Nick Cave has discussed the role of women in his work while responding to a fan’s letter on his website.
Earlier this month, Nick Cave took to his newly-launched website – The Red Hand Files – to discuss a number of topics, including communicating with his late son, and whether Grinderman would ever reform.
Now, while responding to a fan who asked how “the topics of women, consent, and relationships in general changed in your works during the cultural sea changes (such as the one we are experiencing now)”, Cave opened up by referring to frequent criticism of female objectification in his work, and stating that women are a “singular obsession” in his back catalogue.
“The truth is I have very little understanding of women at all, they remain deep mysteries containing multitudes – and this is exactly why I enjoy writing about them,” he explained. “It is their feral energy and their seemingly limitless capacity for wonder that, for me, is their undying attraction, both on the page and off.”
“Twenty years on and I am still trying to define Susie, my wife, in song, but it’s a losing battle. I have come to see that there is a wild and mercurial energy within her that my words will never contain, and that this bright energy is connected to her own singular and restless fascination with the world. It has little to do with me.”
“As to the recent ‘cultural sea changes’ affecting women, I feel that they are in danger of eroding those bright edges of personhood, and grinding them down into monotonous identity politics – where some women have traded in their inherent wildness and sense of awe, for a one-size-fits-all protestation against a uniform concept of maleness which I’m not sure I recognise.”
“As to whether this cultural sea change would make me more cautious with what I write, well, I’m not sure,” Cave continued.
“It feels like time itself serves as a sort of corrective and there are lyrics I wrote back then which I simply wouldn’t write now, just as my younger self would probably look at what I write now and roll his crazed and blood-shot eyes in scorn.”
“I would hope that the general shift in my lyrics is towards a compassion that is human by nature, rather than tribal. That is not divisive or exclusionary, but for everyone. I hope that some of the songs may even draw on that fierce feminine energy – a particular energy I witness when I perform on stage – and also that special sense of female wonder.”
Nick Cave also responded to another fan who asked how much of an influence his wife Susie – who recently let slip that the Bad Seeds are recording a new album – was throughout his work.
“To write about Susie feels like trying to break a code that is constantly rearranging itself,” he explained. “Most of the time, I fail.”
“I never show her a lyric before it is recorded. This is a matter of survival. I don’t show anybody, anything, actually. I write the lyric, record it with the Bad Seeds, and then offer up the finished songs.”
“Playing the completed record to Susie for the first time is part pleasure, part terror for both of us,” Cave concluded.
“It is difficult to exaggerate how much I care what she thinks and, of course, she knows that I do. I suspect the pressure on her at this moment is immense as she navigates the terminal insecurities of her husband.”
Nick Cave announced just last month that he’ll be heading out on a series of in-conversation events around Australia next January.
Check out Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ ‘Girl In Amber’:
Conversations with Nick Cave 2019 Australian Tour
Saturday, January 5th
Performing Arts Centre, Wangaratta, VIC
Tickets: Official Website
Sunday, January 6th
Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS
Tickets: Official Website
Tuesday, January 8th
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Sydney, NSW
Tickets: Sydney Opera House
Friday, January 11th
HOTA, Gold Coast, QLD
Tickets: Official Website
Saturday, January 12th
Brisbane City Hall, Brisbane, QLD
Tickets: Official Website
Saturday, January 19th
Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, VIC
Tickets: Official Website
Tuesday, January 22nd
Adelaide Town Hall, Adelaide, SA
Tickets: Official Website
Wednesday, January 23rd
Perth Concert Hall, Perth, WA
Tickets: Official Website
