Harts is the nom de plume of Indian-born, Australian-based musician, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music producer Darren Hart, whose singular blend of funk, jazz, blues, psychedelic rock, and indie electronic has drawn comparisons to, Jimi Hendrix, Lenny Kravitz and Prince among others. To draw praise from the late Prince is an incredible honour; he thought Harts reminded him of himself at a younger age.
An Interview with Harts by Mark Moray
Mark Moray – Let’s start from the very beginning. You were born in India, where in India are you from and when did you migrate to Australia?
Darren Hart – I was born in Madras, now named Chennai, which is southern India. I was about 2 or 3 years old when we moved to Australia in the mid 90’s where my dad decided it was a great country to look for opportunities. We stayed with my uncle until we moved and have stayed in Melbourne ever since.
MM – When the family moved to Melbourne, did your parents have any Indian traditions that they may have continued in Australia?
DH – No, not really. I guess that they were trying to fit into the culture in Australia. I guess that they wanted to raise us as Australian citizens, which we are. It was always hard coming from a different culture and a completely different mindset in a way. I remember going to school and learning the difference between cultures and for the first time realising that I am not from where I am at as you don’t really understand that as a kid. All that was a challenge for my parents I guess. They really tried to fit into the Australian lifestyle. I am really proud of what they have accomplished considering that they were probably younger than I am now. They were in the early twenties looking for a better life. They did really well.
MM – Your parents were great athletes, so where did you get your passion for music?
DH – That came from friends that I was hanging around in school. I was into athletics track and field, and I was doing that until quite recently where I was doing high-end sport. I got into music about year nine or ten. One of my good friends started playing guitar and another good friend starting playing drums, and seemed all my friends around me started getting into all that music stuff and I just kind of fell into it because they were doing it. It is really strange because when I look back and I look at it now and that decision I made like I’d like to play an instrument, I’d like to play drums. It was where I was at that time. I didn’t have ambitions to become a musician; it just seemed like a fun thing to do at the time. Once I got into it, I realised that I really enjoy this; I am really finding a passion for it. Then over two to three years that kind of naturally developed where it became almost obsessive. I was getting into so much music, so many different artists. I really found what I loved about music in that time frame. I was really just listening to what was on the radio that was kind of my taste in music and once I started playing music, I delved into things that were a little more complex and I started to develop my own taste in music and that really stamped my musical identity. Once I finished school, I just took it seriously. We started a band with some friends, we played gigs around Melbourne and Sydney as well. That didn’t work out so I started another band and did the same thing, but that didn’t work out either, so I decided to put my solo stuff online, and then a couple of years later, I met up with Prince. It was a natural progression from listening to music and becoming a full-time musician.
MM – You seem to do most of your recording at home rather than in the studio, is this because you feel more comfortable recording at home?
DH – Yes, when I was starting out I wasn’t really taking the music super seriously, so I was doing it all at home for fun as I had other ambitions in life.
Then I got really comfortable with that kind of environment where I could play music in my room. I did work in a studio doing some collaboration here and there, but I realised that I really like working by myself, and enjoyed the nature of doing everything myself and it was a little bit more efficient because when I was working with other people and other producers and stuff I was almost taking over in a way saying could you do this and could you do that and thought that I could probably do that myself and a little bit quicker.
MM – How difficult is it to transform the music you record at home where you play most of the instruments yourself, to playing live on stage with a band where the band needs to capture your songs and deliver it with the same passion?
DH – It was a big challenge because, with the recordings, I never set it up saying this is how it should be played live. So take my composition and have it adapted for a band to play it live was a big challenge. A few years ago when I was doing shows by myself, I started to paly at bigger venues and started to bring out a bigger band and writing for it ever since. Now its probably easier than ever, and WOMADelaide will be a really good adaptation of that as I have been able to put together a seven-piece band with a horn section, keyboard player, second guitarist, bass player and drummer, that the music kind of works well in that kind of scene. Before I was taking out a lot of elements and therefore I was not able to play a lot of songs because I couldn’t do it justice playing live but now that the sound is a whole lot bigger and fuller I feel it is where it is supposed to be. I am very excited about the opportunity to play with a seven-piece band.
MM – Speaking of playing live, in 2018 you released a live album, “Live In Brisbane 2017” so early on in your career, so how difficult is it recording live?
DH – It was actually the fans that were requesting for me to put out a live album as it was the live performances’ that they felt were as good as the albums, if not better. People also loved a lot of the extended guitar stuff that was being played live as well. I record a lot of shows anyway for archiving so I can watch later and learn how to improve myself. As I had a lot of these recordings I would put snippets of video on social media, and the fans would comment about putting out a live show and recording it. I really wanted to. I didn’t tell anyone that I was going to do it. We recorded every show in 2017 and we chose the best show. I mixed it myself and we got a film crew of seven cameras to record it as well. We chose the Brisbane show as it sounded better, felt better, the vibe of the audience was better it and as it was the last show on the tour everything just seemed to gel together, so that is why we chose that concert.
MM – Let’s go back to 2014 when you released “Daydreamer”. One of the tracks from that album “Leavin It All Behind” was videoed in a room full of paintings. Did you paint them as your guitar has the same abstract work painted on it?
DH – No, I didn’t paint them. They were from an artist that was living around from where I was living at the time, who would paint cars and stuff like that. He would listen to music and paint what he feels when he hears the music and this was the same guy that painted my guitar, and that is the reason I still play that guitar because it represents a lot of elements of my music and I kind of agree with him. I didn’t tell what colours to use like, red, blue or green, and those were the colours he used, and it was awesome that he did. I have been playing that guitar for five years and I have been trying to track down that guy and let him know that I still use that guitar for my shows. I hope I can find him again.
MM – For me, WOMADelaide is a festival that not only shares music, dance, food and talks, but is a festival that has a diverse aspect of different cultures.
As an artist that will be performing at WOMAdelaide, is there anything you are hoping to see that will be different to other festivals that you have played at?
DH – Yes, I have been really looking forward to it. A few years ago, someone had said I should play at WOMAD and I hadn’t heard of it, then I looked it up, and thought this is a really big cultural arts event, and I love those kinds of things. Sometimes with music festivals, you are only getting the same kind of palette of artists and all have the same kind of theme to it. Some of these more cultural wider events, you start to see things that you normally wouldn’t get exposure to in any other way, and I have only played a handful of these events in the past and I have started to see international artists that inspire me or shows me that there are things going on in music, because sometimes we can live in a bubble in Australia and we don’t really know in terms of music what is out there. I am really looking forward to discovering new things that I will love.
MM – Final question, why Harts and not Hart?
DH – When I was putting my very first song up on iTunes, I couldn’t use the name HART, as it was phonetically the same name as the band HEART, and I was thinking ahead like what if one of my songs were on the radio and they said it was HART but people thought it was HEART. I couldn’t use the name Darren Hart either as there was an artist by that name releasing music at that time, so the only suggestion I had was HART with an S. All the user names were free and the websites were free, so I said why not.
Harts is listed at playing at WOMADelaide on the Novatech stage on Monday 11th of March – 6.15pm.
(Always check the program on the day in case there are changes to the times and stage)
www.hartsmusic.com
www.facebook.com/Hartsmusic
www.instagram.com/hartsmusic
