Most folk who know what an electric bass guitar is typically wouldn't want to hang around if someone were to start playing SOLO electric bass guitar. Mental images of a stampeding herd of elephants or a typewrtiter convention come to mind. Darren Michaels is here to change that.
Since graduating with honors from Atlanta Institute of Music in 2000, Darren has performed and recorded in a plethora of styles and has released three albums as a soloist, green (2002), equilibrium (2004), and Cumulo (2008). While many others have taken the solo bass path, Darren puts a new spin on things.
"My goal is to make music to which real people will listen and emotionally connect. I'm not doing it to impress other bassists. There's nothing wrong with music for musicians, but I want to make something my grandmother would listen to," says Darren.
Darren has performed and toured alongside several other big names in the world of bass including Jeff Schmidt, Adam Nitti, Trip Wamsley, Steve Lawson, Stew McKinsey, Christopher "C3" Cardone, Brady Muckelroy, Edo Castro, Todd Johnson, Jean Baudin, Jay Terrien, and Yves Carbone to name a few. He is an artist for Jerzy Drozd Basses and can be found performing for Jerzy at NAMM shows. Many bass websites and publications have featured Darren, most notably was a review of Cumulo in the May 2009 issue of Bass Player Magazine.
Darren currently resides in the Atlanta area with his wife Cindy, yappy Chihuahua, and finger biting Cockatiel. He teaches privately to a limited number of bass students, performs throughout the United States, and holds down the bottom end for numerous bands when he is not performing solo. You can also occasionally catch Darren at Atlanta Bass Gallery where he does bass setup work and tries his best to be an all around nice guy.
When asked about the future of solo bass, Darren says, "I want the term solo bass to disappear. If someone were to pull out an acoustic guitar, its assumed that person has the ability to play without accompaniment. This is not yet so with the electric bass guitar. This instrument has a broad and emotional voice that has yet to be tapped and placed into the public eye...or ear I should say."
