Darren Cross has been a restless and determined creative figure on the Australian music scene, since the heady days of the early 90s as key member of the trio Gerling. Through electronic music excursions, indie guitar music, the folk noir duo Jep and Dep (with partner Jessica) and onto his current focus, the exploration of Antipodean instrumental guitar music as D.C Cross.

He’s now working on his fifth album in that style, after releasing Wizrad late in 2023. His other current focus is on crowdfunding to release his 2020 album Terabithian on vinyl.

In my review of the album at the time I described the album as “a musical oasis that blends American Primitive acoustic guitar with pastoral British folk and Harold Budd/Eno-like ambience… Here he heads further out into the cosmos – most likely an internal universe where shimmering flights of fancy are taken on dreamy astral planes, searching for calm amid the digital and societal noise of the 21st century.“

“Cross’s lodestones such as Fahey and Jansch and present again but he’s sounding much more relaxed and intuitive. Amid textural field recordings he filters his playing through billowing, weightless reverb which adds an ambient shroud of nostalgia to the music, like an organic New Age meditation tape that tugs on heartstrings and memory – that innate urge to return to comfort and safety.“

Head over to Cross’s Pozible page to get involved in the campaign to get Terabithian pressed on limited edition private press vinyl and scroll down to check out our conversation, which digs into vinyl, the process behind Terabithian and the frustration of inattentive audiences…

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What role has vinyl played in your life and how important is the physical medium to you for listening to and collecting music?

Yeah, as a kid it was always around. It was a mystery! With Gerling we used to sample a lot so I have about 3000 crazy vinyl records. In my own collection I have lots as well. We have three vinyl record player setups in our house! It’s a bit mad. It’s a great way to digest a whole body of work – although to be frank – I like the sound of CDs sometimes. A great sounding vinyl sounds rad though – the drums on early Black Sabbath records etc. The big art work. The tactile part of it.

Four years down the track, how do you feel looking back at Terabithian, in terms of the time it was created and your overall satisfaction with it in the context of all the other music you’ve released?

I just listened back to it and I really love it more. Such a unique part of my back catalogue. It feels like time slows down when I listened to it. Very chilled. Not happy or sad. Ominously in-between. 

I’ve recently said “I would now describe Terabithian as acoustic guitar otherworldly limbo-escapist acoustic fingerpicking compositions soaked in ethereal reverbs, atmospheric port hole ambient dreamscapes, barely audible speaking samples and field recordings of my environment, doves humming, trees blowing, seasons changing, new day risings… I created, in lockdown – Terabithian – escapist pieces for guitar.”

It was Covid lockdown times and what I was trying to do was make an un-new age new-agey (ambient folk punk lol) escapist album… taking the forced idea of escapism through music but making an actual free escapist album through music, with the intention of that idea but not held back from the restraints of what had come before.

I loosened up the guitar but tightened up my guitar practise technique – I made ‘Chuck Wild doing Liquid Mind’-inspired ambient atmospheres but unique to my direct surrounding. I was actually listening to the Liquid Mind series to combat my hopeless feelings of being locked up. I made the music late at night, in the instant coffee heightened twilight zone, seeing things move out of the corner of your eyes dream state. 

No cheesy music. No 80’s cheese, Hot Tub music. No guru. No fake cults. Fully aware of the weirdness of a Pandemic lockdown but floating way above that control. I was free through the music. “You can feel it”.

What new or different approaches did you take to the writing or recording of Terabithian?

I recorded a few tracks with a live delay / fingerpicking setup all at once. Splitting the guitar signal into a delay signal and also capturing the live sound of the acoustic at the same time, so it’s still an acoustic guitar and another signal live room sound. I remember getting the sounds balanced for the live takes. Doing this after midnight, high on caffeine during lockdown was being in some limbo ether-world.

Your journey into the world of acoustic guitar picking has been a fascinating one. What initially drew you to the style?

I wanted to make compositions with one acoustic instrument, not reliant on electricity or computers. I remember being 14 and thinking the same thing. It took me along time to figure it out. LOL!

You’ve played in bands, a duo and now as a solo artist, do you ever envisage returning to a band format or does the solo, 100% independent setup, tick all the boxes for you now?

Um yeah, not sure. I just play acoustic guitar or tweak live field recordings and make ambient tracks now. I’m easy though – I just feed the muse….whatever it wants. In terms of singing, I highly doubt it.

Is writing instrumental music a different mindset and process for you, compared to traditional songwriting with a vocal/lyrical component?  

Yeah, writing vocal melodies is very very easy and natural for me so I miss the immediacy of that process. Writing with the acoustic guitar D.C Cross project is a lot more complicated. You have to practise a lot as well, or in two months it’s hard to play. Finding your own voice with one guitar is also challenging. I like the fact there aren’t many options. I’ve done the production thing before and you really can get lost within that realm.

Your songs always have brilliant titles, do you ever start with the title and compose the piece from that or does the music always come first? 

It’s always different. Sometimes the name corresponds to the location where I came up with the idea of the song, sometimes its to make a funny/sad/whatever statement. I don’t think I’ve made a song based around a title first yet.

Are there certain challenges to playing singular acoustic music live in terms of finding the right venues for your music?

Absolutely. I’ve spent many years, even with my folk noir duo Jep and Dep (a quiet, menacing duo I did with Jessica Cassar) trying to find suitable places to play. Playing in Sydney is impossible with fucktards talking over the top of your music. It’s a horrible experience and very much a thing here in Sydney. Last year I did a bunch of touring and playing in awesome theatres with Ed Kuepper & Jim White and Xylouris White. I played at the Art Gallery Of NSW and also played at Peoples Republic. People were seated and listening, listening to the guitar. Even in massive venues like the Recital Hall in Sydney (supported Kuepper) people were silent and listened to my set. Maybe I was spoilt but I’m over doing pubs. Just recently I hired the Annandale Community Centre and put on my own gig with my own PA and it was excellent. I’m going to do more of them this year!

What was the first album you bought on vinyl and what’s your most treasured vinyl record? 

I think the first LP I bought with my pocket money was The Young Ones. My most treasured vinyl album is maybe an Australian pressing of My Bloody Valentine – signed by all members I won off my mate in a blackjack game.

In the world of American Primitive Guitar, can you suggest three albums that someone new to the genre should start with to get a handle on the style? 

• Leo Kottke / Peter Lang / John Fahey – Leo Kottke / Peter Lang / John Fahey (1974)
• Leo Kottke – 6- and 12-String Guitar (1969)
• John Fahey – Days Have Gone By (1967)