Warren Ellis on if he is the ‘Yoko Ono’ who cut up Nick Cave from the Unhealthy Seeds

In an unique excerpt from a Q&A being broadcast this week, Nick Cave has shared his ideas on the “divisive” nature of recent album ‘Carnage’ – with Warren Ellis responding as to whether he’s the ‘Yoko Ono‘ who cut up Cave from the remainder of The Unhealthy Seeds.

Whereas many followers had been anticipating this yr’s acclaimed lockdown album ‘Carnage‘ to be a launch from Nick Cave & The Unhealthy Seeds, it was as a substitute launched below the title of the frontman and Warren Ellis. Whereas The Unhealthy Seeds shaped in 1983, Ellis solely grew to become a member of the ever-changing line-up in 1997 – however has been Cave’s predominant collaborator and songwriting companion in most tasks since, together with Grinderman and plenty of of his many TV, movie and theatre scores.

Now, in a brand new audio Q&A being broadcast on-line tomorrow (June 18), Ellis has responded to a query posed by a fan as to his position as ‘Yoko’ in The Unhealthy Seeds, when it comes to alienating previous members and pulling Cave away for his or her newest document.

Ellis replied: “I discover it a bit insulting truly, that – as a result of Yoko Ono is superior and I’m clearly not.”

Cave then then added: “Nicely, I’d additionally prefer to say right here the perfect factor that Yoko Ono ever did was break up The Beatles. They’re a band in decline and Yoko Ono stepped in and allowed everybody the liberty to go on to make some actually stunning information. John Lennon and the opposite man.”

After the pair mentioned their love of ‘All Issues Shall Go’ by George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s ‘{Photograph}’, Cave then clarified that “The Unhealthy Seeds haven’t cut up up”.

“The Unhealthy Seeds have all the time been one thing that morphs into totally different kinds,” he continued. “And the line-up modifications on a regular basis, it all the time has modified on a regular basis. I believe what [the fan asking the question] could be saying is that did you trigger Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey to go away the band?”

To which Ellis replied: “I’ve truly requested Mick Harvey that query. I requested him that query. And he mentioned clearly, and Blixa too, you already know, I imply, I nonetheless break bread with Blixa when he involves Paris and stuff like that, so clearly, there’s not an issue.

“However I believe the query is extra, is that what made you break free from the remainder of the band, per se? Perhaps like why we are inclined to work collectively extra nowadays?”

Later within the interview, Cave and Ellis mentioned their ideas on whether or not or not latest information like ‘Carnage’ and ‘Ghosteen‘ “divided” followers in leaning away from the rockier sound of The Unhealthy Seeds’ earlier work.

“It’s attention-grabbing as a result of I believe each ‘Ghosteen’ and ‘Carnage’, on first pay attention, to lots of people they didn’t like these information, you already know? They actually felt that they had been a step too far-off from… their expectations round what a Unhealthy Seeds document ought to be,” mentioned Cave. “However I believe they actually gained traction on repeated listens, and folks simply got here to actually love these information and I get that message. After ‘Carnage’ got here out, I used to be anxious, you already know, it’s tough to make a document that's going to divide folks.

Cave went on: “I believe it’s our responsibility to divide folks. That’s a part of what retains our music alive and what retains it attention-grabbing, but it surely’s additionally tough to do, to lose followers, you already know, to do one thing the place you lose followers. And I used to be anxious that that could be the response on some stage. And once I once I checked out The Purple Hand Recordsdata within the following morning, as a result of there had been some unhealthy stuff happening that evening or one thing, I can’t actually keep in mind why, however there was one thing that made me very nervous about how folks would obtain ‘Carnage’.”

The frontman then revealed how he felt to go to his fan Q&An internet site The Red Hand Files the next morning to find “this unbelievable help for the document” total – however not from everybody.

“It was actually extremely shifting to learn, however then sometimes there have been, ‘I’m sorry, that is simply too far you’ve misplaced me on this one, I don’t like, simply don’t like this document’,” mentioned Cave. “In order that there was a bit of little bit of that. Primarily, there was an important love for ‘Carnage’ when it got here out.”

Ellis then added: “I discover it extra terrifying when folks would simply say ‘Oh, it’s just like the final document’. That to me is far more terrifying than somebody saying ‘I fucking don’t get it’ or ‘I hate it’. I personally would quite push past what final got here out and never procrastinate to only maintain shifting and ’til we get in a room and discover that there’s simply nothing taking place, after which I believe we now have – that’s after we’ll have to take a look at what’s happening between us you already know like, and that hasn’t occurred but. However when it does, then we’ll know what to do with that.

“I keep in mind listening to ‘Right here Comes The Heat Jets’ [by Brian Eno] when it got here out. I took it again to the document retailer as a result of I simply couldn’t afford to spend that a lot cash on a document that I didn’t like, and it’s now like one in every of my favorite information ever.”

To have a good time this week’s launch of ‘Carnage’ on CD and vinyl, Cave and Ellis’ fan Q&A might be streamed tomorrow at 7pm BST here.

Cave lately launched the solo single ‘Letter To Cynthia’ on-line, in addition to asserting extra particulars of a European pageant tour with the Unhealthy Seeds in 2022.