Musician Interview with The Butterfly Effect Soundtrack artist Darius Lux
Ever get a bad case of the Mondays? When you don’t want to brave traffic and endure your job one more day? Instead of going to work, Darius Lux decided that he was tired of waiting tables in Manhattan, so he left and traveled throughout the Pacific, Asia, Europe and South America. He now writes, produces and performs music to help us get though Mondays a little easier–music that is uplifting and inspiring. His latest release is appropriately named Arise and it is a reminder that we need to aspire to reach the excellence beyond ourselves either by recreating our lives or doing what we do better than we ever have. Not a bad way to start the week eh?
What songs on your album do you most like to play live?
There are 3 main songs that I enjoy playing for different reasons. With “XtraOrdinary”, I begin by beat-boxing and then loop that beatbox beat in my pedal while the band slowly build around it thru the song, it’s great to start something so small and end so big and the crowd always gets engaged in the process
I must have played “Human Race” over 150 times live and the guitar riff always gets people moving, that can only be a good thing. This song also works well acoustically, as well as with a full rockin band grooving behind me, and it’s also easy to do a live reggae version when the mood calls for it.
Finally, “Hey You” is a blast because by the final chorus most people are singing along and that’s when I really feel like “mission accomplished”.
What is your biggest inspiration behind your writing?
To offer something that is inspiring and insightful and may help fill a hole in the lives of people, who like me, feel something is missing sometimes. I wasn’t always turned on by everything around me growing up and loved the escape music provided and another way of seeing the world offered by the writers.
You are a producer, songwriter, multi instrumentalist, and a performer, which of these roles do you like the best?
The different roles move in waves. I do really like them all equally if in balance. Songwriting is a specific moment in time where I like to focus my existence on absorbing and reflecting. Then I hit a limit and want to bring them to life and playing the different instruments is a blast and allows me the chance to become a better player. Producing can be for myself or for another artist and often involves more of a ‘science’ in getting the best sound or arrangement. This is also when you can do the ‘editing’ that I wouldn’t do in the early writing stages. If I am producing for another artist it is also nice to take a break from my own thing and be more objective. Plus, you always learn so much working with other people. Performing is a whole other rush, whatever nerves there may be initially, are quickly transformed into bliss—channeling all the different emotions thru my voice onstage feels like the purest form of expression I have ever known.
If you were broke and had to dress up like a character and stand outside Mann’s Chinese Theatre, who would you dress up as and why?
Ha! That’s funny 
I was walking by there yesterday. Off the top of my head—Ace Ventura . I think any Jim Carrey character gives you a huge license to just be a total whack job in public and get away with it ;-P
What was your favorite album growing up?
Acchhh, do I have to pick only one!! Ok, I need to pick 3.
Blood Sugar Sex Magic by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Wow, blew my mind, total pinnacle of all their talents blending perfectly: creative, fun, deep. I can still listen to that and feel the same rip of energy as the day it came out. This was essential pubescent listening!
Euphoria Morning by Chris Cornell. Although this kinda flopped at the time, I was enraptured by the very musical and soulful musings of Soundgarden’s frontman. This album plays like a friend by your side, you can tell he had been waiting a while to show this other face of his talents. Every song is perfection, there isn’t a single wasted note here and of course, that VOICE!
Songs In The Key Of Life As a child I found an old unmarked cassette copy left in an abandoned cupboard and I started listening to it and never looked back. I didn’t know who it was for years, but Stevie Wonder taught me most of what I needed to know.
Have you ever thought of writing rap songs under the pseudonym D-Lux?
Ha, another great question, I think I’ll spare the world my rapping. Any attempts at ‘freestyling’ usually slide into potty mouth pretty quickly – although Eminiem made a whole career of that….
Find Darius on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter
-Sheena
