Darren Criss and Brother Chuck Play With ’80s Sounds in New Duo Computer Games

For Darren Criss, the dream of making music with his older brother, Chuck, started in basement jam sessions when the two were in high school growing up in San Francisco. Now that the former Glee star and his older sibling have hit their 30s, they’re finally making that dream come true, with the new Lost Boys Life EP from their alt-pop outfit Computer Games.

“It’s almost frustrating how it took this long,” says Darren of their recording debut. “I just turned 30, and I was like, ‘All right, if we don’t do this now, I’m gonna go insane.’ It’s not like we were sitting on our asses doing nothing, so I can’t get too mad at myself for never having done this before. Chuck and I were very lucky to fall into these separate rabbit holes — for me as an actor and Chuck as a musician.”

While Darren found success playing the gay student Blaine Anderson on Glee — and later on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hedwig and the Angry Inch — Chuck’s music career took off in the indie-pop band Freelance Whales. “Life happened,” says Chuck, 31, “and we finally have the opportunity now — now that we’re a little bit older — to look back on that childhood dream of ours to make music together and finally just pull the trigger. It’s been a long time coming.”

Darren believes that the “timing seemed right” for the independently released project. “Luckily, because of the successes that we’ve had on our own, it’s sort of afforded us a pretty good perspective on things. I wonder if we had pursued this when we were [younger], the focuses would have been different. But it’s just been this sort of festering itch that we needed to scratch for so long. Another 10 years would have gone by in the blink of an eye, and then it would be arguably too late. So here we are.”

As a kid, Darren was the first of the Criss brothers to catch the music bug, playing the guitar, the violin, and the drums as well as developing a “voracious appetite” for the Beatles. For Chuck — a fan of classic rock, the White Stripes and the Strokes growing up — the itch to pick up instruments came later in high school: “I didn’t start playing any music until I was like 16 or 17. My first instrument was the banjo. Then I learned how to play the guitar and the bass and stuff.” Recalls Darren: “I remember when Chuck started playing guitar, and me just being so annoyed because I played my whole life, and Chuck was getting so good so fast.”

That all led to plenty of rocking out in the Criss household. “All of our friends who also played music would come over every day after school, and it would just get crazy loud,” says Darren. “I can only imagine how annoying it could have been for our parents, but they loved it. I think they were really enjoying the fact that their boys were connecting so hard on music.”

The Criss brothers bring that same sense of fun to Computer Games. “That’s kind of where the name Computer Games came from,” explains Darren. “We’re just having fun. The whole notion of the band is playful. It’s having fun with computers, having fun with loops and just having fun playing. We just wanted to make something as fun as humanly possible.”

For the Lost Boys Life EP, Chuck says, “We wanted to bring back certain things that we love in music. I think that’s why with these [songs] there’s a little more ’80s vibe to them. We wanted to have guitar solos and a lot of percussion and synth horns.” Adds Darren: “The lead single of the EP [‘Every Single Night’] has this sort of Miami Sound Machine/Lionel Richie/Phil Collins ’80s dance record vibe. We’re pulling from all the stuff that people would generally roll their eyes at, but they’re secretly smiling on the inside.”

So, are there ever any sibling spats between the two brothers in Computer Games? “Chuck and I rarely disagree on anything,” says Darren. “It is a really good collaboration. Chuck is really a great doodler. I’m sort of like the song surgeon, I guess. I’m just such a perfectionist.” Chuck breaks it down this way: “I think I’m really good about having that initial idea. Darren has a knack for good lyrics and he’s a great harmonizer. We each have our strengths and weaknesses. He’ll pick up the slack where maybe I’m lacking, and vice versa.”

Darren hopes that Glee fans will follow him in his new role as pop artist. “I’m certainly not the kind of person that runs away from what people know me from,” says the Emmy nominee, who will reunite with Glee creator Ryan Murphy to star in Versace: American Crime Story for the third season of Murphy’s FX series. “I am so lucky to have people even know [me], to have a leg up. Being an artist starting out with no fan base is really a hard thing to do. We’re happy to embrace that.”

As for the future of Computer Games, Chuck says, “We’d love to record an album at some point, if there’s demand for it. Even if there isn’t, maybe we’ll just do it anyway, because obviously, we’re doing this to fulfill a promise to ourselves.” Adds Darren: “It’s something that we’re passionate about, and if it catches on, then great, but if it doesn’t, we still win. We’re still so thrilled that we got to get together and put this out into the world. It’s not just to make our parents happy.”