What's love got to do with it? A lot, for Savage Garden's Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones. With their hit album, Affirmation, the pop duo takes romance to a higher ground.
It's one of those rare spring nights in San Francisco: fog-free and cloudless, with the moon, huge and luminous, hanging regally over the bay. From his patio table at an elegant waterfront restaurant in this, his new hometown, stylish Savage Garden frontman Darren Hayes leans back in his chair and sighs contentedly. "It's not very masculine to say that the moon is really beautiful tonight," he whispers so that a passing waiter can't overhear. "But it is." Beauty--and magic. That's what concerns the 28-year-old most these days. And celebrating both is the primary mission of his Australian pop duo, which also features Darren's multi-instrumentalist partner and longtime friend, Daniel Jones, 27. The credo is catching: last November saw the release of the twosome's second album, Affirmation, which has gone double platinum and spawned their second No. 1 single, the delicate ballad "I Knew I Loved You" ("Truly Madly Deeply" was their first chart topper), and the hit follow-up, "Crash and Burn". But tonight Darren isn't thinking about chart positions. He's grappling with the notion that real men don't gush openly--and especially not over things like the moon. "What I believe," he says, trying to explain, "is that a child is basically innocent and unbridled. But through society, we learn to restrain, we learn to conform, we learn to desensitze ourselves. You can't sing when you walk down the street. You can't get too excited about anything, and everything has to be kept inside. [But] I really hold on to my childhood." Indeed, Darren enthusiastically collects Casper the Friendsly Ghost comic books as well as vintage Star Wars toys; he's even hoping to land an audition for a bit part in George Lucas's next Star Wars movie.
Love Pangs
Born and raised in Brisbane, Australia, Darren relocated to the picturesque San Francisco Bay Area in the summer of 1999, after living in New York for 18 months. It was the latter that the singer-songwriter, consumed with thoughts of his failed marriage to Australian makeup artist Colby Taylor, wrote much of Affirmation. The couple began "kicking around when I was only 17," Darren recalls. They tied the knot in 1994, but instead of living happily ever after, they began to grow apart and split in 1998. "It didn't have anything to do with this career or fame. We just didn't fit," says Darren sadly, adding that he and Colby have yet to officially divorce. "There never was any antagonism, never any animosity--it was completely mutual. I mean, we just holidayed in Rio together. And we have this intimacy which will never change. I didn't leave her for anyone--it wasn't like anyone cheating on the other. It was sad, but just necessary." Anyway, he continues, suddenly perking up, "she does have custody of my two cocker spaniels, so I have visiting rights!"
These days, Darren's most prominent partnership is his creative one with Daniel. While Darren is the "face" of Savage Garden, doing all of their interviews and starring in the group's videos, Daniel, who still lives in Brisbane and comes to the U.S. only for Savage Garden business, craves anonymity and prefers to live outside the spotlight. "Daniel is one of my favorite people in the world," says Darren. "He's as close as a brother, yet sometimes I feel I hardly know him. He's elusive and guarded and somewhat a mystery even to me. He fascinates me. Our songwriting relationship is like the mutual admiration society. We are each other's biggest fans." The connection between Darren and Daniel certainly impressed Walter Afanasieff, who co-produced Affirmation with the pair. "They brought me back to a place that I had fogotten about," says Afanasieff, who has also worked with Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Marc Anthony. "I mean, a lot of the pop scene--the female singers and the boy bands--get you into a mind-set of 'How many different ways, really, can you cut a ballad?' For producers, there's a science to it. But with Darren and Daniel, we went in thinking, 'Let's not use anything we've ever used before'. And it was fun, searching for days for just the right sound that would complete a song. I also thought it was really awesome how Darren sang the whole record, every single line. Even the background harmonies--it's all him." The duo has other fans in high places. Actress Kirsten Dunst (The Virgin Suicides) paid the pair a major compliment last year when she costarred as the object of Darren's affections in the "I Knew I Loved You" video. (He liked that they had a shared connection to Gothic novelist Anne Rice; Savage Garden took their name from a phrase used in Rice's 1985 novel, The Vampire Lestat, and Kirsten costarred with Tom Cruise in the 1994 film version of Rice's Interview with the Vampire.) "The thing that really attracted me to this song were the lyrics," says Kirsten." The song was beautifully written. And I kind of believe in fate, and I could really relate to what Darren was singing. Plus, he was such a blast to work with. We connected from the start and had a lot of fun on the set." |
