Singer-songwriter Nick Cave - who has conjured up so much horror, lust and murder as well as haunting love songs in three decades fronting The Bad Seeds - worries that technology could destroy the mystique of live rock performance.

The 56-year-old cult musician, scriptwriter and novelist, presenting his latest cinema project - 20,000 Days on Earth - at the Berlin Film Festival, said in an interview on Tuesday that live music should be a "transformative" experience.

Nick Cave spoke about the effect of the web on live performance at the Berlin Film Festival this week. Credit:Noel Vasquez/Getty

"I think that the function of a rock star was at least - perhaps not so much these days - to be both monstrous and to be god-like at the same time," Cave told Reuters after the film aroused critical and public interest at its Berlin screening.

In the film, Cave and the Bad Seeds' violinist Warren Ellis recall a concert with the ageing Nina Simone when the jazz diva terrified her co-performers and the audience - before turning in a performance that was unforgettable for everyone present.