Warren Ellis (musician)

Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis (born 1965, Ballarat, Australia) is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and composer most famous for his work with Dirty Three. He plays violin, keyboards and mandolin.

Background

In the early '80s he moved to Melbourne and completed a Dip. ED. (Diploma of Education) in Music and English. He spent two years teaching in secondary schools before resigning.

In the late '80s he started writing music for theatre groups in Melbourne. He is a founding member of the instrumental three-piece band, Dirty Three, formed in Melbourne in 1992. Previously he had played with Charlie Marshall, The Blackeyed Susans, and Dave McComb of The Triffids.

In 1995 Dirty Three relocated to London. They have recorded six albums, a soundtrack for the John Curran directed film Praise, and will release their seventh disc in 2005.

In 1995, Warren was invited to play with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on a recording, he remained with the band and continues to play and record with them to date - having now been part of the last six albums.

In 2002, Ellis released a solo album on King Crab records called Three Pieces for Violin. In 2005 he collaborated with Nick Cave on the award-winning score of the film The Proposition.

Ellis currently lives in Paris, with his wife and two children.

Awards

2005 AFI Awards: Best Original Music Score (The Proposition)
2005 Inside Film Awards: Best Music (The Proposition)
2005 Film Critics Circle Of Australia Awards: Best Musical Score (The Proposition)

Quotes

"We'd like to do a song, ladies and gentlemen, about how love kind of disappears after about 3 days... and you sort of like think 'I kind of like you but maybe it's not really working'. You decide that you'll lock yourself away in a room and fill yourself with as many drugs as you can. And you do this, ladies and gentlemen, and you have such a good time that you forget that you don't actually love them anymore and it doesn't matter. You're walking along one day, and because you're sort of like this indie rocker, you sort of like hear this Weezer song that says 'Oooh I look like Buddy Holly and she's Mary Tyler Moore' and you think you're Buddy Holly and she's Mary Tyler Moore and you kind of like start to think 'That's pretty cool.' Then you kind of look in the window of the shop that you're going into to buy some bread and you realize that you are actually ... Burt Reynolds ... and she's Sally Fields ... and you've been cast in Smokey and the Bandit 98. You have a toupee... and she's not The Flying Nun anymore. So that's kind of bummed you out and you think 'We really didn't find love, but we had a lot of fun on the drugs ... but if it's going to make me look like Burt Reynolds and you look like Sally Fields maybe we have to look at doing something else or maybe take another drug that makes us feel, like, kind of better than that.' But you know in this time, ladies and gentlemen, you know in this time that ... Everything Is Fucked."

External links

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