February 19th, 2007
Grinderman and how NOT to interview Nick Cave
Feeling a little cobwebby after the weekend? Then, crank up your speakers and listen to Grinderman’s ‘No Pussy Blues’. Not the content with being The Bad Seed’s biblical soap-boxer, Nick Cave and his new band - which features Bad Seeds’ Martyn P. Casey on bass, Jim Sclavunos and Warren Ellis (also of of The Dirty Three) - do for middle-aged angst what Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash. Bands half their age don’t have this kind of energy and best of all, Nick seems to have finally developed a sense of humour. Cue lyrics about trying to woo young groupies:
“I changed the sheets on my bed,
I combed the hairs across my head,
I sucked in my gut and still she said
That she just didn’t want to.”
This is backroom blues and swampy rock at its best.
The band will play this year’s ATP, probably because it’s curated by The Dirty Three and there will be solo performances from other Bad Seed members Mick Harveyand Conway Savage. Even ex-bandmate Blixa Bargeld is showing up with his industrial noise-rockers Einstürzende Neubauten.
Other must-sees on the bill are Bill ‘Smog ‘ Callahan, Low, A Silver Mount Zion, Cat Power, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Joanna Newsom, Yann Tierson, Art of Fighting and Sally Timms (of The Mekons).
And finally, further proof that you should never act like a smug journo interviewer can be seen in Zane Lowe’s interview with the band on last Saturday’s BBC2 Culture Show. Lowe, one of the most irritating and self-congratulatory people in broadcasting, pontificates about what he thinks the album is about - including a totally misguided analogy to Ziggy Stardust. Nick, a man known for not being keen on the press, disagrees with everything he says before rounding off the interview by saying “interviews are very counterproductive”. Ouch. It was painful to watch, which is probably why it’s not even up on the The Culture Show website.
Grinderman is released on March 2nd on Mute Records.
February 19th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I interviewed Nick Cave a few years ago, and I was incredibly nervous beforehand, for obvious reasons. But he was actually really nice and good humoured. I think once he realised that (a) I was a longtime fan who was familiar with his stuff and (b) I was more interested in hearing funny stories about his early days in London than asking him stupid questions about drugs, he decided not to be snotty. He was really funny, too!
February 19th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Oh, I’m a huge fan, I’d love to interview him but I’ve only ever met him in non-professional circumstances because I know Jim White who drums with him sometimes.
I think he hates being asked the same questions and the heroin thing is so old now. I remember Dave Fanning interviewing him in 1992 on his radio show and focusing on the smack side of things a bit too much. Cave got understandably grouchy.
February 19th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Not generally an eavesdropper but I’d love to have been a fly on the wall in the studio when Nick Cave recorded with Johnny Cash. I’d say the conversation of these two recovering addicts and musical giants would have been engrossing. I got Unearthed in the post last week and the Cash/Cave duet on it is wonderful. If only they’d made an album together.
February 19th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
A friend told me he’d be on the Culture Show and I knew immediately that one of its interviewers would be made a fool. I’d forgotten Lowe was involved with the shoe, so I had Laverne in mind at the time. Still, I felt vindicated within seconds of the interview’s airing. Having said that, the bits they showed of Get Ready For Love justified my tuning in, I think. That, and of course, Mark Kermode.
Cave interviews can be tremendously enlightening and inspiring. On YouTube, there are a few banging around in which he speaks at lenght, with great erudition and enthusiasm, on the artistic process. Also, he’s quite forthcoming when the discussion moves away from himself, as an individual, and onto the lives and works of those he respects: Cash, Cohen and Strindberg being the examples that come to mind.
February 19th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Not sure if my comment went through.
Basically - Zane Lowe, utter cunt, punch my tv, bring back Ray Cokes.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
One of my favourite gigs remains the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds one in the SFX in 1990 (I think, memory not so good). A blistering set was interrupted half way through by a powercut. Nick, trying to maintain his gigging buzz paced impatiently back and forth at the front of the stage smoking furiously. There was definitely atmosphere leakage, exacerbated by someone who cried out ‘tell us a joke’ which received a snarled rejection. Luckily the power came back and we had another 45 minutes of top Cave tunes. Abattoir Blues bugged me but this Grinderman is the dog’s whatsits.
February 20th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Paul, me too. Would also love to have been a fly on the wall when Nick got the phonecall to say that Cash (one of his idols) was going to cover ‘The Mercy Seat’.
Kevin, he’s generally a great interview and thinks about what he’s saying in a insightful, responsive way. Just don’t mention the Berlin skag days and he’s usually fine. I’ve met him a couple of times and he was very charming.
Twenty - from his MTV days, I can think of no one more smug than him. I don’t know how he has a job doing what he’s doing. He’s either dismissiver or arse-kissy with interviewees and makes my skin crawl.
Donagh, I’m showing my Nick Cave obsessiveness here, but that gig was May 2nd, 1992. I was in the front row for the whole thing, thinking Nick was singing ‘The Ship Song’ to me. I have a much-treasured photo of me and Mr. Cave from outside the SFX, which I had to trim slightly and use a black marker to blot out the cigarette in my hand so my ma wouldn’t see it.
‘Nocturama’ is his most recent low point, I just couldn’t get into that album.
February 20th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Dah, yes. I’m so bland, imagine not being able to pin-point when it was. I was half way down, trying not to show too much enthusiasm. Nocturama was soporific in the extreme.
February 25th, 2007 at 1:57 am
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xpDOiTYwAqc&mode=related&search=
Why, it’s Zane’s interview!