Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and German guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey (all from Australia), guitarist George Vjestica (United Kingdom), touring keyboardist/percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit (United States), and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos (United States). Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward", they have released eighteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.
The band was founded following the demise of Cave and Harvey's former group the Birthday Party, the members of which met at a boarding school in Melbourne. Throughout the 1980s, beginning with their debut studio album From Her to Eternity (1984), the band drew largely on post-punk, blues and gothic rock, and formed an evolving, multinational lineup, bringing in musicians such as Blixa Bargeld, Barry Adamson and Kid Congo Powers. The band later softened their sound and incorporated other influences on studio albums such as The Good Son (1990) and The Boatman's Call (1997). Following Harvey's departure in 2009, the band broadened their sound further to include electronic and ambient styles, which feature prominently on the trilogy of studio albums Push the Sky Away (2013), Skeleton Tree (2016) and Ghosteen (2019). Wild God is their most recent, released in 2024.
History Formation and early releases (1983–1985) The project that later evolved into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds began following the demise of the Birthday Party in August 1983. Both Cave and Harvey were members of the Birthday Party, along with guitarist Rowland S. Howard and bassist Tracy Pew. During the recording sessions of the Birthday Party's scheduled EPs Mutiny/The Bad Seed, internal disputes developed in the band. The difference in Cave and Howard's approach to songwriting was a major factor, as Cave explained in an interview with On The Street: "the main reason why The Birthday Party broke up was that the sort of songs that I was writing and the sort of songs that Rowland was writing were just totally at odds with each other." Following the departure of Harvey, they officially disbanded. Cave also said that "it probably would have gone on longer, but Mick has the ability to judge things much more clearly than the rest of us."
An embryonic version of what became Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was formed in the Birthday Party's then-home of London in September 1983, with Cave, Harvey (acting primarily as drummer), Einstürzende Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld, Magazine bassist Barry Adamson, and JG Thirlwell, known for his solo project Foetus. The band was initially formed as a backing band for Cave's intended solo project Man or Myth?, which had been approved by the record label Mute Records. During September and October 1983, they recorded material with producer Flood, although the sessions were cut short due to Cave's touring with the Immaculate Consumptive, another project formed with Thirlwell, Lydia Lunch and Marc Almond. In December 1983 Cave returned to Melbourne, Australia, where he formed a temporary line-up of his backing band, due to Bargeld's absence, that included Pew and guitarist Hugo Race. The band performed their first live show at the Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda on 31 December 1983.
Following a short Australian tour, and during a period when they were without management, Cave and his band returned to London. Cave, Harvey, Bargeld, Race and Adamson formed the project's first consistent line-up, while Cave's longtime girlfriend Anita Lane was credited as a lyricist on occasional songs (e.g., the title track of 1984's From Her to Eternity). The group, which up to this time had been nameless, adopted the moniker Nick Cave and the Cavemen, which they used for the first six months of their career. However, they were later renamed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in May 1984, in reference to the final Birthday Party EP The Bad Seed. They began recording sessions for their debut album in March 1984 at London's Trident Studios and these sessions, together with the abandoned Man or Myth? sessions from September–October 1983 that were recorded at The Garden studios, formed the album From Her to Eternity, released on Mute Records in 1984. Thirlwell left during the recording sessions for Eternity, citing creative disagreements and desires to work on his own solo material.Daniel Dylan Wray (2014) If This Is Heaven I'm Bailing Out: The Death Of The Birthday Party , The Quietus, accessed 5 Jan 2017 Race, and touring guitarist Edward Clayton-Jones, left to form the Wreckery in Melbourne.
Move to Germany and stylistic evolution (1985–1989)
After the departure of Race and Lane, the remaining members moved to West Berlin, Germany in 1985 and released a second album The Firstborn Is Dead. The album was heavily influenced by the gothic Americana of the American South and blues music, exemplified in songs such as "Tupelo" and "Blind Lemon Jefferson", which reference the birth of Elvis Presley and Blind Lemon Jefferson respectively. Released the following year, the album Kicking Against the Pricks explored such influences with renditions of material by Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker and Lead Belly. The 1986 album also marked the arrival of Swiss drummer Thomas Wydler, a member of Die Haut, and featured guest appearances from Race, Pew, and Birthday Party guitarist Howard, who had briefly toured with the Bad Seeds as a substitute member in 1985. Pew's death from an epileptic seizure also occurred in 1986.
The band garnered an increased following due to a second 1986 album release, Your Funeral, My Trial, which coincided with Adamson's departure. Due to Adamson's departure and an injury which made Wydler unable to play the drums, Harvey recorded the bulk of the album's instrumentation with the only other member who contributed instruments on every track being Bargeld. Tender Prey, the dark, brooding 1988 follow-up, saw the arrival of American guitarist and The Gun Club stalwart Kid Congo Powers—Harvey made the transition to bass—and short-tenured German keyboardist Roland Wolf. The single "The Mercy Seat" chronicled an unrepentant prisoner on death row and further increased the group's critical acclaim and commercial attention. The track was later covered by Johnny Cash on his 2000 album American III: Solitary Man. Despite the increasing level of success, the drug-related issues of band members became problematic. The documentary film The Road to God Knows Where, directed by Uli M Schueppel, depicts a five-week period of the United States leg of their 1989 tour.
Cave and his bandmates also pursued other creative ambitions around this time. In 1987, the Bad Seeds appeared in the Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire, and Cave was featured in the 1988 film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, which he and Race co-wrote. Cave's first novel And the Ass Saw the Angel was published in 1989.
Growing success (1989–1997) After a period of time in New York City, Cave relocated to São Paulo, Brazil, shortly after the final tour for Tender Prey and, after successfully finishing drug rehabilitation, began experimenting with piano-driven ballads. The result of this post-rehabilitation period was 1990's The Good Son. Featuring a sorrowful and longing tone, the album was well-received both critically and commercially, and yielded the singles "The Weeping Song" (featuring vocals from Bargeld) and "The Ship Song".
Two established Australian musicians, Martyn P. Casey of the Triffids and solo artist and keyboardist Conway Savage, replaced the departing Powers and Wolf. The addition of Casey on bass allowed Harvey to return to guitar. Their next record, 1992's Henry's Dream, marked a change towards a harder rock sound. Producer David Briggs, known for his work with Neil Young, was enlisted for the recording process. The tour for the album is documented on 1993's live album Live Seeds and showcases the new group's aggressive sound.
In mid-1993, the group returned once more to London and recorded Let Love In, the follow-up album. Let Love In expanded upon the fuller ensemble sound that was established in Henry's Dream and featured contributions from Howard, Ellis, Tex Perkins (Beasts of Bourbon) and David McComb (The Triffids). Several popular songs, such as "Red Right Hand" (which featured in the Scream film series and was used as the theme song for Peaky Blinders) and "Loverman" (later covered by Metallica), were drawn from the album. During the promotional tour for the album, American percussionist and drummer Jim Sclavunos joined the group.
In 1996 the band released Murder Ballads, their best-selling album to date. Centered on the subject of murder, the album includes a cover of the folk song "Henry Lee"—a duet with British rock singer PJ Harvey, with whom Cave had a brief relationship— and "Where the Wild Roses Grow", a duet with Australian pop idol Kylie Minogue. The Minogue collaboration was a mainstream hit in the UK and Australia, and won three Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards, including Song of the Year. It was at this time that Ellis of the Dirty Three began regularly working with the band and eventually became Cave's primary collaborator.
The sound of The Boatman's Call, released in 1997, was a radical departure from the archetypal and violent narratives of the band's past, featuring songs about relationships, loss, and longing, often with sparse arrangements. Cave revealed his mindset during the creation of the album in a 2008 interview: "When I was making half that record I was furious because certain things had happened in my love life that seriously pissed me off. And some of those songs came straight out of that. I don't regret making it ... the songs are of a moment when you felt a certain way. When ... you just think, 'Fuck – please! The album's corresponding tour was later documented on the 2008 live album Live at the Royal Albert Hall. After the release of the album, Cave embarked on a brief hiatus, during which time he remarried.
Further musical refinement; Bargeld's departure (1997–2005)
Following Cave's hiatus the band oversaw the release of Original Seeds, a compilation of material from other artists that influenced the group, as well as their own "best of" album The Best of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. In 1999 and 2000, the band reconvened to record two improvisations on Anita Lane's Sex O'Clock.Sex O'Clock liner notes The proper follow-up to The Boatman's Call was 2001's No More Shall We Part. The record featured guest appearances by Kate & Anna McGarrigle and was generally well received in reviews: one critic hailed the album as an "entire album of deeply tragic and beautiful love songs without irony, sarcasm, or violent resolution", while also stating that the work is at risk of devolving "into schmaltz".
The band then released Nocturama in 2003. The album marked a return to band-oriented and collaborative arrangements, as previous releases involved a decreased level of input from Cave's bandmates. Nocturama garnered mixed reviews, with critic Eric Carr stating that "in truth, it may still be the group's best work since Let Love In, but it had the potential to be so much more". Shortly after the album's release, Blixa Bargeld left the band after 20 years to devote more time to Einstürzende Neubauten.