After quitting college, he enlisted in the
US Army. He was posted at
Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, and then served in the
3rd Armored Division near
Frankfurt, West Germany. While in West Germany, he worked as a band leader with the band
the Touch (
de), releasing an album called
Love on Time (1984) which was recorded in the studio of
Frank Farian. It was re-issued (with four additional tracks) credited to ''The Touch With Terence Trent D'Arby
in 1989 as Early Works'' after his worldwide success as a solo artist. In 1986, he left
West Germany for London, where he briefly played with the Bojangles, who became his backing group on his 1988 tour. In London, he signed a recording contract with
CBS Records.
as Terence Trent D'Arby His debut solo album, as Terence Trent D'Arby, ''
Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby'', was released in July 1987. In an interview, Maitreya played with the press and expressed a high opinion of his first album, claiming that it was the most important album since
the Beatles' ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After the comments leaked to US media outlets, he stated that most of what he said was exaggerated, but that it is sometimes necessary to "hit people over the head" to get their attention. The album earned him a Grammy Award in the category Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male (1989) and a BRIT Award for International Breakthrough Act, and he also received Grammy and Soul Train'' nominations for Best New Artist. Maitreya's follow-up album,
Neither Fish nor Flesh (1989), It took four more years and a move to Los Angeles until his next album,
Symphony or Damn (1993), was released. The record contained the singles "Delicate" and "She Kissed Me". It peaked at No. 4 on the
UK Albums Chart. In 1995, Maitreya released
Vibrator, which was followed by a world tour.
as Sananda Maitreya D'Arby legally changed his name to Sananda Maitreya on October 4, 2001, explaining "Terence Trent D'Arby was dead ... he watched his suffering as he died a noble death. After intense pain I meditated for a new spirit, a new will, a new identity." Maitreya has said that his name change resulted from a series of dreams he had in 1995. Though the name does not have any religious significance, Maitreya explained that he understood it to mean "rebirth" in
Sanskrit. () means 'possessed of happiness', and () means 'friendly, kind, loving, benevolent'. He attributed his commercial decline in the 21st century to bias against him by music industry executives. the album received great support from international critics in particular for its single, the song "O Divina". At the beginning of 2002, Maitreya moved to Milan for love, where he married Italian architect and TV presenter Francesca Francone in 2003, and began his sixth project,
Angels & Vampires - Volume I. The artist initially published the project on the official website in chapters, as the recordings continued, then released it on June 29, 2005, in
MP3 format. In July 2005, Maitreya began the second volume of the project:
Angels & Vampires - Volume II, continuing the division into chapters. On April 29, 2006, the second mastered volume was published.
The Angels & Vampires album contains 40 songs, including a cover of "
Angie", a tribute to
the Rolling Stones. The genre of the album is post-millennium rock. Maitreya played all the instruments during the recordings and produced, wrote, and arranged the entire project by himself. In 2007, three of his songs were played in
Judd Apatow's film
Knocked Up. After the 2007 European tour, new concerts followed in 2008, and television participation in the 2008 Christmas concert. In addition to the studio albums, Maitreya has released four live albums from 2007 to 2012:
Influenza in Firenze,
Camels at the Crossroads,
Lovers & Fighters, and
Confessions of a Zooathaholic, a selection of the best songs from live concerts and tours performed in the same year. Maitreya released
Nigor Mortis in 2008, which followed the same evolutionary process as
Angels & Vampires. The album was first published in chapters during the recordings, and then came out in the mastered version at the end of 2008 and is available on CD and MP3 at his website.
The Sphinx album was released in March 2011; in the same month the instrumental version of
The Sphinx and the new live album by the artist related to the 2010 concerts of the
Post Millennium Rock: Confessions of a Zooathaholic has been released. In March 2013,
Return to Zooathalon was released, followed in 2015 by the double album
The Rise of the Zugebrian Time Lords. 2017 marked the release of a monumental work:
Prometheus & Pandora, 53 songs divided into three volumes. The artist declared that this album has become so important and impressive because through music he has elaborated the mourning for the loss of his great friends and idols,
David Bowie,
Prince,
George Michael, and
Tom Petty. In December 2020, a new live album,
Some Sake in Osaka, was released. It showcases a Japan tour with his historic American band. On March 15, 2021, Maitreya released his 12th studio album, ''
Pandora's PlayHouse'', which included three collaborations, the song "Reflecting Light", composed with the Australian duo
The Avalanches; "
Time Is On My Side" with
Irene Grandi and the opening song of the project: "Pandora's Plight" with jazz pianist
Antonio Faraò. The project has an instrumental song called "Prince", which honors the memory and the friendship of Maitreya and
Prince. In 2022, he was featured on
Calvin Harris' new Love Regenerator track "Lonely" (a record which Harris recorded with Italian producer Riva Starr), with the vocals coming from 1989's "...And I Need to Be with Someone Tonight". In July 2022, Sony UK released the spatial audio and remastered version of his first album, changing the title to
Introducing the Hardline According to... and the artist name to Sananda Maitreya. The entire discography featuring the artistic name Terence Trent D'Arby was renamed to Sananda Maitreya in 2021 by Sony. In 2023, the documentary film
Welcome to the MadHouse: The Costa Rica Sessions was released. The film won two awards at international festivals, such as the Kiez Berlin Festival, the International Gold Awards and received two special mentions at the Los Angeles Core Independent Film Festival and International Documentary Film Festival. A live album containing the film soundtrack,
Welcome to the MadHouse, was released in January 2023. On May 11, 2024, Maitreya released his 13th studio album,
The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan. ==Personal life==