Why Nick Cave reactivated the Bad Seeds for new album Wild God
Nick Cave has felt a lot of grief in the past decade. He now realisese that joy is still possible through the darkest of times. (Supplied: Megan Cullen)
When Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds revealed 'Wild God' earlier this year, the first song released from their 18th studio album of the same name, it seemed as though a fog had lifted.
After releasing a string of devastatingly disconsolate records, Nick Cave sounded more at peace than he had in years. The Bad Seeds sounded like a band renewed, probably because that's exactly what they were.
"As far back as [2016 album] Skeleton Tree, the Bad Seeds have been sort of put on the back burner a little bit because of the nature of the records that that I was making. Or, actually, that me and Warren [Ellis, violinist and Cave's creative partner] were making," Cave recently told Double J's Zan Rowe.
"Something like Skeleton Tree, that record was just so raw and brutal, we couldn't really find anywhere for the Bad Seeds to put music into that in some way."
That record did indeed reflect the rawness and brutality of life at its worst, as Cave grieved his son Arthur, who'd died tragically and unexpectedly the year prior. Neither the singer nor his band knew what to do with the grief and the work inspired by it.
"That was an extremely dark record and very dark time for me. For some crazy reason, I decided that it was OK for me to go into the studio and finish up [that] record.
"All the songs were so pure and raw … there was a general nervousness and anxiety within the studio amongst everybody. No-one really knew how to deal with the situation itself or with the songs."
In 2019, Cave and Ellis emerged with the similarly forlorn Ghosteen, largely built on ambient sounds that once again left little room for the band's usual heft.
"Ghosteen was just too fragile for the Bad Seeds," Cave says. "Every time we put a drum beat or a bass or whatever into it, it took something away, rather than added something positive."
In 2024, Cave was ready for the Bad Seeds to again bring the full breadth of their considerable musical brilliance to his latest collection of songs. Their creative relationship, which in some cases has stood for 40 years, was ready to fully flourish again.
"I wanted to organise the Bad Seeds in some kind of way from the beginning to create something where the band had a little bit more time and bit more room to express themselves," he says.
"Because they've been put out to pasture for a while, they just came roaring back. And it was very exciting to see that."
An explosion of pent-up Bad Seeds energy can be a beautiful thing, as Wild God illustrates. Cave believes his band brought such exquisite intensity because of, not despite, the extended break many of them had taken from his records.
"If you have a band and you want to continue for a long time, sometimes it's not a bad thing to put the band out to pasture for a couple of years, because they come back with a sort of fury," Cave says. "It was so exciting to watch, and it'll be really exciting to play this stuff live."
Each album 'murders' the last
Cave acknowledges that his recent detours into more ambient work may have lost him some fans. He also believes his return to performing somewhat brighter, proselytising, epic songs may lose him some more. After almost 50 years in the game, Cave sees shedding fans — and gaining new acolytes — as a necessary part of the job.
"I've sort of given up trying to please people," he says. "If there's something that I'm proud about with the Bad Seeds, is not just that they've been around for a long time, but that we have the in-built facility to disappoint our audience.
"Each record seems to bring new people and lose people at the same time. I think that's the mark of a healthy relationship with the audience. It's a problem when the band end up pandering to an audience or letting them make the decisions by not wanting to sort of upset anybody."
It also represents a certain trust in the audience, that they won't completely write off a band when their inspiration takes them in an unexpected direction.
"I think a Bad Seeds fan is someone that is excited by the adventure of the band and looks forward to seeing what will happen next," Cave considers.
"They understand that they may not necessarily like the next record, and they may like the following one. Who knows? That sense of uncertainty keeps us alive and keeps us making records.
"The new record kind of murders the record before that, there's a sort of a sort of anxious movement forward with our music, and I like that a lot. I'm not sure that's the way the world should move in general but, creatively, it certainly seems to work."
The joy of frogs
In Wild God's lyrics, Cave traverses largely familiar territory: love, religion, lost souls, and redemption are all on the menu. There are some less expected topics, perhaps the greatest lyrical surprise coming on new single 'Frogs'.
"I've always had a thing about frogs," Cave says. "I like frogs, and I like what they represent. These little creatures of energy that sit in the gutter and leap into the air with their little hands splayed — there's this momentary joy — and then they land in the gutter again."
'Frogs' isn't quite as simple as a mere tribute to those little amphibious creatures though.
"It's a musically epic song based around these small, humble actions. The song is bookended by two spiritual disasters that you can see when you listen to the song. But, within the middle of that, everything is leaping upwards.
"I'm just so happy with that song. I don't really listen to my music much. Normally when I listen to a record, I'm full of anxiety and concern about it, 'I didn't get this right', or 'I didn't get that right'.
"But this record, I just had a big smile on my face through listening to the whole thing, especially that song."
The very thought of Nick Cave with a smile on his face might be tough to reconcile, not because of the glum demeanour that's typified his public image for almost 50 years, but because the grief didn't end with the passing of his teenage son.
Cave experienced further loss in the years since Arthur's passing. In 2022, he lost another son, his eldest, Jethro Lazenby. A year earlier, early Bad Seeds member Anita Lane died at 61.
He knows grief more intimately than most and has been open about the process of getting through it with fans in his popular Red Hand Files newsletter.
One lesson he has for those who are grieving is that, despite how horrific the feeling of loss may be at the current moment, happiness will return.
"We've all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy," Cave sings on Wild God track 'Joy', a sentiment that even Bob Dylan found to be entirely compelling.
"That's the sort of terrible truth about grief and loss, that we can be happy and joyful," Cave considers. "Even to say this to people who are freshly grieving seems almost blasphemous to even suggest such a thing. But that's the truth of it."
Wild God is out now.