what is a friend Musician Warren Ellis on his relationship with Nick Cave, the death of loved ones – and Nina Simone’s chewing gum, which she wears on a chain around her neck.
Interviewed by
Josef Wirnshofer
A Thursday, 5:30 p.m., the man on the screen has just got up. Warren Ellis, violinist, guitarist, accordionist, basically: almost everything player. Less known as the founder of the instrumental trio dirty threebetter known as a member of Nick Cave’s band, the Bad Seeds. He just got home from a North American tour, four weeks, bad jet lag. For years, Ellis has been something of the Bad Seeds’ chief arranger, who made the songs on albums like “Skeleton Tree” and “Ghosteen” more improvised, sprawling. More synth loops, less blues. You could see that quite well in This Much I Know To Be True, the documentary by Andrew Dominik, which was only in theaters for a single day. A concert film, but somehow also a film about the friendship between the two musicians. Through the laptop camera, Warren Ellis now looks as if Moses had been doused in glue and dragged across the clothing market. Gray jacket, purple T-shirt, rings on his fingers and a chain around his neck with all sorts of pendants rattling. Plus his prophetic beard. An angel dangles from the ceiling. Good Morning.