Who is Darien?
Interview by: Raven Ekundayo
Photos by: Edith Williams

It’s an awesome feeling meeting an artist that you click with automatically. I sat down with Darien before his awesome performance at Ear Candy to discuss some pretty out the box things. I wanted to know the color of his passions, what music tastes like to him and why he would ever consider going back into the matriX. This brother has nowhere to go but up Misfits. Enjoy….

Raven – When reading your bio I found out that you’re not only a singer but also a writer and a producer.

Darein – Right.

Raven – So I want you to choose 3 colors. I want you to describe those 3 passions of yours through 1 color and eXplain why.

Darien – Song writing is yellow. I might touch on a lot of topics that may be dark in certain areas, but I’m also trying to bring light to a lot of positive things. I want people to have fun. I’m not about making angry faces when doing music or whatever so….

Raven – (Laughs) right right.

Darien – Also, just like be aware. You don’t have to be upset to be aware. Folks think when you speak of positive music you can’t have fun and that’s not true. I use to party to positive music.

Raven – eXactly. Early 90’s music had tons of positive feel good music you could party to.

Darien – Right. When it comes to the production aspect I’d probably pick the army green on that one. It’s like a battle up in there. When you’re in the studio you gotta go hard. Our agenda with doing this project was to have no money really (laughs) and to compete with people that have a major budget. So everything we did we did to the best of our abilities and with what we did have. We were pretty successful because we went hard.

Raven – Gotchu.

Darien – What’s the last one?

Raven – Singing.

Darien – And I picked Black. (Laughs). Well…I am a Black man (Laughs) so I suppose I’d have to go with because I’m a Black man.

Raven – (Laughs) I see we didn’t think about our colors that hard ahead of time.

Darien – No I would say a lot of my roots come from traditional soul music that was performed by Black artists you know? I have a lot of Blues influence in me, a lot of old soul; I have a lot of that. At the same time I think anyone can be into my music and I can listen to all races and shades.

Raven – Sounds good to me. Glad you could elaborate (Laughs). Now I know Kayenecha said we’re running short on time so I want to make sure we get you back in the magazine again so the readers can learn more about you so I’ll ask what’s usually my last question now.

Darien – Ok.

Raven – When Darien thinks of eXcaping the matirX what does that means to Darien?

Darien – It is definitely eXcaping the programming that you’ve been brought to believe. I think we’ve all been told as children that we had a certain order to follow for us to make it in life. You’re going to go to college and then get a job and then you’re going to work 40 hours a week and have kids and blah blah blah. I think that way of thinking has been detrimental to a lot of people, myself included. It makes it hard when you have aspirations outside of that particular program to do them. Your fear is that it’s always there. eXcaping the matriX is to go with your instincts instead of doing what others say you should be doing.

Raven - What was it like creating your project “the last demo”?

Darien – To be honest with you at that point I wasn’t sure how this (music) was going to play out. I was just thinking I would put some songs together to the best of my ability and after that I wasn’t going to make anymore demos. After this it would be albums or work. I was a little nervous on both sides of the fence. On one hand if I’m successful am I ready for this? On the other hand if it isn’t am I ready to go back into the matriX?

Raven – So you were heavily considering going back into the matriX?

Darien – I was. For studio artists you don’t really know how you’re going to translate on stage. I did a lot of grinding in the studio but I didn’t know how I’d project it on stage. I didn’t know how my nerves would be or anything at that point. I just knew that this was in me to make and let’s see how it works. I had a great feeling about the project while making it but it wasn’t until I was able to perform some of the songs that I said “Ok, let’s go, let’s do this.”

Raven – What does music smell like to Darien?

Darien – Hmmmm, It changes to be real with you. I’m not going to name one particular thing. Sometimes it stinks.

Raven – (Laughs) True.

Darien – It’s like garbage that you can almost taste in your mouth. Sometimes it’s really sweet. I think when I’m in the midst of creating it it has a sweet sweet taste. It’s like an amazing candy or something. Sometimes the way this business is constructed and how things go down is sour. You know what I’m saying? Bitter sometimes too.

Raven – Real trashy. Yeah I feel you. What does music look like to you?

Darien – What does it look like? Hmmmm, again I have to say it changes. I always try to take a different approach. If someone is going to write a song about a chair I won’t look at it direct I’ll come from the side and try to get the angle a little bit or something. If I’m working on a song that might have a romantic element to it it’s funny because it could be a sister that could be distorted because of my view. It may not be in a bad way but it’s just because of the way I choose to describe this situation. I would say overall though, generally it’s like a long long road that doesn’t end. It looks dope all the way through like a long ass ride that just never ends. When I’m wondering if I can write another song and it’s like this never ending energy that you can tap into. It’s warm and it’s bright and it just feels good and looks good. You know what I’m sayin?

Raven – I totally do. Great answer, even though I’m not supposed to say that (Laughs). This is our Fashion issue of the magazine. I wanted to know if you have your own specific style or do you follow trends? Do you just wake up in the morning and go? (laughs) What role does fashion play in your life?

Darien  - I don’t have a specific thing, like I couldn’t tell you names of any designers  so we’re gonna do a freestyle I’m not going to be able to drop no names or nothing like that….

Raven – (Laughs) Right right.

Darien – I’m a dude and if I see a shirt that’s $2.00 and it looks hot ima rock it. I don’t really care to see what’s in the label. I mean I like well constructed fabric (We both start to laugh). I can’t go no harder than that. But for the purpose of what I do I like to be comfortable. I like comfort and I like form. I do tend to wear things that go with my form. I went through my stages of big baggy clothes and I’m not really trying to wear these little night gowns that people were wearing (We laugh again). So as long as it fits my form and when I move you can tell that I’m moving I’m cool.

Raven – What is the next step in your journey as far as music goes?

Darien – The next step is with events like this where I’m going to bring it to the people and let them hear it and get eXposed to it. I have a lot of collaborations that I’m working on as well as a lot of concept albums. I have a lot of stuff in the can and figuring out how I’ll release things and in what order. A big thing for me is growing. As I grow I add more things to my repertoire. I’m on a quest to suck up as much information as I possibly can and to regurgitate it in a melodic form.

Raven – Well we actually did talk about more than I figured we could but I still want to follow up with you later in the year.

Darien – Definitely.

Raven – Thanks man.

Darien – Thank you.

 

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