From The Boys Next Door to the Birthday Party to the last couple of albums by The Bad Seeds, Nick Cave has long experienced the power of pure visceral electricity clash against the grain of his dramatic flair for lyrical prose. But nothing the Goth King of Oz has done in his 30-odd years making music comes close to the brute force of his work with Grinderman, his punk-blues outfit featuring rogue Bad Seeds members Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos and Martyn Casey. The ragtag quartet’s second album, the wolfman-themed Grinderman 2, was released in September to rave reviews and the promise of the group’s first major tour across this tattered globe of ours. We caught up with Mr. Cave on the eve of Grinderman 2’s release to speak with him about the blues, his improvement as a guitar player, the love he has for early Funkadelic, taking phone calls from Tom Waits, the wolf, the moon and collaborating with legendary prog-rock guitarist Robert Fripp on a remix of the new album’s first single “Heathen Child” , featured on a special limited edition double A-side 12-inch of the song. As it turns out, Nick is quite the King Crimson fan.

Grinderman was named after a John Lee Hooker version of a Memphis Slim song. The album where that comes from, That’s Where It’s At, is it a particular favorite of yours?

That’s not my favorite, no. But I do like his version of that song, for sure. I really like the early stuff he did on King Records. The Bad Seeds covered a song from that time many years ago called “I’m Gonna Kill That Woman” . That’s an amazing record.

Would you consider Grinderman to be your version of the blues?

If someone asked us what kind of music we play, I wouldn’t say, “The blues, man, the blues.” Certainly we’re acknowledging the blues in Grinderman. But then again all the music that I’ve done through the years has been influenced on some level by the blues.

The first Grinderman marked your debut as an electric guitarist. Do you feel you improved having gone into the recording of Grinderman 2 ?

I think I’ve plateaued (laughs). I’ve learned pretty much all of the open chords that I could learn. I still haven’t nor do I particularly want to master the bar chord. I could manage some songs we play. It is very difficult to know what I can do with the band and what I can’t do, because in the studio when you are recording you play it in a completely different way; whether it’s possible for me to play these songs live remains to be seen.

Who are some of your guitar heroes?

I like Pete Cosey from Miles Davis’ mid-70s band… also the guitarist from Funkadelic – Eddie Hazel. I really love that song “Maggot Brain” . I also love the guitar on “Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow” – when it kicks in on that chord change, it’s just beautiful.

Speaking of guitarists, how did the collaboration with Robert Fripp come about for “Super Heathen Child” ?

I was listening to that version [of the song] at home, and I said to my wife, “I’d like a really evil guitar solo at the end of this. I’d love to get Robert Fripp…” And she said, “Well, why don’t you ring him up!” I didn’t know him at all and we just kind of gotten in contact with him and he was just amazing. I actually sent him the song and I said to him, “Listen to it and I’ll talk to you tomorrow about what I’d like you to do.” He rang me up the next morning, actually, and he goes, “I’ve done it, I’ve done it! I did a riff here, and a riff in the middle part and whatnot.” But he didn’t give me the opportunity to talk about it. He did this amazing stuff on it, but it wasn’t what I had in mind. So I traveled up to the middle of England to meet him in a studio there. And it was there I asked him if he could do something more evil and do a solo at the end of it. So he did this thing and it’s just great. It’s really long and a real beautiful thing.

Is he a fan?

I think his wife is a fan of ours. I bet she probably told him, “You get down there and you do that.” (laughs)

Have you always listened to King Crimson?

Oh yeah, I love that stuff. They’re a strange group, because they go to places that I don’t really understand. I love the guitar work on Larks Tongues in Aspic, the first three quarters of that album is just blissful.

Do you like the stuff he did with Brian Eno, No Pussyfooting and Evening Star and such?

Yeah, totally. What [Fripp] has done [with “Super Heathen Child” ] is much more like that than anything else he’s done.
There has been a certain amount of heaviness of your work with Grinderman as well as such recent Bad Seeds albums as Abattoir Blues and Dig Lazarus Dig. Could you see your next album being something quieter like The Good Son or The Boatman’s Call ?

I think all in the stage. We really keep trying to do different sorts of records each time, depending on what the songs that I write require. At one point, during our middle period or whatever, I was trying to write a certain kind of song – a love ballad, because I had and still have an enduring love for that kind of songwriting, I love that stuff. Cole Porter, Tammy Wynette, The Carpenters. I love that kind of balladry. I did a couple of records dealing with that sort of stuff and it’s time to move on to something else. I’m always just looking for a way to carry on that fundamental creative process.

In regards to Grinderman 2, what is it about the wolf or the wolfman that intrigues you?

I just wanted to inject that kind of character with a fresh kind of terror – that archetype – a renewed sense of terror. And in that particular song, “Heathen Child” , he seems to be coming out of his shell, so to speak.

*Do you have a particular wolfman or werewolf film that you like? An American Werewolf in London ? Wolfen ? Teen Wolf ? The Howling, perhaps?

(Laughs) Oh I don’t know. Not the latest wolfman, that’s for sure.

Speaking of wolves, a symbol I always seem to hear in your songs, for many years, is the moon…

Oh, it always has in my songs…

What is it about the moon that inspires you?

It just floats up there in the sky, doesn’t it (laughs)? I wrote a book called The Ass and the Angel and 25 percent of that book I think is about the moon. It’s just a beautiful, soulful, effecting thing.

It is pretty cool, and everyone can look at it no matter where in the world you are…

You’re all under that same moon. You’re starting to sound like a Tom Waits song, mate (laughs).

• Did you ever have a chance to meet Tom, you guys being labelmates here in the States and all?*

I actually had a conversation with him once on the telephone. It was kind of strange, actually. I had wanted him to perform at a festival I was putting on in Australia (the ATP Australia Festival, which took place in the motherland in January of 2009 and featured the Bad Seeds playing alongside Spiritualized, Michael Gira, Harmonia, Silver Apples and his old bandmate, the late Roland S. Howard, among others). And he wouldn’t do it or he couldn’t do it or something like that. But he rang me up at home one day, I don’t know where he got the number from, and he goes (in a Tom Waits style voice), “Hey, Tom Waits here.” And I’m like, “Yeah, fuck off! Sure.” But it actually was Tom Waits (laughs).

In reference to your new book, The Death of Bunny Munro, did you hear from your friend Kylie Minogue about that one scene in the book where Bunny is listening to her on the car radio and pleasuring himself?

The last time I saw her I’d asked her if she read it, and she said she had it by her bed.

You recently were awarded a Doctor of Laws degree from Dundee University in your native Australia…

It’s my second one, actually.

What kind of weight does that kind of honorary degree hold in your land?

Well, I can call myself a Doctor.

But can you teach classes at the University and whatnot with that degree?

Nah, I’m not gonna take that up any time soon, mate (laughs).