Interviewing Darin Epsilon: Progressive and Tech House Maven

By Damen Smith-Draeko — Writing for Hammarica.com has its benefits. One of them is the opportunity to communicate with astoundingly talented and inspired people who have demonstrated a consistent drive to follow through on their passion to achieve their dreams, no matter what the odds.  One such talented and inspired (inspiring) person, is the progressive and tech house maven, Darin Epsilon.

Hello, Darin.

To say that you are an impressive figure would be an understatement. I am not going to reinvent the wheel and write another outstanding bio about you. Your fans and our readers can read your bio here: http://www.beatport.com/artist/darin-epsilon/31025.

I want to go between those lines a bit and ask some questions a bit more off the cuff.

Please bear with me on these. We are not voice-to-voice and that will detract from the organics of any otherwise dynamic interaction between us.   This is regrettable, because we won’t be able to shift gears as we normally would if we were actually speaking.

Why Progressive and Tech House? What is it about these genres that draw you to them?

That’s a very good question.  I feel that Progressive House has all the qualities that I look for in music with its elaborate melodies, groovy bass lines, and high production value.   I love how the music can sweep you away and take you on a journey.  It’s just filled with imagination and there’s no other sound quite like it.

When growing up, there had to be a time, at least for most people anyway, when you knew exactly, or had a pretty good general idea, what you wanted to do with your time, with your life. When was your time?  Do you remember?  And how did you go about getting it done?

Well, I’ve had an interest in music for as long as I can remember.  I wrote my first track when I was 14 and bought my first pair of turntables at 17.

During my college years, I can distinctly remember sitting in Economics class and wondering what the hell I was doing there.  My whole life up to that point didn’t feel right to me.  Like many other students, I was simply going through the motions and studying towards a degree that would hopefully land me a respectable job.

I really wanted to please my parents because I know they sacrificed a lot in order to pay for my education, but that was the moment when I knew I needed a change.  I started taking piano lessons again and practiced for months in order to enroll in my school’s music program.  I know I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t done this.

How did your parents respond to what you wanted to do? And how do they respond now to what you have accomplished?

My parents didn’t quite get it at first.  They couldn’t understand why I was passing up such good job opportunities in order to be a musician.  Keep in mind that electronic music is still a relatively new concept for many people.  They kept playing the guilt card on me, like I would be making such-and-such amount of money, if only I’d gotten a “normal” job.

There’s still a bit of misunderstanding to this day, but after moving to LA from Chicago and making all the difficult decisions that I had to make, I think they started to realize that my attachment to music was not going to go away.  Every decision I made was completely by my own choice.

Is it everything you imagined it would be?  What are the highlights, the things you love most about what you do?  What are the lowlights, the lackluster aspects of the business? 🙂

There are certainly ups and downs, I’m not going to lie.  The things I love the most are getting out there and meeting people, making friends, and exposing the music I love to a completely new group of people.  The downsides are that it can be extremely stressful and I’ve gone weeks without getting paid.  On the other hand, I’ve had periods when all the gigs were rolling in at the same time.  It always seems to be either feast or famine.  Thank god I had such a strong upbringing or I would have buckled under the pressure by now.

And finally, when all is said and done, when you’ve retired (hopefully a long, long time from now) what would you like to be said about you? How would you sincerely like to have been remembered as a DJ/producer and as a person?

Hopefully that I made a lasting impact on the scene and inspired as many people as possible with my sounds.

Thank you for your time, Darin. We look forward to a great many more years of fantastic productions from you.

Darin’s most recent tour dates are as follows. If you’ve already missed his first two dates, him performing in Colombia just yesterday (July 28, 2012), there are still three other international opportunities to catch his performance.

7/27 – Hacienda La Dicha – Popayan, Colombia

7/28 – La Hojarasca – Cali, Colombia

8/10 – Exchange LA w/ Glenn Morrison – Los Angeles, US

9/01 – Armas Foro Sol – Mexico City

9/21 to 9/23 – Nocturnal Wonderland – San Bernardino, US

Bookings:

http://www.darinepsilon.com/contact

Connect:
http://www.darinepsilon.com
http://www.facebook.com/darinepsilonofficial
http://www.soundcloud.com/darinepsilon
http://www.youtube.com/darinepsilon
http://www.twitter.com/darinepsilon