For this month's member spotlight, we spoke with Darrell Looney – an artist who finds freedom in playing music and truly values collaboration. Keep reading to learn more about Darrell through his own uplifting and refreshing perspective.

Hey Darrell, we’re thrilled to feature you as this month's Member Spotlight! We’d love to start off by learning a bit about your background and how you got started as a musician.

Hey Bandsintown, it’s great to be here. My name is Darrell Looney and I started playing violin at age 9 in middle school, studying the Suzuki method. In high school I wanted to play jazz like Noel Pointer and Jean Luc Ponty so I asked and was allowed to join the jazz band. Played mostly keyboards in bands in college but gave up music mostly in med school and residency. Then I picked up the violin again in 1998 and started studying jazz and improvisation more seriously since.

You have quite a history with the violin! How would you describe the feeling when you play?

It's a release from the tensions of a lot of the things that try to take your focus away from music, y'know? The more improvisational and compositional techniques I learn, the more freedom I experience through my playing. That's why I like to experience playing multiple different genres of music.

The freedom you find through playing is so special. We read on your website that you’re in a band called Da Phatfunk Clique. Can you tell us how that came to life?

When I got back into playing the violin in the late 90s I knew I wanted to do the band thing and make songs to release. I've always enjoyed the process within a group of like-minded cats. So when I worked on the tracks for Pandemic Love, I connected with some people who eventually helped me form that band. Over time I still felt the need to grow but I'd invested a lot of energy into the brand, so I morphed the group into more of a collaborative concept where "Da Phatfunk Clique" now represents myself and everyone with whom I am currently collaborating.

Do you look for anything specific before collaborating with other musicians?

It's really all about a vibe. My goal is always to create something mood-elevating and to stimulate the listener to move and just cruise positively through their day. Well, my goal is generally to look for people who seem to want to bring the same thing to the track. I like each musician's own style to come through as much as I can.

We’ve heard the saying before: “your vibe attracts your tribe.” It seems like that applies to Da Phatfunk Clique for sure! Do you have a standout memory that comes to mind when you reflect on your journey in the industry?

I have several favorite memories, but one of my earliest was during high school when I was working on a senior performance piece on the viola, when I suddenly heard someone playing quite professionally in the next room. I snuck a peek and it turned out to be Stevie Wonder on the piano! That was an amazing morning.

Now that’s a memory worth a lifetime! Looking into the future, where do you hope to see the industry 5 years from now?

I hope to see a further leveling of the proverbial playing field where fans of a particular music type would more readily be able to connect with the music they like. I also hope for an increase in the opportunities for all genres of music to be represented in the metaverse. Not just those considered to be "main-stream."

Could you share with us some industry advice that helped shape you as a musician that you’d like to pass on to others?

This came in the form of one of my favorite career experiences as well. Back in 1992 at Howard University, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were testing the waters with a new band they were producing called Mint Condition. I had an occasion to speak with Jimmy Jam briefly and I was telling him about how much time and resources I had been investing in my "hobby" playing music. His correctional advice to me was that if I was investing so much into it then creating music, it wasn’t just a hobby for me. I took his advice and it changed my perspective.

And here you are today! We’re so appreciative of your support of our free Bandsintown for Artist tools. Do you have a favorite feature?

Bandsintown offers artists an amazing array of cool music business tools to literally get things done. It shows these folks really "get it" because so many of their tools focus on relationship and community building. These are all my favorite features because in today's music industry, it's not about the number of streams an individual musician has, it's about the level of real engagement they achieve with their audience. That's what translates into true financial supporters for your sound and if you look closely, you'll see Bandsintown provides real tools to achieve just that! Networking, collaboration, feedback from your peers and nurturing your audience. You’ve covered it all!

Darrell, we can’t thank you enough for taking the time to share your story with our community! Do you have a specific project or anything we can support you with at this time?

I've just finished recording, mixing, and mastering a funky/jazzy track in collaboration with saxophonist Justin Young. It is an upbeat instrumental song entitled "Special You" inspired by people who give themselves to care for others, which makes them special. I'd like to invite everyone to email me about a special person, even something about themself is fine! You can send me the info, an image of their personal avatar or favorite emoji to phatfunk@msn.com. Everyone who does will be invited to a special presentation to include the debut of the song Special You I'm working on for October, 2022.

Amazing, thank you for sharing something so meaningful with us. Before we sign off, is there anything else you’d like to share?

Anyone who's been seeing my posts knows that my thing lately is to educate as many musicians as I can about registering their metadata for their songs. Metadata is soooooo massively important in today's digital industry since so many folks have not done it for their music, much of their money (literally hundreds of millions of dollars) is going unclaimed and simply funneled to major labels and their artists. If it's ok, I just want to share my link to a free resource I put together to help everyone get on top of this: https://www.flavajazz.com/resource-checklist. I would honestly love feedback from people who check it out!
Thank you so much, Darrell! Next month we’ll be back with another story from the community. Until then, keep creating and inspiring those around you!

 
To connect further, you can find Darrell in the Bandsintown Artist Community or through the links below.

Website - https://phatfunk.com/ 

Bandsintown - https://www.bandsintown.com/a/309112-da-phatfunk-clique 

Instagram - https://instagram.com/funkyfiddlah 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/phatfunk 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/daphatfunkclique