A BAND APART
The latest incarnation of the Bad Seedsmaintains a noble tradition of maverick intensity. "There's no pandering to what's popular," they insist.
MARTYN CASEY
Role: Bass
Other CV highlights: The Triffids, Grinderman
A Bad Seed since: 1990
“Every album turns out different. Maybe Wild God is a resurgence of the Bad Seeds like you say, but I don’t know. I guess the last few records have been off in some other land – they’ve been about Nick dealing with the awful things that have happened to him. But Nick always writes what he wants to write. There’s no pandering to what’s popular, even in what you might call alternative music. He’s a singular kind of writer. I guess the closest comparison would be someone like Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan – someone outside of the modern world.
There’s always intensity, though. Nick brings that. As a performer, he’s all or nothing. I can remember the first day I turned up at a rehearsal studio in Berlin, my first day as a Bad Seed, and he wasn't even supposed to be there. I was supposed to be just running through the songs with Mick Harvey. Nick turned up and, BOOM, fucking hell, it was full-on.
Is he a more caring person now? I think, to some extent, he always has been. It’s just reached a point where – possibly with what’s happened to him – he is able to articulate that. But I’ve always known him as a very kind person. I don’t know where people get the idea that he wasn’t. But I don’t wanna psychoanalyse anybody.”