Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Across eighteen studio albums and numerous international tours, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have moved from the abrasive post-punk and gothic blues of their early records toward piano ballads, atmospheric rock and electronic-leaning work. Formed in Melbourne in 1983, the group grew out of the dissolution of Nick Cave and Mick Harvey’s previous band, the Birthday Party. Cave took the role of lead vocalist, with Harvey as a multi-instrumentalist and German guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld among the founding members.

The Bad Seeds’ first album, From Her to Eternity, arrived in 1984. Their 1980s work drew heavily on post-punk, blues and gothic rock, while the lineup developed into an international one that included Bargeld, bassist and keyboard player Barry Adamson, and guitarist Kid Congo Powers. The band’s name also echoed the Birthday Party’s final EP, The Bad Seed. Records including Your Funeral... My Trial and Tender Prey extended the group’s dark, dramatic writing, while “The Mercy Seat” became one of Cave’s defining songs.

By the 1990s, the band had begun to temper its earlier intensity. The Good Son and The Boatman’s Call brought more piano-led and restrained arrangements into Cave’s songwriting. Let Love In, released in 1994, included “Red Right Hand,” while 1996’s Murder Ballads featured guest appearances from PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue. The group’s personnel continued to change: Bargeld left in 2003, and Harvey departed in 2009 after more than two decades with the band.

Warren Ellis, an Australian violinist and multi-instrumentalist, became a central musical partner for Cave as the band’s sound broadened. Electronic and ambient elements came to the fore on Push the Sky Away (2013), Skeleton Tree (2016) and Ghosteen (2019), a trilogy marked by synthesizers and drum machines alongside the group’s established instrumentation. The current lineup includes Cave, Ellis, Australian bassist Martyn P. Casey, British guitarist George Vjestica, American touring keyboardist and percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit, Swiss drummer Thomas Wydler, and American drummer Jim Sclavunos. Their most recent studio album, Wild God, was released in 2024.