Does an artist need to believe—or at the very least consider—the existence of God (or the divine, a higher power, or whatever it is you want to call it) in order to create transcendent work? That’s the question I’ve been wrestling with ever since listening to an advanced copy of the audiobook for Nick Cave … Continue reading
It probably says something that Nick Cave mused about becoming a cult leader two nights in a row at New York’s Beacon Theatre. This tip of the hand happened at the start of “Balcony Man,” the final comedown song on the hallucinatory album Carnage, released last year with his musical partner-in-crime Warren Ellis, that also … Continue reading
Nick Cave’s epic poem The Sick Bag Song opens with a leap into the abyss. “A boy climbs a riverbank. He steps onto a railway bridge. He is twelve years old,” it begins. Walking on this bridge, the boy stands at the middle, gazing down at the river below with a “half-felled tree” that … Continue reading
“Once there was a song. The song yearned to be sung” –Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “The Spinning Song” What makes art relevant, particularly during a global pandemic as complex as COVID-19? What does it look like to speak to a moment when creating seems useless and inadequate? How can culture have an impact … Continue reading
Last week, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds released their devastatingly beautiful album Ghosteen, inspiring wracking sobs and the discovery of emotions we didn’t even know we still had. Since both your faithful co-founder Emily Colucci and contributor Adam Lehrer are longtime Nick Cave stans, we dried our tears and decided to talk it through … Continue reading