For the casual listener, Nick Cave seems easily categorized: he's moody, brooding and opaque. All the qualities that have earned the dozens of artists who've followed in his footsteps the descriptor of "Nick Cave-esque."
But those who've gone deep into the Australian musician's cavernous discography with his backing band, the Bad Seeds, recognize a musical and lyrical evolution that's not ready to sputter out. The most public of these transformations found Cave shifting from shadowy and enigmatic themes to something far more autobiographical and spiritual following the tragic deaths of his sons in 2015 and 2022.
As longtime multi-instrumentalist for the Bad Seeds, Warren Ellis recognizes his band's obsession with moving their craft forward. "The Bad Seeds seems to be constantly in search of a new record that's different to anything that's come before," he tells Exclaim! "And that requires a lot of trust from intimate individual members of the group."
When it comes to intimate members, there's none more trusted than Ellis. Having formed the seminal indie rock band Dirty Three over 30 years ago, the UK-via-Australia musician has been a Bad Seed since their 1997 classic The Boatman's Call. However, it wasn't until a decade ago, with Push the Sky Away, that Ellis became a full-on co-writer alongside Cave. "This approach spilled out of doing soundtracks and particularly records like Skeleton Tree, Ghosteen and Carnage, obviously," he says about their collaborative process. "It's a different way to when there's a whole band, and then you're stuck with a certain type of song."
Beginning on New Year's Day 2023, Cave's scattered notebook ideas would coalesce into Wild God, his band's most propulsive and buoyant-sounding album yet. While Cave has described it as "a joyous record," the immediacy of these 10 new tracks come off deeply rooted in his lyrics. "There's a point where he sort of moved from writing songs to more confessional stuff," says Ellis. "He found himself writing a similar type of song, and I think, after a while, he wanted to move away from that."
The LP bursts open with "Song of the Lake," finding Cave once again ruminating on mortality with lines like, "And all the king's horses, and all..." before he chirpily interjects with, "Ah, never mind, never mind." Echoing the symbolic depth of Leonard Cohen's 1980s work, Wild God frequently intertwines the mundane with the profane, painting his world with an Old Testament hue. "He's just much more overt now about it," Ellis reflects. "The way that he sort of blends these narratives, he's always been doing it as far as I can see."
While the Bad Seeds have consistently paired Cave's profound lyrics with an equally weighty sonic backdrop, Ellis challenged himself to follow each song's musical personality as it developed. Instead of relying heavily on his signature violin and tenor guitar, he focused on adding a rich tapestry of flute, loops, piano, synthesizer and backing vocals — a direction he's been leaning toward over the past handful of recordings. "There's been quite a complex process that's gone on, and albums often don't reveal themself until near the end," says Ellis. "It's very rare that you come in with an idea, and that's how it turns out."
Bringing in Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, who performed with Cave during a recent solo tour, played a significant role in both fleshing out and expediting their songs. "Initially, the idea was we wanted to have other people in so that we weren't just doing the same thing," clarifies Ellis. "It really helped change the kind of direction, having Colin in there."
But it was the addition of producer Dave Fridmann (Low, Mercury Rev, Mogwai) that shaped these songs into the vibrant structures they would ultimately take on. "It was Nick's suggestion because he really likes the sound of the Flaming Lips and MGMT, and I really liked the Tame Impala stuff," shares Ellis." "I find the album really engaging, largely due to Dave's approach."
What makes the Bad Seeds' 18th LP such a significant push forward goes beyond mere surface changes in sound. It's true that the music feels brighter and more immediate, anchored by bombastic orchestral strings and shouted gang choruses, due to Ellis's ability to expand the Bad Seeds' creative horizons and core set of collaborators. But Wild God manages to sonically represent the acceptance one finds when grief moves from being a hurdle to becoming a part of one's history.
"The way he's navigated the tragic death of their son has been really inspirational, and Nick as an artist now is probably different to when he was younger," notes Ellis. "There's something that feels like it's not just living in the songs; it feels like it's now part of his fabric."