Daniel Rozoum, better known to music fans as Daniel Darc, was born in Paris on 20 May 1959. The future French rock icon experienced a major musical epiphany in 1976, hearing UK punk band The Sex Pistols for the first time. The fall-out from this experience sent shockwaves reverberating through his brain and triggered his own musical ambitions. In 1978, while he was still at high school (at the Lycée Balzac in Paris), Darc joined the band Taxi Girl made up of four friends and committed musicians: Mirwais Stass (on guitar), Laurent Sinclair (on keyboards), Stéphane Erard (on bass) and Pierre Wolfsohn (on drums). Darc assumed the role of lead singer.

Heavily influenced by the ‘literary rock’ of American singer Patti Smith and the provocative in-your-face attitude of the punks and Iggy Pop, Darc threw himself into the group body and soul, living the Taxi Girl experience to the full over the next eight years. The band - whose sound was totally unique in France at the time - owed as much to the urban rock influence of Velvet Underground as they did to the German electronica of Kraftwerk.

Taxi Girl soon became notorious for their cutting-edge live performances and their lead singer’s self-destructive antics. Darc even went so far as to slit his wrists live on stage when the band supported Talking Heads in concert in November 1979. Taxi Girl’s scandalous reputation may have established them as cult figures on the French underground, but their wild antics also scared off potential interest from record companies.

In 1980, Taxi Girl finally went on to release their first single, "Mannequin," on EMI. But it was the follow-up single, "Cherchez le garcon," which really put the band on the musical map. With its synthetic, machine-like overtones and its infectious dance beats, "Cherchez le garcon" proved to be a huge hit in France, selling over 300,000 copies. The Taxi Girl sound – characterised by Darc’s strange toneless voice and Doors-style synthesisers – made an instant impact on the French music scene.

Overnight chart success proved something of a shock to Taxi Girl’s system, however, especially as the band members were already struggling with an overloaded concert schedule, not to mention a rock’n’roll lifestyle dominated by drugs and alcohol. Things took a turn for the worse when bass-player Stéphane Erard announced he was leaving the band. Then, a few months later, in July 1981, drummer Pierre Wolfsohn died of a cocaine overdose.

Tragedy did not overwhelm the band completely, however. In 1982, Taxi Girl went on to record their first real album, "Seppuku" (produced by Jean-Jacques Burnel, the bass-player from The Stranglers). On this occasion, Darc invented an imaginary alter ego, Viviane Vog, crediting his double with part of the songwriting credits. The songs on “Seppuku” leant heavily on the morbid side, revolving around dark, depressing themes such as murder, depression and suicide. The album garnered good reviews from the critics and Taxi Girl went on to perform a series of impressive live shows, bringing the house down at Le Casino de Paris in 1982 and embarking upon an extensive national tour supported by the group Indochine.

However, album sales remained stagnant and Taxi Girl were dealt another major blow in April 1983 when keyboard player Laurent Sinclair announced he was leaving the band (already down to a trio after Wolfsohn’s death). Taxi Girl soldiered on as a duo and went on to release a mini-album, "Quelqu’un comme toi," in May 1983 and a series of singles followed. But the adventure finally came to an end in 1986 when, exhausted and disillusioned, Mirwais and Darc finally decided to throw in the towel.

Still struggling to overcome his problems with drugs and alcohol, Darc decided to launch a solo career and fate soon threw a number of positive mentors in his path. The first of these was Jacno who helped Darc record his début solo album, "Sous Influence Divine."Released in 1987, the 8-track album revolved around the theme of impossible love and included a memorable cover of the Serge Gainsbourg classic "Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais." Darc’s lyrics had lost some of their provocative attitude but gained in poetry and melancholy. the album did not reach beyond a circle of committed Darc aficionados, however, and bypassed the musical mainstream altogether.

In 1988, Daniel Darc made another significant encounter, teaming up with Etienne Daho who produced his softer, mellower single "La ville." Later that same year, Darc went on to record a new album entitled "Parce que." He wrote the twelve songs on the album (which included a cover of the Charles Aznavour classic "Parce que")in collaboration with the English singer and producer Bill Pritchard. These two ultra-sensitive souls found themselves on exactly the same wavelength and while the album gained only critical but not commercial success, Darc fans treasured it as a cult recording.

Meanwhile Darc, who has remained passionate about literature throughout his career, turned his hand to writing, publishing a series of short stories ("Mélancolie d’Edie" and "Energie dramatique de la rue" in 1991, "A love supreme" in tribute to one of his great musical idols, John Coltrane, in 1998 and "Le Drugstore du ciel" in 2000). Following a recommendation from Patrick Eudeline, Darc also launched a career as a music critic, writing reviews for the magazine Best and he enjoyed a parallel career as a translator, adapting several William Burroughs novels into French.

Darc remained definitively bitten by the music bug and in 1994 he re-emerged on the French music scene with "Nijinsky." This second solo album was recorded with The Weird Sins and produced by his friend from the group Pure Sins. Unfortunately, in commercial terms, “Nijinsky” fared no better than Darc’s previous albums. Darc soldiered on with his music career, nevertheless, writing material for Marie-France and Marc Minelli, recording covers of Johnny Thunders’s "She's so untouchable" and Joe Dassin’s "Les Champs-Elysées" (with Bertrand Burgalat) and dispensing musical advice to up-and-coming groups such as Diabologum and Brent.

By the late 90s, Darc cut a sorry figure in the Paris music world. Practically destroyed by a lifetime of addiction (which led to him spending several weeks in jail at one point) and plagued by the fact that his albums had all proved to be commercial flops, Darc appeared to have hit rock bottom. But an encounter with French composer Frédéric Lo in 2003 pulled him out of the slough of despond. Lo suggested Darc should contribute lyrics to a song on a new album by 80s rock diva Dani. Darc instantly sat down and penned the lyrics to "Rouge Rose." Then, inspired by his collaboration with Lo, he decided to prolong the experience, recording twelve new songs he had composed (for which Darc wrote the lyrics).

The album "Crève Coeur," dedicated to country singer Johnny Cash (who had died earlier that year), was released at the beginning of 2004 on the Mercury label. Darc’s vocals had metamorphosed into a Serge Gainsbourg-style ‘talk-over’ rather than actual singing and this proved hauntingly effective as Darc recounted his new tales of lost love, disillusionment and redemption. This time round, "Crève Coeur" actually enjoyed commercial as well as critical success. The French media hailed the resurrection of “a unique talent” – and one all the more precious as many believed it had been lost forever! Meanwhile, the mainstream public succumbed to the subtle melodies ("Je me souviens, je me rappelle", "Mes amis") composed by Frédéric Lo.

Daniel Darc has emerged triumphant at the end of the day and appears to have conquered his inner demons, too. As he himself has so often admitted, “Rock saved my life!”

Darc’s comeback was confirmed when "Crève cœur" was crowned Revelation of the Year at the ‘Victoires de la musique’ Awards in 2005. In May of that year, the singer hit the road again for a tour with dates across France, Belgium and Spain which included a memorable concert in Paris on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, in June. Darc also embarked upon a series of successful collaborations, recording a duet with Cali featured on the latter’s album "Menteur", writing a series of songs for the actor Tcheky Karyo and penning material for young singers from the new generation – namely, Elisa Tovati, Thierry Amiel and the former French pop Lolita Alizée.

At the start of 2007, Darc took to the stage with Richard Kolinka, Raphaël, Alain Bashung and Jean-Louis Aubert on a mini-tour called "Les Aventuriers d'un autre monde" (11 - 18 January). He devoted the rest of the year to working on material for a new album, "Amours suprêmes" (its title a tribute to the John Coltrane classic "A Love Supreme"). This new album hit record stores in January 2008.

Just as he had done with "Crève Cœur", Darc entrusted the music and production side of his new album to Frédéric Lo, a man who appears to have understood the singer's 'artistic fibre' better than anyone else to date. Musically speaking, "Amours suprêmes" is a rich and eclectic work, mood and atmosphere shifting from track to track. Daniel Darc's inspired lyrics remain as dark and poised-on-a-knife's-edge as ever, but his darkness is juxtaposed by Lo's gentle guitar chords. "Amours suprêmes" features an impressive list of guest stars, Alain Bashung joining Darc in the studio for a monosyllabic English duet on "L.U.V.", Robert Wyatt sighing his way through "Ça ne sert à rien" and Morgane Imbeaud (from the group Cocoon) providing guest vocals on the first single release, "J'irai au Paradis.

Darc is due to hit the road again for an extensive national tour in April 2008.

January 2008