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 David Holmes is set to bring his DJ set to Proud Camden
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Ideal Holmes show
PREVIEW: CLASH REVUE OF THE YEAR
Proud Camden
HE’S sipped whisky on a private jet with Danny de Vito, scored countless Hollywood blockbuster sountracks and worked with Ice Cube, Page and Plant. But when I speak to DJ David Holmes he’s up to his elbows in washing up.
Belfast DJ Holmes – who will play Camden on Wednesday – has tasted the high life but remains close to his roots, keeping Northern Ireland his base and happily filling up his own dishwasher while fielding questions.
He has recently released his most personal work to date, The Holy Pictures, an autobiographical piece which, for the first time includes his own vocals. He is also still raving about scoring Hunger – Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen’s chronicle of the 1981 IRA hunger strike.
But Holmes is most famous for his shiny, funky, glossy soundtracks for Steven Soderbergh’s movies Out of Sight, and Oceans 11, 12, and 13.
On working on Out of Sight, his first Hollywood film, he said: “It was a pretty crazy intense experience. I was thrown into the deep end. They flew me in a private jet to Santa Cruz and brought me to this private airport, I got on the plane and Danny de Vito was there with his wife.
“Coming from Belfast, then you’re hurled into this world of people you grew up with and you’re sitting there having whisky with them, with Steven Soderbergh. I just enjoyed the whole experience, spoke my mind and tried not to get too intimidated by it.”
For someone who’s made his name from making soundtracks, Holmes is acutely aware of contriving emotions through music. He said: “There’s a lot of films when you feel the audience is being manipulated, told when to laugh, when to cry. The power, emotion, is leaving it naked. Sometimes music is put there to make the audience feel more comfortable.”
So what should we expect from his set on Wednesday? “Expect everything,” he says, “from raw rock and roll blues, European psychedelic music, soundtracks, some weird esoteric one-offs. I just like interesting music. I’m a bit selfish. I just play what I want.”
On making a soundtrack, he said: “When they ask me to do a film I know they are not looking for a 70-piece orchestra. I’m into working with characters who like to do things differently, who like to go down a much less obvious route. I’ve nothing against a 70-piece orchestra. Some of the most amazing scores are full orchestral scores but it’s not really what I want to do. I just went to see Ennio Morricone in Belfast. People were in tears.”
His repertoire includes several war movies, perhaps betraying the political awareness he found growing up in Belfast.
He said: “I’ve never lived anywhere else. It’s changed quite a lot, it’s like a new city, constantly evolving. It’s an interesting place to be because in many ways it’s shown the rest of the world how to live in peace rather than bombing and shooting. Just before the Iraq war people in Belfast were going, ‘What are you doing?’ You can’t win a war against a cellular army because once you take one cell out there’s another cell waiting, ready and armed. The whole thing is really pointless. It sort of makes me laugh at politicians on TV saying ‘we’re just going to win this war’. There’s an army that you can’t see. It doesn’t really make any sense.”
He added: “Growing up in Belfast it’s wrong to say I wasn’t affected by it. It becomes part of your DNA so it’s easier for me to understand. It’s just something you feel, something that’s in me. You don’t have to do research. With Hunger I went after that film. I remember the Troubles being an extremely heavy time. But when I read the script for Hunger I rang the producer and said I don’t think it needs a soundtrack.
“That’s how I got the job. Steve McQueen felt exactly the same way. He wanted the music to be emotional but totally non-musical. My point was the script was so powerful and brilliant that if we were to bring in the strings it would completely ruin the film.”
And his admiration for Hunger continues: “Hunger, without a doubt is the best film I’ve ever worked on. It hits people in so many different ways. It’s so provocative and really relevant to the world we live in – suicide bombs, police brutality – I just feel it’s serious achievement. Steve McQueen’s a real artist, it’s really interesting how his mind works. I keep thinking that film was just right. You talk to the cast, everyone had the exact same feeling.”
Holmes says he won’t name the one movie he believes has the wrong soundtrack, only saying: “It’s rare that you watch a movie you love and hate the soundtrack. Most great films have a great score. You can imagine all the work that goes into making a film. Years into doing that it would be pretty hard to f*** it up.”
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