Darren Styles Interview

Ahead of the release of his new album Feel The Pressure we caught up with hardcore legend Darren Styles to put a few of your questions to the man himself, here's what he had to say.

Who was your inspiration growing up.

Musically I would have to say ‘The Prodigy’… I went to my first rave back in 1992 and one of the tracks that stood out to me was ‘Your Love’.
I’d never heard anything like it before and I knew right then that making Rave music was what I wanted to do.

Have you always wanted to sing and what made you get into the performing side of your career.

No, far from it… All I wanted to do was make music and DJ, I kind of fell into the singing part of it by a mistake.
I sung on a few of my older tracks years ago under the name of Unique. Tracks like the original ‘Feelin’ Fine and ‘Higherground’, but it wasn’t until I sung on ‘Save me’ that things moved a bit more in that direction.
Funnily enough I wrote Save Me with someone else in mind to sing it, but when I was making it I sang a guide vocal in myself and forgot about it for a while. I played it out a few times and it kind of blew up pretty quickly so I ended up leaving my voice on the record… and I guess the rest is history.

How did you and Breeze pair up.

I’ve known Breezy since the mid nineties but we didn’t start working together until 2001… Basically we were both individually booked to play at Hardcore Heaven in Bristol. When we were there we were talking about how much we both loved Trance music and that maybe we should have a crack at a Hardcore track with big trance sounds. So that week we got together and made a track called Future Set which for us was a big turning point in our careers both as individual artists and as a team.

Do you enjoy doing concerts such as Clubland Live.

The whole experience is fantastic… I do get incredibly nervous because I’m well aware I’m out of my comfort zone, which is usually hiding behind the decks or sat in the studio. But the buzz of performing to 12,000 people in arenas like the MEN in Manchester is just mind blowing… and kind of addictive ;)

When are you next in Australia.

I’m actually out there this weekend (13th / 14th August) I’m playing in Sydney and Brisbane along with Breeze and MC Whizzkid.
We were supposed to be there back in April but the volcano put a stop to that… So it was all re scheduled for this weekend.
Which of your own songs is your favourite.

I’m not really sure if I have a favourite to be honest… I guess if I had to pick a track that meant the most to me for all sorts of reasons it would be ‘Save me’.

Which is your favourite song off the new album.

I’m going to say two tracks as they’re both really different to each other.
I really like ‘Raining Down’. I played it for the first time last week at Global Gathering and it got a wicked response so I was over the moon with that ☺
The other would have to be ‘Take you down’. It has a really different sound to it. I think it’ll really stick out on the album but hopefully in a good way.

What have been your top three gigs this year.

Global Gathering was phenomenal… Sometimes the bigger gigs can be a bit of a let down, only because of the magnitude of the whole thing. As a DJ you can sometimes feel miles away from the crowd which can mean you don’t get to feel the atmosphere. But everything about this was spot on.

HTID in the sun was amazing as usual… The fact that the UK Ravers and ravers from around the world travel over to spain year in year out to have a week of Hardcore in the sun always blows me away.

Hardcore Heaven @ The 02 Bournemouth… There’s something about this venue and the south coast ravers that never disappoints. I’ve had some of my most memorable gigs at this venue for Hardcore Heaven.

Which gig was your best of all time.

This is a very tough question. I’ve been lucky enough to play soooo many gigs throughout my career but one that really stands out as a DJ was when I was part of Force & Styles and we played at Helter Skelter (Energy 97’). It was my first ever time playing at a dance music festival and it was incredible.


Darren's new album Feel The Pressure is out digitally on 22nd August and on CD from 23rd August and you can pre order now from Play.Com or iTunes where you can also preview all the tracks too, all the links you need are just below.
   • Pre Order Feel The Pressure Digital Album from iTunes
   • Pre Order Feel The Pressure CD Album from Amazon