SINGER Nick Cave has announced he has been working on a new album during lockdown.

Carnage will be the 18th studio album the musician has released with his band, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

The announcement comes after the band cancelled their already rescheduled UK and European tour due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Argus: The musician said that lockdown provided him with an opportunity to get back into the studio.The musician said that lockdown provided him with an opportunity to get back into the studio.

Nick, who lives in Brighton, had previously told fans that he was going to take the opportunity to make a new record.

Writing on his fan-forum The Red Hand Files, Nick replied to a fan’s question to confirm that he has been in the studio with collaborator and bandmate, Warren Ellis.

The songwriter wrote that he has missed touring but lockdown has allowed him to work on new material.

Nick wrote: “I am surprised, though, at just how hard not being able to play live has felt.

“I have come to the conclusion that I am essentially a thing that tours. There is a terrible yearning and a feeling of a life being half-lived.

“I miss the thrill of stepping onto the stage, the rush of the performance, where all other concerns dissolve into a pure animal interrelation with my audience.

“I miss the complete surrender to the moment, the loss of self, the physicalness of it all, the feeding frenzy of communal love, the religion, the glorious exchange of bodily fluids — and The Bad Seeds themselves, of course, in all their reckless splendour, how I miss them.

“As much as sitting behind my desk can bring me a lot of joy, and the imagination can be a stimulating, even dangerous place, I long for the wanton abandon of the live performance.”

He went on to discuss how lockdown has provoked feelings of familiarity stemming from his past struggles with addiction.

Nick wrote: “I guess this should come as no surprise as I was a heroin addict for many years and self-isolating and social distancing were the name of the game.

“I am also well acquainted with the mechanics of grief — collective grief works in an eerily similar way to personal grief, with its dark confusion, deep uncertainty and loss of control.”

“For me, lockdown feels like a state mandated version of more of the same — a formalisation of the kind of hermit-like behaviour to which I’ve always been predisposed, and so, as difficult as it has been to see the devastation and anguish caused by the pandemic — including to the lives of those close to me, and many who have written into The Red Hand Files — I have been doing okay.”

Carnage will be Nick’s first album since the critically acclaimed Ghosteen, which was released in 2019.

He is yet to confirm when the album will be released.