Together with his older brother Mark Knopfler, John Illsley, and Pick Withers, he founded the rock band Dire Straits in 1977, serving as rhythm guitarist on their first two albums.

David however, asserts on his website that "[the] notion that the band were literally in dire straits is largely retrospective myth making and not really factually supportable.

[13] Knopfler scored the soundtracks for the films Shergar (1984) and Laser Mission (1989),[4] and the German productions Treffer (1984), Jakob hinter der blauen Tür (1989) and The Great Bellheim.

Its sparse, acoustic arrangements received positive reviews, as did 1995's Small Mercies, which Knopfler co-produced with Harry Bogdanovs,[4] featuring Chris White on saxophone.

[15] In 2001, Knopfler worked with Bogdanovs again to co-produce the album Wishbones, which has guest appearances by Chris Rea[4] and Eddi Reader.

His ninth solo album, Ship of Dreams, which featured Chris Rea as guest guitarist, was released in 2004.

[4] Songwriting projects with other artists have included sessions with Amilia Spicer, Mack Starks, Megan Slankard and Wendy Lands.

[16] He played various acoustic and electric gigs in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Turkey and Australia from 2007 to 2009 with Harry Bogdanovs and his band.