Nick Cave‘s online Red Right Hand Files series, in which the Australian singer/songwriter responds to questions from fans, has proved to be a great font of wisdom in recent years, with Cave proving to be an empathetic and thoughtful agony uncle of sorts.
The latest instalment in the series, Issue #295, finds Cave musing upon a question from a Swedish fan named Karin, who asks: ‘I’m wondering if you have any thoughts about loneliness. I am middle-aged and richly blessed in life, with children, a husband and a good job that I enjoy. I have friends and interests, but still struggle with a sense of loneliness. It is a melancholy that varies in darkness. I don’t think anyone notices because I’m positive and often cheerful.’
In response, Cave has this to say:
“The question of loneliness comes up repeatedly in The Red Hand Files. Many people like yourself, leading apparently full and flourishing lives, seem to experience that insistent feeling of loneliness – ‘a melancholy that varies in darkness’.
“Karin, I don’t have answers beyond my own experiences, which have taught me that loneliness is not simply down to our circumstances or whether others love us. Rather, it is an indisposition of the spirit brought about, in the main, by certain aspects of our lives that have been unintentionally left untended. Loneliness and lack of meaning seem to inhabit the same dark orbit. Loneliness is the breakdown of the overarching structure of things, a feeling of separateness or exclusion from the sum and substance of the world.
“Philosopher, neuroscientist and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist says we require three things to attain a meaningful life. The first is feeling part of a wider community – family, friends, and society in general. Second is an understanding of nature and a connection to the natural order of things, which McGilchrist feels we have largely lost. Finally, we need to form a relationship with the sacred or divine – this can be found in art, music, poetry and religion, where we acknowledge the ineffable and all-encompassing force that holds the world together.
“Personally, I find that feelings of loneliness dissipate when I take time to focus on the sacred, the imagination, beauty, nature, the soul – those unmeasurable and mysterious wellsprings of meaning that reside outside the scientistic and the rational. Here, I feel connected to something universal, eternal, truthful and righteous and, therefore, less alone. Looking back, my most lonely times were when I was separated from my spiritual self, and perhaps I had even affected a certain protective distance from these concerns. These days, however, I try my best to maintain genuine relations with the world – with my loved ones, with nature, and with the sacred – in a comprehensive and participatory manner. Overall, I have found that this keeps the twin devils of loneliness and meaninglessness at bay.”
Cave rounds off his answer by writing, “I hope these words are of some help.”
Cave recently released a third single previewing his forthcoming Wild God album with The Bad Seeds. Described as “an intimate twilight ballad”, Long Dark Night is inspired by the poem Dark Night of the Soul by the Spanish 16th-century poet St. John of the Cross.
Cave says, “Long Dark Night is inspired by one of the greatest and most powerful poems of conversion ever written. Ultimately, though, it’s a beautiful country tune. It feels like a sweet companion to the song, Wild God.”
Listen to the single below.
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds will release Wild God, their 18th studio album, on August 30.
The singer began writing the ten-song album on January 1, 2023, and produced it alongside longtime collaborator Warren Ellis at Miraval in Provence and Soundtree in London.
“There’s no fucking around with this record,” he has said. “When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it.”
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