Savage Garden - The Media Media Magazine

"It's a very nice feeling," Daniel Jones comments on their rapid rise, trying to reach for the right words. "It's an achievment you'd been dreaming about since 13. You have this positive thing that you're going to be sucessful, but there's always that tiny little nagging at the back of your mind that it might not happen to you."

Adds Darren Hayes, laughing: "We started talking about our record deal as if we already had one, when in fact we were very far from one. We never thought 'if this happens', right from the beginning it was 'when it does'."

American success hasn't surprised business associates. Manager John Woodruff (Angels, Baby Animals, Diesel) heard a demo tape, spotted the potential and promptly signed them up.

Producer Charles Fisher took on the project. The album was mixed by Chris Lord-Algae, whose name the duo remember seeing in the credits on Rolling Stones CD covers. All three say they got involved because the duo have a massive potential to break worldwide. Unlike 99% of Australian pop bands, they add, Savage Garden have a European sensibility and intellectual approach.

Hayes: "I simply can't write music that says nothing. If my own life doesn't inspire me at a certain time, I'll go out and see a film or read a book. I spend a lot of time doing that. That's what I like about Savage Garden's singles. They sound pop but there's a fair amount of intellectual thing there too. If some people don't pick that up, that's OK. Hey, we're just making pop records. It's not the end of the world."

What's the greatest pop record ever made? Hayes: "Michael Jackson's Off The Wall. The melodies the rhythms and some of the production things that Quincy Jones were astounding."

Hayes and Jones met while playing along the Queensland coast in cover bands. In 1994 they gave up playing to concentrate on writing hits.

Jones: "Journalists ask us about our songwriting relationship. I honestly don't know how it works. We sit in a room with a keyboard and something comes up. I do know songs we write individually don't have the glamour of those we work on together. We live about 15 minutes away from each other, so we're forever passing tapes to each other and urging ourselves on."

Hayes: "The basic difference between us is that I'm a music fan, in that I go out and buy lots of records. Daniel would prefer to make his own." Jones hails from Essex, England. His programming and arrangements reflects a love for Peter Gabriel and XTC. When not making music, Jones splits for the water, helping his dad renovate a cruiser. Hayes grew up taking in everything from Prince to The Smiths to Duran Duran, describing himself as a 'nerd' because he collects Star Wars memorabilia from around the world. "George Lucas is making three more movies in the Star Wars trilogy, and I am desperate to be an extra. Mind you, my most ideal role would have been as a vampire in Date With A Vampire because I'm a big Anne Rice buf as well."

Says Jones, "I'm not sure about the stuff that inspired us. For the simple reason, that more recently I've been more interested in getting a sound of our own. Five or six years ago, we were definitely just listeners. Now we want to be more.

"I Want You was a great debut single for us, because it showed people that we were after a unique sound. When the album comes out (mid March), I think you'll find there's more emotions and experimentation than the single suggests. A journalist once called our working relationship a marriage. He was absolutely right. You both try and grow together while giving each other as much space as possible. Because we're both good friends, we could always say to each other ' that's a crap idea'.

But more importantly, we don't have to say it anymore, because as soon as we hear something of a dud, we instinctively know it's crap. We look at each other and keep moving to the next idea." The next step, of course, is to hit the road. They've got the players in mind. "We want to do some showcases to prove we do exist and that we can play. It's funny, but we come from a live background and switched to songwriting, yet now we have to prove to people that we're more than writers who can play.

Adds Hayes: "The venues were a problem for us, because in Brisbane everything is guitar-pop and guitar-rock. There aren't the venues for bands like us. Maybe if we'd formed in Sydney or Melbourne it would have been a different story. Besides, I think Daniel is intrinsically British in his approach to making music. Over there, it's quite acceptable to listen to a studio act that doesn't go on the road. That certainly isn't the case here."