An intense few days working in Belfast with David Holmes on the soundtrack to the new Steven Soderbergh film. When the sessions started Warners had yet to send a full version of the film, so we watched the first third of it, with various bits of bluescreen where scenery should be, and ’Alright On The Night’-esque overhead mic intrusions which are vaguely amusing in Eastenders outtakes, but downright surreal hovering above an oblivious George Clooney.

The process with David is very stimulating. Before I arrive he sends me a copy of the temp track (temporary soundtrack of existing music put together bv the director and composer as a guide) and I spend a day or so making preparatory guitar sounds on my laptop. I really enjoy this stage. David is incredibly particular about, and sensitive to, texture. (This is a man with whom, doing Oceans 12, I spent 3 days trying to find the right fuzz sound.) Under his expert guidance – and this is where his great skill is most evident – the soundtrack slowly evolves and he then keeps shaping the parts continually.

When I arrived the studio was still in the final stages of construction, so things were a bit tense. But by the end of the day we were up and running and within 2 days there was a lot of really good music on the go. But we still hadn’t actually seen the whole film yet, and it was reaching the stage where it didn’t make sense to continue working blind. Unwilling to simply send a dvd, Warners directed us to a secure ftp site where we could download it. Except the password didn’t work, and because LA is 9 hours behind nothing could be done until the evening. Then half way through the download we were told that the temp track had changed! So the session was aborted and we drank whiskey til 5am. On the bright side, we’ll be reconvening in LA in January and much of the work so far should be usable.

Other than that, it’s been bits and pieces of work on new music and putting gigs together for next year. Sometimes the way I work on my own stuff is so fragmented that I think I’m not achieving anything, then realise that a lot of things are magically nearly finished. I’m going to spend this unexpectedly free time between now and January tying up loose ends.