Nick Cave

Nick Cave (born 1957) is an Australian singer-songwriter who has led Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds since 1983, building one of rock’s most revered catalogues — from Murder Ballads to the grief-soaked Ghosteen — alongside novels and film scores. Since 2018 he has answered fan letters through The Red Hand Files, a newsletter that has become a running meditation on art, loss, and meaning.

The Red Hand Files takedown

In January 2023, a fan named Mark sent Cave a song ChatGPT had written “in the style of Nick Cave.” Cave’s reply — Red Hand Files issue #218 — went viral as the definitive artistic case against AI songwriting. “Songs arise out of suffering,” he wrote, and are “predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation” — something an algorithm that has “been nowhere” and “endured nothing” cannot perform, only mimic. His verdict on the imitation: “with all the love and respect in the world, this song is bullshit, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human.”

Cave closed the letter with a wry twist — that the episode had at least given him something to feel: “I have got the fire of hell in my eyes — and it’s ChatGPT.” He has returned to the theme in later issues, consistently arguing that what AI removes from songwriting is not labor but the transformative struggle that gives a song its value. His stance is spiritual rather than economic: no lawsuit, no letter campaign, just the argument that replication is travesty.