Harts

Darren Hart, an Indian-born musician now based in Australia, records under the nom de plume Harts. His distinctive fusion of funk, jazz, blues, psychedelic rock, and indie electronic has elicited comparisons to Prince, Jimi Hendrix, and Lenny Kravitz, among others. After growing up in Melbourne, he released a demo in 2010 that drew the notice of Lars Stalfors from the Mars Volta, prompting an offer to mix the material. Those reworked tracks surfaced on the 2013 debut EP Offtime, issued by Island Records. Hart proceeded independently with the 2014 long-player Daydreamer, a ten-track collection of guitar-heavy electro-funk jams. Prince Rogers Nelson himself offered praise, observing that the album reminded him "of how I was at that age"; it subsequently emerged that Hart had journeyed to Prince’s Paisley Park compound earlier that year for a meet-and-greet and jam session. For his sophomore LP, Smoke Fire Hope Desire, Hart aligned with Universal, and the 2016 release reached the United States the next year through Razor & Tie.