David Arnold

British film and television composer David Arnold was born on January 23, 1962 in Luton, United Kingdom and began sowing the seeds of musical ambition while still at school and college, where he played in bands and ensembles. Largely self-taught, he cut his teeth scoring films for students at the National Film and Television School before getting his first big break in 1993 when he was asked to collaborate with Danny Cannon on his 1993 crime drama film The Young Americans. Joining forces with none other than Björk and Jah Wobble for the only single on the soundtrack, David Arnold's trip-hop-indebted epic "Play Dead" yielded a Top 20 UK hit for The Young Americans. The following year, the composer was employed to score Roland Emmerich's 1994 sci-fi adventure film Stargate, also scoring a gig on Roland Emmerich film Independence Day that resulted in a Grammy for David Arnold, under the category of Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television. In 1998, David Arnold stepped up to score Godzilla, another movie for the German sci-fi director Roland Emmerich, while the previous year he began a long-term relationship with the James Bond franchise, co-writing the song "Surrender," performed by k.d. lang, for 1997's Pierce Brosnan-starring Tomorrow Never Dies and also co-writing the main theme songs for The World Is Not Enough and Casino Royale. Elsewhere, David Arnold has composed music for films including Zoolander, Whip It, Made in Dagenham, Quantum of Solace, and television shows including 2020's Dracula and Sherlock. He has collaborated with artists including Massive Attack, Pulp, Natasha Bedingfield, Melanie C, Nina Persson and in 2009 produced Shirley Bassey's album The Performance.