Nick Cave‘s latest entry on the Red Hand Files has seen him give quickfire answers on everything from the possibility of a “massive” Bad Seeds show in Brighton next year, criticism over his use of AI and even his opinion on Amyl and the Sniffers.
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The artist did another instalment of a series in which he asks 50 questions from fans with the answers ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Go fuck yourself’.
When asked if he liked Amyl and the Sniffers, he answered ‘yes’, and in response to an enquiry about the rumour that “there is a massive Bad Seeds show” planned for Brighton, where he lives, next year, he also answered ‘yes’.
Cave also tackled a question from Graham, based in Sydney, Australia, over the use of AI in a video released to mark 40 years of The Bad Seeds’ ‘Tupelo’. He had previously called it “unbelievably disturbing” and said he thought it would have a “humiliating effect”on the creative industries. In a contradiction of this stance, the video featured AI-animated archival photographs of Elvis Presley.
“So now you’re selling your soul to AI as well. Is there anything you won’t push for your masters? Do you sleep well at night knowing you are going to hell?” Graham asked, to which Cave replied with the ‘Zzzz’ emoji.
Carol from Blackburn was more positive about it. “Not a question…well maybe…why does seeing Elvis in your video make me cry? That beautiful young boy. That is really lovely, don’t you think?” she said. Cave’s answer was ‘yes’.
Cave addressed the criticism in more detail on The Red Hand Files last month. Director Andrew Dominik, who made the film as a gift, used AI without Cave’s knowledge. He was sceptical, but the director encouraged him to rethink his stance, telling him: “Suspend your fucking prejudices and take a look!”
Upon watching the video, he “found it to be an extraordinarily profound interpretation of the song – a soulful, moving, and entirely original retelling of ‘Tupelo’, rich in mythos and a touching tribute to the great Elvis Presley, as well as to the song itself.”
He added that the AI-animated photographs of Presley “had an uncanny quality, as if he had been raised from the dead, and the crucifixion-resurrection images at the end were both shocking and deeply affecting.”
“As I watched Andrew’s surreal little film, I felt my view of AI as an artistic device soften. To some extent, my mind was changed,” he wrote.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their acclaimed album ‘Wild God’ last year and toured it across the UK and North America earlier this year. These were their first North American dates since 2018 after a planned tour in 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Cave has also worked with Warren Ellis are set to score the new television adaptation of his 2009 novel The Death Of Bunny Munro. He also collaborated with The National‘s Bryce Dessner to write a new song for the forthcoming Netflix film Train Dreams.
When NME spoke to Cave in 2023, he was asked about how The Red Files has changed his perception of his audience.
“It really has. It’s been a slow, developing thing. The things that I’m concerned about are the same – even in The Birthday Party and early Bad Seeds when they were much more aggressive concerts, they were still concerned with ideas of transcendence and of basically trying to get the audience to a heightened state. In The Birthday Party it was the same thing, even though it was violent.
“My methods are just different these days – there’s much more of a feeling of community, inclusiveness and hopefully transcendence; that we get together and hopefully arrive at a different place through the participation in the music. It’s definitely a two-way thing. It’s an outpouring and in-taking of love.”
