Attempt at an interview with Nick Cave And Rowland S. Howard,members of The Boys Next Door, filmed in 1978. Probably the first recorded interview with Nick Cave.
[At the risk of making myself sound like someone who's totally out of the loop and naive] - And WHAT ON EARTH, pray tell, is THE JEFF MEME? Really, I gotta know; I don't know what you mean.
So cute! Little barely-fledged Boys-Next-Door Rowland and Nick, zonked-out drunk (or high?), doing a piss-take interview with a friend. What makes it cute is that they're all so young and unformed and naive that it all feels like a MAKE-BELIEVE interview, like the kind of playacting you do with your friends when you're a kid. It's like they're just three little Aussie schoolboys goofing around in [Nick's? Rowland's?] bedroom, PRETENDING to be rockn'rollers PRETENDING to interview each other. Or like Jimmy Rabbitte in the movie version of THE COMMITMENTS, pretending to be Terry Wogan and "interviewing" himself in his bedroom mirror. Yet there's also something vaguely uncanny about this footage, too. Partly this is because of the wonky sound and the dim, grainy black-and-white film, which makes it all seem rather ghostly,. But it's also partly because this is like watching Year Zero, or Moment Zero, of something big and grand: namely, Nick Cave and Rowland S. Howard's artistic careers. I always think there's something myth-freighted about the tremulous beginnings of great artists' careers, and this silly little interview is certainly a tremulous beginning. As much as they seem like schoolboys playing make-believe, they actually are a real band at this point, however unproven. Because Nick's wearing [the first of] his performing suit[s], the same one he wore in the video for "Shivers", I think. And after all, if they weren't a real band, if they were just kids goofing around, this interview wouldn't have been filmed, would it?
They don't even know, they have crossed the line... Or maybe they do. Mentally they are still kids, stuck in their adolescent behaviours, chuckling, gigling, goofin' to conceal/disguise how embarassed they in fact are, the shortage of self-esteem, but the Gate are already open. This is always intriguing to 'juxtapose' the present and the past time, like coming from the Known one back to the Unknown. From Her(e) to Eternity, but sorta the other way around. Disarmingly, every time I'm watching some 'early period' interviews, I never know whether Nick is really embarassed and/or misguided or is it the specific way to express his nonchallance and rougery. Or both.
I doubt they're pretending anything I think they're just off their tits Nick had the bad habit from very early on cus Heroin was dirt cheap in those days
nikita70: Thanks for writing back. I *love* your lines about the Gate...does that mean the gate to stardom, or what? You know, I get the same feeling, watching Nick's early interviews...sometimes, I can't tell if he's putting his audience on, just to be nonchalant, or if he actually is embarrassed by the questions, or what. I think, though, that a lot of the time, he would give seemingly silly or impatient-sounding answers to interviewers' questions just because he didn't enjoy the interview process. He's never liked interviews, I know that, not when he was younger, and not even now, not really (though he has mellowed towards journalists as he's grown older). By the way, do you have a favorite of Nick's songs? And do you like Rowland S. Howard?
Strange man: Guhl! Very Goodt. Hahaha. What made you record… these boots were made for walking. And that’s just one of y- Cave: Ummmmm… Rowland. Strange man: ROWLND!!! He says that in the video. I just thought I’d let you know. I personally think it’s very funny
"What is the question?" They are both disarmingly intimidated/inept and defiant at once. Still, it is distinct enough the bad seed has been sown already, say so. Wouldn't it be, however, one the very few interviews Nick looks more taken aback than the "interviewer" is?
It could be because of the fact that it was probably his first ever interview and he was just 20-21 at the time and rather drunk or high here, so that was why he was taken aback by it.
