Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' pianist Conway Savage dies

Conway Savage, the long-term pianist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, has died age 58. Savage was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2017 and died today, 2 September.

The band released a statement:

Our beloved Conway passed away on Sunday evening. A member of Bad Seeds for nearly thirty years, Conway was the anarchic thread that ran through the band’s live performances. He was much loved by everyone, band members and fans alike. Irascible, funny, terrifying, sentimental, warm-hearted, gentle, acerbic, honest, genuine – he was all of these things and quite literally “had the gift of a golden voice,” high and sweet and drenched in soul. On a drunken night, at four in the morning, in a hotel bar in Cologne, Conway sat at the piano and sang Streets of Laredo to us, in his sweet, melancholy style and stopped the world for a moment. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Goodbye Conway, there isn’t a dry eye in the house. Love, Nick and the Bad Seeds.

Savage originally joined the Bad Seeds in 1990 alongside the Triffids’ Martyn P Casey. His last recorded performance with the band was for the Bad Seeds’ 2013 album Push the Sky Away.

Hot Press last met Conway Savage back in 2009, where he talked about recording his live album in Glens Centre at Manorhamilton. You can read the full interview below.

NOBLE SAVAGE

Internationally renowned keyboardist and songwriter Conway Savage – described by our own Peter Murphy as “the patron saint of shabby motels, one-night stands and ghost-lit filling stations” – is relaxing on a couch in his room at London’s decidedly un-shabby K-West Hotel. “I reckon I’m just cooling my heels,” the Melbourne musician drawls laconically down the line. “We’ve been doing Bad Seeds and festival gigs for the last month or so. There’s a couple more weeks to go and then we’re done. There’s more rock stars than you can shake a stick at in the bar downstairs, so I’m just hanging in my room.”

As it happens, this writer is well familiar with that particular rock ‘n’ roll hostelry. “It’s not a bad place,” Savage says. “We just had a funny coincidence, actually. One of the roadies from the Bad Seeds just bought a book; we’re staying at K-West, and he opens it up and Keith Richards is visiting Willie Nelson in room 210 at K-West. And here’s this 70-year old guy, almost dead, you know, Willie smoking death-weed with Keef. So, quite a mighty coincidence.”
Savage is partly referring to the fact that he covers Willie Nelson’s maudlin ‘Night Life’ on his just-released album Live in Ireland. Although he’s been a key member of Nick Cave’s band ever since joining them for The Good Son tour in 1990, he’s recorded several well-received albums of his own over the last 15 years, including his collaboration with Australian singer/songwriter Suzie Higgie (Soon Will Be Tomorrow) and a series of solo outings (most recently 2007’s intriguingly titled Quickie For Ducky).
Recorded last October in the intimate surrounds of the Glens Centre in Manorhamilton, Live In Ireland (presumably Live in Leitrim didn’t have quite have the same ring to it) sees him navigating through his fairly extensive back catalogue to deliver a warm, intimate and occasionally heartbreaking performance.
So how did it come about that a Bad Seed recorded a live album in Leitrim, of all places?
“A kind invitation, really, and a stroke of luck with where we recorded it at Manorhamilton. It was a really nice set up there to do it. So, yeah just a complete stroke of luck.”
Although he knew that the show was being recorded, the decision to release it as a live album wasn’t made until afterwards.
“It was perhaps mentioned that this obscure venue had great recording facilities, if you like, which I was kind of rather wary about, as you’d imagine. But it just worked out that it was a rather good concert, and great people, and the recording was, you know, I think it sounds alright. So we just went with it.”
Although he still lives in Melbourne, Savage has been a fairly regular visitor to these shores since first coming here with the Bad Seeds in the early ‘90s. Indeed, Irish literature and poetry was a touchstone for his 2004 album Wrong Man’s Hands, where he referenced the writings of one of Ireland’s most famous authors.
“Don’t fuckin’ say who it was in your article!” he laughs. “Keep it quiet, man! I don’t want to have my fuckin’ balls sued off me!”
So have you always been a fan of James Joyce?
“(Laughs) I just came across some stuff in a poetry collection and some of it resonated with me. And then when I was humming and harring for lyrics – and mainly humming – those words came back to perhaps haunt me, forever. I know his estate’s legal team like to chase up very small cases, but no disrespect intended or anything, but it was nice to do a bit of a co-write.”
As soon as he finishes the current crop of Bad Seeds dates, Savage will be returning here to record another studio album and also do a short tour to promote the live one.
“I’ll be recording my new one, my kind of continuing piece from my last one, Quickie For Ducky, up in Dundalk. So it’s lovely, a professional coincidence to release the live album and record the new one at the same time. So it’s just a little tour but also it’s a friendship thing I’ve developed by touring a lot. I came here late last year after the last Bad Seeds tour, and did a record where Mark Corcoran helped as producer – ‘in brackets’. So yeah, we just struck up a bit of a relationship, and voila.”
Despite his burgeoning solo career, Savage has no plans to stop working with the Bad Seeds in the near future.
“Well, I’m kind of a working man, you know. And the pay is quite nice with Nick, and I’ve been doing it for nearly 20 years now, and I completely love it. And I’m surrounded by very, very good friends. And we don’t really work all the time so it’s kind of a perfect thing; I can do my own stuff, and just keep recording it and putting it out, and doing little tours here and there and everywhere, hopefully. And I’m more than happy with the deal.”