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A few months ago, I stumbled across Darien Brockington's music and was definitely feeling it. Not too syrupy like some R&B but at the same time not pushing to hard to appeal to the hip-hop crowd. It was refreshingly humble and far from trite.

Nah, D is what he is and the same as many of us. He's a cat who grew up on a steady diet of all types of Black music, namely both hip-hop and R&B, and it's reflected in his new album Somebody To Love. I don't expect Darien to blow up on your TV screen. Instead, like the title of his album, chances are he'll be one of those cats who'll have a solid fanbase, someone who fans can root for and love because he brings that sincerity that's missing from soul music.

When I found his music, the next thing I did was starting the process of reaching out to him. The connection was made and we promised to hook up when the time was right.

The time is right.

Words By Preach

TSS: Hello?

DB: Whassup, this is Darien, man. How you doin’?

TSS: Hey man, doin’ good. How are you?

DB: I’m doin’ good brother, I’m doin’ good.

TSS: First of all, how’s everything going? How excited are you with this new album man?

DB: Oh I’m okay. Man, I was excited when we were finshed, y’know? (laughs)

TSS: Now a lot of different cats know you from working with the Justus League and Little Brother; how far back do you go with them as far as collabos and stuff?

DB: 2003 man, although I knew them way before that, that’s when we started working together professionally.

TSS: Aight, no doubt. One of the main things I get from your music is how smooth your sound is, and the depth behind it every time you sing. When you hear yourself on a recorded track, how would you define that feeling you get?

DB: Wow…Well at first I couldn’t stand listening to myself man on early stuff.

TSS: Are you kidding me?! Say word.

DB: Over time, I’ve learned to keep the sound that I want to hear back. With that said though, hearing myself makes me excited as if it wasn’t me, as if it was somebody else. ‘Cause I finally learned how to connect with a song I’ve recorded. How I dig a song in general is what I apply to my sound.

TSS: Cool, cool…I’m still trippin’ over that man but I see where you’re coming from.(laughs)

DB: Nah man, (laughs), for a while with my earlier demos, I didn’t like the way I sounded so I would change it up to where I like the tempo better and change my voice up so that I could dig the way it sounded. I’ve come a long way since then.(laughs)

TSS: Tell me about your influences coming up as a singer.

DB: Influences man, I’ll start on the gospel side…on that side you got Daryl Coley, BeBe Winans, CeCe Winans, Jim Burrell, Anointed, you got Witness…I mean it’s very, very extensive.

And then on the R&B side, I first have to say Faith Evans. Then you’ve got Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, then you’ve got Brandy, 112, SWV, Chaka Khan, and Aretha especially.

TSS: You’ve got a lot of heavy hitters there man. So describe to me how it feels to get all this love from your fans and different folks out there?

DB: It’s been surprisingly overwhelming, it’s been great. The responses are always good. I mean, since the album’s come out I’ve had a couple of negative critics. But I don’t worry about them ‘cause of what love I’ve gotten from people who’ve picked up the album.

Y’know, I don’t have the expectation for people to like what I do but it’s always a big thing when they do. It’s overwhelming ‘cause you never know how life plays itself out with people’s dreams and aspirations coming to life until it does.

TSS: Yeah, you’re right.

DB: Sometimes it overwhelms me to see people gravitate towards what I do, what I love to do. A lot of us are privileged to let the world hear you, your thoughts and your voice, to be out there as a person and to take all of that and be embraced for it is overwhelming, in a good way though.

TSS: How is it working with Nicolay? ‘Cause sometimes I listen to tracks you two have worked on and it’s like a perfect match.

DB: Initially, technically I still haven’t had the chance to work with him one on one. Being the digital age and all man, the stuff I’ve done with him was while he was still in the Netherlands.

TSS: Really?

DB: It was pretty much Nic sending it by AIM Messenger, Phonte would get the track, let me hear it and then I’d start writin’ the song or I’d write the song or direct how I wanted it to be done and Tay would send it back to Nic.

However I have had a chance to hang out and share a stage with him when he came down to North Carolina and he’s one of the most humble cats you’ll ever get the chance to meet. I can foresee that when we do get that chance to work together, it’ll run smoothly ‘cause of the experience of being able to connect to his music while he wasn’t close by so I feel it will be just as easy when he’s in my presence. Nic is all about the music and he’s a great producer.

TSS: Now, there’s people who will try to box you in and define your sound. I want you to define in one sentence what Darien Brockington is all about.

DB: Okay, this is a lot on my shoulders so that means I can’t answer that. (laughs) But I’m gonna say man, that I’m just an R&B cat with a lot of soul.

TSS: Cool…in the future, are there any other producers that you’d want to work with, to put a new twist on your music?

DB: There’s a whole lot of producers I’d wanna work with man, I wanna work with Just Blaze, I especially want to work with Cee-Lo, I’m hoping that could happen in the future. Pharrell, Rich Harrison, I’d want to try to do some stuff with Darkchild, I just want to experiment and do different things.

TSS: Some of your songs are like a Sunday morning service to me, they have that richness even though they have nothing to do with church.(laughs) Have you ever been in a church choir?

DB: Oh yeah man, I’m a church boy. I’m as church as it comes. (laughs) I’ve been in the choir all my life. I’m not as active in the church as I used to be ‘cause of my music, but I’m still in the choir now. Church is the foundation for me, musically and personally you know what I mean? I try to live by my values professionally and in my personal life. You don’t gotta say God every other word, but for me he’s always present. That’s very parallel to what I do.

TSS: True that. You already got a fan right here man, (laughs), good talking to you and much success to you brother.

DB: All right man, thank you, I appreciate that.

For more info on Darien, visit www.myspace.com/darienakadbrock and www.DarienMusic.com.

Download "He Will Break Your Heart" (mp3)
from "Somebody To Love"
by Darien Brockington
Hall Of Justus/ABB Records 		Download "Can We Fall In Love Again" (mp3)
from "Somebody To Love"
by Darien Brockington
Hall Of Justus/ABB Records