THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD
	BIO

	KONRAD LENZ: vocals, guitar, harmonica and autoharp. Born Konrad Crnkovic in Sydney, July 9, 1973. He studied visual arts at Canberra School of Art and the Sydney Gallery School and began making music in his early twenties. His voice is raw and bluesy in its intensity, a growl is somewhere between Howling Wolf, Johnny Cash and Patti Smith. The Spirits of the Dead were begun in his search for that searing, jagged and slip shod sound that was floating round in his skull. His music is raw and visceral, marked by a fierce but melancholy intelligence that leads some to make comparisons to Leonard Cohen.  He cites Bob Dylan, Glenn Danzig, Marianne Faithfull, Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas, Bon Scott, Brian Eno, Kurt Weill and Buffy Sainte-Marie among influences. Years of poverty hardened him and helped give his work its gritty edge.  His lyrics are surreal, filmic documents with lost characters who inhabit a dark nether world. His work has been played on Radio National, Triple J, ABC 666 and 2xx FM. Konrad Lenz lives alone in a double garage made of tin with a large doberman x. His guitar of choice is a 1962 Hofner Congress Model archtop acoustic that he bought in 1995 for $60. He also owns a 1950s Isana archtop guitar (just like the King.)
	TOM WOODWARD: guitar, vocals, piano and organ. Born in Canberra, June 26, 1984. Tom is a fine singer, songwriter, novelist and theatre director. His own formidable bands are the Henchmen and the Mating Season. He has a jangly, rhythmic guitar style that is unique and unmistakeable. He is the perfect foil to Konrad Lenz. Tom has been with the Spirits from the outset. Both solo and with the Spirits of the Dead, the Mating Season and the Henchmen he has performed at the National Folk Festival, the National Multicultural Fringe, Indyfest and various venues in Canberra, Wagga Wagga, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.  Tom was the founding member of the POTU Ensemble, a collective of actors and musicians who produced several experimental theatre pieces including Picture Book of the Universe. In the space of one year Tom wrote the drafts for no less than five novels. He types at the phenomenal rate of 105 words per minute. He has been featured on the ABC's Stateline, played on ABC 666 and on 2xx and bumbed his way through much of rural New South Wales with a flat top guitar, the clothes on his back and a small, black leather bound diary his only possessions. In 2005 he was arrested for drunk and disorderly and shortlisted for Young Australian of the Year. He has plans to reform his original band, the seriously rock and roll Weekend of Noise.
	JAMES SEX MACHINE NICHOLS: lead electric and acoustic guitar, piano and lust. Born November 30, 1982. Sex Machine by name, Sex Machine by nature. Mathematician, musical maestro and formidable ladies' man. His favourite colour is blue. His credo is "if it moves it can be seduced." James is also guitarist with the Henchmen and one of the original Spirits. As well as the Spirits he has featured on many solo Konrad Lenz and Tom Woodward recordings and has produced recordings for the Henchmen, the Spirits of the Dead and Hancock Basement. James lives in a high class squat in Redfern where he is currently perfecting a matter transmitter built from old radio valves, bed springs and transistors from a bygone era.
	GARETH HILL: Bass, Double bass. Born in Woolongong April 4, 1984.A jazz virtuoso and rich playboy who divides his time between music making and overseeing his alpaca ranch in the green hills of Bungendore. Gareth is currently at the Canberra School of Music. He is bass player with the fearsome Henchmen, the Peeping Tom Security Agency, Pacer and numerous other bands. The finest double bass player in town. His favourite colour is the polka. He eats raw flesh and gargles battery acid. He takes no prisoners. Gareth is one mean mutherfucker.
	YEN NGUYEN: Drums, percussion, vocals, guitar.  Born 10 October 1983. Yen is also drummer with Casual Projects and the Mating Season. He was a member of the electro-rock outfit Slapduct. He is studying jazz drums at the Canberra School of Music. Yen has a keen interest in film, is suave, sophistacted and a killer on the boom boom.
	MUNRO MELANO: keyboards. Munro is a piano wizard. He is currently studying at the Canberra School of Music. He also plays with Yen in the hip hop act Casual Projects. He once saved the life of Konrad Lenz.
	ELYANE DE FONTNE: Viola, 5-string electric violin. Elyane drives a white Porsche, wears a mink coat, has a husband in Bucharest and a castle in Spain. She is sharp witted, classy and very foxy. Her electric purple 5-string violin is a custom-made  steel and wire science fiction contraption. Elyane is currently studying at the Conservatorium in Sydney. She lives in a gigantic stone temple in the heart of Coogee.
	EMMA MACHINE GUN KELLY: Violin. Hatched 19 March 1984. Emma dyes her hair red with human blood and was grown in the laboratory by the evil Dr Claw in his attempts to create the perfect woman. He came close, she is near perfect. Emma is also a member of One Night Jam, a band who played at the National Folk Festival, the Major's Creek Folk Festival and the National Multicultural Fringe and of the Mating Season, a band renowned for taking its name too seriously and ending every gig in an orgiastic frenzy. She contrabuted violin and co-writing to the upcoming Konrad Lenz CD 'Echoing the Sun,' an album of mostly electronic instrumentals. Emma is studying classical violin at the Canberra School of Music and teaches violin in Bowral where she feeds her unsuspecting students to the pirahna. No amount of persuasion can curb her wicked ways and she has seduced the innocent Tom Woodward into the darkness of her lurid and nefarious lifestyle.
	ANDREW DALZIELL: cello, organ. Born 22 November 1984. Dalziell-Lenz is the sometimes brother of Konrad Lenz. He is also the drummer in the Henchmen and a master of the marimbas and the one armed chain saw.  He was present at the original Spirits of the Dead pagan blood ceremony. In the darkness and the shadows Konrad Lenz's ex-girlfriend mistook Dalziell for the man she loved, an error which Dalziell decided not to correct  under the circumstances. He has performed as a musician, actor and daring stunt double in many productions. His mono brow is the result of a horrific freak accident with glue and werewolf makeup whilst filming a scene for the shelved Konrad Lenz bio-pic "Howling at Midnight: The Wolfman Meets Cinderella & the Three Cybernauts." Dalziell is currently at Melbourne University studying opera singing. His other bands include Now Open For Breakfast and the Mirror Men. Despite his mono brow Dalziell plans to become a James Bond type super spy and to bed a succession of beautiful and exotic women whilst saving the world from the clutches of the evil Dr Claw.
	ISAAC LIEHNE: bass. The honorary member of the band, Isaac has recorded and played live with the Spirits on several occasions. He also played in the electro-rock band Slapduct. Isaac insists that his relationship with the other band members is purely platonic. He lives in a luxury apartment with a lithe dancer and their pet capauchin monkey Fifi. Of Fifi he has said the following "she is almost human, she is like a daughter to us."