"Dive In" is the debut album by Darius. It was released on 2nd December 2002 and peaked at number 6 in the UK album charts. The album was certified platinum in the UK for selling over 300,000 copies. 

Every track on the album was written by Darius and he collaborated with producers The Misfits and The Matrix.

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Talking to the Top Of The Pops website about the creative process, Darius said: "I sang, played and mixed on it. I even produced on it. I really did take the plunge and dive in! It was kind of a motivational title for me, to challenge myself as a song writer and say: "I can produce". In terms of me as a singer it was a real challenge as I tried to push it vocally as well. It's now an invitation. A way of saying dive into the music, take the plunge and listen to it. If you liked 'Colourblind' I think you would love 'Dive In'. There may be two or three tracks on there that stand out as being the best songs I have ever written.

Working with Steve Lillywhite has been an incredible inspiration. He's the man behind U2 and Travis. He's such a well respected producer. It's made me look to other artists I suppose, like Alicia Keys. She gets her hands dirty on the tracks. Not just vocally but in the instrumental. I want to take on that kind of responsibility. Although it means crossing the T's and dotting the I's, it's the kind of involvement as a singer-songwriter I want. I want the responsibility because it means that the song will live or die on the basis of how much I put into it. I can then never blame anyone for telling me to do this or that. I'm my own man calling the shots. I like that kind of creative control. It's what I've always wanted from the age of 13 when I wrote my first song. I imagined and could hear the kind of song that I wanted to sing. Now I'm finally doing it and I'm really excited.

There's been no regrets, just experience. This is just me taking my first step. I feel like a baby in the business. This is my debut album and I've got a five album deal with Universal, so it's the first of many steps and stages that I want to move forward on. It's not moving forward on the same line, it's also about moving diagonally a bit. It's great to be moving and not always to be static. I could have turned out a 'Colourblind' Mk II, but with 'Rushes' I wanted to try something different. And with the third single, it will be taking 'Colourblind' to the next level again. It's exciting to think that I'm growing as a songwriter."

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The album actually has 69 tracks, but after the first 12 they are all 5 seconds of silence until the last one, which is a songwriting demo of "Gotta Know Tonight", effectively making it a hidden track. This songwriting demo has lyrics and music written by Darius, showing the song exactly as it was first written before other producers added their production ideas to it.

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Interestingly three of the most acclaimed tracks on the album "Colourblind", "Rushes" and "Mocking Bird" were all written by Darius before he had even auditioned for Popstars or Pop Idol.

Following Popstars being aired he began writing again "I was a figure of ridicule," he says. "And yet, in my personal life, I was on top of the world. I raided my mum's vinyl collection, listened to great songs by the Beatles, Marvin Gaye and gradually started writing again. Emotionally and personally, I was on a complete high. At the time, I remember watching a documentary about Robbie Williams. He was successful, but miserable - the opposite to me. He was abusing his mind and body with alcohol and drugs, and he wasn't happy. I had a long chat with Mum and Dad and by the end of it I realised that the only way to hold on to that feeling of contentment and excitement about the future was to keep the most important things in my life close to me, and not let anything else shake that."

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He performed "Mocking Bird", which is about a girl who has a controlling father, to a captivated crowd at Glasgow's Live & Loud festival in 2001 a few months before appearing on Pop Idol. "The title is taken from one of my favourite books, To Kill A Mockingbird. It's about a girl in an oppressive relationship with a male figure. We felt that it was important not to make it clear exactly what the relationship was. For me it was very personal, but I didn't want to make that too obvious." "Mocking Bird" is actually about a girl being abused by her father, but you could easily think that she is being mistreated by her boyfriend or friend or brother or boss."

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Darius left no detail of the album to chance, he was at Victoria station at 11.30 pm with a tape recorder, recording the sound of a Tube train for the start of his track Sliding Doors. He insisted that the sample be added to the song before the CD was sent off to be cut the next day. "People wondered what the hell I was doing. Normally, with someone like me, the song is recorded and sent off to a Swedish production team to be finished, and you don't have any more input, but I don't want to do things that way.Instead he stayed on at the studio every night, learning about mixing and production, even producing one song on the album himself.

'Although my CD will be on the shelves at Woolies, it's a very personal thing to me, ' he said. 'I'm not on national television any more, and I'm glad I'm not. now I have the opportunity just to be me, to hold on tight to the values instilled in me by my parents. If I'm going to do this, it's all or nothing."

The album contains the singles, "Colourblind", "Rushes", "Incredible (What I Meant To Say)" and "Girl In The Moon". 

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"Colourblind" was the first track to be released from the album. It was released on 29th July 2002 and reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart where it stayed for two weeks. The song charted again at number 2 on both the UK Official Single Download and Official Single Sales Charts on 19th August 2022. 

It was certified Gold in the UK after selling over 400,000 copies. As of 2022 the song has been streamed over 15 million times on Spotify. 

Darius had intended to sing an early version of "Colourblind" at his Pop Idol audition, and the producers had initially agreed that he could and that he could also play his guitar, but the executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, refused and made him re-enter the audition with out it and he had to sing a cover of 'Future Love Paradise' by Seal instead. 

Following his success on Pop Idol, Darius played the track for both Simon Cowell and Pete Waterman but neither of them thought it was good enough to be released as a single. Simon Fuller on the other hand thought that it was and that it just "needed some work on the middle 8"  After meeting with Pete Glenister and Deni Lew as well as Steve Lillywhite from Mercury, to whom Darius eventually signed, the song was tweaked and went on to become a massive hit that is still as popular 20 years on from it's release. 

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