Grinderman drummer Jim Sclavunos has spoken about the recent confusion surrounding the future of the band.
With the Bad Seeds becoming increasingly tame, Grinderman saw Nick Cave gather some close friends for a visceral rock experience. Releasing two stunning albums, the band recently sparked speculation over their future.
Appearing onstage at Australia’s Meredith Festival, Nick Cave appeared to suggest that Grinderman were over. Leering at the crowd, the singer said: “That’s it for Grinderman. It’s over… See you all in another 10 years when we’ll be even older and uglier.”
Now drummer Jim Sclavunos has expanded on that statement. “What happened at Meredith was more a bye-bye than an announcement. An announcement would be like a press release but who knows what will happen in five or 10 years time” he told FasterLouder. “My crystal ball is a bit low on batteries at the moment so I can’t predict what the future of Grinderman is – if there is a future.”
“We may well get the itch to do another Grinderman album or, who knows, maybe something completely different. My musical life didn’t begin and end with The Bad Seeds or Grinderman, but Grinderman is an important component of my life, or rather was if it’s no more to be. But I think the music we made stands on its own merit.”
Continuing, Jim Sclavunos commented that the band were now placing focus back on The Bad Seeds. “We were finished with what we had to do as Grinderman and it’s time to move on, for now at least, and the next thing we are moving onto is The Bad Seeds. The way I see it is it’s kind of our prerogative as musicians to do whatever we think is the right thing at the time and also to change our minds as we see fit.”
Later, the drummer said: “I don’t think there should be mourning or rending of garments just yet, let’s wait a few years and see what happens. I’m sorry the whole thing’s a bit vague, but we took a long time between Grinderman album’s before, but we have kind of neglected Bad Seeds of late. It’s been about four years since we have done anything and I think it’s high time we made some beautiful music together, again.”
”Grinderman was one of my favourite bands to play with and yes I’m sad to see it go, but there’s always the prospect of the dreaded come back tour!”
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