Nick Cave’s Advice on Trusting Our Creative Voice

My creative voice told me to start drawing ladies again. (Page from my sketchbook)

OK, confession time.

Although I'm wiring a post inspired by Nick Cave, I rarely listen to his music. Not because I don't like it. But along with Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake, I want to cry when I see or hear Nick Cave sing. (Sorry, Nick).

Have you ever burnt yourself so badly your skin blisters? Then you accidentally pop that blister and expose the damaged skin underneath. It's that kind of rawness I feel when I listen to his music. 

His music seems to rip at my soul and leaves me raw with emotional vulnerability. He's both inspiration and tragedy rolled into one great muse of many.

I'm listening to a Nick Cave Spotify and I have to take breaks to clear the tears. There's a lump on my throat; my chest hurts, my stomach turns. My eyes heat up. It's painful! 

At the same time, it's awe-inspiring how another human being’s music and voice can elicit these feelings in me.

Anyone who can evoke this kind of response - well, I want to hear what they have to say outside of their music too.

The Red Hand Files

I'm a massive fan of his newsletter 'The Red Hand Files'. 
(I urge you to subscribe.)

Perhaps inspired by his 1994 song, Red Right Hand* (Peaky Blinders fans will know the song well), people submit questions, which he then answers and the answers are posted online for us all to devour.

"You can ask me anything. There will be no moderator. This will be between you and me. Let's see what happens. Much love, Nick."

He writes about creativity, love, art, forgiveness, grief, life - in a sensitive, humorous and highly inspiring way. 

It's not often we get to know the thoughts of our creative heroes in such depth. His words and advice are rich, beautiful and addictive. 

(*Interesting Fact: I learnt that the phrase 'Red Right Hand' was taken from John Milton's epic poem 'Paradise Lost' when the demon Belial refers to God's red right hand, which will strike vengeance on the devil)

With his extraordinary musical output, I often think that Nick Cave must have a direct line to the creativity Gods. Well, perhaps and perhaps not. 

A question from The Red Hand Files newsletter that piqued my interest recently was this:

How or when or do you shut the voices of all your influences (your heroes, your parents, your Jesus, your music) to listen to yourself, to become you or to believe that what you create is your own?

JOHN, BROOKLYN, USA

Cave’s reply sums up the spirit and voice of creativity: (emphasis mine):

Dear John,

Nothing you create is ultimately your own, yet all of it is you. Your imagination, it seems to me, is mostly an accidental dance between collected memory and influence, and is not intrinsic to you, rather it is a construction that awaits spiritual ignition. 

Your spirit is the part of you that is essential. It is separate from the imagination, and belongs only to you. This formless pneuma is the invisible and vital force over which we toss the blanket of our imagination — that habitual mix of received information, of memory, of experience — to give it form and language. In some this vital spirit burns fiercely and in others, it is a dim flicker, but it lives in all of us, and can be made stronger through daily devotion to the work at hand.

In my view, John, worry less about what you make — that will mostly look after itself, and is to some extent beyond your control, and perhaps even none of your business — and devote yourself to nourishing this animating spirit. Bring all your enthusiasm to bear on the development of that good and essential force. This is done by a commitment to the creative act itself. Each time you tend to that ingenious spark, it grows stronger, and sets afire the ordinary gifts of the imagination. The more dedication you show to the process, the better the work, and the greater your gift to the world. Apply yourself fully to the task, let go of the outcome, and your true voice will appear. You'll see. It can be no other way. 

Love, Nick

Aha, he doesn't have a direct line with the creative Gods then!

I love the word 'Pneuma', which translates to 'air in motion' or 'breath', as our essence, spirit, and something necessary for us to be us.

So finding and trusting our creative voice is to repeatedly show up, again and again, and again. Bringing with us our own unique spirit to the process. As we do, our work will naturally get better and ‘the greater your gift to the world’.

To show up daily is to do our jobs as the vessels that capture creative sparks. I like to think of ideas as the tiny specks of dust you see when the sun shines through a window. Willing us to catch them, and bring them to life in our perfectly unique way. 

By dedicating ourselves to creative work, we birth these ideas to fruition in a way only we know how. 

It's none of our business if we are any 'good'; it's none of our business what people think. It's simply our job to create and bring all of our Self, spirit, and essence to the process.

Thank you Nick.

Love Georgie