Wheatbelt police officer Darren Gillis has a dream of making it as a country music singer.<\/p>\n
He loves his day job as a police officer in the town of Wongan Hills, 170 kilometres north-east of Perth, but his heart is also with country music.<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains discussion of suicide.<\/p>\n
Darren’s passion for the genre stemmed from his childhood.<\/p>\n
“When I was a kid, we used to cruise up to the Northern Territory to catch up with the cousins in the old Toyota and we always had the country music playing,” he said.<\/p>\n
Last year, he took what he described as a “gap year” from the police force to pursue his music, travelling to music festivals around the country.<\/p>\n
He took out the top spot at the 2024 Lancelin Buskers Festival and was named the emerging artist of the year at the Chapman Valley Country Music Festival.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Darren Gillis won the 2025 WA Country Music Awards People’s Choice Award. (Supplied: Darren Gillis)<\/p>\n
Darren said the confidence he gained from those awards led him to the “home of Australian country music” in Tamworth, where he played on stage at the legendary festival.<\/p>\n
“I had a shot at all the different stages there, taking part in workshops with veterans like Kasey Chambers, and that really gave me the understanding that I was on the right path,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The recognition I’ve received has been so encouraging to keep me going forward.”<\/p>\n
Darren said baring his soul via music had been both daunting and healing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Darren Gillis’s career highlight has been performing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. (Supplied: Darren Gillis)<\/p>\n
“When I first started with my originals, I would sit in my room and sing them in private because they were just for me,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I slowly got myself out there playing around campfires with my mates and eventually, when I decided to give it a real crack, it was to strangers at caravan parks.<\/p>\n
“The amount of feedback that I would get from my original music was reassuring of what I was doing and built my confidence to slowly replace covers with original songs in my gigs.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Darren Gillis has lived and travelled around regional WA and the NT for his job. (Supplied: Darren Gillis)<\/p>\n
Darren’s two decades in policing, as well as his own personal experiences have inspired some of his original tracks, touching on themes of mental health and loss.<\/p>\n
If you or anyone you know needs help:Suicide Call Back Service<\/a> on 1300 659 467Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN<\/a>\u00a0on 13 92 76Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 551 800Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 224 636Headspace<\/a> on 1800 650 890ReachOut<\/a> at au.reachout.com<\/a>MensLine Australia<\/a> on 1300 789 978QLife 1800 184 527<\/a><\/p>\n “I’ve had some people that I’ve worked with in this job who I have considered to be like a brother or sister who have taken their lives,” he said.<\/p>\n “I’ve also been in that place mentally where you can only see one way out.<\/p>\n “I felt that I owed it to them and those who have been suffering with their mental health to put words onto paper that there is hope and that conversation and honesty is vital.” Darren Gillis was given the opportunity to play at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. (Supplied: Darren Gillis)<\/p>\n Darren said his role as a police officer had also equipped him with skills he said were vital for transitioning into the music scene.<\/p>\n “Policing is a tough job, so I’ve learnt to be quite resilient in this role, and to be a musician, you definitely need to be resilient because there’s been far more nos than there have been yeses,” he said.<\/p>\n Darren plans to return to the Tamworth Country Music Festival next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wheatbelt police officer Darren Gillis has a dream of making it as a country music singer. He loves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,6982,119970,134,514,7978,119969,14248,119972,119973,119971],"class_list":["post-188877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-country-music","tag-darren-gillis","tag-entertainment","tag-mental-health","tag-police-officer","tag-singer-songwriter","tag-suicide","tag-tamworth-country-music","tag-wa-police-force","tag-wongan-hills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n