Nick Cave | Artist
Nicholas Edward Cave AO is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and film actor born 1957 in Warracknabeal, Victoria. He is best known as frontman of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but has punk/post-punk roots with bands The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party. He also has side projects with Grinderman and Tuff Monks. Cave's music contains elements of punk, blues, soul and rock, and his powerful lyric writing touches themes of death, religion, love and violence. As to his influences, Cave has spoken of the impact The Saints made on him when he saw them in 1977, and he has been a lifelong fan of Johnny Cash. He also once described Leonard Cohen as "the greatest songwriter of them all." As a recording artist Cave has released a catalogue of excellent albums including solo works, band works with The Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party, Soundtrack collaborations with Warren Ellis and Mick Harvey, and spoken word recordings of his literature. He has also recorded with artists such as Shane MacGowan, Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, Neko Case and Marianne Faithfull. Album highlights include Your Funeral My Trial (1986), Tender Prey (1988), The Good Son (1990), Henry's Dream (1992), Let Love In (1994), Murder Ballads (1996), The Boatman's Call (1997), No More Shall We Part (2001), Abattoir Blues (2004), Push the Sky Away (2013), Skeleton Tree (2016), Ghosteen (2019), and Music From the Motion Picture The Assassination of Jesse James (2007). Also highly recommended is the 2020 solo Nick Cave live release Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace (2020). Although Nick Cave is recognised as the brilliant and charismatic frontman, the Bad Seeds band is a collective of brilliant musicians in their own right, all of whom have solo works and side projects. Mick Harvey has many excellent solo albums and works with Crime & the City Solution. Blixa Bargeld has many collaborative albums outside his work with Einstürzende Neubauten. Martyn P. Casey is part of Grinderman and was a member of iconic Australian band The Triffids. Warren Ellis has many collaborations with Cave and others, together with being a member of Dirty Three and Grinderman. Nick Cave's music has become progressively more sophisticated over time, without losing its artistic edginess and hard rock undercurrent. Since the tragic death of his son Earl in 2015, Cave's music has taken on a greater degree of transcendency, as expressed in the late period masterpieces The Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen. As a footnote, before his music career catapulted him to worldwide fame, Nick Cave was born and raised in the quiet country town of Warracknabeal; 330 km north-west of Melbourne, with a total population of around 2,000 citizens. His father taught English and mathematics at the local technical school, and his mother was a librarian at the high school that Cave attended.
Artist Website: nickcave.com
Featured Albums: Nick Cave
Related Artists: Grinderman, Rowland S Howard, The Birthday Party, The Boys Next Door, Blixa Bargeld, Crime & The City Solution, Dirty Three, The Bad Seeds, Warren Ellis, PJ Harvey
