songwriter, vocal, actor, author

Nick (Nicholas Edward) Cave was born 1957 in Warracknabeal, a small town north-west of Melbourne, Australia. He studied painting and english litterature at college, and together with fellow students he founded the group The Boys Next Door in the middle of the 1970s.

Cave was the lead singer, and wrote much of the lyrics. The band became well known on the australian punk scene, and made several singles and one album, Door Door (1979). The group decided to move to England in 1979 and changed their name to The Birthday Party. The group made three albums before disbanding in 1983, when Cave formed The Bad Seeds. Their first album was From Her to Eternity (1984), but commercial breakthrough came with their third album Kicking Against the Pricks (1986) with cover versions of songs by Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker and Roy Orbinson among others. Even more commercially successful was Murder Ballads (1996) with the hit song "Where Wild Roses Grow" in duet with fellow australian Kylie Minogue. His last recording to date No More Shall We Part was released earlier this year.

Guitarist Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey, who played drums on the first recordings but later changed to guitar, have been with The Bad Seeds since the beginning. Harvey have been with Cave since the formation of The Boys Next Door. Current members of the band is Harvey, Bargeld, Martyn P Casey on bass, Thomas Wydler, drums, Conway Savage, keyboards and Warren Ellis, violin. Cave writes all the lyrics (except from the occational cover material), the music is composed by all band members.

In addition to his work as singer and songwriter, Cave has pursued other artistic careers as well. He has written several plays, some published in King Ink and King Ink II where also his song lyrics are found, the novel And The Ass Saw the Angel, the manuscript to the film Ghost...The civil Dead, where he also acted, and shorter acting performances in films such as Bis ans Ende der Welt (Until the End of the World) and Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), both by Wim Wenders. Cave's drawings are found on his album covers and in his books.