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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)