BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts hello,
I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks,
book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
My castaway this week is the singer and writer Nick Cave.
He's one of the most highly regarded storytellers in music today,
who's been captivating audiences with compelling narratives
and electrifying live performances for over 40 years.
He grew up in Wangaratta, Australia, and describes his childhood as idyllic and free range.
When his rebellious teens hit, he was sent to boarding school in Melbourne to straighten him out.
He joined a band instead.
In 1980, his search for something bigger,
darker and more thrilling brought him to London
with a band who renamed themselves the Birthday Party on the Plane Over.
In those days, he revelled in his outsider status.
But as his art and his life progressed,
he has ventured beyond the fire and brimstone of his early work,
reaching out instead of kicking out.