In conversation with journalist Seán O’Hagan at Hay Festival, the Australian musician expressed his view on cancel culture. Cave emphasised the difference between art and a personality involved in its creation: “Making art – especially making music – it prevents you from becoming the worst aspects of your character, and that’s why I very much think we need to be very, very careful about the music we don’t think people should listen to any more because of what the artist who has made that music may have been like.” In his opinion, the songs express the best of those troubled and difficult characters who created them.
Meanwhile, Mr Cave considers other issues more alarming. The speedy development of AI has been worrying, and the musician commented on such inventions as ChatGPT previously calling their results “a grotesque mockery”. The comment followed a discovery of a song “in the style of Nick Cave” created by an artificial intelligence system. This time, Cave urged humankind “to be cautious about the idea of progress”. “I just see things moving very rapidly and a whole lot of different things worry me a lot, like AI”, the musician says.
