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"I always felt more ambitious, in a promotional sense, than he did. He will sit in a studio 24/7 working on music, but when it came to promotion or touring I always felt I was dragging him along for the ride.

"I always felt we could have been so much bigger than we were. It was a marketing nightmare, trying to market this band that was two people, with one guy blurry in the background. I did millions of interviews that started with 'Where's Daniel?' and had to explain his story.

"I had to pay for his decision all through the promotion of Affirmation and it was exhausting. We earned exactly the same amount of money only I was doing three times the amount of work. That was difficult."

As was touring the world, with the threat of the job he had always dreamt of being suddenly terminated.

"I didn't leave the band, the band left me," Hayes clarifies, keen for fans to know he kept the band together.

Hayes says a turning point came when the pair were writing Affirmation's first single, The Animal Song.

He found out Jones was writing with another band, Aneiki, and felt thoroughly betrayed.

"I found out through other people," Hayes says, still hurt.

"He said 'I didn't know how to tell you' and I said 'Just be honest'.

"That was definitely a defining moment in our relationship. In my mind we were a band, I had fielded offers to work with other people, sing on other people's records, and I'd always said no out of respect to Daniel.

"I remember feeling like I'd been cheated on. Then the first time I wrote with someone else for my (solo) record it felt really strange. It was like the first time you have sex after you've broken up with someone."

Hayes put feelers out for his solo project, and before long realised it was actually now his solo career.

"I can write songs, I can sing. It wasn't like I can't do it without Daniel, it's just that I wouldn't have chosen to. I was put in a situation where I had to and it forced me to grow up and face a lot of challenges.

"I'm enormously proud of this record. I feel like I'm making the kind of music I should be making. I'm also enormously proud of Savage Garden, but it is time for me to get on with it."

His American record company even wanted to release the last Savage Garden single as 'Savage Garden featuring Darren Hayes' to boost his profile. He declined.

"I'm not trying to say to people 'If you liked Savage Garden you'll love Darren Hayes'. This is the start of my new career. Every lawyer or accountant or business person will tell you to never tell the fans you've broken up. Even Stevie Nicks told me that, but I just can't lie about it. I think it sucks too, but I can't go back now."

Hayes' solo album, Spin, was written with American uber-producer Walter Afanasieff, who steered Affirmation.

Spin is a sexed-up record. First single Insatiable has Hayes showcase his soulful falsetto, while Dirty and Strange Relationship channel the steamy funk Prince used to deal in, with lyrics to raise eyebrows among some and temperatures among others.

"I still love Affirmation but by God it's a dark record when I look back on it. It's quite ironic that it's called Affirmation. I was dealing with my divorce and when we finished recording it the band broke up.

"I had to shake that off. Life is good. Love is good. Even among the rumblings of war I'm pleased I've made a celebratory record."

And while his Mr Ballad reputation is upheld, he definitely loses his musical virginity – several times over – on Spin.

"I don't feel like I have to be the nicest, sweet-as-apple-pie, cute, say-all-the-right-things-and-romance-all-the-ladies guy any more.

"I had meetings with the record company where I had to say 'OK, Darren has blonde hair now, he does yoga, he's got a song called Dirty. Is everyone clear?' There's some songs about f..king and you know what? F..king is fun."