DarWin is a project created by the UK musician who gives the group its name and Simon Phillips , along with a number of renowned instrumentalists who make special appearances.
Since 2015, singer Matt Bissonette has worked with them, and in 2018 they released their first album, titled Origin of Species . The following album came two years later, Darwin 2: A Frozen War , and completing the discography, at the beginning of June 2024, DarWin released Five Steps On The Sun.
It's possible to perceive a series of references in this work, ranging from hard rock to more groovy elements, with a lot of melody in songs that become unique.
In an exclusive interview with Wikimetal , guitarist, producer, and composer DarWin discussed the new album, this new generation of emerging artists, the fact that São Paulo is the second city with the most Spotify listeners, and more!
As mentioned, the new album features diverse influences, and when asked about what they were listening to during the production process, the guitarist explained that it was "nothing in particular and a bit of everything."
“But I think when we were making the album, I tended to… I’m listening to our own demos and I’m always writing songs. I listen to my own stuff. I mean, I’m not analyzing other people’s music much, but just playing to write all the time.”
“Honestly, when I’m with Simon and Matt, I think they’re always playing a lot of music. They’re not necessarily listening to much more music anymore. They’re probably in a similar way, like, they’re playing the songs they’re touring with or that their bands are working on, but more in a songwriting mindset.”
In terms of the album's name, it conveys a rather poetic feeling. DarWin explained that, when it comes to songs with more emotional themes, he and Bissonette are in charge, with the vocalist writing the lyrics.
“Matt and I are very spiritual people, but we have different spiritual influences and things we believe in, you could say, but we get along very well. And I think sometimes we have this thing where we don't really want to talk about it. We know, between Matt and I, in a spiritual way, we know what it means, but we don't like to be too explicit, like, leave it there more as a spiritual thing and a spiritual concept.”
“And it’s perfectly fine if it’s concluded by the listener. We’re trying to open up questions for the listener. The most important thing about DarWin is that we’re really trying to encourage people to ask big questions about their lives and the world we live in now. It’s very complicated. At least that’s how it seems to me. It’s perfectly fine if people don’t find it complicated. I’m not forcing anyone to feel that way. Of course, if it’s great for you, that’s wonderful.”
“But now, as an older person, I feel like I’ve seen the world become a more complicated place over the years, and we want people to ask questions, to feel free to explore these issues in a very safe way without forcing any ideology onto them. We’re trying to create space to ask big questions. So, we would be very happy if people said, ‘Wow, I was very moved by this song, but I’m having difficulty describing it.’”
Billy Sheehan and Derek Sherinian are two of the musicians who have already collaborated on DarWin songs. In terms of future projects, the guitarist said that there are many they are interested in, but that they are more focused on bringing in young musicians and cited bassist Mohini Dey , describing her as a "central member of DarWin".
“She’s part of that group, you know, a permanent member, a card-carrying member. But anyway, some of the young musicians are emerging because I think they can learn a lot from Simon and some of the other older musicians just with all the experience and things like that, Simon is the producer of everything in DarWin. So he’s driving all the production, all the tracks. He’s always giving his vision to all the musicians. Like, ‘hey, maybe you should change this a little bit.’”
“He’s our kind of Rick Rubin , producer. And I think some of the young, up-and-coming people that everyone’s really excited about, yeah, he’d be great to work with and maybe they’d try different things. They try to play a little bit differently. DarWin is a little more melodic and can be technical, but it’s not technical music. And sometimes for the new generation that grew up on Instagram and TikTok, those channels need you to be technical or nobody’s going to see you play. They really don’t give a damn about melodic stuff. It’s really, show me what you got, flashy stuff.”
“And these musicians will tend to emphasize that. And that’s amazing because they’re doing incredible things. I think, at the same time, these platforms can de-emphasize the importance of just a song and something that sounds beautiful and making music because it’s very emotional, which is a little different from being technically fascinating. That’s very cool for 30 seconds or a minute. But if you’re going to make a song, the goal might be different. And at DarWin, we always want to make albums, we want to make songs, and we want things to be very emotionally relevant to people.”
São Paulo is second only to Santiago, Chile, in the ranking of places that listen to the band the most on Spotify, and the guitarist explained the importance Brazil had at the beginning of the project, expressing his gratitude to the fans. Because they weren't very active on social media, DarWin and Phillips "just thought we'd just released a song and hoped it would be good and that people would like it. And that was kind of silly, you know, because that's not how it works. You have to promote it. I was so optimistic initially."
Despite them not having advertised, São Paulo "noticed it".
“And it was, like, a validation for us that we had something with our music because it wasn’t being picked up elsewhere, you know? And you know, it’s a new band, and we haven’t toured, we haven’t done all that stuff. So, I’m very, very, very grateful for that, for people just, well, it’s like, thank you for listening, but it means a lot to a band that you listen. That’s the best thing you can do, if the listener doesn’t know if it’s making a difference, no, it is.”
Up until now, they had never done a show or tour, and with each passing year, he and Simon get together and question whether or not they should do a tour. Amidst all the problems of the pandemic, when things returned to normal in 2022, they decided to make a new album.
“But then, last year and this year, we said, instead of trying to do a tour or do some live shows, whatever, let’s make an album again, because it’s more fun for us to create music and produce it, and we can share it with everyone around the world. Okay.”
He further explained that there are two more albums to be made, “one needs to be mixed and mastered. It’s getting close to being ready, and then the other one needs a lot of work. We were recording a few weeks ago.”
“So the question is, in 2025, will we do a full tour? And if we do that, will we do another album? And if we do that, will we go to Latin America? And I would love to. If we do a tour, I would love to go to Brazil. And especially if we have people who would show up at our shows, that would be amazing because we don't really know. I mean, we've never tried. So it's a little scary, because we don't even know if anyone will show up. It could be like, you go there and there aren't many people, or it could be something really big.”
