David R. Campbell was born in Toronto Canada, but moved to Seattle at a
young age and spent most of his childhood there. From age 10, he
learned violin, viola and piano, and early on became fascinated with
orchestration and conducting. During this time he was a student of
Scottish viola icon William Primrose, as well as Seattle maestro, Vilem
Sokol.
In high school, he formed a string quartet with friends, including
schoolmate David Harrington. Campbell played with this group throughout
high school and college. Then, while attending Manhattan School of
Music, he played several seasons with the American Symphony at Carnegie
Hall under the legendary Leopold Stokowski.
After years of classical music, David gave in to a long curiosity about
orchestration in rock, pop and jazz, and began playing on LA and New
York studio sessions and in various rock and bluegrass bands. During
the early '70s, he played on many Motown classics including Marvin
Gaye's "Let's Get it On", as well as sessions with Aretha Franklin, Bob
Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Carole King's "Tapestry", Jackson Browne,
Arlo Guthrie, Barry White, Barbara Streisand and Bill Withers' "Lean On
Me". During this period, he began arranging strings and horns, and it
soon became his main focus. For the rest of the decade there were many
prominent albums and singles with David Campbell arrangements including
No. 1 albums and songs by James Taylor and Jackson Browne.
As David's arranging career progressed, he developed an interest in
composing for film, and by the mid '80s had scored several independent
films including Night of the Comet, as well as major studio releases
like Tom Cruise's follow up to Risky Business, All the Right Moves.
Continuing to arrange for such artists like Bette Midler and Linda
Ronstadt, during this period he also spent considerable time
songwriting, producing bands, and composing music for plays as well as
commercials for George Lucas, Panasonic and Sony.
With the success and Grammy acclaim of Linda Ronstadt's late '80s
return to pop, Cry Like a Rainstorm, featuring several Campbell
orchestral arrangements, he decided to once again specialize in
arrangements for strings and horns. Throughout the 90s David worked on
albums including Leonard Cohen's The Future, Willie Nelson's Healing
Hands of Time, Green Day's Nimrod, Beck's Mutations and Midnight
Vultures, and #1 hits like "Iris" (Goo Goo Dolls), "Uninvited" (Alanis
Morissette).
From that period to the present, he has built up an eclectic
discography in modern rock, country, hip hop and R & B, mainstream pop,
Spanish rock, Latin pop, Japanese pop, rock & jazz and other
international markets - a combination of all his early interests and
influences. He now works across multiple genres from Black Sabbath and
Metallica all the way to Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift and everything in
between. A short list includes "Sea Change" (Beck), "Time of Your Life"
(Green Day), "Tal Vez" (Ricky Martin), "Jaded" (Aerosmith), "Under My
Skin" (Avril Lavigne), "100 Years" (Five for Fighting), "Bring Me to
Life" (Evanescence), "I Hope You Dance" (Lee Ann Womack), "Not Ready to
Make Nice" (Dixie Chicks), "Breaking the Habit" (Linkin Park), "The
Black Parade" (My Chemical Romance), "My Wish" (Rascal Flatts),
"Because of You" (Kelly Clarkson), and "21" (Adele) - as well as recent
No. 1s from Miley Cyrus ("Wrecking Ball"), Taylor Swift (Red), Josh
Groban (All that Echoes), Tim McGraw (Two Lanes of Freedom), Muse (The
2nd Law), Beck(Morning Phase) and Pink (The Truth about Love). The
official song of the London Olympics, "Survival," featured a
collaborative choir arrangement by Muse and Campbell.
He has arranged and conducted scores for Joker: Folie a Deux, Disclaimer, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,
Oliver Stone's W, August Osage County, Dead Man Walking and the
Oscar-winning score for Brokeback Mountain. As an arranger/conductor
for motion picture songs, Campbell worked on Armageddon, Dreamgirls,
City of Angels, Daredevil, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Men in Black
2, The Land Before Time, Spiderman 2, Ladder 49, the Oscar-nominated
song from Pearl Harbor (Faith Hill), and the Oscar-winning song "You'll
Be in My Heart" from Tarzan.
He has guest-conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl
Orchestra, the Dallas, Nashville, and Baltimore symphonies, the Tokyo
Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony, and at the opening ceremonies
of the 2000 Olympics. In recent years, he conducted at the Hollywood
Bowl for The XX, Sheryl Crow, Death Cab for Cutie, Faith Hill, Ray
LaMontagne, Willie Nelson, and Beck. In 2013, he co-arranged and
conducted the 167-member orchestra for Beck's "Sound & Vision" 360
video project, sponsored by Lincoln Motor Company.
In 2010, he wrote incidental music, arrangements and orchestrations for
the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which in 2012 set the record
for highest single-week gross and highest single week attendance for
any production in the history of Broadway. The musical was directed by
Julie Taymor, and featured music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge.
Overall, his work appears on more than 425 gold or platinum albums.
During his long recording career, albums on which he worked have
received 50 Grammys, and his film work has earned two Oscars for music.
