Editor’s Note
This story exists because of another one. When I interviewed Peter Sprague, I asked him which local musicians he admired. He named Darius Degher. That’s why I sought Darius out — and how we first met.
“I’m an artistic shape-shifter,” muses Darius Degher, “as I’ve done lots of different kinds of music.”
In 1974 Darius moved from Riverside Ca which he says was “The armpit of Southern California.” There at that time, the smog was said to be so thick that the residents didn’t breathe it, they “chewed it”.
“My parents moved us to Leucadia, on the bluffs on Neptune, and it was fantastic for me,” Darius reminisces. “It was like I was transported from hell to heaven. It was in the middle of my sophomore year in the middle of January. Suddenly I’m here, and there are like girls walking around barefooted at San Dieguito High on campus. It was kind of a little bit of a culture shock, sort of…but a positive one. I just loved being down here and started surfing that summer, my 16th summer.”
What was the state of your musicianship and guitar playing at that time?
“I’ll tell you something interesting about what was happening then, and Peter Sprague.”
“I was a guitar player and a singer at that time when I was a teenager,” says Darius, “but I was not into jazz, like Peter Sprague and all of those amazing Del Mar jazz cats like Tripp Sprague, Rob Schneiderman, John Leftwich. And though I liked jazz, and was trying to become a better guitar player, I was mostly into R&B.”
“When we made this move down here from Riverside, I thought, ‘I’m going to get into the High School Jazz Band.’ I thought it would be good for my playing and a cool experience. I show up, and it was in January. Peter Sprague had just at that very moment, in the middle of that year, 1974, had gone off to college, and so had vacated the San Dieguito High Big-band/Jazz band, which was not just a class, but also an institution. Everybody just looked at me like, ‘Oh man, you’ve got some big shoes to fill.’”
“Peter, who was a guitar player, was always this kind of person that I’d heard about, but I’d never met him. He was kind of this guy on a pedestal. Everyone just spoke of him as if he were a god. Those guys were all amazing musicians. All of those young guys. In high school, they were as good as touring pros.”
“So I never met Peter until years afterwards, and it was while surfing. And now sometimes Peter and I surf together at Beacons…often. He just lives right around the corner from me.”
As a result of being neighbors and frequently being in the surf lineup together at Beacons, Darius was inspired to invite Peter Sprague to guest-star on “Sharing a Wave,” which was a track that became part of his just released, the Westwatcher album titled, Slide the Wide Horizon (2022). “The song was inspired by sharing actual waves”, explains Darius, “in the crowded Beacon’s line-up with Peter, who along with being an amazing guitarist is also a masterful surfer. In the water, we tried to weave around each other on the wave. And that’s also what happens in the song – musically – the interplay of my more twangy surf guitar sound with his jazzy sweetness.”
So there’s some history there for sure, with Darius replacing Peter Sprague in the jazz band at San Dieguito High. “I loved my time there,” reminisces Darius. “Then I went off to UCLA when I was eighteen…right after I graduated.”
Darius describes his most recent two albums as “Instrumental records inspired by surfing. Completely different than anything I’ve ever done before, and I’m just totally into them. I’ve always been a guitar player, but I’ve also been a vocalist and a songwriter…singer-songwriter.”
“Until a couple years ago,” reflects Darius, “when I made the first the Westwatcher record, (Groundswell Corduroy - 2021) for thirty-five years I was singing my own songs, doing singer-songwriter music. And then I’m not sure what happened…I decided to do an instrumental project, and I haven’t written a song or a poem since. I haven’t written anything with lyrics now in two years. I’ve become fixated with this instrumental music.”
“When I was teaching creative writing,” recounts Darius, “I got my MA in creative writing at Lancaster University in England, during which time we were also living over in Sweden, and I really got into writing poetry. It was at that time that I published my poetry book, To See the Sound, I then went out on tour in California doing poetry readings. I’ve been published in the San Diego Poetry Annual three or four times. I’ve been published in all kinds of different magazines as a poet, in England, and in America.”
“The idea of me being a singer, songwriter poet is true…but…for the last two years,” laments Darius, “I’m not sure I’m going back. I’ve fallen in love with making these instrumental records. I’ll probably write some other singer-songwriter songs but…I don’t know.”
“I’ve kind of lost a little bit of my love for…for words, I guess.”
“I’m not sure why,” ponders Darius, “It just seems like there is so much. There’s like this inundation of language. Is it the online culture that has engendered this?”
Kyle: Do words still have meaning? Have they lost their truthfulness?
“Exactly!” Darius fires back. “So in a way, I think maybe doing this kind of music has been a retreat into a more peaceful world sans (without) language.”
“Westwatcher music is deeply rooted in our local surf culture,” explains Darius. “It springs from my contact with the ocean through our local waves and through the locals I ride them with. Without Encinitas and our local surf culture, I’m not sure the Westwatcher would even exist.”
Make sure to check out the Westwatcher on your favorite streaming services.
Visit Darius at: artistecard.com/dariusdegher
As It Ran in Print
The original spread, Encinitas Magazine, October 2022. Click either page to see it full size.
More From the Shoot
About Darius Degher
“Darius was a postmodern eclectic long before it was cool.” – San Diego Reader
Darius Degher is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He’s also a published poet. Darius has released seven albums, performed at iconic national music venues such as CBGB, the Bitter End, Troubadour, Roxy, Whiskey, and Austin’s Continental Club, and opened shows for the likes of Don McLean, Lucinda Williams, Dr. John, and many others. His songs and videos have aired on radio and TV, and he played sitar on Warren Zevon’s song Bad Karma, along with the members of REM. He’s twice been nominated for San Diego Music Awards and twice been included on San Diego Homegrown Albums.
His most recent work has been two albums as the Westwatcher: Slide the Wide Horizon (2022) and Groundswell Corduroy (2021). These instrumental, surf-centric guitar albums are inspired by Darius’ love of surfing and the surfing life.
The Sham Saints was Darius’ 2017 band with Mike Packard (of the Magnets). The EP Out of Tune was recorded on 2-inch 16-track tape and also features drummer Phil Leavitt of 7Horse and Dada; bassist Louis Ruiz of 80s band Felony; and pedal steel player Chris Lawrence, who’s played on dozens of records (Shooter Jennings, Mike Ness, Mink Deville, and many more). The result is an Americana with psychedelic tendencies, lots of vocal harmonies and guitar, and a little sitar, with songwriting at the fore. The EP was nominated for a San Diego Music Award.
In 2015 Darius released the album Eleven Story Strum.
His 2012 CD The Coyote Cantos was nominated for a San Diego Music Award. Prior to that, though, he disappeared from (American) view for a dozen years or so, living in Sweden, where he was the singer and songwriter in the alt-country group Burning Bridges. Their CD Poor Man’s Vacation (and other Tales of the Wild and the Weary) was critically lauded. The group performed on national TV and at numerous festivals and clubs around Sweden, opening shows for the likes of Sixteen Horsepower and Dr. John. But in Sweden, Darius spent more time writing poetry than music (his poetry collection To See the Sound was published in 2014).
Prior to moving to Europe, Darius released Garage Sale of the Soul and Cardboard Confessional, which helped make him a feature of the vibrant Los Angeles acoustic music scene of the day. That CD came out in 1990 on Gold Castle/Capitol Records (the folk music label of Bruce Cockburn, Joan Baez, and Don McLean, which went out of business in 1990). The CD was released nationally and received radio airplay in numerous American cities. The video for the song "White Boy Raving" was aired on MTV and other music video shows. It also made Billboard Magazine’s Top Twenty Video List.
In his more nascent years, his band Darius and the Magnets was part of the so-called “Paisley Underground” scene of L.A. and San Diego. They released a single on Big Time Records of Australia, along with an EP and two videos, one of which aired on MTV’s Basement Tapes show. One of their songs appeared on KGB Radio’s San Diego Homegrown Album.
His turnstile of names hasn’t made it easy to track him. In the early years, he went by just Darius. Then it was the full Darius Degher when other “Dariuses” started crowding the Internet. He’s also recorded with his bands the Sham Saints, Burning Bridges, and Darius & the Magnets in the 1980s. This is not to mention his most recent work as the Westwatcher. All of these albums are on Spotify and elsewhere.
Darius has also produced the recordings of his singer-songwriter daughters Cleopatra and Cordelia.
“If it weren’t for the fact that he’s [several albums] into a career, I’m sure there’d be a call to label him the next Bob Dylan.”
— Leicester Bangs Music Blog
“Every once in a while an album comes along with lyrics so wondrous, so vital, that they should be scripted on parchment, bound in fine leather and handed out…Darius — songwriter or poet?”
— Robert J. Hawkins, San Diego Union Tribune
“Hearing Hollywood’s poet laureate in concert is always a treat…his lyrical abilities are still unsurpassed.”
— Rich Robinson, Los Angeles Reader
“More down to the ground than even Dylan achieved in his talking blues days…Darius is a fresh new breed of folkie, proud of but not stuck on tradition.”
— Kurt Wolf, San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Five fingers” (highest rating) “…a breath of fresh air in a sea of smog. an LP that would surely ‘hit’ if less of us were so into the ‘me’ generation, though it still might.”
— In Concert Magazine
“A good buy if you like both Merle Haggard and Neil Young.”
— Jonas Ohman, Ginza, Countrykrönika, Sweden
A “master of the lyrical craft.”
— San Diego Troubadour
Discography
- Slide the Wide Horizon (album), the Westwatcher, 2022, artist/producer.
- Groundswell Corduroy (album), the Westwatcher, 2021, artist/producer.
- “We Begin Again” (single), Stark Shay, 2020, producer/artist.
- “October” (single), Cordelia, 2019, producer.
- Watershed (EP), Cleopatra Degher, 2019, producer.
- “Run with Me” (single), Cordelia, 2018, producer.
- Out of Tune (EP), The Sham Saints, 2017, artist/producer, Ineffable Train Works.
- “Pledge of Allegiance” (single), The Sham Saints, 2017, artist/producer, Ineffable Train Works.
- Laughing at Time (1983–1985) (album), Darius and the Magnets, artist, 2017, Ineffable Train Works.
- Eleven Story Strum (album), Darius Degher, 2015, artist/producer, Ineffable Train Works.
- Pacific (album), Cleopatra Degher, 2015, producer.
- Open Up to Me (EP), Cordelia Degher, 2015, co-producer.
- The Coyote Cantos (album), Darius Degher, 2012, artist/producer, Ineffable Train Works.
- Restrung (EP), Cleopatra Degher, 2012, producer.
- Poor Man’s Vacation (and Other Tales of the Wild and the Weary) (album), Burning Bridges, artist, 2003, Skåneton Records (Sweden).
- Garage Sale of the Soul (album), Darius, artist, 1998, F-Hole Records.
- Cardboard Confessional (album), Darius, artist, 1990, Goldcastle Records.
- “Bad Karma” (Sentimental Hygiene LP), Warren Zevon, sitar, 1987, Virgin Records.
- In the Valley of Dreams (album), Darius and the Magnets, artist, 1983, Dee Jay Records.
- “Saturday at 3PM” (single), Darius and the Magnets, artist, 1984, Big Time Records.