Darren Percival: a cappella fella

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Born “Darren Paul” in Australia in 1972, the self-proclaimed “Mr Percival” is now 34 years old. At seven years of age, Percival moved with his family to Mexico, where his father worked on a mine. To entertain himself, the young Darren made cassette recordings of his voice sent them to family back in Australia. He became enamoured at the variety of sounds he could make with his voice and when his family moved back to Australia when he was 10 years old, he bought himself a 4 x track machine and later an 8 x track machine, which he still uses in his one man show today.
His early influences include Bobby McFerrin, Donny Hathaway and the late Ricky May. His impression of a double bass is memorable, not only for its accuracy in sound but also because Percival looks remarkably like a double bass – imposing but congenial.
Hailing from somewhere north of Sydney on the coast (where he lives near a wildlife reserve with fellow musician and wife Dannielle Gaha and their son), Percival likes to journey to Melbourne a few times each year where he has an open invitation to perform at Melbourne’s iconic jazz venue, Bennett’s Lane. On Melbourne, Percival does comment he finds the audiences open and accepting to his experimental a cappella style.
If you attend a Darren Percival show, then be ready for more than live music. It is a forum to air political views, philosophise, be encouraged to let loose and be confronted by Percival’s strong ‘anti-establishment’ views. From his own mouth he says “I wanted to say something”.
While he doesn’t elaborate, he alludes to a previous life of frantic living in Sydney, holding down a rigid corporate job, paying a mortgage and chasing an illusive happiness through assets. What he doesn’t elaborate on is what changed his mind? A strong flavour of Percival’ performance is that he has found happiness and fulfilment through chucking in the corporate life and dedicating himself to music and free spirituality.
From the observer’s perspective, words like ‘evangelical’ and ‘prophetic’ come to mind. This writer observed the end of a workshop held by Mr Percival the day after his gig. Experienced performers and ingénues alike stared wide mouthed at Percival, hanging on his every piece of advice about how to be a free spirit and express themselves through their music. To the sceptic, it can seem questionable that Percival is genuine, yet his convictions are consistent in his shows, workshops and the choices made in his personal life (from what fragments this writer can piece together).
For example, he believes that musicians can get disillusioned going into the business to make money. He believes there are lots of things one can do with singing to make money but the focus should be on expression and enjoyment. Those who attend his workshop are encouraged to experiment with their voice, using it as an instrument as much as a story-telling device. Workshop attendees are not required to pay a set amount but are encouraged to donate what they believe the session was worth.
He also doesn’t believe that singing should just be about good technique, that it “should be individual” and “goes beyond music – sharing stories about life.” He presented his views to this writer through an isosceles triangle, representing music with three equally important attributes: tone, melody and word. An interesting view but some would argue not exactly radical or original. So, why the devoted following?
Not all of Percival’s stories come from personal experience. His music contains many references to Africa and he engages his audience to sing catchy choruses along with him of “Down in Africa”. When interviewed, he admitted he had never been to Africa but liked the African sound. Hardly a crime but if the music is about telling the story, perhaps some of Percival’s story is a work of fiction.
Regardless, Darren Percival is loved by critics and fans and is a recorded, captivating and challenging artist. He is currently touring as the support act for Russell Crowe and The Ordinary Fear of God.

For further information, check out www.mrpercival.com and for information about Darren Percival’s workshops, check out www.youcansing.net.

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Why we are so down on the biz

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As David James and Terry Noone found out in this issue's Business article, lawyers who work in the music industry tread a difficult line, especially when they are ostensibly representing the musician – but being paid indirectly by the record company.
Steve Smith, in his article on recording other peoples' tunes, has also discovered that things can get very sticky when it comes to copyright, even when you thought the composer was safely dead! Speaking of dead composers, one of the many important facts you will discover by reading our Certified Ads is that Johann Sebastian may have died of Dutch Elm Disease. And in our Intelligence section, Apple is battling it out with the Beatles over that famous, shared trademark.
Outstanding among our reviews is Emma Water's pungent description of the endless circling tango duet that is The Kills.

Special mention should also go to Emma Waters for doing much of the work to make this issue possible. As well as being a splendid, original and witty writer of reviews, she is a fine songwriter and musician in her own right (her just-completed EP will be reviewed in the next issue), Emma has not only acted as assistant editor, charming yet more wonderful work from our brilliant but hard-pressed writers, but also researched and written a substantial number of fascinating articles for this issue. Alas, she has been lured away to other more lucrative work, but we hope that she will at least continue to provide the odd incisive piece.

Speaking of old The Dues alumni, we've heard on the grapevine that Kristy Theissling, our previous most vigorous reviewer and junior champion of Everything, is now working for the prestigious BRW magazine. Congratulations Kristy!

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