Darren was born in the midwinter of 1968 and for the first 11 years of his life had absolutely no musical aspirations whatsoever (apart from playing tenor recorder at primary school because he was the only kid whose hands were big enough to reach all the holes). By secondary school he had an urge to play the saxophone but, as the school in question did not possess one he was signed up for trombone lessons instead. After realising that learning to play a real instrument would involve work, and inspired by the twin-drummered Adam & the Ants, he decided that it would be much easier to learn the drums instead.

Eventually Darrens parents got fed up with all the edges of their spoons being chipped & the clouds of dust billowing from the arms of the sofa as he pounded away and so, in an act of self-sacrifice that only a budding drummer's parents can ever understand, they bought him a drum kit.

From here it was only a matter of time until word got around the school of the drummer in their midst & he was invited to form a band. This was the strangely named Dymaxion and was the start of his first long term musical partnership with the guitarist Rob Cox. Gigs at a succession of school & college parties followed which normally involved playing until he could play no more & then falling asleep. This is where one of the perks of being a drummer became apparent as he was always guaranteed a pillow for the night (if you don't know what I'm talking about look inside the bass drum of most drummers & all will become clear).

His first proper (ie. pub) gig took place on his 16th birthday at the 6 Bells in Chiddingly-still a regular for Sonic Oblivion and one of Darrens favourite gigs on the circuit. Dymaxion went through a number of line up and name changes until 1986 when, frustrated by a lack of gigs & momentum the members of the band started to work on separate projects. Rob left to form Masque and Darren joined the Haywards Heath college favourites the Plastic Cups featuring former Dymaxion bass player John Braman. This proved short lived however as he found that their rather simplistic style and bias towards a punk-pop style was at odds with his own musical leanings which were towards a far more progressive style.

Consequently he left &, teaming up with Rob Cox again, went in pursuit of fame & fortune with Brighton based band 'After All'. A small amount of success followed with the band taking coachloads of followers to gigs around the S/E & London and this culminated with the independantly released single 'Lost Little Girl' reaching No. 1 in the Brighton singles chart. Sadly however that ever-illusive record deal never materialised & in 1988 after one near-miss too many the band split.

There followed a period of fairly pointless projects that never came to anything. Darren & Rob then moved onto a heavy rock band based in Worthing but after spending far too long rehearsing, no time gigging and watching the stomach of the then pregnant singer swell and the possibility of ever gigging reduce in direct proportion they decided to cut their losses. A phone call from a total stranger led to a cold village hall in Shoreham and a fledgling cabaret band. After a short time however Darren just couldn't come to terms with the material & the prospect of having to wear a spangly waistcoat so he quit.

An attempt to reform 'After All' came next but it was soon decided that things were not going well & the band split again. It was at this time that Darren won the Mid Sussex Times drummer of the year award. Spookily the winning guitarist that year was Rob Comber.

A short time before this Darren had recorded the drum tracks for the first album by local Folk band 'Touchstone' (featuring Steve Porritt on bass) and, knowing that they were having a few drummer problems, he offered his services again. This led to quite a few fairly large gigs around the area and several barndances, a particular favorite as the money was good & the workload light (there was normally about 5 minutes between each piece of music while the participants were shown the steps).

At the same time Darren joined yet another failed project with old friend Mark Johnson-formerly of the Haywards Heath college band 'Blue Vein' (don't ask!) and started to put together a mixture of covers and original material. Due to a general apathy within the band it was short lived but for a while they used a rehearsal studio in Brighton & were followed on Sunday nights by another local band who used to turn up in their bandanas with coloured hankies tied round their belt loops. Their name-Empyr, their singer Rob Comber.

It was now that being a member of Touchstone payed dividends in a rather unexpected way because the band played at the first National Music Day in Haywards Heath in 1991 and on the same bill were two other local bands. The aformentioned Empyr and another going by the name of the Power Toys. Shortly after the gig Darren got a call from the Power Toys who found themselves in need of a new drummer and so he joined and suddenly found himself having to learn a new set in about 3 weeks in time for the first gig in Tonbridge Wells. It was alright on the night however and Darren starred with the Power Toys until they split in 1997.

Shortly after joining the Power Toys Darren got a call fron the bass player of the apathetic (and un-named) Brighton band asking if he would do a one-off Christmas gig for one of the many big insurance companies that Hayward Heath was the home to. He agreed & discovered that the singer for this impromptu band was the ex-singer of Empyr (without the bandana) and now struggling professional guitarist Rob Comber. Rob turned up, demanded most of the money because he was penniless & we all had real jobs, got it and swanned off to Abu Dabi for 3 months to play guitar and lie in the sun!

At this time, along with the Power Toys gig Darren was drumming for what turned out to be the last line up of the popular Brighton band 'Cry Wolf'. However, something had to give so Darren quit Cry Wolf to concentrate on the Power Toys. The following year Haywards Heath held it's first 'Town Week', a week long festival that culminates on the Friday night with a Rock Concert. A band was formed from the pool of local musicians to play a set of covers & Darren was asked to drum. It was a great success and was repeated the following year. Due to personal reasons Darren didn't take part in the covers band that year but Rob Comber did, staggered up to Darren who was in the audience, slurringly declared his intention to form a new band with him and weaved away.

Sadly, but not altogether unexpectedly Rob seemed to have forgotten by the next day. The following year they both took part in the covers band and this time, on overhearing a conversation that Rob was holding with another local musician about forming a band, Darren very rudely interupted to put himself to the top of the list of available drummers. Relations within the Power Toys were getting very strained by this time & it was decided to do one more gig and then split. Once this decision was made Darren scoured the phone book to find Rob's number and reminded him of the prior conversation. This time Rob did remember & a couple of months later Sonic Oblivion was born. It wasn't an easy birth however with 8 months of rehearsals before the first gig and a rather uneasy feeling of having been here before. All the hard work finally paid off and the rest, as they say, is history-or will be one day!