The Big Read: Nick Cave

Herald online

2 Jan, 2015 01:00 AM2 mins to read

Australian musician Nick Cave.

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Hot on the heels of the biographical film he says is not really about him, Nick Cave is heading to New Zealand. Russell Baillie talks to the Australian musician about the God particle, touring and his work ethic.

Nick Cave is distracted. One of his twin sons requires his attention as he talks in his Brighton office.

"Just a second. ... Darling ..." gently calls the man whose songbook boasts one of highest body counts in rock history. "Can you give me five minutes? Go and ... listen to some hip-hop or something."

Or go and watch Scarface again, I suggest.

It gets a chuckle. For in the movie 20,000 Days On Earth - a film which supposedly follows a day in Cave's life - there's a late scene of Dad in his big black suit and his then pre-teen sons, Arthur and Earl, watching the hyper-violent gangster flick while sharing a pizza on the couch.

Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue in 20,000 Days On Earth.

It's a picture of paternal happiness and inappropriate entertainment. "Say hello to my little friend," screams Pacino in the background. Say hello to Cave's, too.

It's all part of the unconventional quasi-documentary about the songwriter, the leader of The Bad Seeds, the rock 'n' roll firebrand, the Australian national treasure, the novelist and screenwriter, the husband and father who turns 57 this month with his creativity undimmed by the years or past laurels.

But Cave doesn't see that the movie is really about him.

That's despite him being in just about every scene as it unfolds as part fly-on-the-wall doco, part wander through the past, part-dramatised road movie, all narrated by Cave in tones more stentorian than his hesitant conversational voice.

He does laugh when I point out that a time-limit phone interview doesn't stand much chance against the film when it comes to meaningful insights. Especially one which comes with scenes in which Cave talks to a psychoanalyst about matters personal.

"You can ask it all again if you like," he offers.