Darren Middleton

After finding phenomenal successful with Powderfinger, his musical aspirations have journeyed far and wide, and his urge to create has evolved greatly. He’s also tremendously open in recounting his experiences along the way, and just what we should next expect as this story keeps unfolding.

“Every time I tour I find I’m telling different stories,” he says. “They’re all different adventures with different purposes behind them. I really didn’t do any gigging before my last record, and then I spent the next year and a half doing a lot as a two-piece with my violin player, Kelly Lane. That was kind of my ‘getting to the heart of the story again’ time, falling back into music because you love it, not for any other reason. Finding really small gigs, having very little up onstage. Just the guitar, my singing, Kelly. Excavating whatever I could of my heart and soul into those performances.”

In 2013, Middleton’s first solo release, Translations, marked him as a musician of distinction beyond the seminal strides of Powderfinger. His follow-up, Splinters, is still something of a work in progress, but hearing the enthusiasm in his voice when he tries to conjure its fledgling shape, you can’t help but get excited along with him. He is a much more secure, confident songwriter now, and even in the little that has been released so far – double A-side single ‘The Lines’/‘Our Road’ – the evidence of this is clear.

“My approach towards that first record was quite hesitant,” he admits. “I had a lot of guests involved, with the motivation of, ‘Guys, I’m a pretty average singer here, can you step in and help me out?’ Since then, I’m way more comfortable with who I am, which is really the result of just getting out there and doing it. That’s the best way of finding out who the heck you are. I’m more confident, and now, regarding friends, guests, whoever I ask to be involved, it isn’t a matter of having them there to bail me out. It’s more just wanting us to all have fun together.

“I’m really happy with performing and making music now. I love it more than I have in so many years. But I’ve split the new record into two halves. I can step away from the forest for a little while, look at it and identify what I might need to finish it – what am I trying to say, how do I continue the thread into the next half? I haven’t actually moved into that second half yet. I really need to get off my arse and commit,” he laughs.

You imagine that every artist who develops a career outside of the act that first brought them to attention is going to have to labour with comparisons. Middleton, however, faces a rather unique challenge – not everyone finds themselves family to a household name. The potential for Powderfinger to cast a long shadow is an inescapable aspect of his career, but rather than begrudge this history, Middleton embraces it with enthusiasm.

“It definitely cast a long shadow, but for me, I came from being a backing vocalist and guitarist and songwriter for the ’Fingers, which is a very different role to where I am now. It’s a bit harder to compare me to my past, because nobody really knows my voice, and that’s the focus on my solo records – my songwriting and the sound of my voice. People seem to be pleasantly surprised, for the most part. It’s very different to the way, say, Bernard [Fanning] would be on solo records, since his voice is such an identifiable factor. You can’t help but draw a pretty thick line between anything he does and the past. But I certainly don’t feel too weighed down, and I don’t try to hide anything from the past. I mean, bloody hell, it’s allowed me to do a whole lot with my life, so if someone brings up any comparisons, I’m most likely going to be saying thanks!”

Nor is that history at all static; part of Middleton’s growth as a performer has been his relish for performance, and within that is included a brace of Powderfinger songs that still remain at his songwriting core.

“I was really hesitant when I first started playing them solo. I thought it was a little weird – ‘Should I be checking with the guys if it’s OK?’ But I started, people obviously love them, and you know, I really like them as well. I’ve really only been playing the songs that I had a pretty big hand in anyway. I’m not all that interested in just playing a song because it was a big hit or something. I’m more interested in following myself back to the time I was writing, what I was feeling. And I think that’s important. Some people say it’s risky to do that, but I think that’s the point about what we do. You need to offer yourself up, almost like the crowd is an archaeologist. They can just dig away and see what they can find.”