Nick Cave has established a uniquely direct connection with his fanbase via the weekly email newsletter, The Red Hand Files.
In the latest edition – Issue #80, published January 22 – Cave responds to a fan called Nik from Belgrade, Serbia.
“I’m currently (and have been for the past 9 years) emulating your rock n’ roll persona in a Nick Cave tribute band,” writes Nik.
It’s the sort of inquiry a younger Cave might’ve dismissed outright before even considering to take a closer look. But that’s the thing with The Red Hand Files – with each post, Cave fumigates the remains of the aloof, arrogant persona cultivated in the early part of his career.
“I’m sorry if you feel I am a vampire sucking on you,” continues Nik from Serbia. “I have to ask you if you know of us, and what do you think of us?”
That Cave chose to dedicate this week’s newsletter to Nik’s question indicates he, at least, doesn’t hate the Cave Dogs. But it goes much further than that.
Cave’s response begins with a video link to the Cave Dogs playing in Croatia in March 2019. “I have this to say — you sound fucking terrifyingly like me,” Cave writes in response.
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And it’s true. Cave Dogs have their shit together. The video’s set list ranges from late-’80s and early-’90s cuts ‘Up Jumped the Devil’ and ‘Jack the Ripper’ to a couple of songs from Cave’s late-’00s side project Grinderman and right up to 2013’s ‘Push the Sky Away’.
Watch: Cave Dogs live in Croatia
Cave’s wife Susie digs it too. “[She] walked in the room with her arms full of dresses and fabric swatches and said, ‘Wo! Babe, you’re sounding good.’ And I’m like, ‘Thanks. It’s not me. It’s a Serbian imposter.'”
There is one hitch, however. Nik – the c-less Serbian – admits he hasn’t completely nailed the look. “[I have] no stylist, can’t find a shirt like yours.”
But the newly affable Cave is sympathetic to his needs. “If you send me your email address, I’ll send you one of my old [shirts] and a suit — I have many — or a hit squad. I’m not sure which,” he writes to finish the newsletter.
