Darren DPaul Wise at 2020 NAMM
He’s been right there in your living room…maybe multiple times, but don’t dial 911 just yet. He’s Darren DPaul Wise and he’s the mind behind the music in many of those ubiquitous commercial jingles we find so hard to ignore. Like so many creative minds, DPaul’s seems to churn an endless stream of music. As the Music Director for the Drew Pearson Show, DPaul keeps one of Dallas’ most popular Sports and Entertainment shows sounding good.
On the floor of the busy 2020 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, we trade texts for hours. With thousands of people wondering about, we agree the best place to meet up is at the PRS Guitar exhibit upstairs. The noise is nearly deafening so we duck back into an alcove and chat about his career and aspirations.
We’re here today with Darren DPaul Wise. Let’s start off with something easy.
Ok.
In my research, you are referred to as Darren and as DPaul. What do you prefer to be called?
It totally depends on who I’m talking to. If I’m working as a musician on a show, something like that, they’ll call me DPaul.
All right DPaul. Your publicist released an e-blast crediting you with being a published hit songwriter. Tell us about some of the songs, or jingles, etc, that might be recognizable to all of us.
Stuff that goes into placement for NFL, NASCAR, Major League Baseball, and the NBA. Chevrolet commercials, promo commercials, stuff like that. A lot of that stuff’s through a music placement service. You write and record stuff, you put it in there. They use it for whatever; maybe a TV show, maybe a commercial.
Is there a one thing that you can point to now? I thought I read somewhere that you did something for Gas Monkey Garage?
I did. A guy that I was doing various music projects for said we’re going to do a promotion for Richard Rawlings with Dodge and with his TV show. I did some charity stuff with Richard too. He was going to have some benefit for children’s cancer research.
Actually, television shows do a lot of charities. Everything related to celebrities and charity work. You’ve got to be involved with things like that. So, I’ve done music. I have music in treatment centers. Wounded Warriors used a song of mine. They asked me and I’m: “If there’s anything at all I can do to help of course I want to do that.” So, it just made me really happy. I love doing something…
That you can give back. Yeah, certainly.
Yeah. When people need this, if there’s any little thing you can do.
I saw the Drew Pearson Show, on the local Dallas ABC affiliate, is getting a reboot. Talk about what you do as the music director for that show. Are you Drew’s, Paul Shaffer?
You know, it’s funny because I grew up watching G. Smith on Saturday Night Live and Paul Shaffer. I’m kind of that guy as this relates to the show. I always thought, wow, what a great gig. You don’t have to go anywhere to get on TV in front of millions of people. That sounds pretty cool.
I saw a picture of you and you were waylaying a guitar for one of the announcements for the show. It looked like that was a lot of fun.
It was.
Do you just manage all the music? How does that work?
So, my job is to create themes and segment music. So, if we want something that tells the story of our Hawaiian locations; somebody catching the ball, or in and out of commercials for each segment. I bring in the musicians that I want, to the studio and work with the producer and engineer and create the stuff that makes sense for the show.
Do you have a fixed band you work with on the show?
My plan was to bring in a core band and have those guys there every week. And then I kind of experimented on the show by creating a scene that had some vocals. My plan was to bring in a guest vocalist every week. I liked the idea of the way that would look in the show. There’s so many vocalists out there that are really good. They need to be seen and be heard. So it was kind of cool to get some people an opportunity.
There’s a ton of talent down in the Dallas area. No doubt about it.
Just to get these people on stage in front of some people. They’re all serious about becoming professional performers. They are already known.
I’m a big fan of Never Your Zero, the Dallas area band you’re playing with now. It looked like Never Your Zero was your focus until about October when you announced the Drew Pearson Show was going to come back. How is that going to affect your plans for Never Your Zero?
Never Your Zero can only release music at a certain rate because of the way the music business is and because of some of the occupations of people in the project.
People have to eat, you mean?
Right. There’s only an amount of stuff we can really do. So, the idea was to put out music at the rate that we can. Do some shows and some tours when we can and when it makes sense for everybody. I don’t think people realize how much time bands really spend doing nothing related to the music. Bands only function when all the members can get together. The rest of the time, you’re working on songs for it and you might be demoing stuff.
Never Your Zero single?
Sometimes I just create all this content. Sometimes it finds a home. I’ve got a lot of stuff.
With Legendary Guitar Maker Paul Reed Smith (Center) and DPaul Wise (Right)
So is there a book beside your bed? Do you wake up in a cold sweat and…?
No, I lay on the side of the bed with my phone, singing my ideas at like 3:00 a.m. I’m like, “Oh my God, here’s my idea!” Yeah, grab the phone and start humming my thoughts and yeah.
That’s cool. You’ve been a long-time spokesman for Paul Reed Smith Guitars. Tell us about what you love about Paul Reed Smith Guitars.
The history of the owner is really a great story. Yeah. Yeah. He’s got a lot of the background with a lot of known musicians. The way he developed his guitars was just taking a lot of electric guitar ideas and perfecting them. That’s what he’s been doing and he has a real passion for it. I like working with him and playing his instruments.
I read a list, it was an international list, of guitar companies and PRS was midway on that list of the best guitar companies on the planet.
Yeah, yeah. At my house as a child, the first guitarist that kind of came on the radar for me was Santana with my dad. So, to grow up and play those guitars was pretty cool. I think I want a lot of them. I love their guitars and he’s a great guy and really cool!
Are there any other achievements, before you put your axe down, that you want to get to? I mean you’re a musical director and very successful. Is there something you haven’t done yet? Where’s that mountain you want to climb?
If you’re a writer and a studio rat, like I am, you want to work with some other artists who have that level of passion. You want to work with as many talented people as you can. So that’s kind of where I’m going. I want to write and work with more artists.
Is there a dream artist or a dream band you’d like to work with?
If they have a passion for what they do and they’re very committed to it and they have that talent that goes with it, that’s literally…
No name comes to mind?
No. It’s not a genre or anything like that. When you’re creating music it can be dance music, it can be heavy metal, or it can be whatever. It’s still just creating a melody and a musical thought that can go out into the world. So, I really like everything that has talent, I love it. It could be a kid playing piano or it can be the older blues artists someplace.
When you’re at home and you pick up your guitar to play something that makes you feel good, what is that?
I am always noodling around on guitar for four or five or six hours a day. Once in a while an idea comes up and I’m like there’s a riff. I just kind of save the idea. After you have 998 ideas one of those starts to connect to the other. As you’re trying to put some little composition together, you go well, I’ve got this idea and maybe it’ll work with this riff and tell the story of our song.
Is there something that’s your personal favorite or are you always creating?
Well, mainly it’s pretty much always working in a creative way. Always trying to think of what I can do with this melody? I hear ideas. I hear musical ideas all the time. I’m hearing musical ideas in my head since childhood. I think that’s the way a lot of creative musicians are.
DPaul, we really appreciate you taking time to talk with us today.
Thank you so much.
Darren Wise
BY: Thorne Schreiber / BackStage360