Biography
An Australian musician and composer, Warren Ellis first earned wide recognition as co-founder of the instrumental rock trio Dirty Three, through his ongoing film-score partnership with Nick Cave, and via his roles in both the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. He established Dirty Three in 1992 alongside guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White. Across the 1990s the group delivered well-received albums such as Horse Stories in 1996 and Ocean Songs in 1998. Early in the twenty-first century Ellis joined the Bad Seeds, later assuming the position of music director. Alongside Cave he forms a composing team responsible for numerous film scores and soundtracks, among them The Proposition in 2005, The Road in 2009, and Hell or High Water in 2016. The pair released the rock album Carnage in 2021 and, in 2024, supplied the score for Back to Black, the Amy Winehouse biopic. After a twelve-year break, Ellis rejoined Dirty Three for Love Changes Everything.
A classically trained violinist who studied in Melbourne, Ellis spent the 1980s busking throughout Europe before returning to Australia. In 1992 he formed Dirty Three with guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White; the trio issued its self-titled debut the following year. Throughout the 1990s he issued a succession of acclaimed Dirty Three recordings that included Horse Stories in 1996 and Ocean Songs in 1998. Ellis relocated to Paris, France, in 1998. Following Whatever You Love, You Are in 2000 he intensified his work with longtime associate Nick Cave, becoming a permanent Bad Seeds member on 2001’s No More Shall We Part. His solo debut arrived in 2002 with the experimental Three Pieces for Violin EP, containing pieces originally written for the Canadian dance company Holy Body Tattoo. Additional collaborations have encompassed Marianne Faithfull, Cat Power, and the Avalanches. Dirty Three released She Has No Strings Apollo in 2003, their final full-length for nine years.
In 2005 he and Cave created the score for the Australian Western The Proposition. The following year the pair launched the Bad Seeds side project Grinderman, which produced two self-titled albums in 2007 and 2010. Over the ensuing decade Cave and Ellis generated scores and soundtracks for multiple films, including The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 2007, The Road in 2009, and Lawless in 2012; that same year Dirty Three returned with Toward the Low Sun.
Ellis composed the score for Mustang on his own in 2015 before reuniting with Cave for the 2016 heist film Hell or High Water. Remaining equally active the next year, he delivered music for the indie drama Bad Girl as well as the biopics Django, centered on jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, and Gauguin, focused on the French painter. Two further Cave collaborations followed: the Brad Pitt-produced political satire War Machine and the thriller Wind River. In 2021 Ellis and Cave supplied both score and soundtrack for La Panthère des Neiges, Marie Amiguet’s documentary on wildlife photographer Vincent Munier, and also issued the non-cinematic duo album Carnage on Goliath.
Two Netflix soundtracks appeared from Cave and Ellis in 2022: Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Blonde. The multi-instrumentalist also contributed to Cave’s Seven Psalms and the 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language. In 2023 Ellis performed on Glen Hansard’s All That Was East Is West of Me Now and took part in The Task Has Overwhelmed Us (The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project). In 2024 Cave and Ellis released their soundtrack for director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black. After the twelve-year hiatus Ellis rejoined Dirty Three for a world tour, issuing Love Changes Everything on Bella Union that June. In August he resumed duties as musical director for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the album Wild God.
A classically trained violinist who studied in Melbourne, Ellis spent the 1980s busking throughout Europe before returning to Australia. In 1992 he formed Dirty Three with guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White; the trio issued its self-titled debut the following year. Throughout the 1990s he issued a succession of acclaimed Dirty Three recordings that included Horse Stories in 1996 and Ocean Songs in 1998. Ellis relocated to Paris, France, in 1998. Following Whatever You Love, You Are in 2000 he intensified his work with longtime associate Nick Cave, becoming a permanent Bad Seeds member on 2001’s No More Shall We Part. His solo debut arrived in 2002 with the experimental Three Pieces for Violin EP, containing pieces originally written for the Canadian dance company Holy Body Tattoo. Additional collaborations have encompassed Marianne Faithfull, Cat Power, and the Avalanches. Dirty Three released She Has No Strings Apollo in 2003, their final full-length for nine years.
In 2005 he and Cave created the score for the Australian Western The Proposition. The following year the pair launched the Bad Seeds side project Grinderman, which produced two self-titled albums in 2007 and 2010. Over the ensuing decade Cave and Ellis generated scores and soundtracks for multiple films, including The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 2007, The Road in 2009, and Lawless in 2012; that same year Dirty Three returned with Toward the Low Sun.
Ellis composed the score for Mustang on his own in 2015 before reuniting with Cave for the 2016 heist film Hell or High Water. Remaining equally active the next year, he delivered music for the indie drama Bad Girl as well as the biopics Django, centered on jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, and Gauguin, focused on the French painter. Two further Cave collaborations followed: the Brad Pitt-produced political satire War Machine and the thriller Wind River. In 2021 Ellis and Cave supplied both score and soundtrack for La Panthère des Neiges, Marie Amiguet’s documentary on wildlife photographer Vincent Munier, and also issued the non-cinematic duo album Carnage on Goliath.
Two Netflix soundtracks appeared from Cave and Ellis in 2022: Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Blonde. The multi-instrumentalist also contributed to Cave’s Seven Psalms and the 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language. In 2023 Ellis performed on Glen Hansard’s All That Was East Is West of Me Now and took part in The Task Has Overwhelmed Us (The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project). In 2024 Cave and Ellis released their soundtrack for director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black. After the twelve-year hiatus Ellis rejoined Dirty Three for a world tour, issuing Love Changes Everything on Bella Union that June. In August he resumed duties as musical director for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the album Wild God.
Albums
