Stepping Up

It took almost a year of travelling through Europe with his family before Darren Middleton's passion for music kicked back in. The guitarist had said goodbye to his bandmates in the newly broken up Powderfinger and needed to put some distance between himself and that band's musical legacy in Australia.

“What I was doing, even unconsciously, was postponing the untangling of the threads that needs to happen with a long-term anything,” Middleton says of his almost 20-year career with Powderfinger. “I didn't really anticipate or expect to find myself lost. Who am I? I had to really discover that again because I've only ever really been Darren from Powderfinger. It was a bit of a surprise. But it was good to go through it. I fell in love with music again, which I had fallen out of.”

Once Middleton's passion had been restored and a move to Melbourne had introduced him to electronica producer Simon Walbrook, songs that he had been writing and was originally inclined to overlook or move on from began to put their case forward to be completed.

“At the end of a period of frustration I looked back and thought, 'They're actually good. I just need to finish them'. It's the first time I've ever had a record where I know where it came from.”

While Middleton's new solo album Translations isn't his first foray outside of Powderfinger – he also led the band Drag – the singer-songwriter says that these songs had a more personal resonance and that was the reason he started contemplating the idea of a solo album.

“I needed the songs to have a reason to exist, or for the album to exist. At this point in my life I wanted to be singing about something that was just me, really, wherever I am in life at the moment. I was going through quite an up and down period of my life, battling a bit of depression. Searching to find myself again. So that's all great source material.

“You don't make every record like that because you can't. But having that sort of album allows you to slip back into the memory of that really easily when you're performing it.”

Middleton's new friendship with Walbrook made for an unlikely musical partnership, but he says Walbrook's electronic way of working has added a new dimension to his knowledge of songwriting and broadened the scope of his own work as a producer. “I would always write a song, the chords would move the melody – a very traditional way of songwriting – but because he comes from a different school of songwriting he'd take this on the computer and chop it and loop it. Just trying things and piecing a song together on the screen and then going, 'Okay, let's learn how to play it'.”

The album also features a cast of backing players and singers that reads like a who's who of Australian music over the last decade or so, from Paul Dempsey and Pete Murray to Nic Cester (Jet), Davey Lane, (You Am I) Clare Bowditch and not surprisingly Bernard Fanning. Though Middleton didn't write any songs with particular guests in mind, he was hoping his famous friends could each take their turn at the main microphone. But in the end they were more of a supporting cast than the main attraction. “It was phone calls of me going, 'I don't really think I can be a lead singer. Can I get a hand?' and they all said yes because they're all my friends,” Middleton says.

“I had Nic Cester sing the lead vocal on a song and we both walked in and went, 'That's not right, is it?' It sounded rock'n'rolly but it just wasn't right, so Pete Murray sang the vocal but then it was a Pete Murray song and I thought, 'How can I put that on the record?'

“So those guys and myself all came on the same page pretty quickly. I thought, 'Look, I just need to step up and do it', so I did it. I had Paul Dempsey come in and he was going to sing lead vocal but we didn't even try. It was just backing vocals. I did write a bridge for him to sing on which I slaved over because it's Paul Dempsey. He's quite the wordsmith. You don't want to hand him any sort of drivel. I tried to hand him something he would sing proudly and it went really well.”

Now Middleton has overcome his hesitation to be the main voice at the microphone he's relishing the role and looking forward to getting out in front of his band for the live shows at the end of this month. Though Middleton doesn't really see himself as an elder statesmen of Australian rock, there's no denying his legacy as guitarist with Powderfinger or his future as a solo artist.