Dave Holmes is a music producer and recording / mix engineer with 20+ years experience, and a director and co-owner of Soup Studios LTD in London. He has a multi-genre discography with hundreds of tracks from the avant-garde to the brutal, a significant background in commercial audio, and a solid education in music theory and performance.

A musician himself, his engineering career began in 1999 when he established Venn Productions in his native New Zealand. The studio focused on commercial audio, but in this time Dave's self-taught and original approach to record production started to take shape, working with prominent New Zealand artists like Paul McLaney, Gramsci and noise rockers Jakob.

The business expanded in 2003 and moved to an old Chinese Missionary church in downtown Wellington, trading coastal Hawkes Bay for the thriving rock scene of the nation's capital. This studio was a true playground for large room acoustics. However, the pull to the centre of the country’s music industry saw Dave relocate the studio once more to Kingsland, Auckland in 2005.

Here Dave began to focus on album production and over the next six years completed more than 40 albums, working with Avotor, Autozamm, Gramsci, Anika Moa, The Midnights, Kerretta, Decortica, An Emerald City, Jakob, Pitch Black, Concord Dawn, State of Mind, Battle Circus and more. Well respected in the New Zealand music scene, Dave received a Tui award nomination in the Best Producer category for the 2006 Gramsci album ‘Like Stray Voltage’, as well as a nomination for the inaugural Taite Music Prize for Kerretta’s “Vilayer” LP.

Adventure beckoned in 2010 and Dave disappeared to explore South East Asia, India, and Europe. A year later he found himself in London, initially freelancing for the Royal College of Music.

But it was the chance meeting of Simon Trought that gave Dave the invite into the London music scene he’d been searching for. Simon, along with Giles Barrett and Sam Beer cooperatively ran “Soup Studios”, in the creative hub of Cable Street in London’s East End. Dave joined the team, bringing with him extensive experience and a truckload of awesome gear, and together they grew the client list and took the business from strength to strength.

In 2017 the studio relocated to the Lightship95 vessel where it “rocks” today.

Have a listen to a recent conversation with Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand to learn more about his history.