Thom Yorke 'the voice of the people': Nick Cave on Radiohead frontman

Nick Cave believes Thom Yorke is a much “wiser” songwriter than he is, adding that the Radiohead frontman is better equipped than he to be “the voice of the people”.

Talking to the Scotsman ahead of the release of new Bad Seeds album DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!, Cave explained that he saw his onstage and artistic persona as having more of an outsider status than his contemporary.

“Well, [my lyrics are] better articulated than Thom's, but I don't think I'm the bearer of any wisdom.

“It's my point of view, which I'll willingly concede is peripheral. I wouldn't encourage everyone to have that worldview. I'm not pretending to speak for a larger section of society.

"That's Thom's job,” he continued, “he's speaking for 'us'. I'm not. I never had that talent. There are people, great artists, who are equipped to do that, who have the capacity to be the voice of the people. Not me."

Chatter about the lyrical content of the new Bad Seeds album prompted the comparisons, with the word “myxomatoyd” arbitrarily posited with ‘Myxomatosis’, the name of a Radiohead track from 2003 longplayer Hail to the Thief.

He went on to discuss how his personality offstage was a more timid one than the brash, fearlessly rogueish character he “becomes” onstage.

"I feel more like a spectacle. You become that person that you always wanted to be. Even though, ten minutes before I go on, I stand at the side of the stage and feel acutely all the shit that you can feel; all the nerves and feelings of inadequacy and physical ailments and aches and creaks.

"But then something magical happens and you feel godlike. I love it.”

Details of that new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album can be found here.