His first exposure to the underground rave scene came in a wintry 1992 February night out in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.   The venue was at the classic venue "Oscars Nightclub" situated on Clacton Pier. This fuelled a desire to become part of the establishment & Darren Styles has never looked back…

By 1993 along with friend Paul Hobbs aka Dj Force, Darren signed to legendary Hardcore label, Kniteforce records…….Artist name 'Force + Evolution'. Many of these releases were championed by the mighty Carl Cox!

From their they went on to produce for DJ Slipmatt's 'Universal' label……. Artist name 'Sense of Summer'.

By 1996 Darren and Paul, artist names 'FORCE + STYLES', were DJ'ing every weekend up and down the UK, touring Australia, The United States, Canada and Ibiza on a regular basis, whilst holding down residencies (which he still has) at 'Slammin Vinyl', 'Helter Skelter', and 'United Dance', to name just a few.

Due to the ever increasing demand for their original work combined with the sheer speed the two partners in crime produced their music, they started their own record label offering themselves a portal to create and distribute their work. This portal held no boundaries, and gave the pair infinite musical freedom - UK Dance was born.

UK Dance went on to host a catalogue of big selling tracks…….Such as 'Pretty green eyes', 'Feelin Fine' and 'Heart of Gold' to name but a few!

Serious recognition followed, including awards for……

Best Producers 1997/1998/2003/2004 Best Record Label Best Hardcore Record 1997 Force + Styles - Heart of Gold (Kiss Fm Awards) Best Hardcore Record 2003 Styles + Breeze - You're Shining Best Hardcore Record 2004 Styles + Breeze - HeartBeatz Best Hardcore Record 2005 Styles + Breeze - Slide Away Best Live PA Rookie DJ's of the year 1997 Best visiting DJ 1997

Also in 1997 Force + Styles were the first ever Hardcore DJ's to do a mix for Pete Tong's Essential Mix on Radio 1!

While Darren's piano breakdowns continued to work their magic on the nations dance floors, his natural progression alongside his ever-growing interest in trance hinted at a change of direction for his productions. "If you listen to my hardcore productions post 97 you'll hear that they're have a heavy trance influence, so making some trance tracks at a slower pace seemed the obvious thing to do" explains Darren. Around this time fellow hardcore jock Mark Breeze was also leaning towards the trance sound and very soon, Darren and Mark had set about writing a number of trance based tracks together, at a varying range of speeds. This lead to a number of Trance based productions being signed to the UK's biggest Hard Dance label 'Nukleuz'……

Infextious - Let Me Fly FutureWorld - Chemical Love Darren Styles - Black Magik Disco Brothers, Darren Styles + Mark Breeze - Feelin' Me Disco Brothers, Darren Styles + Mark Breeze - Take Off

To echo a quote from Nukleuz themselves:

"Darren's music is unique; a mixture of tough German beats and full-on euphoric hard trance riffs that combine to create an instant explosion on the dance floor. Darren has recently brought the house down with his legendary remix of the classic trance track 'Silence' by Taiko and Vinylgroover and the Red Hed's 'Everlasting' that has seen a-list DJ's from around the world beating down his door in search of exclusive tracks to play in clubs and on the radio.

More recently Darren is signed to the worlds undisputed leading Hardcore Label ‘RaverBaby’ Owned by DJ Hixxy! Releasing countless hardcore anthems such as ‘Getting Better’ ‘You’re Shining’ ‘Heartbeatz’ and ‘Slideaway’ to name but a few.

Darren also works very closely with arguably the UK's biggest commercial dance label 'All Around the World' Writing hits not only for himself but for huge artists such as Danni Minogue.

In 2005 along with Breeze and Hixxy, Darren was also part of the Biggest ever selling Hardcore album to date…. Clubland X-Treme Hardcore which was the first ever Hardcore album to go straight in at No.1 and went on to sell over 150 thousand copies in the UK.

Top 40 Hits to date include….

Pretty Green Eyes which went in at No.2 and went on to be the 25th biggest selling record of 2003 selling over 250 thousand copies and stayed in the top 40 for a staggering 3 months. Feelin’ Fine which went in at No. 12 and dominated the Radio 1 A list for over 6 weeks. HeartBeatz which went in at No.16 Heart Of Gold which went in at No.19 You’re Shining which went in at No.19 Field Of Dreams which went in at No 28

It's quite clear that, for the time being, there's absolutely no stopping him! As Darren puts it "studio work is non stop right now which is great. General production is paramount, with lots of new and exciting projects on the way!