Life hurts for the successful singer Darren Hayes. You can see it when he's on stage, you can hear it on the new album Affirmation. Songs like I Knew I Loved You (high in the US charts at the moment), The Lover After Me and Hold Me. They are melancholy and are pregnant of heartache.

Darren doesn't want to do another interview. He's not into it. He's sitting on a couch at the TV studio where he just had a beautiful performance. He doesn't feel like talking. He says, "I don't talk about my private life. And why does everyone wants to know everything about me?" But slowly he starts talking. "I'm alone after ten years of being with somebody." He stares and all of a sudden, very emotionally: "Colby and I were inseparable. Now, we've split up. Not officially divorced, but not together as man and wife.

All the songs on Affirmation are about us. About me. About the disappointment. That I've failed as a husband. You don't marry to get a divorce. But sometimes it happens that man and wife grow apart. Not because of my career, but because we want to develop separate from each other. All of a sudden rules change and things are not so common anymore. Like, you may not sleep together anymore, and not take her hand anymore. And that hurts, coz you rather want to make things right again. Everything is weird." The big change happened when he came to America. He moved from Logan in Australia to New York to concentrate on the inking of the two albums - away from his friends, his wife and everything else that he loved. "That year was the toughest of my life," says Darren. "I was always surrounded by friends. Even in the middle of the night, they came by if I asked them to. All of a sudden I was alone. But because of that I found myself again. I learned to deal with my emotions and wrote about things that really matter. I needed that. But I had to leave the world I knew to come that far, to be anonymous."

The album 'Affirmation' was recorded in New York and San Francisco (produced by Grammy award winner Walter Afanasieff who's working with Michael Jackson at the moment). Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones co produced it besides writing the music and all the songs. "The studio owned by Afanasieff was great," says Darren. "We recorded the first album in my bathroom. We didn't have a penny. Now we have everything - a swimming pool, a fitness room and a housekeeper. Its funny to notice that all the sad stuff was recorded in New York and the happy stuff in San Francisco. I believe that I was done with my battle and I could do with it what I liked. It wasn't all negative, we have a beautiful album to prove it and that's why I gave the album a positive title - Affirmation. Affirmation was the last song we wrote and you can see that life has its ups and downs but that everything works out for the best. Life is bitter but also sweet. I'm proud that I showed my emotions and I hope I'm an example for young people who are feeling bad about themselves. I can say I'm not ashamed about anything and that I'm happy now."

Taken from the Dutch Newspaper de telegraaf (Feb 12, 2000)