Free To Feel Good

Under the moniker Darwin Deez, Brooklyn-based artist Darwin Smith has been able to beguile and perplex audiences with his heady signature of mixing quirk and anachronisms with golden hooks and melodies that sink deep within the subconscious, regardless of whether you give him permission to or not. The release of his eponymous debut record in 2010, and particularly the huge crossover connections to hits Radar Detector and Up In The Clouds, have meant that his eccentric pop leanings have gleaned many a fan. Nevertheless, there are just as many punters turning their backs, claiming his musical output to be throwaway at best and redundant at worst. Smith seems impervious to such polarising, instead remaining resolute on walking that fine tightrope.

Follow-up longplayer Songs For Imaginative People may be a slowburner in comparison to the breakout hits Darwin Deez gleaned first time around. There is a shift in thematic purpose here – the album title cheekily implies that only people with active imaginations will “get” these songs, and the subject matter has more of an existential focus – first single Free (The Editorial Me) immediately evokes an ebullient inner struggle to realise what one's potential truly is. Smith believes that these ruminations over the meaning of life represent a logical stage in his life.

“There are two songs that have been inspired directly from existential thoughts brought on by a time in my life when I was having an emotional, destructive relationship; they form something of a memoir,” he explains. “I found myself reading Nietzsche's books, someone who I found to be very profound when I was eighteen. Free was honouring that time in my life; there is a lot of Christian rock, religious rock, and I felt like expressing that life is such a 'what the fuck?' That's where existentialism starts; we are on this crazy thing and no one knows how we got here. I wrote the first song (for the album) a year ago in that vein and everything flowed on from there.”

Psychology and philosophy are topics that have always fascinated Smith, and these preoccupations come closer to the surface on the new album.

“Whilst Nietzsche did a lot of cheap, arbitrary psychology, it led me to becoming interested in Carl Jung, and my dad is a psychologist as well, so it's been in the background for some time,” he continues. “The universe is fascinating when viewed from the bird's eye, especially the mind. We are all out here, trying to figure out who we are, going after things that we think we want, and then it's over; there is no legend on the map telling us that this means that, and that means this. Finding your place within everything is interesting to me.”

Such grandiose ruminations may scare fans into thinking that the Darwin Deez of old has left the building; far from it. Songs For Imaginative People is filled with the melodies and idiosyncrasies that made Darwin Deez such a hit, with Smith admitting the noticeable difference being a stronger focus on the lyrical content.

“With the title, it's me saying that with music the listener has to meet the artist halfway, lyrically speaking,” Smith clarifies. “You can get away with passively enjoying a song but just listening to the beat, or the melody, or the bit where it goes, “Everyday I'm shuffling” or the bassline – there is a lot going on in most songs that people connect with in different ways. But in order to engage in lyrics, the nuances of the story, you have to bring your imagination. I think a lot of the great pop songs brings it to that level. I think that a lot of Taylor Swift songs succeed because you can mentally picture what is happening to her, the narrator of the story, within the context of the song. You identify and relate to them then, because you put yourself within the story. The message I'm broadcasting is that these aren't just basslines and riffs, these are stories to engage with.”

Opening track (800) Human is the perfect embodiment of this musical ideal; a broader narrative that nevertheless takes a swipe at idle living and existence within a twenty-first century reliance on living through others via tabloids, celebrity and reality television. It is a narrative that is angry at a society that encourages gross levels of conformity, yet can be entered into at a more personal level.

“I've had experiences of being alienated and watching too much television, which led to me being angry and frustrated at how confusing life is,” Smith confesses. “Obviously all my experiences are personal. But the song is meant to speak on both levels. The listener either engages with my experience, or superimposes it on their own, or compares it to their own thoughts on the idea.”

It is clear that Smith derives most pleasure at this point of his career from the lyrical content of his music, but is quick to assert that Darwin Deez as a unit has not strayed far from the path in how they create music.

“Obviously lyrics are where I'm at right now; for the first time in my life I started composing songs by focusing on the lyrics first,” he tells. “That's just where the inspiration was hitting me. After the response to the lyrics from the first album, I didn't know what to expect, yet it inspired me to take it all a step further. It's funny how optional lyrics are when exploring any given song. For many years of listening to music, I'll admit that I didn't bother either. But whilst it's my new interest and is propelling the creative process, it hasn't overtly altered the musical process. On a song by song basis, I'm focusing on inner conflict – existentialism, the unsure nature of a volatile relationship, the aftermath of a relationship breakdown. Yet the music fires it all up.

“Hope is very much a part of my psyche, because even at my most despairing moments I've learnt that my inner monologue is fuelled by hope,” Smith continues. “There was a time in my life where I didn't have any hope, and things got worse and worse, and hope got me through. And so when things get bad – and it's not like they never get as bad as they have in the past, because they do – I choose not to let myself think hopeless thoughts. Hope is an important part of happiness, and I always want my music to stir people up.”