David Holmes was born in Belfast, the youngest of 10 siblings, and developed a passion for music at a young age. He began collecting vinyl records during his teenage years and started working as a club DJ at the age of 15. His eclectic taste in music spanned genres such as Motown R&B, Latin jazz, punk rock, film scores, and disco.
As a teenager, David also worked as a fanzine writer and concert promoter, and he spent his late teens and early twenties traveling across England and Ireland, performing as a disc jockey. During this time, he met Ashley Beedle and collaborated with him on the song "DeNiro" in 1992, which became a massive hit on the dance floor, sampling Ennio Morricone's theme from the film "Once Upon A Time In America".
The success of "DeNiro" led to David being signed by Go! Discs, and he released his debut solo album "This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats" in 1995. The album featured songs like "No Man's Land", a personal response to the film "In the Name of the Father", and every track was sold to film soundtracks and trailers, including "The Game" and "Meet Joe Black".
David's first proper film score was for the 1998 film "Resurrection Man", a bleak urban thriller directed by Marc Evans. Following this, he traveled to New York City to create an audio documentary about urban jungle environments, interviewing citizens and creating songs with sonic structures ranging from drum and bass techno to retro Latin jazz.
The album attracted the attention of Danny DeVito, who hired David to write the score and assemble the soundtrack for the film "Out of Sight" in 1998. Entertainment Weekly named David one of The Top 100 Creative People in Entertainment. He spent the following years remixing groups such as U2, The Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Plant & Page, and Ice Cube.
In 1999, David released his third album "Bow Down to the Exit Sign", which featured collaborations with poet Carl Rux, British rock star Bobby Gillespie, soul singer Martina Toppley Bird, Bluesman Jon Spencer, film score composer David Arnold, and actor Sean Gullette. The album was based on a script written by his friend Lisa Barros D'Sa called "The Living Room".
