Nick Cave changed a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song after getting advice from Chris Martin.
The rock band recorded their 2019 LP ‘Ghosteen’ at the Coldplay frontman’s studio, and he would regularly come in and every now and then impart his honest opinion on the songs, and one track he influenced them to change from heavily-industrial to a traditional ballad was ‘Waiting For You’.
Nick and co “weren’t pleased” with the advice at first, but were thankful in the end.
Speaking to MOJO magazine, Nick said: “Chris is a very funny guy, with a perverse sense of humour, but he’s also disarmingly forthright.
“He tells his truth, as he sees it, as a matter of principle.
“Mostly, he loved the stuff, really loved it, but occasionally he made what were quite challenging suggestions that, if taken on board, would have radically altered the song.”
And so ‘Waiting For You’ went from being a “very loud, super-aggressive” to a “fragile, old-school ballad”.
Nick went on: “We had never really questioned it, but when we played it to Chris, he turned to us and said: ‘I love you guys very much, but is there any chance I could hear the song again without the f****** canning factory?…'”
Asked what they thought of the ‘Yellow’ hitmaker’s critique, he replied: “At the time, we weren’t so pleased.
“We took away the industrial loop and what was left was a very beautiful, vulnerable song shimmering there on its own – a classic, old-school ballad, raw and fragile and unimpeded. So thank God for that!”