Interview: After Years of Recovery and Resilience, Optikz Arrives with His Defining Project ‘The Optikz EP’

Australian-born, Guelph, ON-based rapper, singer, and songwriter Optikz lays everything on the line with The Optikz EP, his most honest and revealing project to date. At its heart lies “Love The Child In Me,” a track that captures the full weight of his healing journey: raw, emotional, and unflinchingly real. The EP’s “Overnight Success” is another song that puts a sharp exclamation mark on his 20+ year long journey as Optikz.

After years of struggling with multiple addiction, mental, emotional, physical health challenges and the outstretching lifelong impact of complex childhood trauma, Optikz (born Darren Piper) has transformed his pain into art – crafting a body of work that isn’t just music, but a road map to recovery. The Optikz EP took more than a decade to complete, reflecting the patience, perseverance, and growth of a man determined to reclaim his story.

Recorded between 2012 and 2024, The Optikz EP was built across multiple studios including Revelation Sound (Guelph), Studio A (Kitchener), Metalworks Studios (Mississauga), Bink Sound (USA), Dras Studio (Germany) and finally Grey Wall Sound (Guelph), the home studio Optikz constructed himself. The project features mixing by JUNO/Grammy–nominated assistant engineer Jeff Crake (Metalworks Studios, Mississauga), JUNO–nominated assistant engineer Yanni Caldas (Metalworks Studios, Mississauga), Grammy–nominated mix engineer Blake Eiseman (Bink Sound, USA) and Sony Music–signed German engineer, producer David Hull “Dras” (Dras Studio, Germany).

“Love The Child In Me” embodies the emotional core of the EP – a song about facing buried pain, forgiving yourself, and finding strength in vulnerability. Written as part of Optikz‘s recovery journey, the track explores the lifelong work of learning to love the younger self who endured so much. “It’s about learning to love the child in me that needed (and still needs) love, protection, support, guidance and ultimately to be heard because his voice and power were taken from him when he was little,” he explains.

While the subject matter is heavy, the message is one of empowerment. By breaking the silence around complex childhood trauma, specifically speaking to male survivors, Optikz gives a voice to those who’ve felt unseen or invalidated. “It’s still hard knowing this song is out there,” he admits, “but I needed to talk about it and receive support which sadly I didn’t get as a child. To my fellow survivors of childhood trauma, specifically male survivors of child sexual abuse, you are not alone. It was not your fault. You can heal, you can say ‘I love the child in me.’ This is your song as much as it is mine.”

With The Optikz EP and “Love The Child In Me,” Optikz has created more than just a debut – he’s built a safe space for conversation, courage, and catharsis. It’s a record about finding light in the darkest corners, and learning to love the person you once were no matter how broken you felt.

1. What did you enjoy most about the creation of this new release?
I enjoyed the process, growth, evolution of myself as an artist. I began the journey in 2013 with the writing and recording of my most vulnerable song ever “Love The Child In Me” which is about complex childhood trauma I experienced namely child sibling sexual abuse. I had suffered all my life with the far reaching affects of the abuse in every area of my life, mainly having had to keep it buried for so many years. When I first talked about it I was terrified and ashamed and the tears came like a flood. I felt relieved to finally share it with someone, that was in 2008 and from then to 2013 I had only shared it a few times in recovery communities but never publicly. So when I finally found the courage to write and record “Love The Child In Me” it was a mix of emotions. I felt liberated, re-traumatized, grateful, triggered, ashamed, terrified, blessed, anxiety, sorrow, relief but ultimately I felt like I was doing what I needed to do to not only help myself heal but to also help other male survivors of child sibling sexual abuse heal. When you’re a child between the ages of 7 – 9 you should be enjoying being a child, not having your power and voice taken from you by your older half brother, which is what my experience was. Some of the other songs were also very heavy in terms of giving a voice to deep seated emotional pain I carried for years which stemmed from  many other forms of complex childhood trauma, when you grow up in a dysfunctional family being traumatized is something that occurs on a daily basis, for me it was and it was those traumatic experiences that lead me to very serious mental, emotional, physical health challenges, maladaptive coping mechanisms, obsessive compulsive dysfunctional behaviours and multiple addictions, I just never knew that until I found my way into recovery. The last few songs on the album are more on the thriving side of the journey of going from surviving to thriving. I am still on the road to recovery and by no means fully “healed” from all the trauma and abuse but I have come a long way. My 17 year journey of recovery and within that my 12 year journey of not only creating this album but also my actual sobriety from alcohol and drugs has been quite the experience and knowing that this album would not be here if God did not remove me from alcohol and drugs in 2013 and that both the album and my life are both miracles, that’s something I hold very dear to my heart.

2. Share a nugget of advice that has resonated with you most over the years.
Be humble and remain teachable. Ego is not your ally, it is your downfall. In the Bible it says pride comes before the fall and that is the truth. Humility and reliance upon God will take you infinitely further then your ego ever will and I know that from my own lived experience and from witnessing that in other artists throughout my journey. Learning to embrace humility and admitting that I don’t know everything and being open minded to learning what I don’t know has helped me remain in a forward position of positive momentum whereas the latter just kept me stuck for years. The sooner an artist embraces this the better.

3. Who would be your dream artist/band to co-headline a tour with?
I think at this point it would be Jelly Roll, I love his vulnerability and willingness to speak openly about his struggles with mental health and addictions in his music, on stage and in interviews, he’s real, authentic, raw, honest, vulnerable and Christian, but not the clean, cookie cutter, stereotypical Christian rather he is the raw, broken, absolutely needs God in every area of life kind of Christian which is also what I am, so our message and music are in the same lane.  Which is why I think it would be dope to tout with him and the simple fact that he is light years ahead of me in terms of his fan base and experience with touring, I would love to learn from an artist like that and be a part of their tour to help me grow as an artist.

4. What sets your music apart from others in your genre?
My vulnerability and willingness to be real and authentic. A lot of artists claim to keep it 100 and say they keep it real but they really don’t, I do. I put my music career on the shelf for many years to pursue and embrace my healing journey and have been in full contact recovery for 17 years now from serious mental, emotional, physical health challenges, depression, anxiety, multiple addictions all as the result of complex childhood, pre teen, teen, young adult and adult trauma from the affects of having been raised in a dysfunctional family. My willingness to be raw, honest and reflective about my trauma and my recovery are what sets me apart.

5. Tell us what your favourite song is at the moment and why.
My favourite song right now is an older track, “About Us” by Brooke Hogan featuring Paul Wall. It’s super catchy, the beat is fire and I’ve always loved the hook and the verses, and what the song is about, people talking down about you when you’re doing well with your music. I’ve experienced it many times throughout my career especially around the releases of new albums. Some people just don’t like to see you succeed because their own insecurities won’t allow them to celebrate your accomplishments. They literally can’t help but be envious, jealous and bitter towards you and gossip and talk down about you, but the truth is it’s never actually about you, it’s about them, it’s about “their stuff” which I fully understand from my years of experience in recovery. So I don’t take it personally, it has zero affect on me whatsoever, it’s just noise, I just accept that it’s part of the journey and pay no attention to it. The line in the chorus sums it all up “I see your lips moving but I don’t hear nothing”. So yeah “About Us” is gettin’ some spins on my playlist at the moment, haha.