Darker Lighter is the alias of the talented musician, Salar Rajabnik, who has spent countless years on the road perfecting his songwriting craft and musicianship. Along the way, Rajabnik caught the eye of artists like Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age, and Kim Gordon, who entrusted him as their guitar tech and associate. In this interview, I asked Darker Lighter about his great new single called “Nice To Meet You,” his upcoming self-titled album, and much more.
You’ve mentioned that “Nice To Meet You” was meant to be interpreted more universally. How do you balance making your music both personal and accessible to a wide audience?
I think, beyond focusing on trying to convey notions that are deeply held within my own mind & heart, I always consider how my favorite songs always feel deeply personal and deeply universal at the same time. That’s a tall order, writing or creating something that somehow be very intimate and broad simultaneously. But it’s always what i’m striving to do. I always consider trying to achieve that balance when I’m composing, writing lyrics, etc.
How would you describe your evolution as an artist since you first began exploring music, and how does your current sound compare to your earlier work?
I think my evolution is a natural and organic one that’s a natural result of my trajectory in life. I come from very meager socioeconomic means, so I have a working class background. Any and everything I have I worked very hard for. But I also have always retained a creative aspiration within that down in the dirt reality that’s defined a lot of my life experiences. I suppose that dichotomy is another parallel coexistence that somewhat mirrors my songwriting approach (marrying the personal with the accessible). Simply put, I’ve really intentionally honed my skill set over the years via lots of touring, recording, writing, playing, etc to try to employ all of those skills within a general approach that helps me achieve being able to have my finished songs match what I envision or hear in my head. In years past that was something I simply did not have the means to do. Working live and in the studio with the best of the best, at least according to what I value in art, and observing their processes and commitments to not backing down from their principles has really helped me and I’ve learned so much from that.
Which song from the upcoming album do you feel most connected to, and why?
Hard to pick just one, but if pressured, I’d have to say “Take It All In.” It’s not the album closer just because it’s downtempo & sweeping, it’s certainly a more definitive proclamation of sort of accepting or coming to terms with a lot of the themes that are presented throughout the album along the way. It’s really contemplative, as are so many of the other songs, but it does come to more of a place of acceptance with some of these difficult or opaque concepts that I wrestle with in life in general, which are therefore addressed in my music.