Having appeared alongside Pete Rock, Little Brother and playing the Justus League's "hook man," role, Darien Brockington is ready to step out on his own...

ThaFormula.Com - You're a North Carolina resident where you connected with the Justus League crew, how did that come about?

Darien Brockington - I went to school with Phonte and Pooh. We had a couple of classes together and were cordial but we never really were close for long time, they were just two guys that were in my class. It's funny how you never know you'll cross paths in the future. My first introduction to them as Little Brother was when they opened for Yahzarah a long, long time ago. I was singing background for Yahzarah at the time. I had known them as classmates, but I didn't know they were artists until that point. After that we were kind of in the same circle but weren't necessarily close. I knew they rhymed, they knew I sang, and we had some of the same friends. It wasn't until like a year or two after we graduated, I was working at a bank and Pooh happened to have an account there. He walked in one day and I'm like "yo, what's up man?" I was excited to see him because I hadn't spoken to him since college. Little Brother was already doing their thing and they were about to go to Japan or something. He asked me if I wrote and said "yeah" so he said "cool," and he'd call me when he got back and we'd work on a song. That song "My Mind" happened to make his album that just came out. He played it for the rest of the Justus League and they loved it and that was pretty much it, I became the "hook guy." (laughs)

ThaFormula.Com - That was the first thing you recorded, but one of the last things that came out? You've been on a lot of their material before Pooh's album…

Darien Brockington - Yeah. Then you know Phonte took a chance on me with the Pete Rock album "Soul Survivor II." They had already had a hook on it, and a different track for it but for some reason they wanted to do it over. The hook that they had didn't really work right so Phonte called me up and asked if I could put a different spin on it. So I took elements from his first hook and stuff I came up with on my own and it worked. After that I just got put onto more and more things and before you know it we had a great working relationship.

ThaFormula.Com - You said that you were writing before you had hooked up with the Justus League, had you recorded any material yet or were you just writing?

Darien Brockington - I had my little demos. I kind of took up writing when I was 18 or 19 and started writing for other people as well as for myself. I don't think I took it as seriously as I should have but I think when I was about 21 I really started writing and recording for myself, but I had functioning songs before I met them, some of those songs you can actually find on my website now (www.darienmusic.com).

ThaFormula.Com - I was reading you're bio at your website, it said that you started singing at 2…2? (laughs)

Darien Brockington - I could just about sing better than I could talk. (laughs)

ThaFormula.Com - Like impersonating or singing along with the songs?

Darien Brockington - I could hear it and I understood what I was singing. I guess the best way I can explain it is that I'm a church boy, I grew up in the church and one day the choir was singing "Raise them Bells," and it got to the female section of the song and it just so happened that was the part of the song that I could sing the best. The soprano section was singing that part and I wanted to be a part of it so I started singing and it was funny because the whole choir stopped singing and they looked at me. Then the choir director asked me "were you singing?" and I said "yup" and they all started laughing at me. I remember being in that dark room, holing my teddy bear and singing with them, I remember that very well.

ThaFormula.Com - What's it like being in North Carolina which isn't really a hotbed so to speak like New York, Atlanta or Los Angeles, how hard it is to get noticed out there?

Darien Brockington - Oh it's hard, it's extremely hard. I'm not saying North Carolina doesn't offer venues to be heard, it does on a local setting, but if you're trying to launch a career places like this aren't necessarily the place to be. I mean when Little Brother does what they're doing and I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do you know people are gonna start paying attention to us.

ThaFormula.Com - Did you have plans to make a move before everything started happening for you there?

Darien Brockington - Oh yeah absolutely. I was gonna mention earlier than when I had ran into Pooh at the bank, I was already making provisions to move. If he hadn't come walking in there until a couple weeks later, I probably wouldn't be in North Carolina now. It's just funny how things work out.

ThaFormula.Com - You contributed to the "Foreign Exchange" project as well, what was it like working on that project?

Darien Brockington - To be honest, for me I was pretty much just in a bubble, I really had no idea what I was being a part of. I did my song and that was that. I did a couple other songs as bonus tracks. I was on "Come Around" that Phonte and I wrote together. He told me that he kind of wanted a counter-song for Yahzarah's song on there "Sincere," a response to her song. So he had to step out for a moment and I just started writing it and by the time he came back I was almost done with it and he helped me finish it. We went in the same day and recorded it and it came out wonderful. I had never really sang an "R&B" song per se, so I was excited that I actually wrote an "R&B" song. I pretty much knew it was going to on the album and that was that. Eventually a version of the album leaked and Phonte asked me to work on the bonus tracks to keep the interest in the project and maybe a week before the album came out I heard it and was like "oh, man this is crazy!" I still didn't realize the size of it until I was on the tour bus and singing on the tour.

ThaFormula.Com - You and Phonte clicked on the project and it led to you to collaborating on your album and Phonte taking on the Executive Producer role of that album…talk about putting your project in the hands of someone so new to the game…

Darien Brockington - Well…Phonte is a very, very, very intelligent man. He has gone through a lot of things in the industry in the short amount of time he has been in it and he's imparting into me a lot of that knowledge that you can't get from reading a book. It's been a learning experience and enlightenment for me as well as a comfort to know that he's in my corner when he's already done this and been here before. I want to learn and find things out for myself as well and make this my experience, but I most definitely value everything that he brings to me and he brings to the table, and everything's he's brought so far he hasn't been wrong about so that gives me a lot of confidence in him! (laughs)

ThaFormula.Com - The album is basically done and I got the chance to check it out, I've gotta say man it's a great summer record and one of the most solid R&B albums I've heard in a minute, but I was kind of surprised how many mid-tempo R&B joints there was, I was expecting more ballads I guess…

Darien Brockington - Thank you very much…it's definitely more R&B than I would have expected but I most definitely love what we put together. I've learned a lot about myself as an artist working with Phonte and trying different things that I would not normally try on my own and it has influenced the way I write now. Before starting this project my vibe pretty much was Soul music and some ways eclectic. We both bring different things to the table, he comes more on the R&B tip and I come more on the Soul tip, but he also has a lot of soul elements to him as well. Working with him just created this energy that I don't think I could have created with anybody else.

ThaFormula.Com - Now initially the album was gonna drop on BBE in August but now it looks like that's not gonna happen right?

Darien Brockington - Basically my introduction to BBE was through Phonte working on the Pete Rock album and the Foreign Exchange album and that most definitely got BBE interested in me as an artist and put me in a position to be interested in them as well. By the time "The Foreign Exchange" was done and functioning simultaneously behind the scenes there was a courtship going on between me and BBE. Initially I had some concerns, BBE is a very reputable independent label in the UK, but I wasn't how sure how well they were out there in the US and I needed that information to feel a little more comfortable. But in talking with Phonte and seeing how the Foreign Exchange project was going we decided that it would work. It's not like I've had a multi-platinum album or a Grammy winning album, but BBE had enough clout to get my album out to the masses and take me to the next level that I need to be at. Also, normally in independent situations you're allowed creative control and are allowed the opportunity to be involved in the marketing of your album so I felt really good about that too because I'm a newbie and you know how it is with major labels, you don't really get a voice like that. They (BBE) didn't do any of that with "The Foreign Exchange" so I felt pretty confident that they wouldn't do that with me as well, especially with BBE seeing Phonte as an Executive Producer.

ThaFormula.Com - Right, because "The Foreign Exchange" was put together and sequenced extremely well…

Darien Brockington - Yeah, so we went back and forth with the terms of the contract and what we were agreeable with and we felt we were on the same page as far as creative control, marketing and who was gonna be in control of what and all of our roles in that. Unfortunately there was a turn of events that took place in the course of the album being finished and it actually came out that we had differences in terms of creative control and marketing.

ThaFormula.Com - That far into the project that was coming up?

Darien Brockington - Right! That late into the process. Once those issues came out there was an attempt to come to an agreement with them that was workable between both them and us but it just didn't happen and they offered to release me out of my contract and I just thought that was the best thing to do.

ThaFormula.Com - It was something that large that was worth terminating the whole deal? It sounds like there was a 180 in terms of how the project was to be handled?

Darien Brockington - It was more or less that we believed this project would be handled just like "The Foreign Exchange" project but it became apparent that it was not going to be that situation at all. We were never given the impression that it would be any different until then. If we would have understood that then we would have done things very different. Things would have been spelled out a lot more than they were. We kind of took advantage of the relationship BBE had with Phonte and kind of allowed that to direct certain things. My manager I and did become very involved throughout and kind of shifted gears eventually and were more involved than even Phonte, but even with that we thought that with this being my project and having Phonte on a s executive Producer there were certain things that would be O.K. to do, that at the end, were obviously not.

ThaFormula.Com - So what's happening with the album now?

Darien Brockington - Right now we are considering other homes for it, shopping it and just bringing a resolve to the BBE situation and moving away from there and getting it in someone's hands who will ultimately put it out. I feel like it's a blessing from heaven because it's a great album and I want it to get the justice it deserves. I don't want it to be one of those albums that's like "It was a great album but it didn't get the proper support it needed," and maybe this will give us the opportunity to find someone who really believes in it and has the manpower to really put it out there and do big things with it. I'm not mad at all, it is a little disappointing because I really wanted the album to come out in August and we were done so it kind of threw me for a loop at first getting ready for the release date and the next thing we know there wasn't one. It didn't take me long to get over though, I just had to realize that everything happens for a reason.

ThaFormula.Com - The majority of the album is produced by Nicolay, what was it like working with him?

Darien Brockington - It was kind of like with the Foreign Exchange, I didn't get the privilege to work in the studio with him, it was more or less tracks being sent to Phonte and then he kind of filtered through the ones he thought would be right for the album and then either Phonte or I would write the songs or we would collaborate and write them. I'm hoping on this next go around that I'll actually get to go into the studio with him and collaborate with him as well because hearing my voice over his tracks is just a privilege.

ThaFormula.Com - You said that when you were rowing up you had a lot of influence from the church, were there any other artists that influenced you and have an impact on the music you make now?

Darien Brockington - This is probably gonna throw you for a loop but I'm gonna say it anyways (laughs)…Faith Evans. She's the reason I have a very, very high falsetto because I could never sing in my falsetto when I was growing up it was the hardest thing for me to do and I just listened to her so much. I was more of a contemporary gospel singer than if you think about gospel back in the day that was conventional, kind of smooth like Brian McKnight. There wasn't really a lot of hard singing or quite as soulful. Listening to Faith and just singing with other soulful people brought soulful elements to my voice. Listening to Brandy and her runs, that's how I learned to run and then also other gospel singers I was around. A little later on I got turned on to the greats like most do. Donny Hathaway wasn't somebody that I was looking for but my dad introduced him to me when I was about 13 and he popped his tape in the car and the first song I recognized was a song called "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." It just moved me so much and I found myself listening to him all the time, as a teenager I was listening to Donny a lot. It wasn't until my late teens that I started listening to Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Al Green and all the greats.

ThaFormula.Com - People love to make comparisons, and they're already comparing you to artists like Bilal and Eric Benet, how do you look at those comparisons and what do you think is gonna set you apart from them?

Darien Brockington - Well…to address the Bilal thing (laughs) I actually knew Bilal before most people knew who he was. Yahzarah was singing backup for Erykah Badu and we were still in school together at the time. She used to come to me and be like "you need to get out there and quit being a punk, because you sound like this guy named Bilal, you sound a lot alike and if he can do it you can do it too."

ThaFormula.Com - So you've been hearing that one for a minute? (laughs)

Darien Brockington - Yeah, since college, but in terms of me and Bilal, we do have similarities but it has nothing to do with me listening to him. I most definitely made it my business not to listen to him because of the early comparisons because when you listen to someone else whether you like it or not you pick up things that they do whether you want to or not, little nuances and stuff so I don't even entertain the chance…it's not that I don't want to, because I think he's extremely talented and I respect him a whole lot.

ThaFormula.Com - Aside from working out the LP deal, what else are you working on in the mean time?

Darien Brockington - I'll be touring with Little Brother when "The Minstrel Show" comes out. I'm doing a couple hooks for people, I'm on the new Illmind project (Art of One Mind) and that's pretty much it right now aside from starting to formulate ideas for album number two.

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