RSS
Home
Profiles: Darius Holbert, composer/performer/producer
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Darius Holbert is no stranger to the music lifestyle. He once played drums in a punk band called Anal Mustard, who called it quits after two shows.
But there is hardly a man more qualified to call himself a professional musician than Darius. Born to musical parents in Dallas, Texas, he is a classically trained pianist, singer, and composer whose musical panache was nurtured as soon as he was on two feet.
At age 12, he was traveling around the globe arranging and directing a small choir ensemble. The wunderkind studied M.I.D.I. programming before M.I.D.I. programming was even an academically acceptable musical subject.
But studying jazz arranging, musical composition, and music history at such places as the Royal Academy of Music in London didn’t stop the young Holbert from harnessing his youthful vigor into the most universal form of musical expression: the rock band. In other words, Anal Mustard’s prolific drummer was no dweeb.
When he moved to LA at 24 it was to play in bands, but his rep scored him production jobs with acts like Wu-Tang Clan and even Bobby Brown.
“Most bizarre experience of my life,” he says of working with Bobby Brown. And he’s not just talking about the crack smoking or the pissing in the vocal booth; “I got 96 vocal tracks from that song, and all of them are useless.”
So with all this success, one might wonder why he’s moved toward the realm of film scoring. “I’m a old-ass man now,” he says in an endearing Texas drawl, though he looks like he’s in his early 30’s. “I’m kinda beat up from the rock n’ roll lifestyle.”
Married just last year, Darius decided he needed to be home more and not out on the road with reckless musicians. So he built up his home studio and started from square one, hitting up Craig’s List for gigs and building up a reel.
Nowadays he’s got his hands in the game all over the place: he just came back from touring Iraq with Everlast, and he has been playing the keys for artist Sophie B. Hawkins. His work has been featured in TV shows like Lost and Grey’s Anatomy plus several commercials, and he also participated in the scoring of upcoming films like Shrink, with Kevin Spacey, and the new Bobcat Goldthwait film World’s Greatest Dad, starring Robin Williams. Not to mention an Opera his father wrote that he began to work on 6 years ago, which is only now coming to fruition.
And still Darius is writing songs and putting out solo records under the moniker dariustx. His fourth album Lights Out for the Territories is due August 18 and promises a range of styles from “southern singer-songwriter, to Irish reel, to dirty swamp funk” (link).
A Renaissance man for the digital age, Darius Holbert is a good name to know; though not a household celebrity, his behind-the-scenes presence in countless TV shows, records, and films will attest to his stronghold on the entertainment industry for years to come.
Look out for Darius here!
**photo courtesy of David Wilson
Related Articles:
Comments
