Nick Cave & Seán O’Hagan, 2022
My introduction to Nick Cave was 1997’s The Boatman’s Call with his band The Bad Seeds and I dug it but never really listened to much of his other stuff. I’d heard him name dropped here and there and I think I maybe caught some of the press surrounding the release of this record and decided to investigate further. I remember now as well that Henry Rollins’ publishing company had put out some of Nick’s books at some point years ago – back when I was reading through Henry’s catalogue. Anyone that Hank would publish must be worth checking out.
At some point I went and sampled some of the Birthday Party’s back catalogue, but it didn’t really resonate with me – probably a time and place thing. I didn’t listen to much of his stuff after Boatman’s Call either – I’m not sure why. I was aware of his unique Red Hand Files project where he answers questions from fans, which I still subscribe to today and I find quite sublime.
Pulled from a series of interviews with him conducted by Seán O’Hagan – I don’t remember how this book got on my ‘want to read’ list, but I finished it a week or so ago and very much enjoyed it. Inspirational, insightful and invigorating – maybe instigating as well – all the ‘i’ words. He talks honestly of his creative process, his thoughts on music, religion, art – as well as grief and his (our?) quest for meaning – very honestly in the context of the loss of his son Arthur in 2016. He seems like someone it would be great to have a meal and good conversation with. While reading this book I’ve checked out his latest, Wild God (2024) as well as Ghosteen (2019) and Skeleton Tree (2016) and enjoyed them.
From Faith, Hope and Carnage:
“Life is too damn short, in my opinion, not to be awed.”
…
“I think one sure path to self-forgiveness is to arrive at a place where you can see that your day-to-day actions are making the world a measurably better place, rather than a worse place – that is pretty simple stuff, available to all – and to arrive at this place with a certain amount of humility.”
…
“It doesn’t seem at this point in time particularly important to know what happens after we die. There is too much life to deal with. And when I die, well, I want to die inside this life. This strange and beautiful life. Not halfway out the door in hope of something better. Is there something else? I don’t know. There are intuitions, for sure, but there are some things that, for our own sanity, probably should remain beyond our understanding. It gives us somewhere to go.”
– Nick Cave