David Holmes (musician)

David Holmes (born 14 February 1969) is an electronic musician and composer. Born in Northern Ireland, Holmes worked as a DJ before releasing several solo albums that have incorporated elements of trip hop, big beat, electronica and rock. In the late 1990s, Holmes also began composing film scores, establishing a long-standing collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh that includes Out of Sight (1998) and the Ocean's trilogy. He is currently part of the band Unloved, whose music has been used extensively in the television series Killing Eve, for which Holmes is the composer. Holmes has remixed songs for numerous artists and produced albums for Primal Scream and Noel Gallagher. He is also known for his BBC Radio 1 Essential Mixes.

David Holmes
Born (1969-02-14) 14 February 1969
OriginBelfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
GenresElectronica, trip hop, big beat, krautrock, house, downtempo
InstrumentsTurntables, samples, keyboards, guitar, drums, programming

Musical career

Holmes began DJing in Belfast from the age of 15. His first DJ appearance was at the Abercorn Mod Club. His first hit was the 1992 track "De Niro" as the Disco Evangelists with Ashley Beedle and Lindsay Edwards (who later joined Tin Tin Out). In the early to mid-1990s he ran two club nights in the Belfast Art College known as Sugar Sweet and Shake Yer Brain.[1][2] Orbital wrote the track "Belfast", released on their debut album Orbital, after playing at Sugar Sweet.[1]

Holmes released This Film's Crap Let's Slash the Seats, in July 1995.[3] At the time he described the album as being inspired by movies and movie soundtracks, a recurring theme throughout Holmes' work (see Discography). The opening track, "No Man's Land", featured on the soundtrack to the film, Pi. In the same year, he also provided the ambient links between the songs on the album Infernal Love by Therapy?. In 1997, Holmes released Let's Get Killed.[3] Many of the tracks featured Brazilians dancing in the streets of New York City, recorded by Holmes using a minidisc recorder. The album's first single, "My Mate Paul," was Holmes' first commercial success.

His 1997 Essential Mix, a mixture of northern soul, psychedelic funk and hip hop was voted mix of the year by Muzik magazine

In 1998, Danny DeVito commissioned him to do the score for Steven Soderbergh's film Out of Sight. He scored a second film for Soderbergh in 2001, including some songs from Let's Get Killed and Bow Down to the Exit Sign on the Ocean's Eleven remake.

After releasing a remix album, Come Get It I Got It, in 2002, Holmes released David Holmes Presents The Free Association. This was a departure for the artist as all his previous work had been solo. The Free Association featured four other bandmates who toured with Holmes after the album was launched.

As a remixer he has reworked tracks by artists such as U2, Doves, Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Page and Plant, Saint Etienne and Ice Cube.

Before beginning his musical career, Holmes worked as a hairdresser and chef. He also briefly owned and ran a café called Mogwai near the Queen's University of Belfast and, since 2009, has run an intimate club in South Belfast called The Menagerie.

In 2006, with Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn, David founded a film production company called Canderblicks Films. Its first short film The 18th Electricity Plan played at various international film festivals including LA Shorts, Clermont Ferrand and Cork International Film Festival, where it won a Special Mention in the Best New Director category.

In 2008, Holmes composed the music for the "New iPhone" ad campaign. An album, The Holy Pictures, was released on 8 September 2008,[4] from which the track "Holy Pictures" was selected for the soundtrack of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. The first track from this album, "I Heard Wonders", also featured in the movie Cherrybomb and the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympics to accompany the footage of David Beckham and Jade Bailey bringing the olympic flame up the River Thames by speedboat.

David worked with Leo Abrahams to create the score for the award-winning film Hunger,[5] directed by Steve McQueen, about the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. The score won an IFTA at the Irish Film Awards.

In April 2009, he topped The Irish Times' "50 Best Irish Acts Right Now".[6]

Holmes's last release is The Dogs Are Parading, a best of compilation was released on 26 April 2010.

Holmes's film project Good Vibrations, was the first feature film from David's film company Canderblicks Film. Set in the heart of the punk rock scene of 1970s Belfast, it tells the story of Terri Hooley. Directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D'Sa, written by Glen Patterson and Colin Carbury and co-produced by Andrew Eaton (Revolution Films) & BBC Films, it was nominated for a BAFTA and the soundtrack was Rough Trade's Compilation of the year 2013.

Holmes scored all three series of The Fall starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan. His score for the first series was nominated for an RTS Craft and Design Award in 2013 and winner of the best score at the Irish Film and TV Awards in 2014.

Holmes scored the film'71, for which he won an Ivor Novello Award. Directed by Yann Demange, the film tells the story of a British Soldier who became separated from his unit during a riot in Belfast at the height of The Troubles in 1971. In May 2015, Holmes' first film which he directed and wrote I Am Here was shown on Channel 4's The Shooting Gallery.

In 2016 Holmes won a further Ivor Novello award for his score on the BBC series London Spy, directed by Jakob Verbruggen and starring Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, and Charlotte Rampling.

He composed music for the feature film Mindhorn starring Julian Barratt about a has-been British TV actor who used to be famous in the 1980s for playing the titular and charismatic lead role in the Isle of Man detective show Mindhorn, a character with a robotic eye that can literally "see the truth".

Holmes released a Late Night Tales compilation in October 2016, titled Late Night Tales: David Holmes.

Holmes produced the third album by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Recorded and mixed in Belfast, the album Who Built the Moon? was released on 24 November 2017.

In 2019, Holmes and American musician, composer and music producer Keith Ciancia won the Original Music category at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards for their work on the Killing Eve soundtrack.[7]

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations and remixes
  • Essential Mix (1998) – previously broadcast on BBC Radio 1
  • Stop Arresting Artists (1998) – remix album
  • Holmes on the Decks (2000) – remix album; a limited edition un-mixed vinyl version was also released
  • Come Get It I Got It (2002) – remix album
  • The Dogs Are Parading (2010) – compilation album
  • Late Night Tales: David Holmes (2016) - compilation album

Film soundtracks

Television soundtracks

References
  1. Lyndon Stephens, Sandra Gourley. "A History of NI Club Culture (I)". culturenorthernireland.org. Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  2. Burden, Alex (13 October 2006). "David Holmes, Headspin, Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Oct 7". theskinny.co.uk. Radge Media Limited. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  3. Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. p. 455. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.
  4. "David Holmes returns with 'Holy' new album", NME.com, 20 June 2008.
  5. "Hunger". IMDb.com. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  6. "The 50 best Irish music acts right now". www.irishtimes.com. 4 April 2009. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
  7. Meredith, Robbie. Killing Eve composer David Holmes wins Bafta TV Craft Award, BBC News, April 29, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  8. Zobbel (16 June 2007). "Chart Log UK". Zobbel. Archived from the original on 4 July 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2008.
  9. "Official Album Chart for the week ending 20 September 2008". ChartsPlus. Milton Keynes: IQ Ware Ltd (369): 5–8.
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