Off The Garden Path
|
|
DARREN HAYES, former frontman of Aussie
pop sensation SAVAGE GARDEN, is trying to grow a solo career for himself. And he's
starting with his soon-to-be-released debut, Spin. If you ask us, we saw it coming. Things weren't quite as peachy as they seemed in Savage Garden, long before the Australian pop duo behind U.S. chart toppers like 'Truly Madly Deeply' and 'I Knew I Loved You' officially called it splits in October last year. Consider the stock of Savage Garden music videos. Darren Hayes in the foreground, tight-teed, impeccably-groomed, singing, charming the socks off some girl while Daniel Jones would waft through vid after vid in the background, the only thing setting him apart from the faceless extras in each video: his guitar. Or consider the CD cover of Savage Garden's second and last record Affirmation - Hayes posing proud front and centre while Jones, well, co-existing uncomfortably in the background. "It comes down to this - there was two people in a band and one person didn't really want to be in the public eye anymore," explains Hayes of the group's split. "Daniel was never comfortable in the spotlight. It was a marketing nightmare, trying to market a band that was two people with one blurry guy in the background." Today, plopped onta a couch in a function room of The Grand Hyatt in Hongkong, Hayes looks dramatically different from the sensitive-souled ebony-locked frontman of Savage Garden we've become familiar within the last four years. His hair, then dyed jet-black and close-cropped - a look he started favouring when he became obsessed with U2's Acthung Baby and thought he'd cut a cool Bono - is now ash-blonde and curly. Dressed in a moddish dark-blue suit and sporting stubble, he looks like a dangerous, slightly deranged Ronan Keating. A new look, evidently, for a new beginning Hayes calls "a premature foray into the solo recording world." "I didn't think I would go solo so early. I thought Savage Garden would do at least three or four albums before I would make a solo record." Hayes co-wrote and co-produced the 12 tracks on his debut solo album Spin, due for release next month, with Grammy Award-winning producer Walter Afanasieff (Ricky Martin, Mariah Carey). Musically, the album is a departure from the pubescent-friendly pop spewings of Savage Garden. With Spin, Hayes turns up the heat with "dancier, sexier, and spicier" tunes, and raunchier themes of romantic abandon, sexual desire and betrayal. On a personal front, the album is also an affirmation of the 'real' Darren Hayes. Says the 29-year-old, "I am more complex than most might think. And I don't feel I have to be the nicest, sweet as apple pie, cute, say all the right things, kind of guy any more." And to drive home that point, Hayes adds, "I've got a song caleld 'Dirty'...is everyone clear?" 8 DAYS : Spin being such a sexy, romantic record - what's the most romantic thing you've ever done? DARREN HAYES : The most romantic thing I've done...is vert private. But trust me, I've done it. What was it like, writing songs for the first time without Daniel Jones? It was definitely a challenge for me because he and I had written together for 10 years. The first time I wrote something apart from him it kinda felt strange. But it was very liberating, very affirming. What's your relationship with Daniel like these days? I haven't spoken to him in a while. It's nothing like the media would like think, that we had some Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise divorce. We had an intense musical collaboration and our friendship was based more on creativity. [Outside that] we had very separate lives. And that was necessary to keep the musical connection alive. But there was a distance that developed over the years, and at the moment we're at very different phases of our lives. The first single off your album is 'Insatiable' What do you have an insatiable appetite for? I'm very greedy emotionally, I need a lot of love an I give a lot of love. So that's something I can't get enough of. And Swiss chocolate. A lot of it is removed from my hotel for fear of big arse. Speaking of which, how does it feel, knowing that somewhere, someone might be making out to Spin? I made a record that I wanted to hear, that I would like and I would buy. That's not to insult anything I've done before. It's just that I went through a very conscious process of choosing the songs, the sounds, paying attention to the records I listen to, and putting more of my personality into the music. So I'll probably be making out to it myself, before anyone else. Spin will be out in stores Mar 18. |