'Faith, Hope and Carnage' by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan
With Iggy Pop as a role model, Nick Cave set forth to push rock to the knife’s edge of danger and experience. And yet, even early on, his lyrics included intimations of transcendence, not just through the power of music or art but of other archetypal forces. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Cave was Iggy in search of God.
Much of this is apparent throughout Faith, Hope and Carnage, composed from a series of conversations between Cave and British journalist Sean O’Hagan. The ecstasy of Cave’s words and music has long included glimpses of the divine from a place of intense spiritual yearning. “Sadly, organized religion can be atheism’s greatest gift,” Cave says, adding that religion at its best—even if it might only be a useful myth—has shown “a regard for the sacredness of things, for the value of humanity … rooted in a humility towards one’s place within the world.”
Cave also discusses his songwriting and recordings, his love for finding structure within apparent chaos, the ongoing value of traditional musical forms and of allowing the unconscious to manifest itself in ways unplanned.
