Darren Hart (born 1991), better known as Harts, is an Indian-Australian musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and music producer from Melbourne, Australia. He composes, produces and records his own music in his bedroom studio. Harts' music has been described as dance-oriented alternative rock and electronic indie, blending elements of funk, post-disco, psychedelic rock, soul, jazz, new romanticism, and blues.
More recently, Harts has become known for his Jimi Hendrix-like guitar playing and blend of funk, pop, rock and soul music, which has earned praise from wide range of musicians such as Prince, Questlove, Nick Littlemore, André Cymone, Lars Stalfors and publications such as Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, NME and more. His voice and music also bears resemblance to that of Lenny Kravitz, who he worked with on the unreleased Rio 2016 Olympic Games theme song with American hip-hop band The Roots.
Harts was awarded the GQ Breakthrough Solo Artist Of The Year award at the 2016 GQ Australia Men Of The Year Awards.
Biography
Born to track and field athlete parents in Chennai, India, the family moved to Australia when he was around two years old. He grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Point Cook and went to Heathdale Christian College. He has said in interviews that he first started learning music in High School when he was 15/16 years old, starting with drums and eventually teaching himself guitar, keyboards and music production.
Career
2009–2013: Offtime
Harts' first release, a teaser track and demo titled "Back to the Shore," was released on iTunes on 19 August 2010 through Australian independent A&R company, The A&R Department, headed by former Warner Music A&R Manager Matt O'Connor. The original demo, along with a few other tracks, attracted attention on the internet, leading to an offer from Lars Stalfors of The Mars Volta to mix the tracks. The newer versions of the tracks mixed by Stalfors formed Harts' debut EP, Offtime.
Offtime was released in 2012. All songs on the EP were composed, produced, arranged, written and performed by Harts. All songs were written and recorded between 2009 and 2010, when he was 18/19 years old. The EP received positive reviews which included many online blog features and music publications. It was mixed in Los Angeles by Lars Stalfors and mastered in New York by Heba Kadry. Stalfors said of working with Harts, "He has such a great ear for melody and his production is so unique, which is what I love".
The music director of Australian radio station Triple J, Richard Kingsmill, quoted Harts as "A one[-]man music[-]making machine."
On 4 October 2013, Hart revealed a new track via his Facebook page and blog, titled "Leavn It All Behind". The song quickly gained much attention on music blogs and social media, which led to the track being released independently as a single on 11 November 2013. The release featured two versions of the song: the extended 12-inch mix and a radio edit.
"Leavn It All Behind" was released to positive reviews and marked a clear shift in momentum for Hart. Paul Lester, of The Guardian, featured Harts as the "New Band of the Day" on 20 December 2013 in an article which referred to Hart as a "Super-talented Aussie pop funkateer who does everything – write, perform, produce, arrange – in his PJs", referring to Hart's bedroom home-studio ethic. Astonished by Hart, Lester wrote "...he's able to reference said genres so skilfully and assimilate their influence with such a mastery and attention to detail", later going on to make the remark that "In a world where someone like Bastille can become a breakout star, Harts should be No 1 everywhere, including other planets."
The single was also released with an accompanying live video of Harts performing the song in a studio rehearsal room. Hart reported on his blog that the video went on to catch the attention and praise of one of his musical idols, Prince.
French nightly news and television talk show, Le Grand Journal featured 'Leavn It All Behind' during the show's "Coming Next" segments, which aired weeknights on Canal+ from 6–10 January 2014.
2014–15: Daydreamer
On 24 February 2014, Harts released the single "Lovers in Bloom" from his upcoming debut album. The single charted at No. 30 on The Hype Machine and gained independent radio play worldwide as well as many blog features. Harts gained further exposure when the video for the single was tweeted by Questlove of The Roots and Prince's 3RDEYEGIRL Twitter account.
Prince was quoted as saying, "He reminds me of how I was at that age" after it was revealed that Harts had spent time jamming with Prince at his Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis.