Graeme Revell Biography

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GRAEME REVELL (music by) first appeared on the film scoring scene with his chilling score to the Australian thriller “Dead Calm.” He has since gone on to score films for such high-profile directors as John Woo, Wim Wenders, Robert Rodriguez, Ted Demme and Michael Mann. Born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1955, Revell graduated from the University of Auckland with degrees in economics and politics.

A keen observer of both traditional ethnic music and natural sound, Revell started his scoring career after picking up on rhythms in patient vocalizations at an Australian hospital for the mentally ill, where he was working as an orderly. He incorporated recordings of the patients into his music in an early example of the creative use of sound, which would become a hallmark of his later work in motion pictures. His experiments with recordings of insects and industrial machinery led him to create the early industrial band SPK.

Cinematic theatrics were an essential part of their live show, with early performances featuring slides and films of surgery, and the use of flame-throwers and oil drums. The band's unusual sound convinced directors George Miller and Philip Noyce to employ him on “Dead Calm,” on which he created a riveting atmosphere of panic and menace with hoarse breathing effects, tribal percussion and sampled choir. The music won Revell an Australian Academy Award for best score.

For the end-of-the-millenium thriller “Strange Days,” he blended New Age effects with Middle Eastern sounds. Ghostly female vocals, piano and strings provided an appropriately ethereal, classically elegiac atmosphere for the visually dazzling cult thriller “The Crow,” for which Revell also collaborated with Jane Siberry on the ballad “It Can't Rain All the Time.” He wrote a high-powered score in the classic horror mode for Robert Rodriguez's vampire film “From Dusk Till Dawn,” and has also proven himself more than capable of working in the swashbuckling style of Korngold and John Williams when the occasion demands it.

Heavy industrial rhythms colored “The Basketball Diaries” starring Leonardo Di Caprio, and Revell enlivened the New Orleans setting of John Woo's “Hard Target” with a mix of bluesy jazz and striking vocal attacks over orchestral action licks, traveling to Japan to record traditional Kodo drummers for the score. He delicately accompanied the suburban setting of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” with a beautiful low-key melody for flute and strings, and brought a canny understanding of both the youth and mystical elements that drove the quirky witchcraft story “The Craft.”

One of his most singular efforts is the deeply lyrical “Until the End of the World,” which mixes drifting, classically tinged orchestral textures with whale-like sounds and the voices of Papua-New Guinea tribesmen. Revell resumed his collaboration with director Noyce for the big-budget cinematic adaptation of “The Saint.”

Revell won the award for best music at the Venice Film Festival for his score to Wayne Wang's “Chinese Box.” He also completed the pulsating action score for the Samuel Jackson/Kevin Spacey suspense film “The Negotiator” and worked on Edward Zwick's intelligent examination of terrorism, “The Seige,” Michael Mann's “The Insider,” and the science fiction thriller “Red Planet” before completing two dramas for Carl Franklin, “High Crimes” and “Out of Time.”

In addition to scoring dark dramas, Revell has shown remarkable diversity in other genres, including the youth comedy “Double Take,” Ted Demme's “Blow,” David Twohy's WWII military thriller “Below,” and Michael Gondry's comical “Human Nature.” He also scored such major box office successes as “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” Andrew Davis' action thriller “Collateral Damage,” and “Daredevil.”

Proving that his sound can successfully cross both genres and platforms, Revell scored the first season of “CSI: Miami,” helping it to become an instant hit for CBS and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Revell's latest efforts are Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel series “Sin City” and Rodriguez's “Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D,” Rupert Wainwright's “The Fog,” David Ayer's “Harsh Times,” and Danny Cannon's “Goal.”

Revell was recently honored with BMI's Richard Kirk Award for Career Achievement, a lifetime achievement award given annually to a composer for his outstanding work and contributions in motion picture and television music. Revell joins the ranks of such previous winners as Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams and Hans Zimmer.