Australian native Nick Cave has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Caulfield Campus of Monash University. Cave was a student at the university but had dropped out in the 70s to start Boys Next Door which turned into the legendary The Birthday Party. Said Cave:
I'd come out of Caulfield Grammar School, which was very sports-orientated and to be interested in arts at the time was swimming upstream. To suddenly go into this environment where there were a lot of like-minded people talking about art was incredible for me. I sat around and talked with a lot of third year students in the park and didn't really hand in a lot of work… but what I learnt from those conversations was enormous. I'm eternally grateful that I failed because it pushed me into a different area. You learn what you love in those years.
Nick Cave and his backing group, The Bad Seeds, have been prepping for the North American release of their new album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!. The album is due out April 8, 2008.