Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward Cave (born September 22, 1957, in Warracknabeal, Victoria) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and author. He attended Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne and studied painting at the Caulfield Institute of Technology before turning fully to music.

Cave first attracted attention in the post-punk band The Boys Next Door, which evolved into The Birthday Party in 1980. After that group disbanded in 1983, he formed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a long-running ensemble whose albums include The Boatman's Call (1997), Push the Sky Away (2013), and Skeleton Tree (2016). He has also recorded with the side project Grinderman.

His writing career runs in parallel with his music. He wrote the novels And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989) and The Death of Bunny Munro (2009), and has written screenplays including The Proposition (2005) and Lawless (2012). With longtime collaborator Warren Ellis, Cave has scored films such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).

Since 2018 Cave has corresponded with readers through his website The Red Hand Files, often reflecting on grief following the deaths of his sons Arthur in 2015 and Jethro in 2022. He has been married to model Susie Bick since 2005.

The name Nick is a short form of Nicholas, from the Greek Nikolaos, combining nikē meaning victory and laos meaning people. The full name was carried by Saint Nicholas of Myra, a 4th-century bishop whose veneration spread the name across Europe.