PORTRAIT OF THE ARTISTS AND SO ON

Rip It Up, Issue 70, 1 May 1983, Page 12

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTISTS AND SO ON

Russell Brown

Artistic freedom Do what you want But just make sure that the money Tii nit]goneJgj ‘All Mod Cons’, the Jam Without the haircut, without the eyeliner, without the expression, without the music, Nick Cave's face would still be striking. The thick Neanderthal brow and the heavy lips are frankly belligerent. When he smiles he's perfectly cocksure. When he frowns it's frightening. He has not long been hauled out of bed and his makeup is clumsily applied, the clothes look like yesterday's. Still, it's small wonder he looks that way the band practised for 10 hours last night with stand-in drummer Des Hefner of the Marching Girls. Usual drummer Mick Harvey decided at the last moment he didn't want to come on the tour, he felt the feeling in the band wasn't right there was no real desire to play. The intention had been to practise all the previous day but bass player Tracy Pew arrived in the country a day late for some unknown reason. It'll tell later on.j^P|HPjjpp|Hi^|ri Cave has an unnerving habit of taking deep, laborious breaths mid-sentence, as if he is bored, sick or both. Gradually the realisation dawns that he does this all the time. It doesn't mean anything. Diary of An Unhappy Man The Bad Seed: Was there any particular intention behind it?|!^Hp£gpPQ£QPHH "Well; it was recorded after we'd booted Phil Calvert out of the group and for that reason it was very interesting to make a record because we had rehearsed and the sound had become far more direct." It seems like a fulfilled Junkyard. Junkyard with a heart? "It has a very different atmosphere than Junkyard. In a way Junkyard is a kind of essay in grossness. I think The Bad Seed has in some of the songs a lot more haunting quality that Junkyard doesn't have at all, both musically and lyrically." So you were unhappy with Junkyardl •'• ; "Well, once you have actually made your statement and it's there in black and' white or on vinyl in front of you, you may be happy with it initially but after a while faults in it begin to punch you right in the face and there's kind of a necessity for you to record something else that

rectifies the problems of the last recording or whatever you're doing. "I think The Bad Seed is a far more definitive record than any of the others have been. I see faults in it but 1 don't find them nearly so glaring." There seems to be an element of self-parody? "I think all our records have. It's because they're extreme representations of our personalities in a way, so of course they have some parody and are always to be taken with a certain amount of humour. I think The Bad Seed has a massive amount of parody in it. "As much as I'm very proud of the lyrics of 'Deep in the Woods' I also think they're hilarious in a fashion. It entirely depends on what mood you're in." The gothicness of that song almost seems to be mocking groups like Bauhaus who aim for that sort of thing. "It wasn't intended to. I think it is above making a mockery of B-grade two-bit groups. 1 mean, I know Pete Murphy quite well and I think he's a nice chap but I really don't think he has the greatest ideas in the world." The overall impression was of an EP of love songs, in the sense that they were all about passion in some way. "Most of our songs are, I think. Increasingly so. I don't think I've written a song that isn't maybe 'Big Jesus Trashcan', which I like very much lyrically, but it doesn't directly hit on any particular kind of human emotion. Perhaps greed. "But that was far more concerned with the sound of words and so forth which-is becoming less and less so within my lyric writing anyway. It's becoming far more literal in the sense that there is a direct meaning from each song. We've recorded material since The Bad Seed which is far more literal. There's no ambiguity. Why has that change come about? "I just don't think that earlier on I was a good enough lyric writer to be able to do that. It is much easier to write a song that is abstract in a sense, it sounds good, that is vague in meaning, than to write something that is totally literal, is an expression of something you feel and you're not covering it up in any way. "I just want to be as concise and direct as the music is in a sense. It's like someone who is frustrated by something standing up on a table at a party and screaming out and everybody in the room saying 'Oh my God, get off the table, shut up, you're ruining the party!'. It's kind of

embarassing." You've been criticised in the past for dwelling on the uglier aspects of life in your writing. "I can't see any reason to criticise. The world is not an Eden. I'm not interested in writing about unrealistic things like ... happiness and so forth." Is happiness unrealistic? "It's not the dominant emotion in my life, I must say." Are you happy often? "Well ... this is sounding ridiculous now. Basically, from the moment I wake up to when I go to sleep, it's not a totally joyous event. I mean, I'm not a Christian, I'm not a fucking lunatic in an asylum who sits around smiling all day. Perhaps I have a kind of pessimistic disposition." Will we ever see something conventionally beautiful from the Birthday Party? "I would hope so, but I most sincerely doubt it. I meet a lot of people who are bubbly and they seem to think everything is hunky dory. But I don't." There's also a strong element of violence in your music. What is the reason for that? Is it righteous violence? "Do you mean a kind of violent reaction against what's going on around me? An anger? No. I really wouldn't say I'm angry about ... none of the lyrics talk about social problems. I don't look at photographs of Hiroshima and think 'My God, I've got to write a song about this, it's disgusting!'. That kind of injustice is not what I'm interested in writing about not that I don't think it's an injustice, but it doesn't prompt my pen to action. I'm far more interested in totally individual interpretations of what goes on about you. "If there's one thing that the group are interested in attempting to show other people, or be didactic about, it's that one must operate by oneself and not succumb to being one member of a mob or of a group thought." Does it annoy you then when you're held up as being the saviours of Rock? "I'm long used to the fantasies of rock journalists. They do have a tendency to kind of live their lives by proxy of unfortunate musicians and singers. It is ridiculous to say the Birthday Party are the saviours of Rock. You pass over those passages very quickly." The same writers also made much of the Iggy/Stooges connection early on. Was too much made of that?

"I don't think we've ever really sounded like the Stooges. There are obvious ... I used to take my shirt off and leap around the stage. It was obvious people would immediately think of Iggy Pop. But it was totally facile. But they are one of my favourite groups and they may have been an original inspiration to this group, which we've had no qualms about saying. But these days we can now say we are not influenced by any group. Mainly because there are no groups no contemporary groups worth taking an idea from." You have spoken of the "limits" of Rock. Can you see the day when you're going to have to leave those limits behind? "Well, being a rock singer isn't the be-all and end-all of my life. I do other things as well, which I'm not all that interested in talking about to Rip It Up, which is a rock magazine, which is in no way being condescending about the magazine. It's just that people are interested in me as a singer, not as an author or anything else. "I do have other ventures that I would far prefer to be in, in a way. I'm really sick of being pushed around by ... I would really like to be my own boss for a while. Being in a group you do have a certain responsibility to other people and you must do things that you don't particularly want to do. Just practical things, like touring because you're contractually obligated. I'd much rather do something that was totally solitary, like writing. Even though we consider we act totally as individuals, there are certain compromises that must be made within a group, where you must do things for the sake of the group. Which is nice in a way, but I'd much rather be able to do something I could make sole decisions on." What about the audience. Is there a responsibility there? "I don't have any responsibility towards them. I go on stage and express myself in any way I feel. If I feel like standing behind the drum kit and slobbering into a microphone without singing any of the lyrics then I'm entitled to do that. I can do whatever I like and the audience can like or dislike it. I'm not an entertainer in any sense of the word. I may be entertaining, but I certainly have no interest in getting up and ..." So what is your role on stage? "In most cases it is a personal expression. I write lyrics which are to be sung and which I suppose I could sing all by myself with no audience, but Ido get a kind 0f... it does make the situation more tense if you're standing in front of a whole lot of people. It can often propel you to greater heights of intensity than singing in the bath or whatever. "I'm not saying I'm not conscious of there being an audience, but it's not a show that you go and see and be guaranteed some kicks. I'm sure people when they see us this time will be waiting for a lot of things that won't come. A lot won't be satisfied." Roland Howard's first experience of Nick Cave came when Cave pinned him against a wall and pondered on whether or not to punch him over. He did not. They became friends and, eventually, Roland joined a band Nick had called the Boys Next Door. Even later the Boys Next Door set off for England. It was en route to England they became the Birthday Party. Roland: The Horror of Popularity Roland S. Howard. It's the 'S' that ready makes it. Roland is pale and thin and talks in dense streams that tumble on until he runs down and it's time for another question. He uses many of the same expressions as Nick "and so on", "and so forth", "kind of" but his voice has a different quality, a just-about-to-burst-into-tears tone that sometimes makes him sound like a upset child. His makeup is better applied than Nick's. "All through the existence of the Birthday Party we've thrived off people not liking us and when we're put in a position where too many people like it just becomes very dull and predictable.

"You walk on stage and everyone applauds before you've done anything. You announce a song that no one's ever heard before and they all applaud like it's your hit single and you play the whole set incredibly badly and fuck everything up and they all cheer and applaud and ask for encores and you think, well this is fantastic, isn't it, nobody can tell whether we played really badly or incredibly well, so what's the point? "If you were in a group that was incredibly popular and famous and so forth it would just happen so much it would just be not worth it. That was one of the reasons we wanted to break up in Australia the last time. Because of the routine of playing in Australia and the things we were subjected to and people weren't thinking about what we were doing. "It was there and they wanted it to be a big event so they made it one. I mean there were so many times when we played last year when we were fucking apalling and the crowd just acted like we were great because they wanted us to be great.'' But surely that's only human? "Of course it's human. But that doesn't make it good So would you consider deliberately turning out a bad performance to shed sycophantic fans? "No. I mean, we have played as offensively as possible because there'smo other way we can act in a situation of people acting like Pavlov's Dogs. The only way you can shake them out of that is to be as childish and petty as possible, which is something I really despise to do. But it's just totally against the grain for the Birthday Party to stand up on stage and smile and get thunderous applause knowing full well that we're not doing something worthwhile at the time. "I think our group is capable of being one of the best groups I can think of and easily the worst. Because when we're bad we're so bad. We just act like a bunch of morons. And I'd hate to have us any other way. "The groups I like to see are the ones who are capable of collapsing into the depths of whatever. Because they are human, for Christ's sake." P is for Prelude Nick and Roland wander up the stairs of Mainstreet, probably aware that people have been waiting for the rehearsal to begin. Nick is finishing a milkshake everybody thought they'd been at the pub. Roland plugs his guitar in on stage and starts playing screeching riffs, feeding back. Tracy Pew appears, he really is

like he looks in the pictures. Tracy and Des take the stage, Roland is still making guitar noises. Tracy unplugs Roland's guitar and says something sharp. Nick gives one of his sighs, up the bottle of whisky on the table and towards the stage. . All of a sudden, things are very different.. The music, especially Cave's giant, gruff voice, dominates. From being a large, empty, cold place, the club suddenly seems too small for the music. From 1 a dead cold start the Birthday Party have whipped up something frightening but exhilirating. And this is only practice. Nick Cave has his back turned to the dozen or so people watching. P is for Performance Nick Cave has his arm wrapped around someone's head. He's leaning over that person staring wildly into someone's eyes. The showman/shaman inside him has taken over. The show is breathtaking, a killer punch. The songs are slow and wonderful:. Suddenly, its over. • Nick was right: A lot of people weren t satisfied. But that was only because they wanted more. The band had managed to rehearse seven songs with Des played them all. Backstage, the applause and chants for an encore are simply making the band more miserable a silly situation. They can't play any more songs and they aren't about to go out and play something twice. It's a matter of principle. But as the man said, there's no guarantee on the Birthday Party.. People complained about not getting their money's worth. They shouldn't judge performances in monetary, terms. And On Into the Sunset? This current tour is almost certainly the last which will see the Birthday Party together as a "band". Roland: "We decided that the Birthday Party was going to become a group that would operate outside the normal terms of being a group. Stop being a financial thing and be something that was purely a creative form of expression." The band will’ go back to Europe to pursue their own individual projects until at least the end of the year. But that doesn't mean no more Birthday Party records. They have already recorded new material for their new label, Mute and they'll get back into the studio and/or play live when they "really, really want to". ; : 'But they're off the treadmill. Artists with obligations only to themselves. gjf So, a sense the Birthday Party are stepping out of Rock. Perhaps it's for the; best.