Photo by Rocco Falleti
Mutemath found themselves back in the studio trying to make a follow-up to their critically acclaimed LP Mutemath.
The band would quickly find that with its new-found popularity, the pressure to create a successful second album was a little more than expected. For drummer Darren King these pressures began to take away some of the joy he once felt creating music.
“It was a classic taking yourself way too serious, trying to make the great American novel for your second record instead of making a good second record,” Darren says. “There were too many voices giving us so much additional stress to try and excel beyond the success of the first record and so many self-imposed pressures to achieve certain goals.”
Though the process of creating Armistice may not have been the most ideal situation for Darren, the one positive light in his life at that time, was his new found relationship with Stacy Dupree, vocalist and keyboardist of the band Eisley.
Eisley opened for Mutemath on their first tour and Darren instantly grew very fond of Stacy while on the road.
“I had a big crush on Stacy and she sort of ignored me and gave the cold shoulder,” Darren says. “I waited six or seven months before trying to talk to her on the phone, we would talk six hours every night, long distance, and things progressed pretty quickly from there.”
Forming Sucre
For Stacy, music was something that had been ingrained in her life for as long as she could remember. Described as a Partridge Family band- like situation, Stacy’s entire family was very much involved musically. Eisley was a band comprised of her siblings and was a major part of her growth not just as a musician but as a person as well.
“With her relationship to me, she needed me to be just one thing,” Darren says. “She needed a boyfriend before I could be a collaborator.”
With such strong ties to music, the intrigue to collaborate and create music was always an aspiration, but it was not anything the two rushed to start.
“With her relationship to me, she needed me to be just one thing,” Darren says. “She needed a boyfriend before I could be a collaborator.”
“We obviously have a lot of mutual respect for each other, especially being in the industry,” Stacy says. “I was excited at the idea, but a little hesitant, too.”
The now- married couple would date for two years before they created any music together.
Sucré would become an experiment for the couple to try and create something that made them both happy.
Photo by Rocco Falleti
“It was birthed out of, for both of us, losing track of the plot and forgetting how it felt to play,” Darren says. “I use the word ‘play’ meaning for music to be fun.”
Sucré gave Darren and Stacy that outlet to find joy in creating again. This joy would carry into Darren’s work with Mutemath as the band followed up Armistice with arguably their most ambitious collection of work Odd Soul.
“At least for myself, I was reminded of that attitude you are supposed to have,” Darren says. “There has to be hard work, but with a certain percentage of bliss to be making music and for Sucré, we wanted it to be blissful and less mundane and to not compromise.”
Sucré focuses on three words when in the studio and that is making music that has a little beauty, something brutal and though the two mention it can be a tad cheesy, music that has a little booty.
“We wanted to make something beautiful, a little sad with some strong beats,” Stacy says.
“And when we say ‘booty’ we want to make something that makes you dance a little,” Darren says, laughing.
It wasn’t always that easy
When Sucré began, Mutemath was in full swing, playing shows all over the world and continuing to grow in popularity. To add to the often - hectic schedule of shows, the Kings had their first child together as well.
“I was doing a bad job of balancing it all,” Darren says. “I was putting myself first in so many ways and held on to something I should have either let go or at least let fall into a lesser priority.”
“Sucré was kind of in the cracks for a while, and it had to be there for a long time,” Stacy says. “We were just caught in that flux of trying to survive and continue to do what we were doing.”
“It was in this weird crack, where playing in Mutemath was my full time job and had a lot of fulfillment in it, but a lot of unhealthy stuff, too,” Darren says. “When I look back on it, I regret not making the change five or seven years ago. Your family should never be your side project and I didn’t think it was.”
Darren found himself at a crossroads where, although being in Mutemath was giving him some of the satisfaction he wanted, other parts of his life were neglected.
“I was doing a bad job of balancing it all,” Darren says. “I was putting myself first in so many ways and held on to something I should have either let go or at least let fall into a lesser priority.”
Though Mutemath continued to put out records and grow in popularity, especially after being brought out on the road with Columbus natives, Twenty One Pilots, Darren felt they had not achieved enough to finance and facilitate a happy and healthy family life.
Darren would officially depart from Mutemath in the summer of 2017 shortly before the release of its fifth studio album, Play Dead.
Creativity and Marriage
Living and raising two children together, while rewarding, can be a very consuming and tedious task- and rightfully so. Add finding time to create and record music to the mix and you find communication and collaboration take on a whole new meaning.
“We have gotten to the place where we can just be brutally honest with each other,” Stacy says. “It wasn’t natural at first, we had to work it out and have conversations about what the end result should be and I feel we are finally at that place.”
The creative process for Sucré is an interesting one. More often than not, Darren and Stacy are never in the same room as one another when they work on material for Sucré.
Darren usually starts making one - to -two minute electronic and synth drum tracks with chords and Stacy will sing to it.
“If she likes it, I’ll go watch the kids and she’ll go sing to it,” Darren says. “Then she’ll watch the kids and I’ll produce it farther. Stacy does have more veto power in Sucré, and that’s healthy.”
“It’s really fun, we trade it back and forth, it’s exciting to bring him in and push play to show him what I worked on,” Stacy says.
Sucré is hard at work on a new album with a hopeful 2019 release. While recording and creating takes up time, the two have not lost focus of what is most important.
“It is healthy to live in tension, where every need is met and nothing is ever fully full,” Darren says. “Obviously our kids come first and take up the most time.”
DKtheDrummer
Darren and Stacy are at the tail end of a 21- date US tour, a tour that features a set from Sucré and a headlining set of Darren’s latest experiment, “DK the Drummer,” a live DJ set that features Darren behind the drumkit.
DK the Drummer’s set is a way of finding a medium between what happens at a really good DJ set where the crowd is dancing and making the performance more about the audience and less the DJ.
“DJs aren’t actually playing the music and you aren’t going to see them perform a piece of music,” Darren says. “They are pushing play and dancing around and often times the lighting guy is working the hardest.”
Photo by Rocco Falleti
For this tour, the DK the Drummer set is focused in a crowd centric performance. Darren plays the role of “drum jockey” as he is in the middle of the audience on a miniature stage playing along with mixes and mashups of hip- hop and funk tracks.
Dawning a disco ball like helmet and a sequence jacket, amongst a flurry of lights and visuals, DK the Drummer is a must-see spectacle.
The act is something to truly marvel at and helps break down what Darren calls, “the third wall between the artist and audience.
From the lighting to the visuals of the set, it is exciting to see where this project is heading.
“It’s not fully there yet, but it is getting there,” Darren says.
All in the Family
Sucré did have a string of shows played over the past couple of years, but the current tour serves as a new beginning. This is not only the first full tour the two are bringing out on the road, but their two daughters have been on the road with them as well.
“It definitely brings a couple more challenges with kids on the road, but I think they are really adapting pretty well,” Stacy says. “We try and keep it fun and interesting for them on days off where we have just family days and take them to museums and playgrounds.”
Though both realize they will not be able to do a tour like this all the time, they say they are happy to have attempted it and are realizing that is doable and they are continuing to enjoy every step along the way.
“I am so thankful for the opportunity to get to play music with my wife and tour with my children,” Darren says.
“It is so cool to play with him and the energy on stage is incredible,” Stacy says.
Sucré’s tour will wrap up on October 20, in Denver, Colorado. As Darren exited the stage Thursday night, he let the crowd know that 2019 he hopes to release three albums. A Sucré album, another focused on DKtheDrummer with friends singing and rapping over it and a solo record of some of his own original music.
