The brand new album by Nick Cave and the Dangerous Seeds is an ode to sophisticated pleasure. The document, ‘Wild God,’ was born years after a tragedy that modified Cave’s life.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
For 40 years, Nick Cave And The Dangerous Seeds have been masters of melancholy, however their new album is an ode to pleasure – of types. Nick Cave talked to NPR music station WNXP’s Justin Barney concerning the album “Wild God” and the tragedy that modified him utterly.
JUSTIN BARNEY, BYLINE: Earlier than the tragedy, Nick Cave’s cult-like popularity was as music’s prince of darkness. The Australian-born singer, who talked to me in New York, has been a extremely influential determine for 4 many years and was identified for singing homicide ballads and embracing the romantic darkness of gothic nihilism.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PEOPLE AIN’T NO GOOD”)
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: (Singing) Individuals, they ain’t no good. Individuals, they ain’t no good.
NICK CAVE: Look. I feel I used to be like most younger folks. The default setting was the world sucked, you already know? And folks sucked, you already know? All of it sucked. Now, it is a place that I perceive very effectively, but it surely’s additionally a very indulgent place. And it is a place held, I feel, by folks which are but to be really damaged.
BARNEY: Cave was really damaged practically 10 years in the past, when his 15-year-old son, Arthur, fell off the aspect of a cliff. For Cave, who was 66, it modified the whole lot, together with his music.
CAVE: After I look again at my former data, I am unable to actually inform by listening to the data what was happening in my life, proper?
BARNEY: Proper.
CAVE: Nevertheless, I feel the final three or 4 data, actually signposts of a altering set of occasions and a repositioning of myself on the earth because of the dying of my son. That is the reality of it.
BARNEY: His band, The Dangerous Seeds, pale into the background. His music turned sparse, ethereal and private.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WAITING FOR YOU”)
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: (Singing) I am simply ready so that you can return.
BARNEY: He began talking publicly about his grief, and he additionally helped counsel followers on theirs. By means of the whole lot, his perspective modified.
CAVE: The trauma occurs, and in the end, we’re capable of flip round and have a look at the world and see that we’re a part of – we’re a part of a standard type of river of struggling. I do not imply that in a dark means. We’re simply a part of the brokenness of the world. And we acknowledge ourselves in one another. And therein lies the great thing about issues.
BARNEY: That epiphany allowed Cave to take the subsequent step and sparked a long-dormant emotion. In the course of his new album, “Wild God,” Nick Cave says this…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JOY”)
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: We have all had an excessive amount of sorrow. Now’s the time for pleasure.
BARNEY: Now’s the time for pleasure, although it’s a Nick Cave type of pleasure, a bridal pleasure, whereas God is a damaged hallelujah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JOY”)
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: (Singing) The time is…
BARNEY: Pleasure is usually discovered within the presence of previous pals. On this album, the total sound of his band, The Dangerous Seeds, are again after being within the background for nearly a decade.
CAVE: So this document was a bunch of males off their chains, dying to make a document. It is bought that sort of feral power to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FROGS”)
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: (Singing) Amazed to be again within the water once more.
JIM SCLAVUNOS: It may be a bit boring should you’re not truly doing one thing within the studio, you already know (laughter).
BARNEY: That is Jim Sclavunos, percussionist with The Dangerous Seeds.
SCLAVUNOS: We identical to enjoying with one another, and it reveals.
BARNEY: Again to Nick Cave.
CAVE: This document, “Wild God,” I simply sat and listened to it along with his massive smile on my face ‘trigger it actually felt prefer it was made by somebody, actually, a gaggle of people that have been simply in a very good area. You may hear the type of pleasure of creation in the entire thing, you already know.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WILD GOD”)
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: (Singing) Convey your spirit down. Oh, we’re wild gods. Child, we’re wild gods.
CAVE: Individuals are speaking about “Wild God” as a brand new starting, however I do not see that. I simply see that as a part of an unfolding story that follows a devastation that adjustments the best way you see the world.
BARNEY: And there is one thing like pleasure now on the earth of Nick Cave’s “Wild God.”
For NPR Information, I am Justin Barney in Nashville.
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