Career
Gerrard's first foray into forming bands and creative music-making was the highly experimental Little Band scene. It was at one of these little band events that she first met Dead Can Dance co-founder Brendan Perry. Perry recalls, "It never occurred to me that we would one day collaborate musically together because at the time I thought her music was too avant garde. I particularly remember one song that she sang about finding a man in the park and asking her mother if she could bring him home to keep in her wardrobe as she attacked this chinese dulcimer with two bamboo sticks."
Gerrard participated in a number of musical scores but came to fame as a film composer after recording The Insider in 1999, with Pieter Bourke, and Gladiator in 2000, with Hans Zimmer, which received an Academy Award nomination for best music score, although only Zimmer was nominated. It did, however, win a Golden Globe Award for both composers. Gerrard's score for the New Zealand independent film Whale Rider consisted entirely of solo material; a soundtrack album was released by 4AD.
In November 2010 Gerrard provided vocals and additional music for the post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Priest scored by Christopher Young which was released in 2011.
In November 2011 Gerrard completed the score for Burning Man which won her Best Music Score at the 2011 Film Critics Circle of Australia awards announced on 10 April 2012, beating scores for Snowtown, The Hunter and Red Dog.