We had the opportunity to connect with Darren Porter during Luminosity in the Netherlands for this exclusive interview, where he reflects on the childhood spark that led him to Trance, the cinematic techniques that shape his signature sound, and the spontaneous creative flow behind his collaboration on “Potion.” He opens up about the personal battles that inspired his Reason to Rise label and explains its unique A&R process that's focused on quality. Along the way, Darren shares grounded advice for aspiring artists and shares the joy balance of music, relationships, and dog Teddy brings to his life.
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TRANCE JESUS:
Chris Blackburn reporting from the Netherlands for the fourteenth edition of Luminosity Beach Festival. I’m joined here for this special interview with a DJ who is no stranger to Luminosity and has released dozens of tracks and instrumentals and is a driving success behind a number of trance labels and launched his latest imprint in 2021 with the track Reason to Rise. Please welcome the one and only Darren Porter.
DARREN PORTER:
Hello and thank you very much for having me.
TRANCE JESUS:
Thank you for having me in your room! It’s airconditioned! (Cross talk)
DARREN PORTER:
Right now, is, I think, probably the hottest day of the year in Europe by far from my opinion anyway. I’m currently here at the hotel at Schiphol in Amsterdam and we have the aircon in the room. We were going to do this outside but it’s just way too hot. (Cross talk)
TRANCE JESUS:
Much better in the room.
Yeah, we can’t do this. Beautiful weather, as the British would say, a little bit too hot.
TRANCE JESUS:
Exactly. Speaking of hot, yesterday, during your set, I’m sure probably in the hot sun, dropped a few kilograms from the sweat. I was on stage a few times and I was just sweating, and I wasn’t even performing.
DARREN PORTER:
That was from the, I mean it’s not a bad thing, loose few pounds, it is a bit of a Covid belly, I’m going to blame something. Yesterday it was really hot. I think it was the canopy, for the rain, just in case and that was warm but…
TRANCE JESUS:
But that crowd!
DARREN PORTER:
The crowd were warm, and I felt the energy in the heat, that was just like…Did you feel it too?
TRANCE JESUS:
Yeah.
DARREN PORTER:
It was weird, it was like tantalizing, fizzy.
TRANCE JESUS:
Exactly.
DARREN PORTER:
Unbelievable feeling.
TRANCE JESUS:
Being able to see the crowd, knowing they were sweating as well, dancing to the music. There’s just nothing like it, especially with that view!
DARREN PORTER:
I was cheering, I was wiping the head, there’s a drink, another drink, just trying to keep hydrated.
TRANCE JESUS:
They should have an IV as part of the stage.
DARREN PORTER:
I think they might be misused.
TRANCE JESUS:
Yes, probably. So, we had a few exchanges over the years on socials and ran into each other at Dreamstate, 2018/ 2019. It was nice to meet you and your lovely fiancé Anja, who is off camera. She is waving, you just can’t see it. I’ve got a few burning questions that I’m dying to ask you, so put on your thinking cap. It’s your story, and that’s where I always love to start is the origin story. They are very much the part that shapes us, not only as artists but also as individuals as ourselves, put us where we are today and who we are today. Can you tell us that first memory of the first trance track, or maybe it was Techno, back in the day when it was called Techno, that made you fall in love with Trance music?
DARREN PORTER:
I’m clearing my throat while thinking about this one.
TRANCE JESUS:
That’s okay, I do the same with my voice.
DARREN PORTER:
Its hot. Anyway, I didn’t know at the time I was listening to Trance.
TRANCE JESUS:
Oh, wow.
DARREN PORTER:
Okay. I didn’t know what it was, didn’t define it. I wasn’t into music enough to define what a subgenre of something else was.
TRANCE JESUS:
Sure.
DARREN PORTER:
But like late Eighties, I was barely able to understand music, like seven or eight years old. It was kind of bouncing around or whatever. Seven- and eight-year-olds bouncing around, it wasn’t too sharp or something these days.
TRANCE JESUS:
They bounce off the walls, having three boys I know what that is.
DARREN PORTER:
I’m really glad I grew up then listening to, let’s say influenced by…By the time I was ten years old, listening to that track like umm da ummm dang in the backseat of my dad’s car, what the hell is this? I didn’t know. Then this piano came in and shut me up, not bouncing around like a kid in the back. I said oh, ohhh. There we are, Robert Miles’ Children. Massive influence. This had a commercial, I don’t want to say success, but who has heard this kick and off beat before, in the back of my dad’s car on Radio One or whatever it was, some radio station or whatever it was on.
And then came this kind of era following that, it was all this kind of Eurodance kind of influenced commercial sound, led on to the Ibiza sounds and kit all evolved into that what I went with, grew up with. So, I didn’t know I was listening to Trance music, I was listening to this unbelievable selection of sounds that was put together with this hard, aggressive Donk almost back then.
TRANCE JESUS:
Electronica, that’s what they called it, I think, back in the day.
DARREN PORTER:
Electronica, I was obsessed with it. And when the album came out, it was one of the first albums I ever bought from my own pocket money, saving up and stuff. I learned to play pianos and keyboards just by listening. I havent got any piano lessons or anything like this. Picking it up by ear. One of the things I picked up really early on was Robert Miles’ Children, that deedeeleed. Figured out that first whole thing is a run of the same chord and when I was watching the chord I thought, oh, that’s kind of cool, I get it. That’s probably the strongest influence, but I didn’t know it was trance at that time.
TRANCE JESUS:
Yeah, that was kind of my story. I was actually sixteen. I was flying to Amsterdam for my dad, it was the first time,1996. And I had little in-seat-headphones and it was all over- You’re not alone, that was my first trance track. The next time I came back to Amsterdam was the first when we met, when I’ve seen you, that was in 2017 and Paul Webster played his version, that literally was like breakdown, it was like, come full circle. First heard it, this track, coming to Amsterdam, I come back here and heard a great version of it. That was amazing.
DARREN PORTER:
It was because I found similarities in me being caught by sound and listening, not just by that Robert Miles, because I would bounce around and dance as a kid and all sorts of stuff. But there was something that calmed me down while I should have been bouncing around and dancing with such a kind of Donk, umph, off beat, kick and sub, you know? But then, on the same year, I started listening to music a little bit differently, I started to learn and understand it and try and mimic and compliment and that’s when the Lion King came out. I had the score to that, and I was listening for it and understanding and this all piled into the cinematic, uplifting, harmonic, whatever it was. That I now call Trance.
TRANCE JESUS:
And that’s very interesting. I was doing a little bit of homework on Darren Porter and was intrigued in one of the interviews you did in one of the, I think it was Trance For You, I forgot her name, but you mentioned that film scores were a big inspiration to your sound design and the way you build Trance tracks. We talked about Lion King right now, but I want to know your favourite movie scores. Just a couple ones that stick out and if any of those were popular ones and influenced any of your tracks?
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, there’s a lot of influence. But they come not so much from my favourite ones, they come from the techniques that they used in them.
TRANCE JESUS:
Ah, I love that!
DARREN PORTER:
So, the technique that they used in them. This goes from an interview that Hans Zimmer had done, I think it was back in the nineties, if you dig it out…He was talking about scoring Gladiator at the time, and it was about him rescuing Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003 it was, I think. He took on that project really late after someone had done the main riff and then he was all on board. And I was like, wow, how has he done that? How the hell did you pull that thing together in that time? I was obsessed with it. The reason why I was obsessed with that is, because of his explanation of what he had done in it. He used an orchestra the same way you would play the instruments as a rock band.
So, he would put string instruments and cello through a distortion amp (sings) and you’re getting this kind of thing, you know, Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow (both singing melodies), he was a rockstar and that’s what he was seeing, it was all just distortion, power fits, chords and I thought okay, that’s what he’s done. Its basically a guitar. He has built up a rock band with an orchestra. If you look at what he does with most of his movies, there’s something of the essence of what he’s working on, what he uses, not just a melody, its what he does with the instruments and sounds. Another example, we are getting to mine by the way.
Another example is Interstellar. You got the organ, he said, he needs actual wind and air, it needs to breathe. Its basically a pair of lungs. (Makes breathing sound) And you feel the world and the universe breathing with this. And I’m like, wow, goosebumps. Thinking about it, you’re using air and pressure to create that sound which is like wow.
TRANCE JESUS:
The science behind it.
DARREN PORTER:
The science behind the harmonics and where it comes from is purely fascinating and the result comes out with a clear explanation. So back to what I do with sound design, is yeah, there’s thousands and thousands of presets banks. I have a bass patch, I have fifteen or sixteen bass patches, now I need a pluck, I will go and find the pluck category and pick one of those. That’s painting by numbers. That’s genuinely painting by numbers, filling in gaps, right? I like to find harmonics or find something, where there isn’t anything to find. I need to blur that mix between sound effect and sound instrument, if you know what I mean? You get something out of it.
Of course, your Trance tracks you’ve got your usual ingredients which you need, you need a kick, in there you’ll need your usual , you have your own favourite feel and everything else beyond that is the harmonic building, it’s the layering of what every sound is doing to the harmonics, so basically creating an orchestra out of synthesizers, without being too on the notes with the cheap synths. So, yeah, I’m building Rock music with an orchestral composer’s mindset into a Trance world. I look for the harmonics in everything. Harmonics and tension.
TRANCE JESUS:
That makes you think. Music is a big inspiration in your life, you know, and I talk to a lot of artists that aspire to make music their job. They have a 9-5, like myself, which, as much as I would love to be full time in the music, I’ve got, as I say, three boys, two dogs, a wife and a house, that I had to do. So, I do have to have a day job. Looking at that stability, I always love to enquire, if you weren’t in music, what do you think you would be doing?
DARREN PORTER:
I have no idea.
TRANCE JESUS:
That’s a fair response.
DARREN PORTER:
There are things I could be doing and probably would be doing, but not out of choice. I made a choice really early on in my life that it would be something in music, that I end up in music one day and when the day comes that I’m old enough and mature enough to understand that it isn’t going to work, then I will stop doing it. But until then I’m going to work my ass off to wherever I want to be, that’s being my entire existence. So, what I can see myself doing anything but that? Maybe. I don’t know but I havent thought about it. So, I mean, it’s dangerous not having a backup plan and stuff like this, but I feel, I have plenty of hobbies and experiences that I think I could…Yeah. I think I would branch out into some technology branch of some sort.
TRANCE JESUS:
And even at this point being in the industry as long as you have in working with music, a lot of people do look at you as an inspiration. So that’s always an opportunity to inspire others as well and this is where I wanted to go with that concept of inspiration.
One of my personal favourite top tens of the tracks you did was that track you did with Sean [Tyas], Potion. It happens to actually be the one favourite number one track of my friend, shoutout to my friend Mac in Minneapolis, he loves that song and when Sean was in town for the show, I brought him in in 2021, he literally just started crying. And I got this photo, and I will show you. Its magical.
DARREN PORTER:
Aww.
TRANCE JESUS:
He stands right there, just holding his hands crying because of that track.
DARREN PORTER:
That’s awesome! I can almost see and hear what Sean is saying to him right there. That’s so cool!
TRANCE JESUS:
When Sean came back this last time back in March, he remembered Mac from that whole experience.
DARREN PORTER:
Wow!
TRANCE JESUS:
So, given that song and showing you that moment, he wanted me to ask you this question.
DARREN PORTER:
Okay.
TRANCE JESUS:
What inspired that collaboration, how did you come up with that song? That’s kind of a generalised …
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, so, its hard to answer these, that particular question or phrase that way, because I didn’t wake up and go, okay, today I want to do a collaboration with Sean. How did it happen? I don’t know.
TRANCE JESUS:
Sure.
DARREN PORTER:
I don’t know if you know, Sean and I are really close friends and we…(laughs) talk every day, yeah, every day.
TRANCE JESUS:
I can say, Sean and I had the same kind of thing.
DARREN PORTER:
We were just talking and skyping and zooming and whatever, just having a little kind of hangout and stuff, and then we would just throw each other stuff all day long, could be working on anything but not together, just studio buddies. But on the other side of Europe sort of thing. I’ve done a riff and I was just playing around and I wanted something more aggressive than uplifting, so I was taking away the kind of like soft attacks and the envelopes and stuff like this, kind of sharpening it up and getting the release down, making it a bit more aggressive, wider, tuning stuff, really techy and stuff.
And Sean, he was like, this is sounding more aggressive, what have you did you do to it? Do these little flicks and play around with it a little bit. And I was like, alright then. We just modified it between each other for three days and neither of us sat down and said, we are doing a collaboration. It was not on the table.
TRANCE JESUS:
Bouncing ideas forth and back.
DARREN PORTER:
It was like, we’ve done this, we’ve done that, and done this and done that and he was like, check this out, what if I do this…he was like, hold on a minute. And I came back and I’m waiting and waiting and I’m like, dude, I’m waiting. He was, wait, I’m nearly done. And he got himself really hooked into this. Couple of hours later, we let each other get on with those kinds of flows, and he comes out and he dropped a kick and a sub on this, and I was just like, wow. Let’s come back tomorrow on this one. We didn’t even plan to do it and it just happened. So within basically two days it was done.
TRANCE JESUS:
Those are the best kind of collaborations.
DARREN PORTER:
And that’s it, inspiration, spare of the moment, right there and then and it was just like , I knew, If it was anybody who could do something with this kind of really aggressive little kind of craziness, it was going to be Sean, he was going to help out with, he was definitely getting into the right tracks and he absolutely smashed the sound design on it as well.
TRANCE JESUS:
Honestly, its such a great track. And speaking of Sean, you were A&R for Tytanium?
DARREN PORTER:
That was a long time ago.
TRANCE JESUS:
It was a long time ago.
DARREN PORTER:
Yes, yes.
TRANCE JESUS:
Lets go even further back, how did you meet Sean and how did that relationship and that friendship evolve?
DARREN PORTER:
Don’t quote me on a year, but it was touching over ten years ago, definitely over ten years ago now. I think it was just at gigs, you know? It was just at gigs and shows and you just kind of see the same names and the same faces keep popping up and it was just that type of thing. He was in Germany one time, and I just moved over to Germany with Anja.
TRANCE JESUS:
Like mid 2000s?
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah like mid 2000s, I had no money at all, I had nothing in my bank account and I said okay, let’s just drive, just drive to Stuttgart, to the thing he was playing in, to go and see him. It was like six hours drive or something. So, we decided, oh, we just sleep in the car. Just wanted to hang out, that sort of thing. So, we went and drove over and we ended up getting a hotel, the whole plan of making it all cool, it sounds good at the time. But when you there, you know what no, definitely not. We just hung out, we had a good time and we kept in touch, and I think he understood, what I was trying to do in the studio and what I was working towards and he did help me in loads of things and I just loved his kind of straight-shooting attitude.
TRANCE JESUS:
He definitely is.
DARREN PORTER:
And he definitely has that, and I respect that a lot, I really do.
TRANCE JESUS:
Too many people in music and even in just the business aren’t straight with you, that realism. Rielism. That’s the thing of Sied now. I think realism always is a breath of fresh air when you’re interacting with people.
DARREN PORTER:
It is, I mean, sometimes. Personally, I’m working on myself let’s say.
TRANCE JESUS:
We all are. We are all a work in progress.
DARREN PORTER:
To give a bit more time and energy to people who may not deserve it, let’s say.
TRANCE JESUS:
That way you have something to give back to others, am I right?
DARREN PORTER:
Yes, to those who deserve it.
TRANCE JESUS:
So, then after you worked with Sean, you ran Transgression with Micky Crilly. What happened with Trancegression after that final release for Yoshi &Razner, it was Eternal?
DARREN PORTER:
Okay, so Trancegression started, oh god, what year was it, 2016/2015?
TRANCE JESUS:
Yeah that’s probably right.
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, 2014/2015, whatever it was with my counterpart in Australia. I think we’ve done pretty well; we had a few events in Europe, we’ve done some events in Australia, we had quite a decent number of releases, a few top tens in fact. We had Yoshi and Razner in there, Metta and Glyde were on there. Yeah, we had our ear on the ground for that uplifting stuff and I’m really pleased to see Yoshi and Razner, Metta and Glyde really taking off recently, its amazing to see. And shout out to both, all four of those guys even, its Xijaro and Pitch too. So, all six of those guys, a big shoutout to what they’ve been doing.
But with Trancegression, it was basically life gets in the way, that sort of thing and then obviously when Covid hit, it was just- all tools down for everyone. Re-evaluate, everyone’s life changed dramatically. So, you know, hence out of the ashes – there’s Reason to Rise.
TRANCE JESUS:
The Phoenix arose.
DARREN PORTER:
It is, hence, the Reason to Rise, yeah.
TRANCE JESUS:
And so, with what happened with Covid, right as that was really starting to get into the heat of it, that’s when Reason to Rise really started? How was that born? Jay was involved, I know that Bob gives his inspiration as well. How did that all start to develop?
DARREN PORTER:
Its off the back of, let’s say, the name of itself, because I pretty much checked out at one point and that checking out was basically checking out full stop. So why would I want to save a life that wasn’t worth living and it was a really dark place. Shout out to anyone who is going through that, it will pass. So, when that passes, you start to re-evaluate what’s important, what isn’t and you look around – what’s your reason to get out of bed in the morning? And you asked me earlier, what else can I see myself doing?
TRANCE JESUS:
Mhm.
DARREN PORTER:
And the answer is: Nothing! I’m honest with myself.
TRANCE JESUS:
Sure.
DARREN PORTER:
I could’ve said: Oh, well, maybe I enjoy, you know, actually, physics and maths and science, I used to do some serious shit, do I want to pursue that and work for it? No. So can I see myself doing it? No. Because I don’t want to. Is that selfish? Probably. But its my creative need not to want to do this and my privilege to be able to do so.
TRANCE JESUS:
Absolutely.
DARREN PORTER:
And not being afraid of admitting that is now my freedom, to work with music.
TRANCE JESUS:
Its your Reason to Rise.
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, its my Reason to Rise. And that’s the reason why, yeah.
TRANCE JESUS:
I love that name, you know. And I’m very fortunate to actually have the whole catalogue. And a lot of that is due to our mutual friend Bob Bickert aka BIXX, who told me, how he got the name. Yesterday, when you were staying with him, and I heard about the Bick and you came up with the Bixx …
ANJA:
Yeah.
TRANCE JESUS:
…and him being creative and always looking at that market and he added that extra X.
DARREN PORTER:
Absolutely.
TRANCE JESUS:
So, there’s phenomenal tracks on the label. You guys are doing an awesome job, so shout out to you and the team. Are there any R’s you’ve signed, that you see, have some big potential for the future on the label like you do when you start in music?
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, there are a lot of people who do well. And I don’t know what it is, but you kind of see it, you sense it, you smell it kind of, sort of thing. You feel it.
TRANCE JESUS:
You see their drive, their passion.
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, it’s a lot there. Because a lot of people start with full tanks and powerful and good driving skills. And towards the end of that race your car is kind of battered up and you run out of fuel and you’re just tired, you know. A lot of that sometimes and you need to refuel. And its hard to pinpoint who is going to be an amazing artist, because everyone is. Because with Reason to Rise it’s not just who I decide that this guy has one good track and I think he’s going to be doing well. Oh, I have a second track, great. There are two good tracks, and then you’re going to have an amazing career. Because that’s just not fair to suggest this. Not my decision to make this. But do I see certain things in certain people and producers? Yes, I do.
So, with Reason to Rise, I made it paramount with Jay as a decision, that our signing, our A&R process is completely different. We strip the names off the tracks entirely, I don’t know, I’m listening to a piece of music. One, two, three, however many are in that session that day. It is numbered for me, that is it. And I give my feedback on a criteria, that we set and then I give a score. Its that simple.
And then there’s others and its about five to six, it depends. We have a certain limit of people who are available at the time to do certain ones. But it’s a mixed bag of high-level skilled producers. High level producer DJ’s, and even those people won’t see who it is. I’m involved of course and Jay is as well. But the bigger this pool gets, the more accurate the score is. So, basically, at the end we top this up and if its over a certain number, we sign the track. Then we will let the person know. And I find out who it is. And this is why, it’s not coincidence, that on Reason to Rise, there’s a few names keep popping up. Because they are still getting through and they are getting: This is good, this is consistency, and this is the thing.
TRANCE JESUS:
That’s important.
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, and it wasn’t because you signed one, we give you a contract and you have to give me another one. It doesn’t work that way and I refuse to do this with our artists. Lock them into a contract. It happens, it can happen, that we want another track from you, if we sign this one, we want another track from you, no. We want to sign the tracks from their own (inaudible) and its not just my decision to say so. And if the same names are coming through the same process, hence like this Cenk Barasin(?), who was recently on there, Mike Bound is another, Angel Ace.
TRANCE JESUS:
I love his tracks
DARREN PORTER:
And just yesterday, Zero Gravity came over and said hi. But there’s all sorts of producers out there, who are doing things right and I can see consistency and things, like C-Systems and a few other guys, who have been showing up recently. It is hard to pinpoint one particular producer, because its not fair, its not just the production, it’s the whole.
TRANCE JESUS:
I like how you have that kind of anonymity thing, just looking to build that quality, which helps the label and builds his credibility, because its just a really good track, its not just the similar names of people, it’s the actual sound behind it. So, I absolutely love that. Reverting back, given your own personal fraternity, what words of wisdom would you give to aspiring artists, something that you would say is, I hate the term secret sauce, but its probably kind of closest that I could conjure up. What is that secret sauce to being successful in this industry?
DARREN PORTER:
Its difficult to say because I do not define my own personal success in a hierarchy or a tier in this industry, I just cannot do this myself. I have no idea. But of course, there are certain levels that you know where you are, the way you want, you know. You can kind of sense where you belong should we say. So, with that, that’s a long time and that evolved over industry changes too.
TRANCE JESUS:
Trance as itself has changed a lot.
DARREN PORTER:
Everything changed, even the sound of the music. But not only that, the industry itself has changed and what is needed to sustain a career. So before, the effort was in making the effort to find out who you needed to speak to, who you needed to go to and how you needed to interact and who’s email address, that you needed to impress on.
TRANCE JESUS:
The networking side.
DARREN PORTER:
The networking side and that’s not just in the music industry, that’s in every industry in the world.
TRANCE JESUS:
It really is.
DARREN PORTER:
There’s tradeshows for every industry, build and designed for this purpose. ADE is designed for this purpose, the music industry is no different and if you don’t go down that route, then you can have the best music in the world, but you… you need the infrastructure to help you. And this is what I’m saying, the musical infrastructure, as from my experience in the trance world especially, changed dramatically. And this comes from Spotify, self-releasing, what a label is bringing to the table, how much of it is social media. If you asked me this question five years ago, you would get a very different answer.
DARREN PORTER:
You ask me now; would my success be relevant today? Probably not. I’m nowhere near as active as I should be on social media. I’m still coming out of a place, where that terrifies the hell out of me almost, you know what I mean? But I understand the need of it now. But you also need to understand the disposable nature of it.
TRANCE JESUS:
Right.
DARREN PORTER:
Fifteen second clips, that was five years ago. Its now three and a half second clips, its now how long your thumb can swipe for. Now its beating the automatic reflex of your next swipe. This is where the market is going and everything else is getting sucked through to it. So, what advice would I give, is, understand the industry. And trust your own product. That’s it, just trust your own product and understand the industry. Those two things and you’ll be tight all the way.
TRANCE JESUS:
And when you say the product, I’m just thinking of this on the fly, when you say that product is your music or is that product you as your own brand?
DARREN PORTER:
It’s both, your music is how you present it. Okay let’s take it, say, you’re the best chef in the world, like you are the pristine chef in the world, but I’ve never heard of you as best chef in the world.
TRANCE JESUS:
Gordon Ramsey, right?
DARREN PORTER:
He’s a commercial chef, he is very successful, he’s a very good chef. I’m not saying that, but there might be, I don’t know, maybe a better chef. And even he knows that he’s ten times better than he is. I never heard of this guy, but he comes into our room, but he’s dressed like I don’t know, or he’s just been digging out horse manure, he’s really not, you just keep away from me, I’m going to catch something from you. Would you eat his food and rate it ten out of ten?
TRANCE JESUS:
Just on looks alone, probably not until you actually sample it, right?
DARREN PORTER:
It’s a bit of a weird kind of comparison, but you can see what I’m trying to say with that?
TRANCE JESUS:
I do actually, I do like that comparison. Which is why people, like Gordon Ramsay, has his own shows to find those names, that being able to submit what they can do and show that they are the next big name, the next big chef.
DARREN PORTER:
And that’s the thing, your product is trusting in what you’re doing, that’s what I’m getting at. Because you don’t dress the same way as a superstar chef, doesn’t mean that you aren’t one. But at the same time, if you are dressed like one, doesn’t mean you are one either. You need to complement each other; you need to basically back up what you’re putting out and trust what you’re putting out. If you want feedback and you know you need feedback, then go and get that mentorship, go, and find out.
Do what you need to do to do that, do it. Feeling sorry for yourself and comparing, you not going to justify to every single person, just go and get it sorted out. Accept and trust your product. When you’re hundred percent happy, then you can start and buy it and put equal amount in the marketing, whatever you need and that includes how you speak to labels.
TRANCE JESUS:
Correct.
DARREN PORTER:
Don’t ever send to labels on the same email, to four, five different labels, that happens!
TRANCE JESUS:
Especially they too fill the Bcc!
DARREN PORTER:
Its happening!
TRANCE JESUS:
I’ve heard these stories!
DARREN PORTER:
Just a recent example, at Reason to Rise, we take seven to ten days to get back, were really busy, so were trying to, especially with our whole process, feedback and everything, it’s a whole lot of work. So, closer to the seven-day mark, we responded to a track that we really liked. The track had already gone, send it to somebody else. Because, I’m not saying names don’t worry, because they got a rejection from us before.
TRANCE JESUS:
Okay.
DARREN PORTER:
So, they just assumed that we are going to reject it again. But why did you send it? That’s not cool.
TRANCE JESUS:
You’re on the mailing list now.
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, but again, it was communicated. Its all good. But that’s an example of, you know, lets put some effort into, you put all that effort into your track, let’s put all the effort into the, lets share that effort and passion, the label needs to understand it as well. So, it’s not just you, you can have it, who wants this, who wants this. I’m so and so, I’ve done this, this is awesome. No, its what we can do together, this is now a product between your brand and my brand. The track together in the new world, which is social media driven. What can we do together to make this successful. That what I look for.
TRANCE JESUS:
Exactly. There’s a lot of moving parts in it going from a DJ sitting behind a computer to actually seeing that track on Spotify or Beatport. Even for aspiring artists too, it’s very important for them too to be successful.
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, success I think, is defined and objectively defined and you need to define what your own success target is and decide what instrument of measure you are going to use to get that.
TRANCE JESUS:
And not necessarily look at what the worlds measure is.
DARREN PORTER:
Not as blurry, kind of hazy, everything mushed together and you are kind of hoping for the best, that sort of thing. That’s just going to end up in disaster. And I know that from experience. Sometimes.
TRANCE JESUS:
Absolutely. We all do. So, let’s shift away from music. So, as a fellow dog father, tell us about Teddy and the impact he’s had on your personal life.
DARREN PORTER:
Oh Teddy, I miss him already and I’m going to see him in about six hours maybe, ten hours fron now maybe I will see him. Yes, coming out of that dark place with all the support and everything, I realised, I was a pretty lonely guy. Like deep inside and not many people get in there. And I needed, I didn’t realise, I mean, I have cats, famous. I have much of a bond with my, I lose count, how many cats do we have now? How many is that Anja?
ANJA:
Four.
DARREN PORTER:
Four, there’s four cats.
TRANCE JESUS:
Four, wow!
DARREN PORTER:
Now were having four, it goes from like three to six and it hovers.
TRANCE JESUS:
We have some friends, they live over in Wisconsin, which isn’t far, maybe a sixty-minute drive from our house. They’ve got seven dogs, they’ve got this big one-acre property, big backyard, and they have a two-year-old. This two-year-old has been growing up with all these dogs. It’s amazing.
DARREN PORTER:
I never had dogs growing up, I had one, two cats.
TRANCE JESUS:
Same.
DARREN PORTER:
But what happened the day he came was, you realise how responsible you were, and then the bond is almost instant. Within a week, you’re realising that you can’t go anywhere, he will come with you, you know. Its so awesome. So, when you see him, it’s like there’s a person in there and he’s like, I don’t know, he talks to you and … I don’t know what to say, Teddy is awesome! He really helps you in life.
TRANCE JESUS:
Is there’s just something about having a dog from it being little. We got our first one, Jake, when our youngest was six months old. And he will be turning twelve in October. So, we were like, we want him to have a bodyguard. And that’s always great too.
DARREN PORTER:
Yeah, he now knows how to manipulate me. So, that’s it. He’s definitely…
TRANCE JESUS:
…Such a child, they’re good at that.
DARREN PORTER:
And I am too and inside I’m an absolute man child. I’m sure Anja is nodding. She is! I’m an absolute man child and I used to be afraid of it and now with Teddy, I can be a man child around him. We go out and go to the beach, going for walks and we just like jump in bushes together and some random shit. Its just like being an absolute child with him. I wrestle with him and all sorts.
TRANCE JESUS:
They bring a lot of joy.
DARREN PORTER:
Massive amounts of joy!
TRANCE JESUS:
Well, great! It’s been an absolute delight chatting with you Darren and catch up with you and Anja once again. Can’t wait to see you again soon, hopefully sometime in the states?
DARREN PORTER:
Lets get over there, it’s been a long time, right?
TRANCE JESUS:
Come to Minnesota.
DARREN PORTER:
Minnesota, I think might be on the calendar.
TRANCE JESUS:
I take you out to northern America, we go out to the lakes, have some fun1
DARREN PORTER:
Yes, Minnesota, the state of thousand lakes, ten thousand lakes!
TRANCE JESUS:
Its actually eleven thousand eight hundred and thirty-four. Until the spring comes and there’s this one Chipotle on …avenue, where, it has a big enough crater in the parking lot, that they named it lake Chipotle.
DARREN PORTER:
Is it because of a glacier or because of the rain/
TRANCE JESUS:
Its because of the snow melting.
DARREN PORTER:
So, it’s not pissing down with rain, its just nice. So, there’s loads of waterfalls and springs and stuff like this.
TRANCE JESUS:
Its beautiful.
DARREN PORTER:
Okay, I love that stuff, I need to go there. Let’s go!
TRANCE JESUS:
(inaudible) with you being a Nordic man yourself, you might like coming in the winter, when it’s a negative 30.
DARREN PORTER:
no, no.
TRANCE JESUS:
And this is Celsius.
DARREN PORTER:
No, no no. But I’m genuinely in coming over there and renting an RV. Or even a small camper or something or just go out in those woods, man! Going to the lakes, that would be unbelievable.
TRANCE JESUS:
It’s a lot of good places, so…Fantastic. Thank you, Darren!
DARREN PORTER:
Absolute pleasure!
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