Graeme Revell

Graeme Revell
Graeme Revell
Born	23 October 1955 (age 69); Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Awards	AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score; BMI Film Music Awards The Crow; The Saint; Lara Croft: Tomb Raider; Daredevil; Freddy vs. Jason; Sin City; Pineapple Express; ; BMI TV Music Awards CSI: Miami; Eleventh Hour; ; Venice Film Festival Award for Best Score;

Graeme Revell (born 23 October 1955) is a New Zealand musician and composer. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the leader of the industrial rock/electronic rock group SPK. Since the 1990s he has worked primarily as a film score composer.^[1]

Some of Revell's best known film scores include Dead Calm (1989), The Crow (1994), Street Fighter (1994), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), The Craft (1996), The Saint (1997), The Negotiator (1998), Bride of Chucky (1998), Titan A.E. (2000), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Daredevil (2003), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), and Sin City (2005). He is also known for his frequent collaborations with director David Twohy, having scored Below (2002) and the Riddick franchise. He is an eight-time recipient of the BMI Film Music Award, including the Richard Kirk Career Achievement Award,^[2] and an AACTA Award winner.^[3]

Biography

Early life

Revell attended Auckland Grammar School, where he finished his final year in 7A. As an orderly in an insane asylum in Australia in the late 70's, he and one of the patients formed one of industrial music's first bands, SPK, as an outgrowth of his interest in music therapy. He spent the next decade making music that ranged from extreme to beautiful to academic and earning a reputation for wild stage stunts that included accidentally setting an audience member on fire with a flamethrower.^[4] Revell's break came in 1989, when he scored the Australian film Dead Calm. A Hollywood agent, Richard Kraft, heard it and tracked him down. Since then, he moved to Hollywood, working with everything from 85-piece orchestras for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, to Tuvan singers and Armenian stringed instruments for The Crow, to brassy jazz and hip-hop rhythm loops for Fled, with Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin.^[4]

Education and training

Revell is a classically trained pianist and French horn player, but also graduated from the University of Auckland with degrees in economics and political science.^[5]

Vocational pursuits

He worked as a regional planner in both Australia and Indonesia, and was also an orderly in an Australian psychiatric hospital.^{[citation needed]}

Musical career

Revell was a founding member of the industrial music band SPK, playing keyboards and percussion. The SPK single, "In Flagrante Delicto", was the basis for the Dead Calm film score (his first) that won him an Australian Film Industry award in 1989.^[5]

Most of Revell's subsequent projects were film scores. But in 1997, he teamed up with Roger Mason to create a non-film music album Vision II – Spirit of Rumi, released through New York based Angel Records. The two coproduced, supplied some of the instrumental accompaniment, and set to music 11 poems by renowned 13th century Persian poet Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī. Vocals were provided by Noa, Lori Garson, Esther Dobong'Na Essiene a.k.a. Estha Divine, and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.^[6]

In 2002–03, he assisted the rock band Evanescence on their debut album, Fallen, in which he is credited for doing most of the string arrangements. He has also done string arrangements for Ludus, Stefy, Biffy Clyro and The Wombats.

Style

Revell's musical style is predominantly electronic and computer-based, yet often utilises classical instruments or entire arrangements for certain pieces (similar to his contemporary counterparts, Hans Zimmer and Mark Isham). The orchestral scores that Revell has composed have changed throughout his career—from Bernard Herrmann-like pieces to Ennio Morricone-influenced works. "Whenever I write songs, I always have visual images in mind, and I have always changed styles dramatically. That's not good for a long-term rock career, but it's good if you want to score films."^[4] "I'm trying to bring a dose of class to Hollywood," he said. "I want my music to be the real thing instead of some terrible synthesized thing thrown together in a week. I don't want to sound just like everybody else."^[4]

Revell's music is often re-used from movie to movie^{[citation needed]} and in more recent times he has collaborated with other artists on their albums. After the success of his soundtrack on Red Planet where he used the voice of French singer Emma Shapplin to back up and often lead his score, he collaborated with her on her own album Etterna, producing all of her songs. He has recently been interviewed for the independent documentary Finding Kraftland.

Collaborators

Revell has been assisted in sound design by Brian Williams, who creates dark ambient music under the German language black humorous pseudonym Lustmord.^[7]

Awards and nominations

On 18 May 2005, Revell was honored at the annual BMI Film & TV Awards with the Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement.^[8]

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA

1994^[9]	Nominee Saturn Award	Best Music Hard Target (1993)

ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards

1993^[9]	Winner ASCAP Award	Top Box Office Films The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA)

2008^[9]	Nominee IFMCA Award	Best Original Score for a Documentary Film Darfur Now (2007)

World Soundtrack Awards

2001^[9]	Nominee World Soundtrack Award	Best Original Score of the Year Not Released on an Album Blow (2001)

Venice Film Festival

1997^[9]	Winner Golden Osella	Best Score Chinese Box (1997)

Online Film & Television Association

Source:^[9]

2001	Winner OFTA Television Award	Best Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)
		Best New Theme Song in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Dune (2000)
	Nominee OFTA Television Award	Best Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Dune (2000)
		Best New Theme Song in a Motion Picture or Miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)

Fangoria Chainsaw Awards

Source:^[9]

2003	Nominee Chainsaw Award	Best Score Below (2002)
1997	Nominee Chainsaw Award	Best Score From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
1994	Winner Chainsaw Award	Best Soundtrack The Crow (1994)

BMI Film & TV Awards

2009^[9]	Winner BMI Film Music Award	Pineapple Express (2008)

Works

Theatrical film

1980s

Year	Title	Director
1989	Dead Calm	Phillip Noyce

1990s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1990	Spontaneous Combustion	Tobe Hooper
	Child's Play 2	John Lafia
	Till There Was You	John Seale
1991	Deadly	Esben Storm
	The People Under the Stairs	Wes Craven	"Additional Orchestral Music" credit
	Until the End of the World	Wim Wenders
1992	The Hand That Rocks the Cradle	Curtis Hanson
	Love Crimes	Lizzie Borden
	Traces of Red	Andy Wolk
	Body of Evidence	Uli Edel
1993	Boxing Helena	Jennifer Lynch
	Hear No Evil	Robert Greenwald
	The Crush	Alan Shapiro
	Faraway, So Close!	Wim Wenders
	Hard Target	John Woo	Composed with Tim Simonec
	Ghost in the Machine	Rachel Talalay
1994	No Escape	Martin Campbell	Composed with Tim Simonec
	The Crow	Alex Proyas
	S.F.W.	Jefery Levy
	Street Fighter	Steven E. de Souza
1995	Tank Girl	Rachel Talalay
	The Basketball Diaries	Scott Kalvert
	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie	Bryan Spicer
	Killer: A Journal of Murder	Tim Metcalfe
	The Tie That Binds	Wesley Strick
	Strange Days	Kathryn Bigelow
1996	From Dusk till Dawn	Robert Rodriguez
	Race the Sun	Charles T. Kanganis
	The Craft	Andrew Fleming
	Fled	Kevin Hooks
	The Crow: City of Angels	Tim Pope
1997	The Saint	Phillip Noyce
	Spawn	Mark A.Z. Dippé
	Chinese Box	Wayne Wang
	Suicide Kings	Peter O'Fallon
1998	The Big Hit	Kirk Wong
	Phoenix	Danny Cannon
	All I Wanna Do	Sarah Kernochan
	The Negotiator	F. Gary Gray
	Lulu on the Bridge	Paul Auster
	Bride of Chucky	Ronny Yu
	The Siege	Edward Zwick
1999	Idle Hands	Rodman Flender
	Buddy Boy	Mark Hanlon	Composed with Michael Brook and Brian Eno
	Three to Tango	Damon Santostefano
	Bats	Louis Morneau

2000s

Year	Title	Director
2000	Pitch Black	David Twohy
	Gossip	Davis Guggenheim
	Titan A.E.	Don Bluth Gary Goldman
	Calle 54	Fernando Trueba
	Attraction	Russell DeGrazier
	Red Planet	Antony Hoffman
2001	Double Take	George Gallo
	Blow	Ted Demme
	Human Nature	Michel Gondry
	Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	Simon West
2002	Collateral Damage	Andrew Davis
	High Crimes	Carl Franklin
	Below	David Twohy
2003	Daredevil	Mark Steven Johnson
	Freddy vs. Jason	Ronny Yu
	Out of Time	Carl Franklin
	Open Water	Chris Kentis
2004	Walking Tall	Kevin Bray
2004	The Chronicles of Riddick	David Twohy
2005	Assault on Precinct 13	Jean-François Richet
	Sin City	Robert Rodriguez Frank Miller
	The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D	Robert Rodriguez
	Goal!	Danny Cannon
	Harsh Times	David Ayer
	The Fog	Rupert Wainwright
	Æon Flux	Karyn Kusama
2006	Bordertown	Gregory Nava
2006	Man of the Year	Barry Levinson
2007	Marigold	Willard Carroll
	Planet Terror	Robert Rodriguez
	The Condemned	Scott Wiper
	Darfur Now	Ted Braun
	Awake	Joby Harold
2008	The Ruins	Carter Smith
	Street Kings	David Ayer
	Pineapple Express	David Gordon Green
	Days of Wrath	Celia Fox

2010s

Year	Title	Director
2010	Unthinkable	Gregor Jordan
	The Experiment	Paul T. Scheuring
	Kites: The Remix	Anurag Basu
	Kites	Anurag Basu
2011	Shark Night	David R. Ellis
2013	Riddick	David Twohy

Television film

Year	Title	Director
1990	Psycho IV: The Beginning	Mick Garris
1995	Down Came a Blackbird	Jonathan Sanger
1998	Dennis the Menace Strikes Again	Charles T. Kanganis

Television series

Year	Title
1988	Bangkok Hilton
2000	Frank Herbert's Dune
2001	Anne Frank: The Whole Story
2002–2003	CSI: Miami
2008–2009	Eleventh Hour
2009–2010	The Forgotten
2009–2010	Dark Blue
2012	The River
2014–2015	Gotham

Video games

Year	Title
2005	Call of Duty 2
2005	Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

References

^ Jason Buchanan (2013). "Graeme Revell". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
^ "Graeme Revell to Receive Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement at BMI Film/TV Dinner". Bmi.com. 11 April 2005. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
^ "Past Awards | AACTA". Aacta.org. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Strauss, Neil (4 July 1996). "The Pop Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Graeme Revell". IMDb. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
^ Carol Wright (18 March 1997). "Vision 2: Spirit of Rumi - Graeme Revell | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
^ John Bush. "Lustmord | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
^ "BMI Honors Composers of Top Movies, TV Shows and Cable Programs at 2005 Film/TV Awards". Bmi.com. 18 May 2005. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Graeme Revell". IMDb. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

External links

[1] Jason Buchanan (2013). "Graeme Revell". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2012.

[2] "Graeme Revell to Receive Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement at BMI Film/TV Dinner". Bmi.com. 11 April 2005. Retrieved 10 December 2017.

[3] "Past Awards | AACTA". Aacta.org. Retrieved 10 December 2017.

[:0-4] Strauss, Neil (4 July 1996). "The Pop Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

[:2-5] "Graeme Revell". IMDb. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

[6] Carol Wright (18 March 1997). "Vision 2: Spirit of Rumi - Graeme Revell | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 April 2020.

[7] John Bush. "Lustmord | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 March 2017.

[8] "BMI Honors Composers of Top Movies, TV Shows and Cable Programs at 2005 Film/TV Awards". Bmi.com. 18 May 2005. Retrieved 28 October 2010.

[:1-9] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Graeme Revell". IMDb. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

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