Nick Cave has spoken out about his upcoming ‘best of’ album, and life after the tragic death of his son, NME reports.
Cave and The Bad Seeds recently hit the road for their first live shows in three years – the first since the tragic death of his son, Arthur. His family’s ordeal became the subject of subsequent film and documentary ‘One More Time With Feeling‘, also based on the recording of the acclaimed 2016 album ‘Skeleton Tree‘. Now, before they return to tour the UK and Europe, the Aussie veterans will be releasing a brand new, career-spanning collection of their finest tracks. ‘Lovely Creatures‘ will be released on 5 May. Asked why he chose now to release the album, Cave told Telerama: “Well, it feels like a good time to celebrate thirty years of the Bad Seeds. It is late, but obviously my son’s death got in the way… Let me rephrase that, it sounds terrible. What I mean is that the whole thing got derailed. It became important for me to write, to make another record.
“It just didn’t seem like a time for celebration. But, now, it feels right again. In January, we played several shows around the ‘Skeleton Tree’ in Australia, in big venues. They were a very moving coming together of people of all ages to celebrate this amazing band. So it feels like a good time for the box set.”
Speaking of why ‘Lovely Creatures’ only features material recorded up until 2014, Cave said: “I haven’t thought about whether ‘Skeleton Tree’ should have featured in the box set or not. But despite all of this, ‘Push the Sky Away’ did and still feels for me like the beginning of many things, on several levels. Lyrically, I felt I was able to break away from how I used to write, and therefore from the kind of music we were making, that was imposed by my lyrics.
“I felt the songs could be even more lyrically driven, but in an abstract kind of way, so that they weren’t narrative in a conventional manner. And this is hugely exciting to me in terms of a way forward in my writing.”
Nick Cave & The Seeds’ upcoming UK and European tour dates are below.
September
24 Bournemouth UK Bournemouth International Centre
25 Manchester UK Arena
27 Glasgow UK The SSE Hydro
28 Nottingham UK Motorpoint Arena
30 London UK The O2
October
3 Paris France Zénith
6 Amsterdam Netherlands Ziggo Dome
7 Frankfurt Germany Jahrhunderthalle
9 Hamburg Germany Sporthalle
10 Luxembourg Rockhal
12 Düsseldorf Germany Mitsubishi Electric Halle
13 Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis
16 Oslo Norway Spectrum
18 Stockholm Sweden Ericsson Globe
20 Copenhagen Denmark Royal Arena
22 Berlin Germany Max-Schmeling Halle
24 Warsaw Poland Torwar
26 Prague Czech Rep. O2 Arena
28 Belgrade Serbia Kombank Arena
30 Ljubljana Slovenia Dvorana Tivoli
November
1 Vienna Austria Stadthalle
2 Munich Germany Zenith
4 Padova Italy Kioene Arena
6 Milan Italy Forum
8 Rome Italy PalaLottomatica
12 Zurich Switzerland Hallenstadion
13 Geneva Switzerland Arena
16 Athens Greece Faliro Sports Arena (Tae Kwon Do)
19 Tel Aviv Israel Menorah Arena