MONIO

Davidʼs first solo record, This Filmʼs Crap, Letʼs Slash the Seats (released in 1995) plugged immediately into what remains one of his most enduring and vital sources of musical inspiration – cinema. A distinctively eclectic set of references, both musical and filmic, continued to feed subsequent albums, bringing his work to the attention and acclaim of an international audience.

David Holmes Presents the Free Association was released in 2003, and like his solo efforts, received commercial and massive critical acclaim. After a hectic spell on the road with the band, David felt the time was right to commence another solo album. But the story of what was to become his new album The Holy Pictures had begun long before this. As David says: ‘The story of this album really began on the 4th of August 1996, when my mother, Sarah Holmes, passed away. I had always wanted to make a record about my life in Belfast and all the things attached to that – family, friends, loss, love and starting a family of my own. All the stuff that shapes the person you become.ʼ But as he had long concluded, using personal themes as a basis for new creative work isnʼt always the right approach: ‘you realise itʼs something that canʼt be contrived – it has to happen naturally, when you reach the right moment in life, whenever that might come along. While the heart of the album continued to remain elusive, other ventures in film and music were flourishing. Davidʼs successful partnership with director Steven Soderbergh, developed on 1998ʼs Out of Sight and 2001ʼs Oceanʼs 11, now continued through the sequels Oceanʼs 12 and 13. And with Steve Hilton, his long-time collaborator on these and many other films, David had the opportunity to explore a wholly different filmic mood on Michael Winterbottomʼs Code 46. Their acclaimed soundtrack evokes the poignant emotional landscape of a dystopian near-future world.

The Holy Pictures by David Holmes

Though the process of the new album remained challenging, the path ahead became a bit clearer at this point. ‘Twenty-five tracks later I realized that I had the guts of an instrumental album – but still no vocals. Doing vocals myself had been something Iʼd always fantasized about, but Iʼd never really had the balls to do it, and felt pretty far from making that idea a reality. Then on 16th May 2007, my father passed away. When I got back into the studio six weeks later, my focus was very much on memories of both my parents and what they meant to me.ʼ And beyond that, on all the other things David had always known would come, at some stage, to directly inform his music: ‘…like my wife, my daughter, my immediate family, lost friends and my whole history with Belfast and how it shaped me as a human being.ʼ These themes fed into the lyrics David was beginning to write for the album. I recognized that the only person who could sing these lyrics was me.ʼ Although this was a huge new challenge for David, and something he approached with a certainamount of trepidation, heʼs now convinced it was an inevitable part of this albumʼs particular, personal story: ‘I think itʼs fair to say that I sang on my record, not because I wanted to, but because I had to.’

The Holy Pictures features collaborations with Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins. The album was recorded in Belfast, which, given its themes, seems only fitting. As The Holy Pictures emerges, David is looking outward to a series of exciting new ventures and collaborations in music and film. He continues to resist being pigeonholed in one style or genre. Earlier this year he worked with Leo Abrahams to create the score for Hunger, the debut feature film from Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen. In May of this year, Hunger was awarded the prestigious Camera dʼOr at the Cannes Film Festival. And on the international front, David has just scored a new Apple iPhone advertisement featuring Robert Downey Jr and directed by David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club). More film projects are lined up for the next months; David is currently working on the soundtrack for Five Minutes of Heaven, a drama setin seventies Northern Ireland, which is the latest work by Oliver Hirschbiegel, director of the Oscar-nominated Downfall.

David Holmes is headlining the first night of MONIO & FRIENDS 2009 on Saturday 1st August.

Links

Official site: davidholmesofficial.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/davidholmesofficial