Neko Case & Nick Cave

Biography

The idea of musical collaboration between Neko Case and Nick Cave is the brainchild of KCRW DJ and Music Supervisor for True Blood show on HBO Gary Calamar. Each episode of the show is named after one of the songs that are used in that episode. When Gary Calamar received the first script for episode #401, written by Alex Woo, he saw the title “She's Not There”, which is a song by 60′s British Invaders The Zombies. At first, Alex Woo had suggested that they use the Santana version of the song. Bu...

The idea of musical collaboration between Neko Case and Nick Cave is the brainchild of KCRW DJ and Music Supervisor for True Blood show on HBO Gary Calamar.
Each episode of the show is named after one of the songs that are used in that episode. When Gary Calamar received the first script for episode #401, written by Alex Woo, he saw the title “She's Not There”, which is a song by 60′s British Invaders The Zombies.
At first, Alex Woo had suggested that they use the Santana version of the song. But Gary Calamar suggested that they try and produce a new, fresh version of this classic and make it their own.
The show’s creator Alan Ball gave Gary his blessing and brainstorming began. Gary Calamar spread the word. He spoke with one of his friends C.C. Adcock, the great Louisiana musician and producer about it, whom came up with a new arrangement for the song, more dark and sexy. They thought it would be great to make it a sly duet between a man and woman and loved the idea. Many artists were thrown around in conversations of who would be the ideal couple, Florence + The Machine, Irma Thomas, Dr. John, The Kills, etc etc etc but scheduling conflicts got in the way. Then, as strange as it may sound, Gary Calamar got a little help from none other than 80′s synth pop new wavers The Cars.
The Cars have just released a new album, their big comeback. As Gary Calamar recently received the advance copy of their new album, he checked it out, and filed it away in his CD collection. Using alphabetical filing system he slipped it it it’s proper place in the “C” section. And then the magic has happened. His eyes took a little trip further down the C section. NEKO CASE practically jumped into his arms and whispered “I’ll do it, call me, let’s talk about She's Not There for True Blood”. That is when Gary understands that Neko’s beautiful voice and sexy twang would be perfect for True Blood.
Then he decided to go with the magical flow and continued down the C section. Johnny Cash…mmm, would be great but he’s er…dead. Cat Power mmm, could be very interesting. He would love to watch Cat and Neko go at it, but they were needing a man for this collaboration. And that's when the second bolt of lightning has hit him: NICK CAVE. Gary has had to sit down and catch his breath imagining this duet of Neko Case & Nick Cave. He decided to make some calls and see if somehow this could work.
Turns out they both enjoyed the show True Blood and LOVED the song idea and wanted to it.
C.C. Adcock laid down his arrangement of the track along with his Louisiana pals Jon Cleary on piano and Keith Frank on bass and accordion.
Neko sang her part in a small studio in Seattle and it sounded brilliant. As it turns out Mr. Cave was coming to Los Angeles with his family for a vacation. In between trips with his kids to Universal Studios and Disneyland Gary Calamar was able to got him down to the Redstar Studio in Silverlake to top off the track with his haunting, cavernous vocals.
The complete track turned out to be Sexy and Scary, which is a great combination for True Blood. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.