By Keith Walsh
In the evolution of electronic dance music, there’s always room for classic sounds to return in refreshing new ways. Based in Southern California, electronic music producer Darwin McD (Darren McDermott, pronounced Darwin Mick Dee) gets inspiration for his sweetly catchy tunes from the days when disco, new wave and techno pop burst out on MTV and pop radio. Listening to his three most recent releases – the singles “Maybe,” “Blanket,” and “Mirroring” – and their accompanying remixes, it’s no surprise that Darwin McD is a fan of Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Devo, Erasure, Howard Jones, The Human League, and Gary Numan. I had a great time asking Darren about his workflow, his gear — and how it is that his mixes sound amazing on every device I play them on.
Synthbeat: How can an artist find remix collaborators — what approaches can you recommend that are successful?
Darren: For my first remix, I was asked by my friends Marss Ramos and Adam Collier of MDA if I would be interested in remixing their song “Couldn’t We” and I jumped at the chance. Then other offers came from artists that I was friends with or connected to on social media. When it comes to recruiting remixers for my songs, I’ve usually gone to artists whose music and style I admire and just asked them if they’d be interested in remixing my song. So it’s rather informal for the most part I think. But my advice would be to seek out artists that you like and who can do something new with your song to expose it to a different or broader audience.
Synthbeat: Now for the cool gear talk! Are you mostly in the box, hardware-based, or both?
Darren: I am using 100% soft-synths. I still have my first hardware synth (Ensoniq ESQ-1) that I use mostly for composing now, but soft-synths are so much more convenient and affordable. Don’t get me wrong, if I had the disposable income to afford a bunch of hardware synths, I’d definitely incorporate those into my music, but it’s just not in the cards for me right now.
Synthbeat: What’s your favorite few VSTs, plug ins, effects?
Darren: I have become a big fan of Cherry Audio’s VSTs. They’ve produced several really robust and great sounding VSTs based on classic analogue synths, and they’ve all launched at incredibly affordable prices ($29 – $49 range) compared to offerings from other soft-synth companies. My favorites would have to be Cherry Audio’s DCO-106, Eight Voice, Memorymode, Miniverse, and Mercury-4.
Synthbeat: How did you get your start composing and mixing?
Darren: I bought my first synthesizer when I was 16 years old, the Ensoniq ESQ-1 because it has a built-in 8-track sequencer and I wanted to be able to create electronic music all by myself like Vince Clarke, Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby. I started out with trying to recreate some of my favorite songs by Erasure, Depeche Mode and Howard Jones, and eventually delved into original songwriting. I wrote music on and off into my early twenties until other things became a priority – college, career, family, etc. My songs were mostly terrible back then, but there were a few that I think were fairly decent, one of which became the basis for my song “Run” (with Huguenot). In 2017, I started writing again after realizing how advanced and convenient the technology had become (DAW’s, soft-synths, etc.) and I’ve been releasing music pretty regularly ever since. But Darwinmcd is definitely a passion project for me, a creative outlet that I love sharing with the rest of the world thanks to the self-distribution options that are available now.
Synthbeat: There’s some sweet throwbacks to the early disco era. What about this era resonates with you?
Darren: I think it’s the danceability of the music from that genre. I’m always drawn to upbeat, rhythmic music and particularly synthpop, which has a lot of similarities to disco….they’re both just so happy. When have you ever danced to a synthpop song and not felt happy?
Synthbeat: I noticed that your mixes sound excellent on large speakers and on phone speakers as well. Please tell us some specific techniques in mixing and mastering that help achieve this?
Darren: Whenever I’m mixing a song, I’ll listen to mixdowns on my studio monitors, good headphones, on the car stereo, on a Bluetooth speaker, and with Airpods. I might hear things with each listening experience that I will go adjust in the mix until I am happy with it. Honestly, I just mix to what sounds good to my ears, but I always send my music to trusted colleagues to listen to and provide feedback. I know a lot of fellow artists who go through the same process when mixing.
Synthbeat: You seem well connected with the synthpop scene (Mark Bebb, Blaklight, others.) How did these connections happen?
Darren: I started out making connections via Twitter after an artist friend directed me there to grow my audience. I eventually became close to several other indie artists making electronic music and those connections led to other connections, and so on. Being active and connecting with people on all three major social media plaforms – Twitter, Instagram and Facebook – helps as some artists are only active on one or two of those platforms, so it widens your opportunities.
Synthbeat: What are some of your early electronic music listening experiences?
Darren: My earliest exposure to electronic music was probably hearing Kraftwerk, Devo and Gary Numan in the late 70’s, and then Depeche Mode, OMD, and Human League in the early 80’s. I was always enamored by the sounds that came from synthesizers so I gravitated to bands making music that was mostly, if not exclusively, done with synthesizers.
Synthbeat: When did you start learning to play an instrument, and which one(s)?
Darren: We had an antique upright piano in my home when I was growing up and like any young kid with access to furniture that made beautiful sounds, I was naturally drawn to it from a very early age. I eventually learned to play some songs by ear and then started taking piano lessons when I was probably 9 or 10 years old.
Thanks Darren!
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