I’m currently reading ‘Faith, Hope and Carnage’, a transcription of interviews with Nick Cave undertaken by Seán O’Hagan, during the time Nick was working on the album ‘Carnage’.
Nick Cave has for many decades been exploring faith, mostly as a heroin-addicted apostate: much of his early work is influenced by the Old Testament, and many of the songs on his 1997 album, ‘The Boatman’s Call’, are informed by his reacquaintance with the Gospels. One commentator [J Arthur Bloom] has said that “The transition in tone between ‘Murder Ballads’ [his previous album] and ‘The Boatman’s Call’ is as stark as from Malachi to Matthew, and speaks to a personal epiphany”. In these interviews he declares that he is a believer, ‘especially today’. [p74]
In 2015 Cave’s son Arthur died aged 15 following a fall from a cliff near Brighton where they lived, this has had a profound impact on Cave and his family. Some of the interviews in ‘Faith, Hope and Carnage’ explore how Nick Cave processes his grief. “Since Arthur died, I have been able to step beyond the full force of the grief and experience a kind of joy that is entirely new to me. It was as if the experience of grief enlarged my heart in some way. I have experienced periods of happiness more than I have ever felt before, even though it is the most devastating thing to happen to me… I say all this with huge caution and a million caveats, but I also say it because there are those who say there is no way back from the catastrophic event. That they will never laugh again. But there is, and they will.” [p109-110]
Nick Cave also maintains a blog and correspondence page called ‘Red Hand Files’. One topic has been ‘Joy’; one contributor, empathising with Cave, has said that Psalms 126:5-6 describe him “to a T”.
“Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with them.”
Nick Cave has found faith, hope and joy!