Darius World

Darius Danesh: A True Pop Idol - by Charlotte Horn

Dubit Interview July 2002

It's Not Unusual for a star to make a comeback. But when it's a complete unknown whose credibility was left in tatters after a cringe-inducing rendition of Britney Spears' One More Time, in front of millions of viewers, it's nothing short of a miracle.

Still, the public have forgiven him, even if the media haven't! Meet Darius Danesh, dubbed The Comeback Kid.

Dubit caught up with the super-dishy Darius, (before his screaming fans could get to him first!), and asked him if he was back for good…

Venue: Party in the Park, Leeds

Journalist: Charlotte Horn

It was very brave of you to come back after Pop Stars. How did the whole experience affect you?

My confidence took such a huge pounding that I grew a full on beard and was too embarrassed to be seen at all. Especially after the whole Britney thing! It knocked me for six and the tabloids cut my legs off before I could stand, and I had no confidence and I didn't want to sing in public ever again. But then I grabbed my guitar and a whole bunch of CDs and began writing songs. I've been writing since the age of 14 and it's song writing that got me through it and I realised that when I looked at the old clips of stuff it wasn't me. I just laughed. The whole media, programme editing and everything, I just looked back and laughed. "The turning point of Pop Idol was 'It's Not Unusual' by Tom Jones." By then I didn't care what people thought of me and I sang a song like I would coming out of the shower. (Now there's a thought!!). Just me relaxing.

The whole appearance change from Pop stars to Pop idol really wowed fans, which of your styles do you prefer and why?

I'm now developing a style which you'll see more of on the album, and I think that you'll be surprised. Maybe only by some of the stuff you'll hear, but still pleasantly surprised. And hopefully everyone that voted for me on Pop Idol I can thank by the most honest way I can, by being me. But look out for the album. Out November.

After all the hard work and perseverance you have put into becoming a pop star do you feel an extra special bond with your fans?

Yes I feel very lucky to be on that stage. I feel very lucky to have won the support through Pop Idol that I did. Initially that support was from my family and friends. And as I relaxed through the cameras it was through the public's support for picking up the phone and making sure I was on the show each week, and then when I came third with over one million and half votes was incredible. So I do feel really lucky. So when anyone comes over to me and says 'Darius I voted for you' I just wanna give them a great hug and say thank you. To say the words 'I've got fans' makes me feel a bit weird, but it's great! I show my thanks through my music.

What do you feel it is you offer that Will and Gareth don't?

What to offer that Will and Gaz don't? Well! I can't answer that question. I'm not a cover star you know. I'm not a teen or pop idol. I'm just going into what I enjoy doing. When I look at the people that I respect in the music business like Craig David, David Gray, Alicia Keys - singer songwriters that are bringing original music to the front page of pop - and I hope to call them my peers. I'm a singer songwriter, which wasn't really shown on Pop Idol. And I'm just enjoying myself. You can answer that question yourself whenever you hear the albums, once again out in November!

The Press has been giving you a hard time, saying that you're cheesy! Are you really cheesy or just a genuinely nice guy?

Some of these people here? Where are they? I'll riddle them out. No, I've had a great run, because on Pop Idol I was paid I suppose the highest compliment by the 'Cheese King' himself, Foxy, when he said 'Darius, tonight after your performance you convinced me you are not cheesy, you're just smooth'! So when he said that I thought, 'Yeah, even Foxy's gonna give me a break.' My problem is that I'm too honest with my emotions and you know when I said that line 'Do you feel the love in the room?' I walked into a room of people crying, and it's like me walking into this tent and you're all in tears and the very least I could do was to lighten the tone. So I said 'so guys, do you feel the love in the room?' and some people smiled and stopped crying so it worked. So for me to try and explain that on national television after it had been edited was hard. I'm lucky that Pop Idol was live viewing and there wasn't room for editing, and now when I'm on stage you see me. So you're not seeing a caricature of me. So you take what you want and the rest you don't want you don't take!

In your video, you seem to be very attracted to the actress who is in it with you. Did you get to choose her?

In the video, the girl in the video is very attractive, wow, yeah I know, but she's got a boyfriend, he's 28 and a policeman, so that's where it ends.

Finishing third in Pop Idol must have made you over the moon, how do you feel about finally getting a record deal?

I'm lucky that defines the two years of effort, excitement and the rest of it wasn't shown on television. It was meeting my producer hero Steve Lillywhite (producer of U2, Travis and Kirsty MacColl); I met him after the programme, and he'd just got back from the States. He got back in March after the Pop Idol had finished. So the day he got back a demo of my song 'Colourblind' was on his desk, and that night I found myself having dinner with my producer hero Steve Lillywhite in a kebab shop having this dodgy kebab and explaining to him the kind of ideas and direction that I wanted to go in if I had the opportunity to write my own album. And at the end of the conversation he said 'Darius, I'm now the managing director of Mercury Universal, the biggest major record label in the world and I'd like to offer you a five album deal.' I dropped my kebab and swallowed by tongue because I didn't know what to say. So that for me was the summing up of all my dreams, because so suddenly I'd been offered an opportunity on the basis of the material.