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DIRTY THIRTY

Dirty Three: Warren Ellis, Jim White, and Mick Turner.

Thirty years after their debut album, Australia’s greatest instrumental rock band reunites for their first album in 12 years.

DIRTY THREE

A ussie actor Noah Taylor loves Dirty Three. “When you’re falling in love, or falling out of love, their music always seems particularly appropriate,” he says. “You can enjoy them at the best and worst of times.” Dirty Three’s eagerly awaited new album is called Love Changes Everything . Though they have been called dangerous, fierce, primal and aggressive, love has always been a core part of the band’s approach. “Love is a radical concept,” says co-founder Warren Ellis. “Dirty Three was always about showing the good and bad side of love.” Ellis recalls that rock fans didn’t quite know how to react when the band first walked onto the stage in 1992. “Some wanted to fight us, others stared at us, dumbfounded.” There’s no other band in Australia quite like Dirty Three. But they have a legion of fans, including Nick Cave. “Dirty Three are my favourite live band,” Cave says. “No contest. “I think it’s because they don’t have a singer. Yeah, that’s it. No one using words and trying to tell you what to think.” “You don’t have to have lyrics for a song to have substance,” Ellis believes. “I can listen to a song in Greek or Chinese or whatever and if it moves me, it moves me. Quite often, lyrics can put me off, because I’m listening to someone banging on about something I don’t really care about.” Ellis returned to making music with guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White after a long stint with Nick Cave

and the Bad Seeds. The new album highlights the dynamic interplay between the trio, with the dramatic tension still stirring. The record comes 30 years after the band’s self-titled debut, which, Ellis recalls, was recorded the day after they got “hammered” seeing U2. “We lost half a day because we were so hungover. We recorded it in one evening and then the next day, and it was mixed that night.” Three decades on, Ellis is

Three classic albums if you need a DirtyThree refresher, or want to fall in love all over again: OCEAN SONGS (1998) Made with the late-great Steve Albini – “a gentleman and pleasure to work with,” Warren Ellis says – Ocean Songs is acclaimed as Dirty Three’s masterpiece, though remark ably the record was rejected by the band’s overseas label. Their manager struck a new deal at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in London. WHATEVER YOU LOVE, YOU ARE (2000) Likened to jazz great John Coltrane, Dirty Three’s first album for the new millennium featured the 13-minute epic I Offered It Up to The Stars & the Night Sky . CINDER (2005) A departure for the band as two of the 19 songs featured vocals – from Cat Power, and The Mekons’ Sally Timms.

particularly proud of Love Changes Everything , revealing that he can’t release a record until “I feel it’s the best thing I’ve done. “Once you make it, it’s out of your hands and people can take it however they want. But I have to feel like I’m falling in love with something before I can let it go.” Jeff Jenkins

Love Changes Everything

by Dirty Three is out June 14 via Remote Control

30 JUNE 2024

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