Ezekiel Ox

Ezekiel Ox (born Alan James Davies, Colac, Victoria) is an Australian entertainer, singer/songwriter, film maker, actor and political activist. He is currently the singer for The Nerve as well as Full Scale Deflection, Smash Nova (with Forrester Savell and Eddie Perfect) and Over-Reactor. He was previously the singer of Mammal. He was a founding member of the committee for Musicians Against Police Violence (MAPV) in Melbourne. He runs "Fish and Chip Studios", a mobile production house that focuses on limited post production and strong artistic performances. He also performs infrequent spoken word shows, and has authored one self-published book "The Pub". He has been signed by Columbia Records (Worldwide) and Shock Records (Australia). In November 2011, he signed with Cross-Section Management (Ted Gardner and Scott Mesiti). He was fully independent from record labels from November 1, 2009 until May 2013, when The Nerve signed with Sydney's Birds Robe Collective. He was the subject of David Krebelj's documentary "Colour, Light, Movement, Sound", which followed his career in Full Scale-Band, has directed many of his own film clips, as well as directing the short "The Boy" (with David Krebelj) and acting in feature films (Blockhouse Blues And The Elmore Beast, The Real Thing).

Background

Born as Alan James Davies in Colac, he relocated to Geelong at age six.^[1][2] In 1994 he was involved in the campaign to stop the One Nation party forming in Geelong, and also marched for teachers' conditions, and in the Reclaim the Night Rallies held in his teenage years. He has a background in opera and musical theatre and studied for three years at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in its musical theatre course.^[3] He starting performing at the age of twelve, "because I wanted to".^[4] Ezekiel has one child, a son, Griffin John Lee Ox.

Full Scale

Ox was the lead singer for Full Scale.^[5] Starting out as Full Scale Deflection in 1998 in Perth, Western Australia, Full Scale was an alternative-metal band and relocated to Melbourne in 2001, then they were based in Los Angeles, America from late 2003. After a series of EPs they released their full length debut, Full Scale, in March 2005 and broke up a year later. Ox re-formed Full Scale under the name Full Scale Revolution in December 2009 with Crutey, Tristan Ross and Ben Brennan, who had all played with Full Scale at different times, but not together. He has recently entered conversations with Jimmy Tee, Forrester Savell and Chris Frey about reforming Full Scale Deflection.

Mammal

Mammal were an Australian band formed in Melbourne in March 2006. Known for their live shows they had released two EPs, a live album Vol 1: The Aural Underground and a studio album The Majority. They also recorded a second live album at Sydney's Annandale hotel which was released in September 2009 along with a DVD, and featured Xani Kolac (whom Ox has worked with Over-Reactor and The Ox And The Fury as well) on Violin, and Eddie Perfect of Vocals. Mammal enjoyed a massive underground following in Australia and the UK, and broke up on November 1, 2009.

Solo

In 2003 Ox released an EP called Winter in Suburbia. It featured seven tracks, most were Ox on acoustic guitar with some backing vocals and occasional percussion. One track, "The Bottle", featured Clint Boge (The Butterfly Effect) on lead vocals, with Ox providing backing vocals and guitar. The songs' lyrics showed a more introspective persona for Ox, probably due to the divorce he was going through when he recorded it, (though a few did feature politically/socially inspired lyrics). He occasionally does live solo performances, at which he performs a cover of Bob Dylan's Masters of War, as well as songs also performed by him and The Fury. He is currently recording an new solo album "Peace, Love, Music" in Melbourne.

The Ox and the Fury

Ox is the singer/songwriter and guitarist for The Ox and the Fury. Other members are Ben Brennan, Domonic Italiano and Lucius Borich (COG). They have released an album, Guitars Die in Hot Cars, and on 11 June 2009, a video for one of their original songs, "We'll Never Know" appeared on YouTube.^[6] Recently the band has been working on a new album every Tuesday night at Dom Italiano's house. The album is titled "Peace, Love, Music", and features songs about his Father, John Davies' death in Jan 2011 (Don't Let It Grow), as well as his love for his son (A Future Lived). In November 2012, Ox put the band on "indefinite hiatus", making an announcement at the Espy Front Bar, whilst playing songs from the new album, "Peace, Love, Music".

Over-Reactor

Over-Reactor is a band made up of two members, Ezekiel Ox and Cory Blight. They have released two full length albums, which they recorded, mixed, and mastered in their studio, with Blight acting as multi-instrumentalist, and Ox on Vocals. The band also produce and direct their own film clips, and have made films for the tracks "Mouth Of The Ghetto", "The Throne", "Best Of Worst", "Point To Push" and "When Collingwood Choke". They have been made available to download for free, in keeping with the bands DIY and fan based model. Since forming in January 2010, they have toured with Cog, Poetikool Justice, Front End Loader and Piggy, as well as playing headline shows in QLD, VIC, TAS, NSW, SA and ACT since 2010. They have received radio play on satellite radio in the UK, and on PBS, Bondi FM and various other community radio stations around Australia. In June 2011 they toured with Perth band Karnivool on a 22 date Australian tour. In June 2012 the band released "Mouth Of The Ghetto" in their St Kilda studio. After playing Festival Of The Sun in Port Macquarie in that year, Cory and Ezekiel went into a break, and in May 2013 began work on new songs for their as yet untitled third album.

Live Performances

Ox is known as a confrontational, lithe and uncompromising performer. He performs at major music festivals, in professional theatre, as a voice over artist and in feature films.

Ox performed at the Laundry in Fitzroy, Melbourne, he was without a tuner. During this performance Ox performed the spiritual song "Amazing Grace", "Masters of War" as well as songs from The Ox and The Fury solo. This polarizing and stand-out performance spawned a forum thread on "Melbands".^[7] Comments on the thread range from support for Ox, to outright attacks on his character.

Other work

He performed a series of spoken word shows called "RANT!" in 2006 and then "BLOWTORCH" in 2012.^[4] He has appeared in plays and musicals such as Tartuffe,^[8] Mamma Mia! and Shane Warne: The Musical.^[3] Ox was formerly a member of both the Australian Labor Party and Socialist Alternative.^[9]

References

External links

• Reach Out Ezekiel Ox - Mammal