Drugs Report: Interview with David Holmes

As a firm friend of Primal Scream and the man who twiddled the knobs on their most recent album, More Light, you expect David Holmes to have a few shocking anecdotes to share. Nothing prepares you, however, for one particular revelation.

“I’ll tell you something about Primal Scream,” the Belfast producer begins in conspiratorial tones. “People think they are crazy drug addicts? Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes never smoked a cigarette in their lives.”

With that, the world spins off its axis.

“I always thought that was way smarter, David continues. "Okay, they had periods in their lives that were heavily induced by narcotics. But, you look at Bobby Gillespie now, he’s about 50 and he looks fucking incredible!”

It’s an interesting point. Plenty of rock’s most infamous chemical dustbins are still looking trim and vibrant in middle-age and beyond, strutting around stages every night. They can’t all have gone the mythical Richards route of getting a full blood transfusion.

“You know what that is?” says Holmes. “It’s good drugs! Because you know if you’re a rock star, you always get the good stuff, right?”

Nevertheless, it would appear that The Scream have decided to knock the hard living on the head, while they’re still upright. During the recording of More Light, guitarist Andrew Innes was telling me how David is “very good at getting a ‘vibe’.”

It's a big achievement in this new era of sobriety where the only thing being ‘turned on’ was the kettle. “They were amazing to work with," Holmes maintains. "We had such a great time.” As good as the time they listened to ‘Eight Miles High’ while taking off on a private jet bound for Spain (the Hot Press archives really are a treasure trove)? Presumably that was during the band's drug days...

“Hahaha!” he cackles. “How did you guess?!”

Those days are mostly behind Holmer as well. His UNLOVED musical collaboration with Keefus Green and Jade Vincent is set to debut on Edgar Wright’s interactive animation Brandon Generator and he's currently working with Mark Cousins on his forthcoming film I Am Belfast. Plus, he will soon make his directorial debut with a “very, very personal” short film. Work is David Holmes' drug of choice now. Oh, and marijuana.

“I’ve always been a sucker for cigarettes of the jazz kind! My take on drugs is just fucking legalise them. People are going to take drugs whether you ban them or not. You might as well control them and cut out the black market. How many kids in Belfast have died from taking really dodgy Es? At least if it was controlled, you’d have a choice and you’d be getting a pure substance that wasn’t mixed with rat poison.

“There are millions of people in Holland who’ve probably tried smoking marijuana,” he continues. “But because they were given a choice, a lot of people have chosen not to. If you legalised pot tomorrow, the recession would disappear overnight. It’s that simple. You would cut out so much crime, people would have a choice, and the world would be a better place. That’s my take on it. If people disagree with it, then fucking prove me wrong!”

Holmes also reckons that drugs can open things up creatively.

“Marijuana does, definitely. I can’t work without it! I suffer a little bit from attention deficit disorder. Marijuana gives me a focus and it chills me out. Music sounds better. There are certain side-effects! But there are side-effects with sleeping pills and caffeine. It’s about what’s right for you. I’m 45 now and the drug that works for me is marijuana. Way more so than alcohol or tobacco. It’s an absolute joke that tobacco is legal and marijuana isn’t. I stopped smoking cigarettes and continued smoking marijuana and found my chest clearing. I could go to the gym and work out and not be on my hands and knees being sick! I know people who take drugs every weekend. You’d see them on Monday and you’re thinking, ‘how do you do it?’”

The younger Holmes found it tougher to compartmentalise the harder partying.

“Half the week was gone! It’s a phase you go through as a person, like me, who was into a certain type of lifestyle. But then after a while it just got really boring and monotonous. Uninspiring.”

If Holmes doesn’t miss the hedonism, he certainly remembers it fondly.

“In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s in Belfast it was like a beam of light, because it was so fucking grim. I loved growing up but when the club scene came along, suddenly it was like ‘BOOM’! Someone switched a light on and it was like, ‘where have you been all my life?’. I had some of the best nights in my life. The Art College (where Holmes ran two legendary club nights) was just seminal. I was just thinking about Frankie Knuckles and how many sets I finished off with ‘Your Love’ and there were tears in the eyes. Highly emotional moments that were a combination of ‘Michael Douglas’ (MDMA slang, rather than some of Urban Dictionary’s filthier suggestions, we assume) and this amazing music from Chicago and Detroit.

“I stood in the Art College and I watched people from the most extreme neighbourhoods in Belfast, Republican and Loyalist. I watched ecstasy completely change people overnight. I watched them rejoice, hand-in-hand, on the dancefloor. Trust me, it wasn’t social work. It was MDMA and music. People went, ‘hang on a second, isn’t this much more fun?’”

Holmes insists it wasn’t merely a moment in time, something fleeting while the pills were still in effect.

“No,” he concludes. “I know it changed people for good.”

David Holmes makes his Kilkenny DJ-ing debut on April 19 in Set Theatre