Darren Tate

Darren Tate (born 22 October 1972, in London) is a British record producer, film composer and club DJ.

As a classically trained musician, Tate has worked with international artists and songwriters with whom he collaborates regularly.

He has also worked in the areas of television, film and musical theatre.

Appearing in various television advertisements during his childhood, he attended boarding school for ten years.

As he got older, he was trained in several classical musical instruments, studied music at Leeds University and enjoyed success in television, film and musical theatre.

His first project was a joint effort with Judge Jules in 2000.

Together with Jules's wife, Amanda O'Riordan, they named themselves Angelic.

Later the same year, he cut a few tracks under the name Orion.

Tate has also recorded under the name Citizen Caned and now heads Mondo Records, a company which he started in 2000.

September 2002 saw the return of Tate under the name Jurgen Vries.

Since then, he has used the name DT8 and most recently was part of DT8 Project.

His most successful track in terms of chart presence came with "The Opera Song", which featured Charlotte Church, credited on the sleeve as CMC.

Several compilations of dance tunes by major record labels have been mixed by Tate and reached the charts.

Also included in the Mondo umbrella are Mondo Publishing (established in 2004) and Mondo DJs (formed in 2007).

Tate has a son who was born in February 2006.

Like many of his fellow DJs, Tate has used a large number of pseudonyms.

Tate's first album (released under his own name) was issued in 2006 and titled Horizons 01.

In a DMC magazine interview of March 2007, Tate stated that his favourite record was "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack.

In the same interview, it was revealed that three of his biggest influences in his life were Stevie Wonder, John Williams and Brian Eno.

The first official DT8 Project album, Perfect World, was released on 1 October 2007.

It was a double album, the second containing remixes from other producers.

Tate is also known as a DJ.

As well as headlining many events and touring, he hosts the monthly 'Mondo Sessions' (with co-host Dale Corderoy) which is syndicated across an international radio station network (including Ministry of Sound Radio, DI.FM, ETN, Rise FM, Fresh FM, KIK FM and others).

In addition, he has performed mixing duties on albums such as Beyond Euphoria (MOS), Trance Republic (with John Askew and Agnelli & Nelson) and Mondo Sessions 001 with Mike Koglin.

In January 2008, Tate revealed during an interview on his official website that he was doing some movie work.

In 2008, Tate completed a track for the film Royal Kill, which can be heard over the credits at the end of the film.

He also released Horizons 02 as an EP.

In 2009, Tate was given a special mention and distinguished musician award by the IBLA Foundation for his classical work "Dark Skies" recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (CNSO) in Prague (October 2008).

In 2011, Tate announced several new projects, including Funkysober with Boy George and Marc Vedo, and Tate & Diamond with Harry Diamond.

The first Funkysober single "Sunshine into My Life" features vocals by Sharlene Hector and was released in the summer of 2011 on Very Good Records.

The first Tate & Diamond single "Turn It Back" was released in summer 2011 on Defected Records with the follow-up "Electrified" released on Anjunabeats.

In addition, Tate announced the launch of a collaborative film scoring project entitled Brainstorm with composer Kenneth Lampl.

The first film they completed together was called Sid's Paralysis by director Babar Ahmed which went on to win a prize for musical excellence by the Park City Film Music Festival.

In 2012, Tate with Kenneth Lampl scored the motion picture The Undershepherd, directed by Russ Parr and starring Isaiah Washington, Keith David and Louis Gossett Jr.. In addition, Tate & Lampl worked together on the feature film How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song (director Gary King) which won best film and up and coming director at the Phoenix Film Festival and best picture at the Raindance Film Festival amongst other awards.

The team are currently scoring the motion picture Snapshot (dir. Eric Etebari), Awakened (dir. Arno Malarone, Joycelyn Engle) and Scavenger Killers (dir. Dylan Bank) which starred Charles Durning in his final role.

In 2013, it was announced that the duo would be scoring the feature film Frontera starring Ed Harris, Eva Longoria and Michael Pena (dir. Michael Berry).

In 2018, Tate co-produced and orchestrated the first album for The House and Garage Orchestra, Garage Classics.

The album features performances by Kayla Amor, Sweet Female Attitude, Denzee, Kele Le Roc, Camden Cox, MC Neat, Shelley Nelson, Shy Cookie, Shola Ama, Oggie, Freejak, Safety First, BB Diamond, Tough Love and Reigns.

On Record Day 2021, Fat Possum Records released a limited edition album, Give Me More Love by Al Green which was co-produced by Tate.

The album took the original recordings from Green which were originally released by Hi Records and incorporates new orchestral arrangements by Tate.