Raised in Salem, Ore., Darren thinks of himself as just another ordinary guy; but this 'ordinary guy' has extraordinary talent. He has an uncanny ability to capture the truth in new terms and a voice that leaves boy bands everywhere crying into their pillows. This ordinary guy creates a market for the real.
Darren's enthusiasm for songwriting engulfed him completely during his semester abroad in Africa. "That's when I realized how strong my passion for music really was," he says, "Before, I realized it as a dream, but in Africa, I realized it as something I've got to do."
A self-taught guitarist, Darren thinks of himself first as a singer. He is particularly influenced by Jason Mraz, whose music has shown him how much more he can do with his voice, "He's pushed me vocally," Darren says. "When you have a band, you have all these other people to push you and make you better. I don't have that, yet, but Jason Mraz has been that for me."
And it's not just the awe-inspiring vocals of Jason Mraz that move him--but music in general. "Music really is what inspires me," he says. "When I get discouraged, when I feel like giving up, I listen to music and it just floors me, and I can't give up--I love it too much."
Thanks to such inspiration and the constant support of friends and family, Darren has pushed himself to create a solid collection of songs, packed with a whole lot of feeling. Each one is suggestive of lives intertwined, converging for a moment in the simple strum of a guitar and one boy's voice. The moment Darren sings, you cannot deny him the recognition of his inexplicable ability to capture all the shadows of experience that move so deep inside.
"They reflect a part of my life," he muses, "whether good or bad. You learn and grow and expand from all these different things. All my songs represent those moments." His representations are unparalleled in lucid realism; they are the stuff of experience itself, and you know this is a man who has been there and back, who knows about everything you thought nobody else understood
"There's nothing wrong with being vulnerable," he says. Of course, "the thought was intimidating. You're sitting there in front of a room full of people saying, 'This is me,' and not knowing what they're going to do with it. But I'd be robbing myself if I didn't do it."
And so, he does, and he does it well. "Music is my drug and performing is my high," he grins. The energy he gives out in performance is tangible and contagious; it raises shoulders and brightens smiles.
For all the toughness of the industry's shell, a soft spot will definitely be found for this honest writer, who continues to sing with no solid assurance that his words will ever be heard by the masses. He is determined to reveal himself in spite of it all, simply because he must.
