Hailed as one of the most successful young British composers, Arnold began his film career making short films with fellow enthusiast Danny Cannon, teaching himself to write, orchestrate and compose the scores for their films. In 1993, he scored Cannon’s feature film debut The Young Americans, combining lush orchestration with Bjork’s vocals for the title song “Play Dead,” which earned critical and commercial success. This led to the offer to score Stargate, Roland Emmerich’s sci-fi film, which enjoyed box-office success and earned Arnold his first BMI Award.
Since then David Arnold has been recognized by the film industry as a talented and diverse composer, arranger and producer, whose scores include Shaft, Changing Lanes, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Stepford Wives and, most recently, Michael Apted’s Amazing Grace, Venus directed by Roger Michell, and Hot Fuzz directed by Edgar Wright.
Winner of seven BMI Awards for his music for TND, TWINE, DAD, Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla and 2 Fast 2 Furious, he also won a Grammy for Independence Day and recently won the Royal Television Society Award for the title music of the UK comedy series “Little Britain.” In addition, he won the Ivor Novello Award for the music for TWINE.
Away from the film world, Arnold maintains a career as a successful record producer and song writer, working with a wide range of contemporary artists including k.d. lang, Pulp, Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, Garbage, David McAlmont, Martina Topley-Bird, Natasha Bedingfield, Aimee Mann, George Michael and Damien Rice.
An avid James Bond fan, in 1997 Arnold produced Shaken and Stirred, an album of James Bond film title songs which reached number 11 in the UK album chart.
As composer for CASINO ROYALE, Arnold collaborated with Chris Cornell to write the title song “You Know My Name.”
Editor's note:
FSWL has met David a few times over the years. Below is a clip of his unforgettable performance during the Memorial Concert, held at Royal Albert Hall in London, to John Barry from June 20, 2011. ("Tick the Days" is one of the last songs that John wrote before he sadly passed away.)
Photo below:
A funny message from David Arnold to FSWL's founder Anders Frejdh on the CD cover for TWINE. (David: Does the message mean Swedish people have bad influence on you? Or simply that we drink way too much?)
Read more about David Arnold on his official website:
A celebration of the super-cool and multi-talented James Bond film composer 
