Darwin is, for a while, King of the Hipsters, right? I mean, in the UK, we don’t fully understand the term; another Americanism that’s filtered through our own dialect, yet before long echoing in our mind’s eye with quasi-familiarity. We know they like traingles, the hipsters. That’s what we think know! We associate them with ‘▲’, or whatever. We think we want to be more like them, but we like meat too much to be vegan.

Etomology irrelevant, Darwin’s done good at it. That ‘Radar Detector’ song’s been playing loads, and we always hum along. The dance sequences in his live sets fit perfect as festival apparel; we hold pints mazily aloft in one hand while we prop up our methedrone-mauled mate with the other, in the UK. Yet Darwin’s craft, black magic or white, has carried him from holding down the ‘●’ button on a cassette recorder in his bedroom in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to a field near Steventon, Reading, in the UK.

Among the hay bails and cattle sheds, he sticks out like a sore thumb. Limp brown twirls cascade from his head like a waterfall, tied steady by a dutiful Alice band. Loose clothes hang lazy from his frame. His PR rep for the day introduces us and I ask if Beth can take some pictures to accompany the interview.

He immediately panics;

…the statement becomes somewhat less tongue-in-cheek as he dashes back to the van to study his reflection in the tinted window.

Did you fly in today?

‘No, no, we didn’t fly. We drove down from, erm… Sheffield? We played at the Tramlines festival last night so… the venue was real small but James the co-owner, really nice guy, gift of gab*, erm, it was a great night!’

*This was a nice touch, the first of many indicators that Darwin is, no question, good people. He was heading to Secret Garden tomorrow – post Truck – too

‘We haven’t been there before… someone told me it was really ‘druggie’?’

That’s definitely an element, yeah, but if you’re of that persuasion you’ll be in good company

‘Ah, well I’m not a drug person…’ [this a half-answer, as he is momentarily distracted while members of Fucked Up walk past]

‘What band are these? What band is that cute girl in? Oh!’

Fucked Up. Them, not you.

‘Ha! They were sexy, and I don’t have too much to do today’

Hey, focus! You’re here today to share your music… so in a general sense, what would you say you are trying to achieve with it?

‘Well, the drive for me just comes from, like, having a career. Also some type of Erickson psycho-social stage of development, and erm, music is just what I love to do so that’s where the drive mostly comes from. I feel ultimately the goal of artists or the function of the artist in society is to inspire people. I keep that in mind, I think these days, what’s equally important; there’s the music and then there’s, like, the personality, and then there’s something else like an image or political import or whatever…

Like, with John Lennon, there’s the musical aspect and then there’s his personality which is equally important and then the whole political and spiritual thing which is as important in who he is to other people. I think when you get to that level those things become important y’know? At the moment, I’m just music for music lovers, but I try to make music for the masses, and at the moment I’ve sorta shot myself in the foot because I produced it in a way that only music lovers would really be able to appreciate. It’s very Lo-Fi and stuff… but we’ll see in the future, we’ll see what happens.

Y’know, the song that stands out in a karaoke booth because it’s so fun to sing, or the song people will sing when they’re protesting or whatever, that for me is when music breaks out beyond its normal capacity…’

That sense of unity in sound…

‘Yeah, that’s special, I think that’s pretty cool. For now I’m happy creating music and expressing emotions or whatever.’

Well, this is the main reasons I wanted to talk with you – I’d imagine there’s a lot more to be drawn from your personality, which is the side people may not immediately take from your music. For example, I imagine you could hold a pretty decent political conversation…

‘I could hold it, I’m not interested in politics though. I’m way more interested in spirituality, just from the way I’ve been brought up I think.’

Do you have any particular mantras you keep with you?

‘Don’t worry, be happy!’

That’s not really a mantra man, it’s more of a karaoke tune…

‘Okay, erm, there are other ones – ‘Expect nothing, receive everything‘… ‘A smile or a glance that lifts a drooping heart is just as important as giving your life to a cause‘, in spirituality they are equal. That’s something Meher Baba said…’

Meher Baba?

‘Meher Baba is the guru that my parents discovered in the 70s, that’s how they met each other and then that’s how they raised me and my sisters, through an awareness of it. My parents didn’t actually name me after the scientist, they named me after a follower of Meher Baba. He’s actually an English guy and my parents looked up to him, rightly so, and erm, they also wanted my name to be similar to Darryl.’

Well this is all new ground for me… Can you give me a crash-course in his teachings?

‘Well, he would say that he came not to teach but to awaken…’

Like any prophet really?

‘Well, erm… I felt he had this really special thing going on, like, divine love. He just drew people to him. I dunno, it’s very unknown now but it was around a lot in the 70s. But I think it’s the real thing. You can think and think and wonder and be existential in philosophy but you never get an real answers, you just get more questions… I did that when I was 18, I read a lot of Nietzsche and stuff and it freaked me out and would make me really sad, but something my Dad said was like, ‘I don’t know all the answers, but the way you can trust other people as humans sometimes, I know I can trust him [Meher Baba], trust that he’s not bullshitting‘, y’know? I’m not quite as devoted or convinced as my parents, but I’ve felt that feeling toward him – I’ve felt the Baba love and it’s a big thing for me.’

Do you, therefore, find it subconsciously transferring into your music?

‘It doesn’t really I think. It does affect my persona – what I believe in and how I try and live my life, but when I make music it’s more to do with being true to the human experience, which for most people has nothing to do with spirituality and has everything to do with your emotions, the little shit that you want and the things that eat at you, all that stuff. The little things. With spirituality you might have moments of existentialism; I have one song that’s very existential and I wish I had more because I think that’s really cool, but it’s not a lot of material when you break it down from a song writing perspective…’

Which song are you citing as being existential?

‘Oh, ‘Constellations’ – very existential. People say it’s a happy song but it’s actually really bleak and like ‘what the fuck’s going on?!‘ I’m excited for the video, we’re gonna shoot for that in August with Terri Timely – brilliant directors, they’ve got a brilliant concept so I’m really excited to work with them. I think they’re gonna go down in history as one of the best directing teams of our times.’

Could you tell me a little more about your recording process then? You do it all yourself you said…

‘It’s gonna be different now but for the last album I did everything on a really old desktop PC, with those massive towers y’know? I used a lot of cracked software and cracked plug-ins, some really old software compared to today. Limitations are really helpful though when you’re creating, there’s nothing more helpful than limitations as far as, just getting the juices flowing! I just used this one microphone or whatever I had around and it just helped me focus in on the song-writing and arrangements.’

Was it an ongoing project? So as to say you were writing and recording as and when…

‘Yeah, I would write and record and mix song-by-song. Although a lot of them I would sketch the guitar and vocals and then when I was recording I’d add other things in like the drums or other guitars. Kinda organic I guess.’

…and from that to this! The whole thing seems to have taken you an a great adventure…

‘Yeah, totally..’

There is something almost innate in the American penchant of producing good pop music; they are brazen in the art. The sickly-sweet melodies within Darwin’s own produce are disarming and playful, and on listening I feel like a stick in the mud for not immediately owning more disco records or even anything remotely as melodic. The mantra here is; ‘we’re gonna smile, dance, and have fun with our music – if you’re not into that, we’ll carry on regardless. There’s no rain on our parade.‘ I sometimes wish I were as carefree.

Photography by Beth Saunders