Randy Darbonne

Another good well produced old school soul album from a new comer with a very soulful voice.
‘All About Love’ is a nice mid tempo stepper, ‘Goodbye’ is a catchy mid tempo dancer with a sax backing and the driving beater of ‘Midnight Sun’ is also good. The highlights are the bright shuffling mid tempo dancer ‘That’s What It Takes’ with its catchy hooks and guitar licks, and mid tempo groover ‘Making Love To You’ with good keyboards and sax, whilst ‘Soft Spoken’ is a nice ballad. Well worth checking out.
- Soul Brothers, London UK

July 2007 - Tracks "Goodbye" and "That's What It Takes" from Randy' recent album, featured on KCOH 1430 AM, "For Grown Folks" show. Tues - Fri, the midnight show. - KCOH

Lake Charles native Randy Darbonne has started his own label, produced a second album and is ready to go wherever his music takes him.
Darbonne, currently living in California, recently released his second album, “Let’s Talk About Love,” on his own label, Kool Like That. An early school performance in Lake Charles gave him his first inkling that music was his calling.
“I have always been singing,” he said. “I remember singing in front of the school at Immaculate Heart of Mary and thinking to myself that I really liked that. After that I sang in the choir and went from there. I moved to California as an adult, performed with several bands in San Francisco. We performed in night clubs, toured in Canada. I moved to Los Angeles for a while, then went back to the Bay Area to live in Oakland.”
After moving back, Darbonne decided to strike out on his own.
“in groups, everyone has to be on the same page. I decided to go solo and in 2004 released an album, “Radio Soul.’ I primarily sold that one at gigs and through friends. I began working on a second CD and decided to start my own record label, so my girlfriend and I formed our own company. We released the second album, ‘Let’s Talk About Love,’ in March of this year.”
“I am excited about the album. The songs are kind of like a throwback to the era when songs had a story to tell, stuff like Marvin Gaye. There are also some rock influences like Rod Stewart and the Beatles. There is a little jazz influence; I have a great saxophonist from Japan that appears on the record.”
“I wrote nine of the 10 songs. I enjoy when an idea comes to me. I usually do the drums and bass first, then the lyrics start to form, the words start to flow. Most of the songs are about everyday life experiences, love, relationships and family. ‘Midnight Sun’ is a political song about the war in Iraq. ‘Forever After’ was actually a poem I wrote for a friend that passed away; I read it at his memorial service. It is a song about friendship.”
Darbonne is currently promoting the album and meeting with distributors. He hopes to form a band for future performances.
“For now, we are working on getting this out,” he said. “We have gotten good responses, it is doing really well in Japan and Europe. A company based in Tokyo with stores in several countries just ordered a bunch of copies. It has been getting play in Switzerland on an Internet radio station. I would like to put a band together in the Bay Area, but we are ready to go wherever the music takes us. If it is Europe that comes calling, we will be ready to go.”
Darbonne said starting the label has given him more control over his music, rather than having to meet the demands of a larger company.
“You have to build a foundation, not let the nature of the business eat at you and make you give up. We went to seminars to learn about the business side and just decided to put our own thing together, be in control of everything. Now, with the Internet, you can send your music all over the world. These days you can put music online and people will have access to it. You do not have to get pigeonholed by the big music companies.
“Now our focus is getting a deal with a distribution company to get the album out there. We would keep the indy label so that we could eventually work with other artists.”
For more information, visit www.randydarbonne.com.

- American Press

On "Let's Talk about Love", Randy Darbonne creates sweet and soulful sounds for the ears. His smooth and touching voice carries the album with delightful lyrics about love and life. The well crafted music behind the voice emphasizes R&B, funk, disco, and hip-hop. On "junkie", Randy exclaims that he is a love junkie, and if you like songs about love you will enjoy this album. If you like R. Kelly, Luther Vandross, or Jamiroquai you will love this album. Go ahead and pick up your copy today! - RadioIndy

Understatement-Soul. Randy Darbonne ist passabler Vokalist, der sich in der Tradition eines Marvin Gaye oder Bobby Womack sieht und auf seiner nunmehr zweiten Compact Disc einen durchaus angenehmen, unaufgeregt-entspannten Zeitlos-R&B zum Besten gibt, der gerade aus diesem Grund einige Zeit der Eingewöhnung einfordert. Die Hooklines sind stimmig, die glasklaren Arrangements aus zurückhaltenden Keys & Synthies, gelegentlichen Gitarren und solistisch eingesetzten Saxofonen bleiben in allen Takten auf der geschmackvollen Seite und die Konzentration auf hüftschwingende Midtempo-und-knapp-darüber Grooves verfehlt die angepeilte Wirkung kaum – man höre dazu den chunky Stepper „All About Love“, bei dem uns Randy Darbonne gleich zum Einstieg eine eindrucksvolle Vorführung seiner maniriert-dehnbaren Stimmbänder gönnt. Durchaus nett, in allen Abteilungen passig – zwar kein ganz großer Sport, aber überaus solide und daher kann Randy Darbonne´s Einladung zu einem kurzweiligen Gespräch über die Liebe in die Abteilung „Gute Unterhaltung“ eingeordnet werden.


- Sonic Soul - Germany