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Dive In With Darius

Darius releases his third single ‘Incredible (What I Meant To Say)’ on 3rd March, so we chatted to him about that, about his tour, and what he thinks about missing out on a Brit nomination.

Are you looking forward to your UK tour?
I can wait. This is what I've been looking forward to since the age of about 16 when I first put my band together. The band was called Jade, and we tried to get a little tour going in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and we got as far as doing a school gig then the band split up! So yeah, the Dive In 2003 Tour starts May 2nd. We kick off in Glasgow and we're doing dates all up and down the country and we end up in London at the Hammersmith Apollo. I think tickets are almost sold out.

Were you excited when you heard the tickets had nearly all been snapped up?
Yeah, they went within a few days of the lines opening, so that was great news. I meant I could go off on my holidays and think 'What a great end to a brilliant year and a great start to the new year'.

Were you a bit worried when you announced the tour - because you're playing quite big venues...
I though no one would come! They are about the biggest intimate venues you can get, because what I wanted to do was perform at venues where you have a real sense of the music, of being close to the artist. I can't wait, it's literally a childhood dream. It's kind of scary but exciting.

You seem to have a pretty firm idea of how you want the tour to be...
I'm organising it right down to the final details. We're just doing the stage plan now. We're not going to have whizzes and bangs and fireworks, it's going to be about the music. It's going to be upbeat and fun, but you'll get that from the music, which will be all the songs from the album, plus some others that I think people will recognise - some covers of songs that inspire me to write the stuff that I do.

When you got to No.1 with 'Colourblind' it must have been like two fingers up to those people who said you couldn't do it...
A lot of people have said that, but in fact it's not, it's the opposite. It's a skewed logic, but I kind of want to thank all the people who criticised or put me down before, because if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be where I am. They made me ask all sorts of questions of myself and take a good hard look at where I was, and I didn't really like it, so I worked really hard on focussing on where I wanted to go. So I've actually got as much respect for everyone who criticised me as I have for the people that supported me.

In 'Popstars' you said you were going to have a triple platinum album by the age of 35 - how close are you to that now?
Well 'Dive In' has gone platinum, so not bad. It's great to have the opportunity to look back on things you've said and done and laugh. I wake up every morning and thank my lucky stars that I'm doing something that sure beats working for a living.

Are any of the songs on the album ones you wrote years and years ago?
No they're all new songs that I wrote post-‘Colourblind’, last year. Although I've been writing since the age of 13, I wanted all the songs on the album to reflect where I was then. Also I'd grown up so much in two years and I wanted the material to be fresh. I wanted it to be ‘hanging off the front edge of pop’.

Tell us about the new single 'Incredible' then - where were you when you wrote it?
It was in May last year out in LA. I felt like a kid in a candy shop on the flight over when they upgraded me from economy to First Class. I literally had a bed, and so it was an incredible flight over. I've never been so excited in my life. Steve Lillywhite, my music guru, had introduced me to Avril Lavigne's producers and we got a great vibe going and wrote this track, 'Incredible'. It's about the things you meant to say but didn't say, and about when you blurt something out and afterwards, when its too late, think 'Why did I say that?'. It's an upbeat track, and one that people can really get into.

How about the video for 'Incredible'?
We shot it in Barcelona and we hired out the whole of the main train station in the city. They hired a 200-strong extras cast, and a beautiful girl and I got to act which was great. It was directed by Nigel Dick, one of the top video directors. He did the first Britney video and the Oasis 'Wonderwall' video, and he is just starting to make Hollywood feature films. He treated me like an actor on set, which was wicked fun

Will and Gareth are both up for Brit Awards and you're not. Do you think that's unfair seeing as you write your own songs?
I hadn't even thought about it ‘til someone mentioned it to me last week. Firstly I can't really imagine being nominated for a Brit. For me it's something that happens when you've been in the business for a bit and really made your mark. And I don't feel like I've made my mark yet, or fulfilled my potential. I really don't. When I have, I'd love to be nominated. Also 'Dive In' was released at the back end of the fourth quarter, and I think to be nominated you have to have material out earlier in the year. But I'm ecstatic for Will and Gareth. I won't be able to go along on the night though because I'm going to be in Germany.