1996 – Dara Ogus
I met Dara Ogus in 1996 through a dating website, but it wasn’t long before our shared interest in music became an important part of our relationship. Dara had an incredible singing voice with a distinctive tone, and we soon began collaborating on original material.
At the time, I was creating MIDI arrangements and writing music, while Dara contributed lyrics and vocals. It was an interesting combination of songwriting and the emerging MIDI technology I was experimenting with during the 1990s, allowing us to develop fairly complete arrangements before going into the studio.
We eventually recorded several of our songs at Silverbirch Studio, with Andy Krehm engineering the sessions. Hearing Dara’s voice bring the songs to life was particularly rewarding, transforming the MIDI arrangements into finished recordings.
The recordings below include “Dreams,” “Angel of Burning Desire,” “I Gave You Everything,” “Need You to Be Here,” and “Party Girl,” together with the original MIDI version of Angel of Burning Desire. They capture another very different chapter in my musical journey—one centred more on songwriting, arranging and recording than playing in a live band.
