Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Cave grew up in a small country town in Australia, and attended a boarding school in Melbourne. He studied Fine Art and claims painting was his first passion, before he dropped out of art school to pursue his musical ambitions. Cave’s father died in a car crash when he was 19, an event that he has stated caused “a vacuum” in his life.

After initially forming the moderately Goth punk band The Birthday Party with school friends, Cave, who had garnered a reputation for his outlandish live performance with the band, went on to form Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, taking some members of the now disbanded old group with him.

It was with the Bad Seeds that Cave was propelled into stardom, with the bands experimentation with various rock and punk genres, mixed with Cave’s gothic styling’s and brooding emotional tone, contributing to their growing success and fan base.

Following on from the band’s debut album release in 1984 “From Her To Eternity”, the Bad Seeds garnered critical acclaim for practically all 10 of the studio albums they released up till 1997, when Cave decided to put the band on hiatus due to his drug and alcohol addictions.

The band returned triumphantly in 2001 with “No More Shall We Part” and have never looked back since, releasing a further four albums since, such as the well received garage rock outing, “Dig Lazarus Dig!!!”

Nick Cave is also no stranger to the movie business, having made cameo-acting appearances in the motion pictures “Wings of Desire” and “Jonny Suede” alongside Brad Pitt. He has also written the soundtrack for various movies, such as “The Assassination of Jesse James” and “Lawless”, the latter of which he co-wrote the screenplay for. His published writings vary from gothic novels such “Ant the Ass saw the Angel”, released in 1989, to rock biographies and lyric books.

Cave has received multiple awards during his career, such as the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Male, and a MOJO award for Song of the Year in 2011, the same year in which he was inducted to the ARIA Hall of Fame.

After spending three months in Brooklyn, New York at 19 years old, Lykke Li eventually returned to Sweden two years later to begin work on her debut record. The result was her first album, Youth Novels, which came out in January 2008, primarily in the Nordic regions before gaining a wider release months later.

Youth Novels received mass critical acclaim for its unique pop sentiments and found itself on many best-of-year lists. This helped Lykke Li secure important festival appearances at the Coachella and Glastonbury festivals among others. This expanded her fan base, who responded to the unique setup of her live shows.

As Lykke Li worked on her music and image, she got the chance to perform on shows like Later…with Jools Holland in the UK and Late Night with Conan O’Brien in the US. As her popularity increased with the release of her subsequent albums Wounded Rhymes in 2011 and I Never Learn in 2014, she continued to play on high-profile late-night shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman as well as more festival slots in Latitude and more.

During that time, Lykke Li also appeared in a series of high-profile collaborations which raised her profile significantly. A remix of her I Never Learn single "No Rest for the Wicked" featured A$AP Rocky. She would also appear on David Lynch’s 2013 album The Big Dream, performing on the lead single, "I'm Waiting Here." And in 2014, she collaborated with U2 on “The Troubles.”

In 2018, Lykke Li released her fourth studio album, So Sad So Sexy. She offered fans numerous singles in anticipation of its release, including “Deep End” and “Two Nights.” She toured extensively in support of the record, including at major festivals like the Osheaga Festival. Barely slowing down to catch her breath, Li released another major album, Eyeye in 2020.

To that point, Lykke Li has branched off into several other creative projects. In 2022, she partnered on an immersive art installation called “Ü & EYEYE,” at Los Angeles’ The Broad Museum. Described as a “hyper-sensory cathedral of female romantic fantasy" installation, it uses her most recent release to enhance the experience.

Li is also an accomplished actress, as can be seen in her performances in the 2014 Swedish crime film Tommy as well as in Song to Song, an experimental film by legendary American director Terrance Malick. On top of all that, she’s also a professional model and the official face for a whole line of Levi’s jeans.

Nevertheless, Lykke Li remains first and foremost a musician. She’s earned a whopping 44 nominations with seven wins, including winning the Swedish Grammys for Best Album and Best Artist back in 2012. She and her work are all over the European awards scene, with American wins sure to follow in the near future.