On a solo tour last year,Nick Cavesuddenly became self-aware.
They revolve around the ideas of transcendence and loss.
One song after another concerns loss in a personal or universal way.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.Megan Cullen*
Even though his voice sounds broken, its a profound moment given the loss that he has experienced.
Its not cheery in a TikTok pop-song way, but it is more optimistic in a Nick Cave way.
Even a song like Long Dark Night ends gently as if a new day were starting.
Its impossible to come out of listening to an album like this feeling like the person you were before.
But the joyful nature of these songs leaps beyond that.
Joy is an emotion that understands the nature of loss.
Now hes witnessing the effects of his new mindset at work.
Cave says the reception fans have given the songs has floored him.
(The band will embark on aNorth American tourin the spring.)
When theyre supposed to hit, they really hit home.
you might see it on the peoples faces.
Its quite something for us to arrive at this point so early on in a tour.
The song Conversion is my favorite on the record.
You featured a gospel choir on yourAbattoir Bluesalbum 20 years ago.
We just felt that it would work well back then.
I do listen to a lot of gospel, but in its purest state.
What do you mean?Well, gospel choirs.
How do you feel you used gospel music differently this time?We tried not to make it gospel.
So the singers are more embedded inside the music as emotional surges.
Its entirely improvised, and theres a call-and-shout response thats extraordinarily chaotic.
Does your wife help you craft lyrics?No.
She helps me with other things, but no one goes near the lyrics.
I find a lot of personal benefit and solace in being very transparent and open about personal matters.
And Susie is essentially a hermit.
Shes an extremely private person.
That must have been difficult in the past few years as youve experienced the same grief.Yeah.
But we support each other in the way we go about things.
Its just that Susies relationship to grief is more subterranean.
She is very helpful to other grieving people in a quiet way.
How did she give you a different perspective on the world?She was a very special person.
She was a better painter, a better drawer, a much more original thinker.
She was much more unorthodox in her views.
You began work onWild Godon New Years Day of 2023.
Did you choose that date symbolically?No.
And Im like, Oh, fuck.
So I set a date.
I thought, Well, Ill get Christmas out of the way and then start.
You hadnt been writing songs already?I work project to project.
Between records, I dont have song ideas whatsoever.
I just sit down at a desk and do the work.
Colin Greenwood has said your music revolves around your words.
Does songwriting begin with the lyrics?Yeah.
It always begins with the words.
Then I ring up Warren and say, Look, Ive got these words.
Lets write some music.
The music on Frogs feels different for you.
You have kind of a Jimmy Webb thing going on.Yeah, you should hear that live.
Why do you likelate-period Elvisso much?Ive thought about this a lot.
You see this especially at the Vegas concerts.
To me, that epitomizes the religious experience to some degree.
If you watch what hes going through onstage, its quite extraordinary.
People just dont bring that stuff with them onstage normally.
Maybe thats a good thing.
Youve mentioned the word transcendence a couple of times today.
I think that the religious nature of those songs becomes more explicit onstage in a redemptive way.
These songs feel truly transcendent.
Im starting to hate that word, though; they feel religious in nature.
I dont go scouring record shops to try and find things.
Im not sure I listen to a lot of music, actually.
I should listen to more.
What did his music mean to you?I love Kris Kristofferson, always have.
Sunday Morning Coming Down is one of the greatest songs of spiritual collapse ever written.
Overall, Frogs, is very uplifting.
So is Joy, where youre singing, Weve all had too much sorrow/Now is the time for joy.
Most of the vocals are the first and only time Ive sung those songs.
