I’ve just finished working with David Holmes on the soundtrack to a film called “Hunger”. It follows the last weeks in the life of the Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands, and is one of the most intense and uncompromising pieces of cinema I have ever seen. When we first watched it David and I looked at each other and said, ‘It doesn’t need any music’! But the director, visual artist Steve McQueen, fell in love with the sound of the hurdy-gurdy through a guitar amp, so the soundtrack has ended up being mainly these pure, minimalist, ‘unmusical’ tones. It’s my first proper credit as a film composer, and a pretty incredible one to start with. There was more film work earlier in the month when I got hired by Dario Marianelli (he just won the Oscar for ‘Atonement’) to provide some psychadelic guitar sounds for a new film called ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’. It was an interesting session because he hadn’t composed the music yet - what he wanted from me was a selection of ‘building blocks’ which he could work with. So although getting the textures was straight-forward, I had to make them as harmonically neutral as possible, so as not to suggest a composition. I also had to play lots of fingerpicky acoustic for him to chop up, but without any regualr accents - which was surprisingly difficult.

I did a couple of sessions at Bryan Ferry’s studio, working on some new material for I-know-not-what-exactly. There were lots of chaotic but promising bits on various tapes and I was helping sort them out and get them into shape. Again I found Bryan tremendous fun to be with in the studio. He flits in and out of the room a lot, which means he is a constant source of fresh perspective, but when he is particular about something you have his undivided attention until it is correct. I had him dancing around the studio a few times and that felt very good indeed. There was an interesting couple of hours working on a remix of ‘Casanova’; I got to hear the original vocals with the music stripped away, and bloody hell they’re good. Such an idiosyncratic and detailed delivery.

A few other bits - finishing off editing drums for the Eno/Hancock record; we’ve sentsome bits to Herbie and are awaiting his reactions. I did a day’s writing with Claire Nicolson, a singer I’ve known for a long time and who has just acquired funding for an album. A few tweaks to the American advert that is using my track ‘Spider’. And a few hours with Katie Melua, who was absolutely delightful and sweet even after selling 8 million albums, and who is looking to shake up her sound a bit next time.

Terrifying ordeal of the month was being asked to play as part of an iTunes Live event with kt Tunstall, Billy Bragg and Foy Vance. iTunes have been unbelievably supportive of me, and of course it was an unexpected honour to be in such exalted company - which made me all the more nervous. I am a bit out of practise playing my own stuff. Also there was precisely no time to rehearse the collaborations between Foy, kt and I. But kt was an absolute force of nature, marshalling her backing singers and drummer to help out, and Foy was magic. It’s amazing though, how I can be on stage in front of literally millions of people (like at the Diana concert), and feel no nerves whatsoever because I can see the back of a famous person’s head between me and the crowd, but move me to the front of the stage and I feel like I did the night before my A-levels.

Incidentally, I did an interview with the Daily Star recently (very nice and well-informed chap who rang me), but on reading it, when asked about Brian Eno I go on about what a great guy he is and gloss over his musical achievements. A similar thing has happened in other interviews. The reason for my doing this is, everyone already knows the guy is an absolute genius! But in case anybody misinterprets my silence as some kind of slight, here it is: I can’t even begin to say how much I love and respect his music, how much it continues to influence me, and what a lucky bugger I am to get to work with him and hang out. Right, I think I feel better now that I’ve assuaged my paranoia.

I’m sitting by a pool in the Hollywood Hills, having a break from working with David Holmes on the soundtrack to The Good German, which is the new Clooney film. We’re recording in a beautiful studio in a log cabin owned by one Woodrow Wilson Jackson III, who is like a cool professor. Woody’s been playing most of the guitar and I’ve been doing all different kinds of vintage keyboards from celeste to mellotron. There might also be some string arrangements to do but that’s up in the air til next week. At the moment we’re laying the foundations for replacing the temp track, feeling our way into the overall sound. The stuff done in Ireland in December was discarded. Often the work done at this stage is reworked later as the bigger picture emerges, but Steven Soderbergh is coming in for a listen in a few days so we have to try and finish 6 or so cues.

I’ve not been in LA since Oceans 12 eighteen months ago. The place gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand it is tremendously exciting, there being just so many great musicians around all doing the best projects. On the other, it gives me the creeps. For example, the 15 foot high airbrushed surgeoned faces of newsreaders emblazoned on the billboards of Sunset Strip. Apparently these are images of people we’re meant to trust when in fact the sight of them incurs fear and despair. A superb Japanese meal last night turned into a bizarre celeb-fest as everyone from Dan Ackroyd to Kanye West jostled past. There is a pervading atmosphere of status–awareness and fakery which is all the more pernicious for seeming rather exciting until the resultant bouillabaisse of self–aggrandisement and sense of English modesty boils down into a dim gravy of palatable melancholy.

Around Christmas I fitted in more work on the vocal record featuring Eno, Ed Harcourt and others, produced a track for the superb Irish singer Foy Vance, did a couple of sessions and made an EP for Just Music (who released Honeytrap). It was strange making that kind of music again, it was a long time ago that I wrote that record, and at first I felt like I was stealing my own ideas! But when percussionist Jez Wiles arrived he injected some great energy and personality into the tracks and that got me going again. There was also a gig with Ed Harcourt, in fact 2 on the same night in East and West London. The first was rather dispirited – we felt like an unsigned act that was likely to remain so, but the second was incredible. We both raised our games and played together really empathetically. At its best playing music with someone is like a beautiful, complex dance. At its worst it’s like standing awkwardly against the wall in a crap disco with someone you don’t like. And now, back to work.

Well, it’s been another gloriously varied fortnight. The Greenbelt Festival was brilliant; they had us playing in a grim bunker on a lovely sunny day so the prospects weren’t good, but what started as a small crowd turned into a large one as people texted their friends to get them along. Steve Jones saved the day by starting the gig on his own with a beautiful song while I faffed around with my equipment. Last night I had the pleasure of supporting Foy Vance in London and made lots of new friends. We’re going to do more concerts together for sure.
On the freelance side of things, I conducted my orchestral arrangements for Ed Harcourt which was a real thrill. The orchestra did a great job of playing along with Mr Harcourt’s patented rubato, and on one song I got revenge for the tear he brought to my eye by bringing one to his. The engineer on the session was an old schoolfriend who I hadn’t seen for years, which settled my nerves as soon as I walked in.

There was also the last Ronan concert in Germany. We were joined by a full symphony orchestra. Unfortunately no-one had seen fit to soundproof the stage so my amps ended up 2 feet away from the 4th violins’ heads. They hated us. I tried to make light of it, and as I turned my amp down to 1, apologised to one of them about the noise. Instead of smiling back, he fixed me with a Teutonically humourless glare and deadpanned: “Vere iss ze power cord?”. I should have hit him with a few bars of Smoke On The Water, but I don’t think that’s what he was getting at.

Back in my own studio, I’ve been preparing tracks for singers from what will be my 3rd record. Honeytrap took so long to release that I have a load of material backed up. Exciting but frustrating. I also did a pitch for a B&Q ad. I didn’t get it, just got a demo fee. But I did gain an insight into the bullshit workings of the corporate mind and their vertiginous stagger around every meaningless adjective there is (”a bit more contemporary, edgy, reflective, upbeat and chilled, ok?”). Still if these thing get picked up they pay unthinkable amounts so I expect I’ll be suckling at that evil teat again sometime soon!

I am sitting in Bangor with a beautiful view of the sea. Last night was the concert in Belfast, in which the equipment behaved faultlessly (credit to Apple, Sooperlooper and Jack Router) and the humans behaved rather eratically. Still, a great time was had and all the preparation, which has taken up much of the last 3 weeks, was well worth it. We’re looking forward to the next one on 26th July.

In amongst frantic rehearsals, other recent activities: I produced an album for an American bluegrass guitarist called Breadfoot, featuring the prodigious Anna Phoebe on violin. It was interesting finding different sonic characteristics for each song by running mics through different pedals while the instrumentation stayed pretty static. Then there was a fantastic gig with Ed Harcourt opening Meltdown at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. We had no drummer and no rehearsal but that didn’t stop the great swashbuckler teaching us 2 new songs in the soundcheck and playing material that the band hadn’t touched for years. The bigger the gig, the bigger the risks he likes to take, which I think is highly commendable!

I had a little gig of my own at the Big Chill Bar which felt suspiciously like one of those engagements where you stand awkwardly in the corner of a bar providing background music to indifferent yakkers. However it turned out that some were actually listening and the response through this site has been really encouraging, so thanks people.

Also had my first ever interview – for Guitarist magazine (out July 13th)! Refreshingly not much in the way of “well, I like .58mm picks with nobbles on…”. And finally – please, please check out Foy Vance who did one of the most amazing gigs I’ve ever seen the other night. As if the spirit ofThe Blue Nile had entered the body of Tom Waits. He is going to be very big very soon.