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During this time Darren was absorbing as many production techniques his brain would allow him to retain. Until Darren was able to invest in his own studio, he continued to spend many hours with Mark 'Blakkat' Bell at Safe Studios. Having the privilege of meeting some of the great names involved in house music today, including Paul Johnston, Doc Martin, DJ Sneak, Taka Boom, Paul Birchall, Alistair Whitehead to name but a few.
Once Darren built his own studio it wasnt long before he was getting his own tracks pressed and released. In the winter of 1999/2000 he produced "The Love Parade" which was a re-make of the old Da Hool Classic from the mid 90's. It was massive to say the least with all the major house and trance djs playing it and it received major amounts of airplay by all the top radio DJ's . It was the official anthem for the Radio 1 Leeds and Berlin love parade parties which attracted millions of people. Countless more tuned in to their respected national radio and TV stations to hear his mix being the first record played by most of the big DJ's and played regularly throughout the day and night. Manifesto records UK Re-released the original along side mixes from Fergie & Pete Heller and it went to No 11 in the UK charts in the summer of 2001.
Darren then relocated to Cheshire to work full-time alongside Paul Spencer and Scott Rosser founders members of Dario G to join their five man song writing production team called Rainstar During this period they released tracks under various guises. One of their artist Kerri B signed under the name The System to All Around The World and after chart success, was featured on their Clubland compilations including Clubland 3 & 4 and Clubland X-Treme.
Darren also signed a publishing deal with Peer Music for songs / productions they were presenting to major label artist. Although writing mainstream pop tracks for artist like Lisa Scott Lee, Darren still enjoyed the progressive house grooves they released like Push It on 3 Beat.
In 2002 Darren began a residency Djing at The Syndicate Super Club for 3 years playing all styles of music including top 40 chart, funky houses, RnB and classics from 70s,80s and 90s. This gave him a great insight into what makes people get on the dance floor and the demographic profile of clubbers and record buyers.
During this time he returned to his home town and started to work with various producers and artist who were able to show him new techniques and styles of working. One such collaboration was a cover of Echo Beach released under the artist name of D-Star Co-produced by Jon Dunn of Solaris. This track was featured as JK and Joels Hot New Track on BBCs Radio 1 and released by King 12 records.
Darren is currently working in his own private studio facility.
His love of house music remains and he is currently releasing various tracks and remixes.
www.d-star.co.uk or email: [email protected]
- Lyrics