My name is Darren, but you probably know me better on the TF boards as TranceLover. Trance music has been a huge part of my life and had a big influence on me over the past 11 or 12 years, it has been a journey, and a journey that I have really wanted to share. This is my walk with trance.

My EDM journey started in around 1994, when I was only around 10 or 11 yrs old, and at that time I was listening what I would only describe as Old Skool Italo House and Rave, and was hooked on artists such as Cappella, Corona, and Reel 2 Reel etc.

I guess that I did not really discover trance the trance that I know of today until around 1996. The first proper trance tune I remember hearing was the Nalin & Kane mix of Meet Her At The Love Parade by Da Hool, I loved it at the time, and still do to this very day, mainly because of it’s steady, thumping beat and acidy melody.

As far as my listening pleasure is concerned, the trance scene has developed in many ways and separated into quite a few different directions over the last 8 years or so. At first, I was into tracks like Josh Wink’s Higher State of Consciousness, that beat addled track with an almost pointlessly repetitive high-pitched riff that play games with your brain, but for me, that was what made it so good. Then, not long after that, I discovered Faithless, and two of their tracks that I particularly loved at the time, Salva Mea, and Insomnia. A couple years later, I guess it must have been around 1998, I got more and more into the atmospheric trance sound. Many of the tracks that I was into back in those days are tracks that I still love now such as 1998 by Binary Finary and Flaming June by BT. I know that many of the tracks that I am mentioning here may have actually been around before I remember them, but I am just trying to give you an idea of the path that I have taken musically.

In 2000, I became a Christian, but even then, I still was not at all sure what path my life was taking, or what influence god was going to have. All I knew at that time was that I wanted it to have something to do with music. During the same time, hard house was getting big again here in the UK , and I guess in a way, I got into that sound, but not nearly as I had with trance.

The main thing that I discovered about trance is that there are elements in trance that make it much more spiritual then any other sub-genre of dance music. I am yet to discover what those elements are, but I know that they are there. Now I know that for many of the people that will read this article, that may be a very debatable statement, but that is just how I feel about trance as an individual fan of it.

In 2001, I left my Hard House phase, and concentrated all or most of my listening efforts on trance. I think that this was because at that time. I had some sort of idea that the path that I wanted to go down, musically and potentially career wise and it was the same path that God wanted me to take. For me, that was the best thing that could have happened.

Then, for about the next 18 months to 2 years, things stayed the same. I still listened to all the current trance tunes released here in the UK at that time and nothing really changed.

2003 was when the next big musical change in my life happened. So far, it has lasted to this very day. MOST of the commercial European artists/producers that were releasing material here no longer inspired me (DJ Tiesto and Armin van Buuren are the exceptions) and I wanted something more... underground and less commercial.

I decided to turn to the sound of Goa and Psy trance. Throughout the last 18 months or so, I have been excited and inspired both spiritually and musically by artists/producers such as Man with No Name, Astral Projection, Digitalis and Infected Mushroom. This music has everything that I look for, solid beats, infectious melodies, and best of all, breathtaking breakdowns.

Now I just pray that God will continue to steer me on the right road in life and I will be able live, not just how I want to live, but how GOD wants me to live as well.