Darren's musical journey began at age fifteen. A self-taught guitarist, he learned by watching others, and by listening to popular artists on albums and the radio. By the end of his last year in high school, he had played and sung at different school functions, making many new friends along the way. He discovered that people enjoyed listening to him play and sing. A few years later, he was playing at open-mic nights, in bars, coffee houses and anywhere else that people would listen to him. Darren's style of music focused around John Denver, Jim Croce, Gordon Lightfoot and others.

As time went on, Darren's desire to play in that atmosphere grew cold. Even the songs he had written had lost their appeal. He lost the desire to sing for entertainment. There was something missing in his music, and not knowing what that something was, he put his guitar away and asked himself, "What's the point of even playing?".

Over the next few years, Darren would take his guitar out from time to time, to write down the feelings he was having from God and turn them into songs. In 1997, he came in contact with the truth of God, and later connected with a small group of God's people in North Carolina. He went for a visit and played a couple of his songs for them and saw and felt their reaction, and knew this was what his talent was for. The people weren't just being entertained; feelings were being awakened in their hearts. Darren picked up his guitar with renewed vigor and began writing and playing music for God's people.