Neil Davidge

Neil Davidge
Born	(1962-06-29)29 June 1962 Bristol, United Kingdom
Occupation	Record producer Songwriter Film score composer Musician

Neil Davidge (born 1962 in Bristol, United Kingdom) is a record producer, songwriter, film score composer, musician and occasional backing vocalist. Once an associate of dance producers, DNA, he is best known as the long-term co-writer, producer and key sonic facilitator for the music production outfit Massive Attack. In 1997, he also produced the Sunna album One Minute Science. During that time he has established a career as a film score composer including projects such as Push, Bullet Boy, Trouble the Water and additional music for Clash of the Titans.

Artists he has worked with include Unkle, Damon Albarn, Elizabeth Fraser, Mos Def, David Bowie and Snoop Dogg.

Most recently he composed the soundtrack to the video game Halo 4 and recorded "The Storm That Brought Me To You" with Tina Dico for the Clash of the Titans soundtrack, the first vocal track for which he is credited as an artist separately from Massive Attack.

Career

DNA (1989–1992)

Davidge worked with UK Band DNA in the period between 1989-1992 co-producing 4 singles and 1 album. DNA was the pseudonym taken by two British dance-music producers Nick Batt & Neal Slateford, best known for issuing a remix of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" in 1990 as well as producing several remixes with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Vanessa L. Williams and Electronic.

Massive Attack (1995–present)

Davidge had met Massive Attack’s Mushroom aka Andrew Vowles as early as 1991, and was in and around Bristol’s Coach House Studios when Portishead recorded their debut album Dummy between 1991-1994. Neil was introduced to the rest of Massive Attack in 1996, and hitting it off, he produced ‘The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game’, a song for the Batman Forever soundtrack that featured Everything But The Girl vocalist Tracey Thorn.

Working in close collaboration with Massive’s Robert Del Naja, aka 3D, Neil then had a key hand in shaping the darker, forward-looking sound of the band’s third album, 1998’s Mezzanine. One of its most memorable sessions found him working with former Cocteau Twins vocalist Liz Fraser on the song Teardrop, now known to millions more as the theme tune for House, the hit US medical drama.

Mezzanine went on to be critically acclaimed, winning a Q Award for Best Album as well as being nominated for a Mercury Award. The record was a much darker album. Most of the songs were started and co-written by Neil Davidge, but Davidge did not receive any writing credit on the record.

As with Mezzanine, Massive Attack’s fourth album 100th Window was largely piloted by Davidge and Robert Del Naja. Sessions for the 2003 chart-topper were protracted and pressurised, the group jettisoning huge swathes of material to re-write the whole record in the last six months of a three-year odyssey. “Some great things had been said about Mezzanine and we didn’t want to repeat ourselves”, says Neil “It was a strange period of isolation and the weirdness of 9/11, but we got there in the end.” ^[1]

Collected was Massive Attack’s best of album released on 27 March 2006. The album was preceded by the release of the single "Live With Me" on 13 March. Again co-written and produced by Davidge.

Heligoland is the fifth studio album by Massive Attack, released almost exactly 7 years after 100th Window. Co-produced by Davidge and 3D with additional production by Tim Goldsworthy, the record features vocals from Horace Andy, Tunde Adebimpe, Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval, Guy Garvey and Martina Topley-Bird. Davidge co-wrote 8 of the 10 tracks as well as playing keyboards, bass and guitar. The album was mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent although Davidge Produced and Mixed airplay hit “Paradise Circus” featuring vocals by Hope Sandoval.

Film projects (2004–present)

In 2004 Luc Besson approached Davidge and Robert Del Naja to score the movie Danny The Dog, later renamed Unleashed. There then followed scores for Bullet Boy, Battle in Seattle, and Trouble the Water, which received an Oscar nomination as Best Documentary Feature. It is a moving study of those displaced by Hurricane Katrina which won ‘Best Documentary’ at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Working with Snoop Dogg, Neil also scored the music for In Prison My Whole Life, a documentary about US death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Away from his collaborations with Robert, Neil scored the music to the Paul McGuigan directed Push and provided additional music to the Warner Brothers blockbuster Clash of the Titans working alongside fellow composer Ramin Djawadi. He was approached by director Louis Leterrier to replace Matt Bellamy from Muse who had to pull out due to touring commitments in the USA.

Volume (2006)

Volume, a luminous interactive installation, transformed the Victoria and Albert Museum's John Madejski Garden over winter 2006. Volume was a sculpture of light and sound - an array of light columns positioned dramatically in the centre of the garden. Volume responded spectacularly to human movement, creating a series of audio-visual experiences. Visitors were invited to step inside and see their actions at play with the energy fields throughout the space, triggering a brilliant display of light and sound.

The piece was a collaboration between design collective United Visual Artists (UVA), Robert Del Naja and Neil.

Halo 4 Original Soundtrack (2012)

On 11 April 2012, Davidge was revealed to be the composer for the Halo 4 Original Soundtrack, the official soundtrack of the video game Halo 4.^[2]

Debut Solo Album 'Slo Light' (2014)

Davidge established his own studio in 2010 and has since been working on several projects including his upcoming debut solo album. The release date is still unknown but the album title has been confirmed as 'Slo Light'.^[3] Slo Light features guest vocalists including Jhelisa Anderson, Sandie Shaw and Cate Le Bon, the album is set for release in February 2014.

Discography

References

^ "Neil Davidge IMDB"

^ "Neil Davidge and Ramin Djawadi Clash Of The Titans Original Motion Soundtrack SONY CMG Releases"

^ "Davidge Sound on Sound Interview"

^ "Neil Davidge Push Original Soundtrack Last.fm"

^ "Massive Attack Collaborators Neil Davidge and Euan Dickson on Impulsive Recording"

^ "Air Edel Composer Neil Davidge"

^ "Interview with journalist James McNair"

External links

• Neil Davidge website
• Neil Davidge Myspace