Faith, Hope and Carnage is an extended conversation between Nick Cave and journalist Seán O'Hagan, created from over forty hours of intimate recordings. The book delves into Cave's life, from his early childhood to the present day, covering topics such as faith, art, music, freedom, grief, and love. It particularly reflects on the tragic death of Cave's son Arthur in 2015 and the subsequent period of grief and transformation. The conversations, which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, offer candid insights into Cave's creative process, his struggles with addiction and Christianity, and his views on vulnerability, spirituality, and the healing power of human connection through art[2][4][5].
Nick Cave is a musician, songwriter, author, and actor, best known as the frontman of the band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, though is also beloved for his early group, The Birthday Party. Albums from The Boatman's Call (1997) to Skeleton Tree (2016) showcase Cave’s ability to craft emotionally charged and intellectually stimulating compositions filled with hauntingly poetic lyrics. Beyond music, Cave’s authored several books, including Faith, Hope and Carnage (2023), And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989) and Stranger Than Kindness (2021). His collaborations with director John Hillcoat on movies like The Proposition (2005) and Lawless (2012) have received critical acclaim. And he maintains an open and engaging dialogue with his fans through his newsletter, The Red Hand Files.
This podcast was recorded the day after the conclusion of Caves’s duo tour with Radiohead’s bassist, Colin Greenwood, in Los Angeles. A few days after recording this podcast, he used The Red Hand Files to write the following message to his fans:
“After I stepped off stage at the final show, I changed from my grey suit into a blue suit, ate some seafood with Colin, and then headed to the aftershow, where I hung out with some old friends for an hour or so before going back to the hotel with Susie. We stayed up for a few hours and then tried to sleep, but I was hyped up, so I took a sleeping pill at 4 am — which was a dumb idea because I had an interview that morning with Rick Rubin for his podcast. Anyway, when I woke up, I put on a grey suit, jumped into the car with my driver to go to Malibu, did Rick’s podcast (which could turn out quite interesting as I’m not sure the sleeping pill had completely worn off), then started back to L.A. In the car, I began to feel a bit rough, so we parked up at Zuma Beach, where I threw off my clothes and jumped into the sea in an unsuccessful attempt to restore myself; then we carried on to the hotel, where I changed from my grey suit into a blue suit before heading to Book Soup for [a] signing . . . After the signing, I returned to the hotel feeling tired and weird, sat up with Susie for a while, went to bed, woke up about 2 am, threw up in the sink and collapsed unconscious on the bathroom floor. Susie found me there and hauled me back onto the bed; my assistant was called to the hotel, some extremely handsome emergency paramedics turned up, a lovely nurse arrived and fixed me to a drip, and later, I spoke to an eighty-nine-year-old saint of a doctor who diagnosed an acute gastro event.”
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Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin 