Nick Cave has written many, many songs. But lately, he’s been at odds with the process, calling songwriting “a fucking nightmare” in a new interview.
Speaking to MOJO, the musician expressed discomfort with the act of sitting down and writing a song. “I don’t like writing songs. To write a song is this deeply mysterious, abstract, anxiety-ridden process that’s just not fun,” Cave said. “Playing around with the kid is fine but to get the kid out is a fucking nightmare. So I put it off until I can’t put it off any further.”
Against all those obstacles, Cave still managed to bust out 10 songs for his forthcoming album with his band the Bad Seeds, Wild God, which arrives on August 30th. While the air of Wild God is one that is both “complicated” and “joyous and infectious,” Cave also opened up about his heartbreaking 2019 album Ghosteen, which featured themes around grief and the loss of Cave’s son Arthur in 2015.
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“I’m happy that it exists but it was a painful thing to make,” Cave told MOJO about the creation of Ghosteen. “I fucking hate hearing bands talk about the pain of making a record, because I don’t believe them. But Ghosteen had its attendant agonies for sure, and not something I’d want to repeat.”
Wild God is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 18th studio album; Cave and the band previously shared “Wild God” and “Frogs” as the first previews of the LP. Meanwhile, Nick Cave teamed up with collaborator Warren Ellis for the score of the new Amy Whinehouse biopic Back to Black, for which they also shared their “Song for Amy.”
