Darren Beggs

I picked up a guitar for the first time a few months before turning seventeen. Because of my initial struggle to learn other artists songs to a standard I was satisfied with, I experimented making my own sounds with just a few chords. It allowed me to tap into a creative world I'd never known before, and was a fortunate thing, as I started writing my own stuff nearly from day one. I say fortunate, because I never felt like I was trying to intentionally copy anyone. My influences have of course naturally found their way through, like a river finds the sea.

I would describe my music simply as involving. I write songs unconsciously, expressing my emotions, reaching out, trying to touch what it is that affects me as a person. Someone once said they write songs for their self. At the time I thought that sounded a bit selfish. I realise now though that any honest artist should write for themself. For writing is the artist's personal katharsis of the soul. Once the writing is finished, a change happens, a song is born. Like a painting, once finished, it attains a kind of independence from the artist, something that everyone can appreciate. For me, that is where both the joy and secret of songwriting comes from. If you always write first for yourself, as long as you have integrity, honesty, you'll never fail to create something worthwhile, regardless of what the critics might say.

I've been a singer-songwriter for over ten years. My public success may be limited to say the least, but I've grown emotionally as a person, and for me, that's the important thing. Writing and listening to music has kept me going, and I know it will never fail to keep doing so. Listening as Eva Cassidy caresses my soul, or a metal band justifies my anger, or strumming a guitar when I'm feeling blue, I feel at home, experiencing a taste of my idea of heaven. Isn't that something? No matter what tongue we speak, music is the one univeral language we all understand. We relate to the artist, sure we feel as he or she felt then.