Nick Cave and his partner in crime, Warren Ellis, have been discussing the future of the Bad Seeds in a wide-ranging new Q&A entitled ’Talk Carnage’.
The conversation revolved around the somewhat surprising release of their new lockdown album Carnage. The project, which fans expected to be released through the group collective of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, was instead shared under the name of Cave and Ellis as a duo.
Taking questions from the fans in promotion of the new material, Nick Cave took a query which read: “Is Warren the Yoko Ono the band who caused you to split from the rest of the Bad Seeds?” to answer that question, Cave replied: “Well, yes, is the answer.”
Taking the question in his stride, Ellis replied: “I find it a bit insulting actually, that – because Yoko Ono is awesome and I’m clearly not.”
Cave then added: “Well, I’d also like to say here the best thing that Yoko Ono ever did was break up The Beatles. They’re a band in decline and Yoko Ono stepped in and allowed everyone the freedom to go on to make some really beautiful records. John Lennon and the other guy.”
Amid the humour, Cave moved to clarify that “The Bad Seeds haven’t split up”. He said: “Just on that question, first of all, The Bad Seeds haven’t split up. The Bad Seeds have always been something that morphs into different forms. And the lineup changes all the time, it always has changed all the time. I think what Shahed might be saying is that did you cause Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey to leave the band?
Ellis added: “I’ve actually asked Mick Harvey that question. And he said clearly, and Blixa too, you know, I mean, I still break bread with Blixa when he comes to Paris and stuff like that, so clearly, there’s not a problem. But I think the question is more, is that what made you break away from the rest of the band, per se? Maybe, like, why we tend to work together more these days?”
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