From humble beginnings in the Melbourne bar scene of the early ‘90s to performances all over the world, the members of the Dirty Three have shown themselves to be among the most unconventional purveyors of the rock ‘n’ roll form. The transcontinental trio may each reside in different corners of the world – immersed in many separate creative ventures – yet, as the venerable Warren Ellis asserts, the lure of the band rarely wavers.

Ellis, speaking from his Parisian abode, is candid on the tyrannies of distance, knowing full well the challenges of balancing commitments. Having just completed a European tour with the Dirty Three, the classically trained violinist found time to play a London gig with Nick Cave’s Grinderman project, and is now preparing to enter the studio as part of Cave’s main concern, the Bad Seeds. Mick Turner (electric guitar) and Jim White (percussion) are similarly active, making for inevitable timetable clashes.

“We get together when we can, there’s no real set rule. We try to make sure that not too much time goes by,” Ellis states. “There are times where I wish we could get together a lot easier, that’s for sure. It means that when we do get together we’ve really, really got to take advantage of the moment and sometimes it just puts an incredible amount of pressure on the proceedings. I mean, the desire is definitely still there to make and to play.”

Despite their last album, Cinder, having been released two years ago, this year has been an especially busy one for the instrumental troupe. Ellis is quick to talk down prospects of a new Dirty Three record, offering only the promise that work will get underway soon on a follow-up. So it is fortunate that 2007 brought an altogether different reason for Ellis, Turner and White to come together: in April the Dirty Three curated the renowned All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in the UK.

“It was really wonderful doing that, a real highlight actually,” Ellis chimes. “The three of us sat down and made up a list each. It was very diverse. To make a festival interesting it’s necessary to have lots of different things – from unknowns to knowns. And there’s not enough money to get everyone you want on either!”

Among the bigger names to appear were Nick Cave, Cat Power, Joanna Newsom and Spiritualized, whilst lesser-known Australian acts like Mum Smokes, The Drones and Devastations were also showcased. Attempts were made to entice Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, Ellis states with a laugh, to no avail.

In terms of line-up, the ATP stands in stark contrast to August’s Splendour in the Grass festival – apart from the fact that the Dirty Three will be playing. The one-off appearance of Ellis and co. – among the plethora of hyped-up, young (mostly British) acts – stands as a homecoming of sorts.

“At those youth festivals we tend to be out in the wilderness there. I don’t really know if young kids are really predisposed to what we do. I have no idea what Splendour in the Grass is, as a festival; youth, older people or mixed, I don’t know. I have good memories of playing in Byron Bay at festivals up there but…with the exception of like Meredith or ATP or Primavera, all festivals seem more or less the same to me,” Ellis states, but he’s undeterred. “We’ll just do what we can but we won’t be playing any British pop songs!”

The good news for Splendour-goers is that the Dirty Three are, according to Ellis, in “showroom condition”.

“This last tour has probably been one of the best tours, musically, that we have done in a long, long time. It’s sort of felt like the way we used to play songs when we first started out…[we’ve tried] to really explore them and not get stuck playing the same thing every night, which was a really important thing for us,” he extols. “I guess it has more in common with the way improvisation takes place in jazz songs.”

The music of the Dirty Three veers from the aggressively emotional to moments of sparer melancholic lamentation; Ellis’ electrified violin alternately screeching and caressing. There are elements of melodious folk, classical composition and free jazz, yet Ellis, with his classically trained upbringing, is adamant that they be considered a rock band first and foremost.

“Some people think that playing rock ‘n’ roll is dumbing down which is totally not the truth at all,” he argues. “I grew up listening to Black Sabbath, AC/DC and the Sex Pistols, you know, I love rock ‘n’ roll music…but I played the violin, never actually thinking that I would be playing it in some way in the kind of music that I liked.

“It was hard to, you know, try and undo basically what I had just learnt. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded or not…All I know is that it feels better now than it did.

“Attitude seems to be a big part of it.”

The Dirty Three will be appearing at Splendour in the Grass [SOLD OUT], Belongil Fields, Byron Bay Saturday August 4th and Sunday August 5th.

A documentary on the band by director Darcy Maine is scheduled to debut at this year’s Melbourne Film Festival.

Photo by Jim Newberry.