Darren is a full-time member of the genre-fluid movement “Black Creek Reign” and the Caribbean stylings of “The Band Destiny”. He’s a lead vocalist, primary songwriter, co-producer, and multi-instrumentalist in both projects. In this MAD episode, he discusses his ethnic background and how it has shaped him and his music career. Darren also speaks on the challenges he’s faced and how the MAD program by monstrARTity helped him reach new levels of success!
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Twitter ► https://twitter.com/MonstrARTityDarren is a full-time member of the genre-fluid movement “Black Creek Reign” and the Caribbean stylings of “The Band Destiny”. He’s a lead vocalist, primary songwriter, co-producer, and multi-instrumentalist in both projects. In this MAD episode, he discusses his ethnic background and how it has shaped him and his music career. Darren also
#BollywoodMonster Mashup
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i’m darren i am from the band black
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creek reign in the band destiny and i am
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part of the bollywood monster mashup and
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the mad artist development program this
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year
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[Music]
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i was born and raised over here i don’t
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necessarily look like it
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i look like i’m indian but i’m actually
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from the caribbean i’m supposed to like
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chutney music i hate it i’m just kind of
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in between everything so it’s been
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for a long time it was really hard for
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me to really find not only what i liked
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but what i also was good at
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and i settled on the reggae pop funk
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like that sort of thing
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[Music]
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we were a different band before we were
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called heaven’s muse before
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and then when we split up um we decided
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to be something home like black black
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creek drive is not far away from where i
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am and most of us grew up around there
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so we we were black creek drive for
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about a week and then you’ll never
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believe it there was a band in japan
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somehow also called black creek drive
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and we’re like what seriously so
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we changed it and my girlfriend at the
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time had suggested the name rain black
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creek rain and we’re like
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not a terrible idea and so for the last
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like five four or five years we’ve been
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blackberry grain
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i don’t want none of your time
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so as any good musician
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women are my muse they always have been
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they always will be
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specifically women from my past
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because if they’re not here anymore then
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that’s when it’s best to write about
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them apparently
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so because no we can’t possibly write
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about them when they’re here that’s
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where’s the art in that they have to be
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years like gone and now ah yes now i
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feel it because
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because men i try to watch what i eat
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get exercise all of those things because
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those are so important
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for for mental health for physical
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health for everything
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the best performances i do are the ones
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where i didn’t get as much sleep as i
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should have i didn’t warm up the way i
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would have liked to i haven’t eaten in
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several hours but i’m just tossed on
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stage and it’s go for it and it’s almost
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as if i let everything out in how i
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sound like there’s a mental at ease and
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i’ve obviously done
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great performances where i was able to
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warm up i was able to eat i was able to
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sleep i was able to do all of those
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things because now all of that’s not on
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your mind and now you’re able to just
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step on stage and go for it but there’s
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almost a sense of desperation in your
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body now especially for seasoned
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performers they’re almost like a sense
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of all right a few more songs and then
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you can eat all right a few more songs
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and you can take a nap right
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i know what i signed up for and and come
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hell or high water you gotta deliver
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[Music]
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you got me like crazy
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[Music]
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you don’t come to rehearsal to learn
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your part you come to a rehearsal to
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learn everybody else’s part
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because especially in a group
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performance you need to know when to
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come in when to not come in you need to
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know what your queue is what your cue
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isn’t when the song stops when a song
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starts so on and so forth
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and all of these things and the energy
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of a live rehearsal with multiple people
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is significantly different than
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just a solo rehearsal right it’s why
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like stage pro it’s why stage fright is
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a thing right like the actual energy and
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and ambiance of a stage
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being in front of people and around
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people is a completely different energy
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than when you’re by yourself so it’s
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going to be a challenge for people to
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very quickly step out of their home
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rehearsals into
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the big rehearsals
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and kind of
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get themselves in that proper headspace
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[Music]
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let them all pass on
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[Music]
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[Music]
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who has hurt all mankind just
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to save his own beliefs
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it’s such a classic that like like
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everybody will know it
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the indians caribbeans everybody’s gonna
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know it it’s gonna that’s gonna be a
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show stopper for sure it’s it and even
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when it was first out in the 70s it was
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always like a unity unifying type of
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song and it’s one of those things where
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the message is timeless and it’s
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something people still need to hear
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so now that i can record at home i
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realize that at most performances the
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monitors on stage are
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at least the vocal part of it are never
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as loud as they should be i would sing
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and i do a 45 60 minute set and i’ve got
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enough stamina that i can do that no
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problem but i would feel at the end of
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all of these shows like
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i’d feel it was strained i’d feel like i
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had almost pushed too hard and then i’m
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looking at other guys like ed sheeran
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and john mayer and they’re doing these
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back-to-back shows these three nights
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and three shows and three nights kind of
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i’m like how the hell are they doing
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this like
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is there something that i’m missing is
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and now i realize that i was singing too
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hard and the monitors need to be pushed
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much much louder i shouldn’t have to
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strain i should be able to do
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back-to-back shows no problems
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[Music]
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rarely do you see like a brown guy front
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man in bands in toronto at least in like
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rock funk blues bands they exist make no
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i’m not a unicorn or anything like that
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they exist
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but there’s not that many of them right
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so this felt something that was catered
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to
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they like the reggae stuff they like the
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pop stuff they like our skill set and
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they actually have a plan to promote us
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it wasn’t the type of thing where
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they’re like here’s some money go away
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are these workshops here’s this
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information here’s how we’re going to
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help you a very detailed
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list of steps let’s go through it
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together
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it feels like a real mentoring program
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and that’s that’s one of the main
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reasons that i was attracted to this you
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they have all the funding in the world
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where i can take them legitimately
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seriously they’ve been very transparent
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about everything so far there’s been
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lots of communication lots of open line
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here’s our number call us and contact us
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every time this is the most
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sincere effort to build artists so far
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that i’ve ever been a part of and that’s
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been ultra attractive to
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i ever tell me about maxine you know
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what i say i don’t know but i know
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[Music]
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