| Ned Collette | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 September 1979 Carlton, Victoria, Australia |
| Genres | Folk, Rock, Experimental |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Instruments | Voice, guitar, keyboards |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Labels | Dot Dash Recordings |
| Associated acts | Ned Collette & Wirewalker, City City City, Rand & Holland |
| Website | http://www.nedcollette.com |
| Members | |
| Joe Talia – Drums, Ben Bourke – Bass | |
Ned Collette (born 6 September 1979) is a Melbourne singer-songwriter signed with the Australian record label Dot Dash Recordings.
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Collette’s musical history to date draws on a broad sound palette: an honours degree in modern composition from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2001,[1] works for string quartets, various electro-concrete pieces and playing in a variety of loose fit outfits whilst focusing his talents in City City City. Parallel to all this Collette produced his own album, Jokes & Trials. Forgoing the democracies of a group, Collette played close to all the instruments, wrote all the songs as well as singing. Collette admits that the influence of Leonard Cohen, Robert Wyatt and Cat Power led him to focus more and more on the importance of the lyrics. This resulted in his debut album Jokes & Trials, which was released on 29 July 2006.
Early on, Collette developed a unique live technique of using guitar loops and delays on stage, building percussive and melodic layers over which he presented his songs. He toured the album globally alongside artists such as Joanna Newsom and Camera Obscura as well as playing his own headlining gigs.
In 2007, he introduced a bassist and drummer (both ex-City City City colleagues), adopting the name of "Ned Collette Band". The line up is:
In March 2009, the band announced a name change to Ned Collette & Wirewalker – a reference to Philippe Petit and [[Man on Wire ]],[1] keeping the same personnel. Their debut performance under this name was at The Thornbury Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.
September 2007 saw the Ned Collette Band perform a great number of concerts, including a 4-week residency at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Brunswick, in support of a second album Future Suture, released through the Dot Dash label on 29 September 2007. The album was 3RRR's Album of the Week. The band toured it nationally in Australia.
In October 2008, Collette and the band undertook a twenty-two date tour of Europe, taking in the UK, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Collette followed this with a ten date solo tour in January 2009.
A third album – the first to be recorded by Ned Collette & Wirewalker as a whole – was released by Dot Dash on 23 October 2009. Recorded at Joe Talia's studio in country Victoria, Over the Stones, Under the Stars was mixed by Joel Hamilton in New York City. It features much simpler, band-only arrangements from Collette, Talia and Bourke. Ned Collette & Wirewalker toured the album throughout Australia in November 2009, and following Collette's relocation to Berlin, throughout Europe in May 2010.
Collette's parents are Susan Hancock, who studied at Oxford, taught English at La Trobe University and wrote two books, and Adrian Collette, who wrote his thesis on Henry James and also tutored at la Trobe, a former operatic baritone before becoming chief executive of Opera Australia; they have separated years ago. His father's mother, a Sri Lankan, was a cousin of Michael Ondaatje.[1]