Graeme Revell

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/electronic group SPK. Since the 1990s he has worked primarily as a film score composer.[1]

Graeme Revell
Born	(1955-10-23) 23 October 1955 Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation	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

Some of Revell's best known film scores include 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 Mr. Revell's 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] Mr. Revell's break came in 1989, when he scored the Australian film "Dead Calm." A Hollywood agent, Richard Kraft, heard it and tracked Mr. Revell down. Since then, Mr. Revell has been busy in 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 in his current project, "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.

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 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 utilizes 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 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 name 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[9]

1994

Nominee Saturn Award

Best Music Hard Target (1993)

ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards[9]

1993

Winner ASCAP Award

Top Box Office Films The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA)[9]

2008

Nominee IFMCA Award

Best Original Score for a Documentary Film Darfur Now (2007)

World Soundtrack Awards[9]

2001

Nominee World Soundtrack Award

Best Original Score of the Year Not Released on an Album Blow (2001)

Venice Film Festival[9]

1997

Winner Golden Osella

Best Score Chinese Box (1997)

Online Film & Television Association[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[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[9]

2009

Winner BMI Film Music Award

Pineapple Express (2008)

Works

Theatrical film

1980s

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1989	Dead Calm	Phillip Noyce	N/A

1990s

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

2000s

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

2010s

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

Telvision film

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

Television series

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

Video games

Year	Title	Notes
2005	Call of Duty 2	N/A
2005	Call of Duty 2: Big Red One	N/A

References

1. "Graeme Revell". The New York Times. 2012. 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.
4. Strauss, Neil (4 July 1996). "The Pop Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
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. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
9. "Graeme Revell". IMDb. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Graeme Revell on IMDb