“Don’t waste too much of your precious time trying to please”

Reserved for subscribers

The leader of Bad Seeds talks to us about creativity, marriage and his conservative temperament. But also of his choice not to despair of anything.

By Claire Lehmann* for Quillette** (translation by Peggy Sastre)

Nick Cave, during the last Milan Fashion Week, on January 13, 2023 in Milan, Italy.
© ALESSANDRO BREMEC / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP

Published on 02/20/2023 at 7:00 p.m.

Reading time: 14 mins

Subscriber-only audio playback

I subscribe to 1€ the 1st month

En December 2022, I saw Nick Cave and Warren Ellis perform at the Sydney Opera House. Alternating between tender melancholy and biting swagger, Cave paced the stage in front of a delirious audience. To often make me think of a preacher who has given himself the mission of saving souls, including his own. During a quick exchange with the artist backstage, I was going to be struck by the contrast between his stage character, larger than life, and the humility of the man. With its banality and unpretentiousness so characteristic of the Australian way of being.

To date, Nick Cave has sold over five million records worldwide. In addition to his prolific production with the Bad Seeds, we owe him, among other things and many achievements, two albums with the group G…