Nick Cave has heaped praise on long-time collaborator Warren Ellis following the pair’s work on The Death of Bunny Munro.
Cave‘s 2009 novel is set for a television adaptation with Matt Smith as the titular character. Cave and Ellis had worked on the soundtrack for the show for several months, and in a recent entry to The Red Hand Files, the Wild God hitmaker shared how Ellis is still an “unstoppable creative force” in the studio. His entry to The Red Hand Files comes just days after announcing a European tour, which will see Cave play in Norway, Germany, and a sole show in Brighton. The Red Hand Files gives fans a chance to put their questions to Cave, who is often open with his thoughts on everything from Nicolas Cage to the creative process. In a recent entry, he heaped praise onto Ellis and says the instrumental work he offers in the studio is often the difference between “adequate” work and essential listening.
Cave wrote: “Warren and I recorded some rapid clapping sounds, which Luis, our engineer-extraordinaire, lowered a couple of octaves, then added tremolo, and overlaid with a ticking clock sound, which gave the whole thing a terse, tight rhythm.
“Then Warren laid down a genuinely evil, old-school bass line. I added some discordant church organ jabs and a circular, chordal pattern on the piano, then screamed some obscenities into a microphone, which we reversed, pitch-shifted, added in a low reverb, processed through a Decapitator distortion plug-in, and sank deep into the mix. Against the car chase scene, this all felt tense, edgy, and perfectly adequate.
“But then Warren jumps up! ‘Put a fucking slow drum beat on it! Boom-boom bam! Boom-boom bam!‘ ‘Here we go,’ I think to myself. Luis lays the drum beat down. Warren leaps on a keyboard and adds a massive, super-deep, predatory orchestral line, which completely transforms this piece of music.
“He adds some horns –Â heavy, punk, and demonic – and the track shifts instantly from small and nervy into something unearthly, powerful and apocalyptic. The scene takes on a dark new gravitas. We are all very pleased with this development.”
Cave would go on to say it is a “terrifying privilege” to work with Ellis, a longstanding member of The Bad Seeds who also worked with Cave on the 2020 album, Carnage.
The Bad Seeds’ frontman continued: “As Warren marches around the studio in his boots and his beard, waving his arms about and yelling commands, it is not the first time, Doug, that I am left amazed by this man’s unstoppable creative force and recognise the profound and terrifying privilege it is to work with him.”
Cave and Ellis were in the studio recording a soundtrack for The Death of Bunny Munro. The pair are not strangers to film and television work, recently providing the score to both Back to Black and Blonde.
