Creative pair: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis of Grinderman perform live in London during their UK tour promoting the second album Grinderman 2 at The Hammersmith Apollo in October last year.
JIM DYSON / GETTY IMAGES
When Nick Cave looks to his right, he can rest assured the shadow of Warren Ellis is in view. The Ballarat-born multi-instrumentalist has been working with the prolific Cave since the ’90s, nailing a bewitching sound in the Bad Seeds to penning sparse and haunting film scores such as the Grammy Award-winning The Proposition and The Road and, more recently, as the carnivorous feasting beasts in Grinderman.
Warren Ellis met Nick Cave in the 1990s, not long after starting his three-piece instrumental outfit the Dirty Three with friends Jim White (drums) and Mick Turner (guitar) in 1992. They still tour and make music even though they each live in different cities: Ellis is in Paris with his wife and two children aged 10 and eight, White lives in New York and Turner in Melbourne.
The 46-year-old Ellis might not be a household name in the mainstream world, but he is highly respected for his work in the studio, on stage or when fleshing out a movie soundtrack. It’s exactly this working relationship he has with Cave (which started when he joined the Bad Seeds in 1996) that has kept Ellis employed and inspired. In fact, one reason he stays in Paris is to be closer to Cave in London.
If the Bad Seeds are defined by Saint Nick’s mesmeric ability to sell his tales of doom and gloom, then this storytelling is incomplete without the talents of Ellis who plays everything from violin, bouzouki, guitar and even a Mandocaster, a four-string mandolin made in the 1950s by Fender, which didn’t quite take off.
As the frontman of the Dirty Three, Ellis bends and weaves his small frame around his violin like an overprotective mother, stroking and nurturing its every note – his actions saying more than any words could.
The instrumental trio made a name for themselves with records such as Horse Stories (1996) and Ocean Songs (1998) – albums driven by melancholy and the most expressive instrumental rock music on the flipside of classical. Then there was 2005’s Cinder (their seventh album), conceived on Phillip Island and featuring some rare vocals (of Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power).
It’s exactly this tapestry of sound that finds itself weaved into various incarnations under Cave’s artistic direction – from the theatrical carnage of the Bad Seeds to the free-form groove of Grinderman.
“I feel comfortable making suggestions to Nick and I always have from the first time we started playing together,” explains Ellis of working with the 54-year-old. “It’s the only way I know how to make music and I’ve never been reticent to make suggestions.”
In 2006, Cave assembled the new band called Grinderman, roping in Bad Seed players bassist Martyn Casey, drummer Jim Sclavunos and Ellis to resurrect a garage-punk noise not dissimilar to his earlier work in the Birthday Party. It was only meant to be an on-again, off-again outfit, but their increasing popularity has seen Cave reconsider his position. Grinderman released a self-titled debut album in 2007 that was largely imprisoned by a raw and piercing garage blues.
In 2010 came Grinderman 2, the sequel in Cave’s desire for all things gothic and bluesy. What evolves is a far more sophisticated sound, as Saint Nick and his disciples have a shot at something new – relying on improvisation over a five-day studio period.
“I like how this album sounds different to the first and also that it is more realised,” explains Ellis. “Not so much polished, but I think we took more risks with this and were fearless in pushing it out as far as we could. There are styles there that are out of our comfort zones.”
The opening track, Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man, opens with the gentle strokes of violin and then bursts into a sonic wall of blues-influenced distortion, while When My Baby Comes is far more cinematic in approach – caressed by waves of violin and slow-moving instruments. Where Grinderman’s debut moved at an earthquake pace, this new material is not as impatient.
“Nick and I have quite a few discussions before we start recording,” Ellis explains of the process.
“I try to go into the initial sessions with some recorded loops to generally throw a curve ball into the proceeding. They can be really useful to click on when there is a lull. From time to time I send rough musical ideas to Nick and he might use them as a starting point, but when we go into these initial jam sessions there is very little planned and we just keep the tape rolling for days, recording everything, then we sort through the ideas and see what may or may not be there.”
Tucked beneath his wild and woolly beard (which his wife hates) is the smile of a man who couldn’t decide whether to be a musician or a teacher.
Ellis, who grew up in Ballarat and whose family still lives there, undertook a diploma in music and English before choosing to study classical violin. He travelled abroad as soon as he could afford to and began busking.
Does he get back to Ballarat when he’s in Australia? “No, not really,” he says. And what does he think of the regional city? “That’s where crime writer Peter Temple is from, so it churns out some good people,” he muses.
For now, Ellis is more than happy being in Paris. It’s summertime and he loves the warm days. “I like my children being educated here,” he says. “I’ve always appreciated that I’m quite isolated here in many ways, and I have few distractions. Initially that was important to me when I moved here. I sometimes think I’d like to move but I wouldn’t know where. It’s a beautiful city, to state the obvious, and I never tire of that aspect of it.”
Ellis also never tires of having more than one musical project on the go at any time.
“I consider Grinderman to be a main project.
“Sometimes it’s hard juggling time and some things suffer from neglect more than others, but somehow we get there. I try to go into any project I do with the same conviction. I am still really excited by the prospect of making music and engaging with other people in the process. At this stage, I wouldn’t be able to play in one group, they each inform the others.”
In 2009 Ellis and Cave released White Lunar, a compilation of their collaboration on soundtracks for such films as The Proposition (2005) and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). It also included rare and previously unavailable material. In 1998, Ellis and the Dirty Three worked on the Australian movie Praise, set in Brisbane.
» Grinderman 2 is out now on Mute records.
www.grinderman.com
The Dirty Three will perform at the Sydney Opera House on March 21, 2012. They play songs from their albums Ocean Songs, Cinder and Horse Stories as well as new material from their forthcoming album, which is scheduled to be released early next year.
Tickets: www.sydneyoperahouse.com