David Holmes sits on the couch of a New York recording studio looking antsy.| Though he's submitting to an interview, it's easy to tell that the Northern Irish DJ/producer/remixer/musician/jack-of-all-trades has more pressing concerns. In addition to being a sought-after remixer, he's fielding tons of offers to score films in America and the U.K. based on the success of last year's Out of Sight soundtrack. Based on his reputation for making street-smart remixes of artists like U2, St. Etienne, Page and Plant, the Manic Street Preachers and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, he's currently dealing with being the mixer of the moment. At this particular moment, however, David Holmes only wants one thing -- his band.

The Belfast native recently relocated to New York to work on the follow-up record to last years gritty, urban-electronic drama, Let's Get Killed, but unfortunately the musicians he's collected to help him out are stuck in England.

"I just wanna get goin' on it ... my band don't get here until next Wednesday. They were meant to be here on this Sunday coming but we're having problems with their visas," Holmes vents. "The visas have been approved and they're just waiting on a letter coming ... it's really complicated."

It's obvious Holmes is feeling frustrated, and with good reason: the current line-up he has procured to help him work on his third record (the first being 1995's This Film's Crap Let's Slash the Seats, which is being released for the first time in U.S. on April 6) has had a profound effect on the way he looks at making music. Whereas before it was simply "David Holmes," he has now found himself comfortable fitting in more of a "band" courtesy of Tim Goldsworthy (beat programmer), Darren Morris (keyboards) and Phil Mossman (guitar and bass).

"Although I come up with all the ideas and stuff, there's constant improvisation going on between us all," Holmes explains, "so rather than me sitting back going 'Hey I'm Mister Big Fuckin' Music Producer and I'll take all the credit,' credit goes where credit's due. These guys are just amazing. My music's improving ... I don't feel limited to anything so I feel with this group of people I can just do whatever the fuck I want."

Although he may be functioning more like a band, don't expect Holmes to be sounding like a power-pop quartet. Holmes is firmly rooted in the world of dance, the place he started out in as a DJ at the age of 15. Having already developed an intense passion and hefty record collection of Sixties soul, early R&B, Northern soul, reggae and punk, Holmes was primed and ready to embrace a new genre as soon as the acid-house revolution stormed the U.K. at the tail end of the Eighties. "So many people got inspired by that whole scene and went on and made records and became producers like me ... so many great things came out of that whole scene," he gushes.

Acid House may have inspired Holmes to develop himself within the electronic genre, but he's risen to prominence through his ability to weave a story through a piece of music. If Fatboy Slim is the Party Boy of the dance kingdom, Moby the Punk, Aphex Twin the Tortured Artist and Howie B. the Everyman, then Holmes is its Soul Man. Holmes' electronic music, as exemplified by his debut This Film's Crap Let's Slash the Seats (which is being released for the first time Stateside on April 6) and his more current Let's Get Killed, can be a cacophony of gritty, haunting, funky, somber, turbulent and sexy tracks, but unlike some music made with synthesizers and technical hubbub, he manages to keep a humanity in his music. Holmes translates his stories into bleeps, drum beats, emotional chords and a whole lotta soul, all of which effortlessly slide between each of the basic electronic food groups: from techno to drum 'n' bass to ambient to whatever.

"I never set out to be part of any scene," Holmes states. "As far as I'm concerned, I've just done my own thing and have always tried to be different and use up all these influences that I'm into. I put them all in a melting pot, and just get all these different sort of vibes."

And what is the current vibe of this "band" project?

"I'm not saying anything," he states. "It's just because I've got so many ideas and at the minute, in my head, all these ideas don't fit in the same basket. So there's a couple of different ways that I could take it you know what I mean ... I'll say one thing, OK? It's gonna be like songs -- like people singing," Holmes says wearily. "And it'll be really twisted and fucked up," he quickly adds before going off to enjoy a cheeseburger. We wouldn't expect anything less.

JOLIE LASH(April 6, 1999)