“Total commitment”: George Vjestica on the inspiring and demanding world of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Nick is not boring at all,” George Vjestica says, smiling to himself. As he recounts memories of making the eighteenth album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Wild God affirmed to him what he already knew about the band’s leader: Nick Cave is never dull, endlessly inspiring and always demands total commitment.
For the first time since Vjestica joined the band as a full-time member for the 2016 record Skeleton Tree, Wild God sees the Bad Seeds being used to their full power. After the emotive and more ambient release of Ghosteen was made largely privately between Cave and Warren Ellis, and as Covid took the band off the road for a good while, the new album is a significant return. Sonically, it’s the group at their most outright, merging full band moments with lush orchestration.
As he was called into the studio to add his flair to the record, Vjestica could see that this was a return for Cave as well. “The sound of the album was like 80% there already by the time I got involved,” he explains, recounting Cave’s unique process of marking a date on the calendar from when he’ll force himself to make an album, working on it day after day until it’s formed enough to bring the band in. Even in the initial form presented to him, the guitarist knew it was something different. “They were already very strong recordings, so it had a definitive shape and sound. It had a strong identity already,” he says, “But I got a sense that it was less abstract. It was more classic songwriting.”
The return to classic songwriting was reflected in Cave’s energy, too, as Vjestica says, “I could feel him trying to get back to that kind of raw approach.” While previous records might have seen the Bad Seeds being brought in to play a specific part already crafted for them, Wild God left space for improvisation. And with that space came the inspiring and motivational space left for the band to try and impress their leader.
One of his stand-out memories from the record came from exactly that feeling, recounted almost like a student buzzing from approval from their master. “The first day I got to the studio, I was tired, and it was late, and nothing I was trying on the acoustic guitar worked. The next day, Nick was like, ‘Can you just go straight in?’ So I did,” he remembers of the making of ‘Frogs’. “That’s the thing with Nick. You don’t get many chances with him. You’ve got to go in there and deliver. So I tried out this simple electric guitar line, like Glen Campbell, with no flash stuff. I did it in one go.”
Vjestica then smiles the kind of smile someone does when they’re in the zone, remembering a time when he truly was, telling me, “You know when you’re in that kind of terrifying, excited space where there’s pressure, but you know you’re doing something great? It was like that, and then I walked back into the control room, and everyone was going ‘Great’, and Nick was going [thumbs up], so that was a special moment.”
As Vjestica talks about the process of working with Nick Cave, this sense emerges that even despite having up-close access to the artist at work, the members of the Bad Seeds are just as captivated by Cave as his fans are. That’s true in the studio, as the guitarist explains, “What Nick has is a very unique way of doing things. He’s got such a distinct voice and way of presenting his songs. But he’s not afraid of trying things out. He’s very experimental; he always has been, he’ll go for it.”
He continues, “That’s the thing about him that is captivating; you can feel that he’s pushing for something else like ‘Let’s do this’, ‘Let’s try that.’ That’s what’s so inspiring about Nick and his method of work.”
That inspiration and admiration translate to their live setting, too. As we speak, the band are beginning a lengthy rehearsal process, preparing for their upcoming tour. “It’s like reentering the world of the Bad Seeds,” he says of the process as they go through their lengthy discography and craft a show. When it comes to choosing the tracks, that’s left to Cave. “A live show is about piecing the songs together so they work in a cohesive way,” the guitarist says, “Being the writer, I think he’s got to feel like he can connect in performance mode. It goes from being a thing in the recording and writing of a song to the question of how I deliver this life. So when we’re picking songs, it comes down to what affects him on an emotional level and where he can feel an energy from the songs.”
On every level, from the days in the studio to his effect on his band to the curation of their live set, it is clear that Cave’s unique energy is the absolute centre point and lifeblood of this band. Just as how the audiences on the tour will be hooked in and utterly hypnotised by his almost messianic energy on stage, his band will be too. “Each and every night, it’s that energy that guides them and has the power to make even an old song feel like a new beast to tame.”
That’s especially true of ‘The Mercy Seat’, a song that remains a key moment in their set decades on from release and still appears to the band as a kind of terrifying mystery. “It has a life of its own,” Vjestica says. “Every single time we play that song, it’s almost ‘What is going to happen here?’ And when i first joined the band I thought, Is it just me? But everyone says the same. It’s got its own energy. It’s the same with ‘Tupelo’ or ‘From Her To Eternity’; they’re wild, and it all hinges on Nick. He’s so deep in the performance and so connected with the audience, it’s a wild ride.”
But it’s a ride that the band have to fully and totally surrender to; that is the only way they know how to do it and the only way their leader will accept. “Nick’s got an incredible energy, and he’s got an incredible presence. He has that star quality, but he is so committed to the performance, and that’s what he demands from the band,” Vjestica says. “Any version of the Bad Seeds, you see, that’s the common thread as he demands that from you as musicians, and everyone gives him that. If you can’t, you won’t cut the mustard with the Bad Seeds. You have to be all in, total commitment.”
