Terence Trent D’Arby: Bad Boy of Soul

Hailed as the hottest and smartest star on the British music scene that decade, Terence Trent D’Arby stunned his audiences with his gritty and sensuous vocals when he burst onto the UK charts on his 1987 debut. A talented artiste, D’Arby has always written, composed, arranged and produced all his music.

The singer was born Terrance Trent Howard in Manhattan in 1962 but took the surname of his stepfather Darby. Always musically inclined, he regularly participated in the school choir and music competitions. He also enjoyed boxing and won a Golden Gloves Championship in school.

After school, D’Arby enrolled at the University of Central Florida where he spent a year studying journalism. He then joined the US army in 1980 and was posted to Germany. It was here that D’Arby got involved with music professionally when he began singing lead vocals for a local funk band called Touch.

However as the band grew more and more popular, D’Arby found himself torn between his passion and his duty. Eventually after much conflict with the authorities, he left the army in 1983. Some reports suggest that he might have been court martialed for being AWOL.

After a brief stop in the US, D’Arby moved back to Germany to rejoin to Touch. But the band soon broke up and D’Arby moved to London to pursue his music career. Once there he secured a record deal with CBS and released his first album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terrence Trent D’Arby in 1987. The album was a smash hit topping the charts within a week and spawning the hit single If You Let Me Stay.

Success in the US however came only the next year with the No. 1 Wishing Well and Sign Your Name, a top five hit. His debut album, Introducing… sold over 2 million records and won D’Arby a Grammy and a Soul Train Award.

In spite of D’Arby’s bad boy vibe, critics were full of praise for the singer. Great things were predicted for him with frequent comparisons to Prince.

Neither Fish nor Flesh (1989) was D’Arby’s next album. Innovative and experimental, it had him blending Indian drones with traditional R&B sounds. The lyrics of the songs too were more serious, attacking homophobia and environmental destruction. With audiences expecting more of Introducing… this album proved to be too different for them, resulting in poor sales.

D’Arby’s next release came after a 4 year break in 1993. Called Symphony or Damn it was made on the same lines as Neither Fish nor Flesh but was more slickly presented and technically better produced. This time the album was well received, helping D’Arby regain some of his lost credibility. It was followed two years later by Vibrator which was moderately successful.

It would be another five years before D’Arby would come up with his next album Wildcard! in 2000. However in the interim he remained active on the music scene. He moved from Sony to Java where he recorded the unreleased Terence Trent D’Arby’s Soular Return. In 1999 he fronted INXS when they performed at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Stadium.

D’Arby also set up his own label Sananda and in 2001 changed his name to Sananda Maitreya in an attempt to reinvent himself.
The same year he moved back to Munich,Germany where he initiated another label Treehouse Pub.

2002 saw D’Arby moving to Milan, Italy. Here he released the MP3 formatted Angels and Vampires- Vol.1 in 2005 with the second volume appearing the next year.

Terence Trent D’Arby or Sananda Maitreya continues to live in Milan.