This essential Australianness is in everything I do

Nick Cave has written about the importance of his Australian nationality to his identity, saying it is in “everything” he does.

The beloved singer-songwriter was responding to a pair of questions on his site Red Hand Files, in which he was asked about his emotional relationship with his home country, given that he has been based in the UK for the last several decades.

“When I’m dead and gone and they put my remains in the ground, it will more than likely be into British soil that I’ll go – because the life I have built is here, in England, specifically London and Brighton, two cities I have come to love,” he wrote.

“But the essence of those dusty, mortal remains will be fully and resolutely Australian. This essential Australianness is in everything I do, and finds its fundamental difference in every place I go.”

“We Australians can assimilate quite happily, people generally like us, but we can never suppress our antipodean nature. We are marked by it. We Aussies are always chaffing, just a little, against the worlds we find ourselves in when we venture beyond our glistening shores,” he continued.

You can read his full post here.

At the start of the year, Cave shared his New Year’s Resolution for 2024 on his site.

Responding to a question from a fan named Ellen, he wrote: “And so, Ellen, my resolution for the coming year is to practice, as best as I can, more open-mindedness and understanding of other viewpoints. I wish both of you, and all readers of The Red Hand Files, the very best for 2024 and may happiness and good things come your way.”

Elsewhere, 2024 looks set to also see Cave release a new album with the Bad Seeds. The LP will be the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Ghosteen’. Speaking to NME last summer, Cave described the new material as “just so instantly interesting” as well as “different all the time”.

Back in October at a concert in Chicago, he debuted a new song ‘To Be Found’. Writing about the song on his site, he said: “The sentiment is simple and softly spoken, the song unable to even declare its name, but still it is a special song, full of unspecified emotional impact and a great pleasure to play. I think I’ll call the song “To Be Found”.”

In other Cave news, Matt Smith is set to play the lead role in a TV adaptation of Cave’s novel, The Death Of Bunny Munro.

The actor, known for roles in Doctor Who and House Of The Dragon, will also executive produce the six-part series alongside Cave. Isabella Eklöf (Industry) will direct the Sky Original series, from a screenplay written by Pete Jackson (Somewhere Boy).

Cave also performed an emotional version of The Pogues‘ ‘A Rainy Night In Soho’ at Shane MacGowan‘s funeral in Tipperary, Ireland.