

“I’ll send you the hits,” he said. “Prepare to be amazed.”

Warren sent me what constituted, as if by magic, a fully formed album.

I texted back, “Call it Carnage.”

***

I think it was one of the popes who, when asked how long he prayed each day, replied, “About ten minutes, but I spend all day thinking about it”. So it was with Carnage. I had been sitting at my desk — suddenly and shockingly not travelling — writing lyrics and poems into a void, with no real objective other than to make sense of this stationary moment. The world felt weird. My body felt weird. I had been jet-lagged for forty-five years. Now my inner clock had begun to tick regularly. Some nights I even slept. I think Warren’s experience was not dissimilar. I think we both felt the enforced stasis, not just unnerving, but also strangely and fitfully energizing, and so, when we began working in the studio, Carnage came out fast and necessary, as proof of life.

Now, our friend, Andrew Dominik, the movie director, has come to London to film Warren and me attempting to play Carnage (and Ghosteen) live. Five years have passed since Andrew made ‘One More Time with Feeling’. Much has changed. But some things haven’t. The world still turns, ever perilous, but containing its many joys. Music remains a balm. Friendships endure. This letter is fractured. I am so excited to perform.

Love, Nick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

What can you tell us about Anita?
MATT, SAN LEANDRO, USA

Please share a favourite memory of Anita with us.
HELEN, LEEDS, UK

Dear Matt, Helen and everyone who has written to me about Anita,

You think you know grief, you think you’ve worked out its mechanics, you think you’ve become grief-savvy — stronger, wiser, more resilient — you think that there is nothing more that can hurt you in this world, and then Anita dies.

Standing on the street in a baby-doll dress, surrounded by sunshine, laughing and radiating a piercing beauty of such force you stop breathing.

I could not believe my eyes.

Later, at my kitchen table drawing things, she had a quickness of touch and a clear, light line full of humour, throwing each drawing away and starting another, charged with a rampant, unstable, fatal energy that would follow her all her life. My line, amateur and ponderous.

Everyone wanted to work with her but it was like trying to trap lightning in a bottle. Mick Harvey managed to coral her into the recording studio, but these precious offerings are a fraction of what she was.

She was the smartest and most talented of all of us, by far.

Walked into the most prestigious art college in Australia — on a whim — and talked her way into being given a place there. Bought an easel, some butcher’s paper, some crayons, put on a dress, did her hair and never went back in.

She thought the best ideas were the ones that never saw the light of day.

She was the brains behind The Birthday Party, wrote a bunch of their songs, wrote ‘From Her to Eternity’, ‘The World’s a Girl’, ’Sugar in a Hurricane’ and my favourite Bad Seeds song, ‘Stranger Than Kindness’, but was much more than that.

How could something so luminous carry so much darkness?

Drank gin out of a baby’s bottle.

Despised the concept of the muse but was everybody’s.

Spoke in a child’s voice and was my best friend.

Two months ago, speaking to her on the phone she seemed a million miles away.

Loved her children more than anything. They were her pride and joy. 

It was both easy and terrifying to love her.

Leaves a big, crying space.

Love, Nick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Nothing for UK yet but a summer 2022 tour in the works:

https://www.nickcave.com/tour-dates/?utm_campaign=Newsletter - 2022 Festivals (UgumGS)&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Nick Cave Mailing List&_ke=eyJrbF9jb21wYW55X2lkIjogIlRmQ0Z0YiIsICJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJyZWJlY2NhbG91aXNlZHllckBnb29nbGVtYWlsLmNvbSJ9

Not sure what the Glastonbury dates are and if that puts them in the running (I hope not as I likely won't be there!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...