Darren James Mew (born 23 May 1975), better known as Darren Styles, is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

record producer, DJ, singer and songwriter from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, England. Originally a member of the

breakbeat hardcore Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave or oldskool hardcore) is a music genre of the very early 1990s that spawned from the UK rave scene. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In ad ...

group DJ Force & the Evolution, Styles found success during the 1990s as one half of Force & Styles. The duo were pioneers of

happy hardcore Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990 ...

and wrote several well-known songs such as " Heart of Gold", "

Pretty Green Eyes "Pretty Green Eyes" is a song originally written and recorded by Force & Styles featuring Junior. A remixed version appeared on their debut album ''All Over the UK'' (1996) and the song was released as a 12-inch single in 1997. The song achieve ...

" and " Paradise & Dreams". In the early 2000s, Styles began producing more

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

-influenced records with Mark Brady as Styles & Breeze. The duo released two hit singles "

You're Shining "You're Shining" is a 2004 song by DJ duo Styles & Breeze. It reached the top 20 in Finland and the United Kingdom. It features vocals by Lisa Abbott. Chart performance In Finland, "You're Shining" debuted and peaked at number 19; it only spent ...

" (2004) and "

Heartbeatz "Heartbeatz" is a song performed by UK duo Styles & Breeze featuring Karen Danzig. It became the duo's second top-20 hit in Finland and the United Kingdom. Chart performance In Finland, the song debuted at number 16 but only spent one week ...

" (2005) which both reached the Top 20 of the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. They have been involved in all volumes of the popular ''

Clubland X-Treme Hardcore ''Clubland X-Treme Hardcore'' are a series of compilation albums from Clubland released by Universal Music TV, AATW. Series overview Clubland X-Treme * Disc 1 # Scooter – Weekend 4:49 # Drunkenmunky – E 2:39 # Porn Kings vs. Flip & Fi ...

'' compilation series. Darren Styles also has a collab alias with Stonebank called "Zero Hero". As a solo artist, Styles has released two studio albums, the Gold-selling ''

Skydivin' ''Skydivin is the debut solo studio album by British dance musician Darren Styles. Background The album debuted at #4 in the UK Albums Chart with sales of 22,197. A month later it was certified gold by the BPI with over 100,000 copies sold. ...

'' (2008) and '' Feel the Pressure'' (2010). He has also frequently collaborated with several other artists such as Hixxy,

Ultrabeat Ultrabeat are a British electronic dance music group from Liverpool, England formed in 2002. Originally consisting of vocalist and producer Mike Di Scala and producers Ian Redman and Chris Henry, Ultrabeat first emerged with their cover of ...

and

N-Force N-Force is an English dance music act that formed in 2008. Career The act comprises Lois McConnell as lead singer, plus Jorg Schmid and Chris Henry. N-Force is currently signed to UK Dance label All Around the World, and have so far released s ...

Early life

Styles was born as Darren James Mew in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England. He was encouraged to play music from an early age by his father, a blues fan, and always had a passion for music. He spent many nights mastering his ability on the keyboard and developing his own style, inspired by dance music. In February 1992 in

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea is a seaside town in the Tendring District in the county of Essex, England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District with a population of 56,874 (2016). The town is situated ...

, Styles had his first "hands on" experience of the underground rave scene in "Oscar's Nightclub" on Clacton Pier. This event lead to him wanting to be a part of the dance music community.

Force & Styles

His first records were as part of the

group DJ Force & The Evolution (with Paul Hobbs, James Broomfield and Paul Hughes) released in 1993. The group signed to hardcore record label Kniteforce and many of their tracks were played by

Carl Cox Carl Cox (born 29 July 1962) is a British house and techno club DJ, as well as radio DJ and record producer. He is based in Hove, Sussex, England. Cox has won and been nominated for numerous awards. He has performed at numerous clubs and e ...

. The group also produced tracks using the alias A Sense of Summer for another hardcore label Universal Records owned by Slipmatt. In 1995, he and Paul Hobbs set up their own label UK Dance Records so they could quickly release more material and have complete artistic licence over their records. They began producing using the alias Force & Styles and released many 12-inch records on UK Dance and by 1996 their popularity had grown so that they were DJing every weekend up and down the UK, as well as touring Australia, North America, and Ibiza on a regular basis. The two also held residencies at various events including those by Slammin Vinyl, Helter Skelter and United Dance. By 1997, they had produced some of the biggest

tracks of the time, many of which went on to be covered by commercial dance artists, including singles " Heart of Gold", " Paradise & Dreams", "

", " Pacific Sun" and "

Field of Dreams ''Field of Dreams'' is a 1989 American sports fantasy drama film written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Canadian novelist W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel ''Shoeless Joe''. The film stars Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a ...

". Force & Styles picked up many awards at this time and they were the first ever hardcore DJs to do a guest mix for

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong, (born 30 July 1960) is an English disc jockey who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as ''Essential Mix'' and ''Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio stre ...

Essential Mix The ''Essential Mix'' is a weekly radio show on BBC Radio 1 currently broadcast between 0:00 and 2:00 a.m. UK time on Saturday morning. Originally broadcast on 30 October 1993, the ''Essential Mix'' features contemporary DJs and music produce ...

radio show on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

. Force & Styles released three albums: '' All over the UK'' (1996), ''Simply Electric'' (1998) - a compilation of tracks by DJ Force & The Evolution and Force & Styles - and their greatest hits album ''Heart of Gold'' (2000).

Solo career

Styles' first solo record was " Feelin' Fine" which was released as Unique in 1998. His solo career as Darren Styles started in 2002 after releasing a record for Nukleuz and other labels. He has also released many records on Raver Baby and his first solo single was " Save Me" released on All Around the World Styles has released singles collaborating with other artists on tracks such as " Sure Feels Good" and " Discolights" with

and " Right by Your Side" with

. In 2008, he released ''

''. The album was a collection of old and new hardcore and commercial songs. This album reached No. 4 in the UK, # 41 in Ireland and has since been certified Gold in the UK. His follow-up single to "Discolights" with Ultrabeat was the song "Girls Like You", released 2 February 2009. Styles owns Junkbox Records which has released a number of singles. In June and July 2009, Styles and Ultrabeat embarked on a ten-date UK-wide co-headlined tour, accompanied by Breeze, Infextious, DJ Frisco, MC Domino, Rebecca Rudd (Ultrabeat) and N-force. Starting in Sheffield, the tour went to Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and London. In late November and early December 2009, Styles was part of Clubland Live 3 which toured through England, Scotland and Ireland. Styles' most recent album ''Feel the Pressure'' was released on 23 August 2010, and features the singles "Outta My Head", "Sound Without a Name" and "Holding On".

Personal life

Styles is married to Fiona Merry who appeared on the 2007 edition of the reality television series '' Shipwrecked''. They had a baby girl on 3 November 2010.

Awards

* 1997 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Producers: Force & Styles * 1997 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Live PA: Force & Styles * 1997 Hardcore Heaven Awards Rookie DJs of the Year: Force & Styles * 1997 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Record Label: UK Dance * 1997 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Visiting DJ: Darren Styles * 1997 Kiss FM Awards Best Hardcore Record: "Heart of Gold" * 1998 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Producers: Force & Styles * 2003 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Producers: Styles & Breeze * 2003 Kiss FM Awards Best Hardcore Record: "You're Shining" * 2004 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Producers: Styles & Breeze * 2004 Kiss FM Awards Best Hardcore Record: "Heartbeatz" * 2005 Kiss FM Awards Best Hardcore Record: "Slide Away" * 2006 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Producer: Darren Styles * 2006 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best DJ: Darren Styles * 2006 Hardcore Heaven Awards Track of the Year: "Save Me" * 2007 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best DJ: Darren Styles * 2008 Hardcore Heaven Awards Best Producer: Darren Styles * 2008 Hardcore Heaven Awards Track of the Year: "Flashlight" * 2009 Hardcore Heaven Awards Outstanding Contribution: Darren Styles * 2009 Hardcore Heaven Awards Track of the Year "Sorry" * 2010 Total Dance Music Album of the Year: ''Feel The Pressure'' * 2010 Hardcore Heaven Awards Track of the Year: "Smack You Like a Bitch" * 2011 Hardcore Heaven Awards track of the Year: "You & I" (Darren Styles and Gammer)

Discography

* ''

'' (2008) * '' Feel the Pressure'' (2010)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Styles, Darren 1975 births English DJs English record producers English songwriters English electronic musicians Breakbeat hardcore musicians Happy hardcore musicians Hardcore techno musicians Living people UK hardcore musicians Monstercat artists Electronic dance music DJs All Around the World Productions artists