ALL industry statistics and politics aside (well, almost all (, today is a chance for fun with an artist’s somewhat safe image to date; a transformation of Darren’s boy-next-door persona; photography at the mercy of deconstruction care of a hairdresser packed with two bottles of hard gel,and a makeup artist armed with thick mascara wand. “Feel free to fiddle around with me”, Darren urges at the start of the styling session. There’s the thing about Darren Hayes. While he’s obviously an educated, well-travelled and upmarketly entertained young man, his social dialogue is littered with double entendre and innuendo. In liaison with his cream stylist he says he’s “open to anything” and that he likes “to bend over for fashion”. In conversation with his cream interviewer, he tells how it’s his job as a pop star to act like a “gigolo”. In building rapport with his cream photographer he shoots off grab-and-shag quotes from both Austin Powers films. Perhaps Darren is just very intuitive when it comes to public relations, knowing how to strike a chord with this subjects, flirting with there one by one. Or perhaps he’s just a genuinely gorgeous and gregarious guy. With Hayes you get the distinct feeling that the line is there to be skated along: a tine previously picketed by goody two-shoes attributes. Oarren appears to romance the ambiguous imagery already surpassed by pop/rock names that have inspired, delighted, perhaps even naively mystified him in his adolescent years. Throughout our time together, he talks of his (nowl conic contemporaries, the people that have worked the celebrity machine in a strongly visual manner, and that have conceivably inspired him to bemuse his effigy to the world in much the same way. Creatively inspired by the icons of our generation, Hayes sites Michael Jackson as one of his most motivational visionaries. And Madonna. And Prince. And George Michael. “I never really understood what was happening with Prince or George Michael. For years I thought Prince was gay. He wore lipstick, ran around in high heels and dressed in items of women’s clothing. It wasn’t until we signed to a label that managed Prince for years, that I was informed he was completely into women. I didn’t know what to think. Then with George Michael it was like... I had no idea he could be gay. I didn’t see that coming.
Here Darren seems to display the naivete of only just dealing with what we call ‘the fame game’. He is slowly immersing deeper into the sometimes murky waters of rock stardom, with all the pushing and pulling and teasing that comes with it. Sexuality shouldn’t be an issue for a star today, though even Darren — who left his wife last year to indulge in the lifestyle of a single boy’s boy — still holds reservation with regard to his sexual being. Or at least the public image of his sexuality has remained up until now limited. Nonetheless, today he is doing what all the aforementioned have been doing for years, lending mystification and a sence of happy disillusionment to tens of thousands of fans who will fantasise and impregnate an image of him into their minds, broadening their own options of how to be, dress, think, speak and flirt. “My’favourite icons or celebrities ,were always a little ambiguous, and completely acknowtedge that am ambiguous. I’ve never made statements about my private life, ever. No-one even knew that I was married until got divorced.” So you understand that people may hold a rather cryptic image of you, and perhaps are a little dubious to what you may be up to now in your personal life? •‘Yeah. I kind of want to be a blank canvas, want people to be able to fantasise; want somebody to be able to project whatever they want. I’ll be whatever you want. mean, that’s my job. I’m like a gigolo! Absolutely. A public gigolo!” Darren laughs coyly, and for a while we move into more sound territory. It’s time for his makeup. “I don’t mind my eyes like this [darkened across the lids],” he tells the makeup artist, “just so long as I don’t look like Liza Minnelli.” The look everybody seems to be going with is definitively Kubrick verging on diabolic sacrilege. Lashes: we don’t have fakes so we’re painting them on, in excess. After the dark lids are administered, Darren looks a wee concerned at the extent of the exaggeration. “They’re okay,” he finally decides. “Well we ought to keep them,” injects an assistant. “The raccoon look is still quite big in Paris.”Darren smirks and stretches out of his chair to glimpse at a mirror image across the room.
‘.1 just don’t want to Look Like a clown.” Fair enough. That Darren is being so lenient at the mercy of today’s shoot, letting the makeup girt have her wicked way, is somewhat surprising. For a pop star whose international calibre is so high, with units at stake with any make-or-break makeover, you’d think his publicity and management crew would be interrupting with restrictions. But they’re being real nice. The overall musical direction of Savage Garden over the past couple of years, and even now to a high degree, seems geared to please those members of society who may weLL not want to visit the more tarted up ranks of Hayes’ persona. Listening to the new album, optimisticaLly titled Affirmation, one enters a world almost void of the in-your-faceness more frequently adopted by the Madonnas and Princes of the music world. Darren explains: “Musicaly, the new album is all about the Eighties. listened to a lot of Motown and soul music.” The makeup girl is laying on more eyelash. “Then I was into a lot of Michael Jackson in theearly Eighties.” The makeup girl now has Darren looking like Michael Jackson. “Stop there,” injects the assistant. “I think he’s Looking a little too Thriller. Less Thriller. No Cure. Definitely more Placebo.Here, the makeup girl brushes Darren’s lips with a Trucco gloss, dabbed with a hint of glitter. •‘And Madonna,” Darren is still going. ‘Everything listened to in the Eighties was completely made for the masses.” So with the direction his icons have taken more recently, one wonders why Hayes and music partner Jones selected as key producer behind the outfit’s latest project, Walter Afanasieff, arguably the world’s biggest producer of adult contemporary ballads. When the record company suggested Walter [responsible for strings of hit singles paraded by Mariah Carey and Ms Dion], we flatly said no. No way! It was like,’Look, we have schmaltz covered, thanks’. We had already been in discussion with other people. We spoke to William Orbit [Madonna, Blur] on several occasions.
and he became a real consideration. We were also keen to work with Phil Fernaly and on the other end of the scale, Hex Hector [producer-come-remixer, responsible for altering some of the world’s biggest ballad hits into testimonial club corkers].” So why Afanasieff? “He insisted. He asked us to come to him for one weekend. He said, ‘Please meet with me, and if you hate what do, then there’ll be no offence taken’. We took him up on his offer and after two hours we begged him to do the whole record.” been an interesting concept. Yes, it would have,’ he ponders, but you know, in the end the album took on a whole other meaning; it just became a tot more organic than that, and Walter and Daniel realty surprised me. Their programming was more guitar heavy than I had expected. I was almost waiting to hear something akin to Mariah’s Hero, but was pleasantly surprised, was sitting there talking about domestic abuse, and more serious issues, so I guess that was reflected in Walter’s production. If you ask him, hell tell you this is the album that he is most proud of.”
Darrens new face is now complete. He gets up from his chair and summons a complete confrontation with the bedroom suite vanity.
“I look like a Fucking clown!”, his voice soars, siren- like across the room. Management and publicity rush to
give their opinion, most of it a satisfactory acceptance of the new Darren. “I just want it to look, welt, cool.” His temporary dissatisfaction is quickly dismissed. It’s obvious Hayes is aware of his position. He realises that there is no benefit in a star tantrum, and you synonymously get the feeling that he isn’t into them anyway. He does know what he wants, but he isn’t about to jump in bed with Madonna in the emotional stakes. On the subject of the world’s most famous woman, though Madonna is a fan (she was spotted in the front rows of a Savage Garden concert last year), our boys have yet to meet their mentor, •‘We always seem to be one person away from her”, says Darren, gearing himself up for the first part of our shoot. He is now wearing a sailor boy meets pop tart outfit: tight-fitting designer tee, and mandatory cling-pants, top button undone, of course.
“You know it’s the weirdest thing. We have mutual friends. We have the same vocal coach. But I’d never
chase it up. I’m kind of over that whole celebrity meeting thing now. Darren primes, poses and generally starts to relax and succumb to suggestions from the stylist and photographer. Everything is fine for a while, until the added
pressure of suggestion from those outside of the photographic crew.“If you don’t mind, can we have only the essentialpeople here watching me?”, he asks. Darren’s objectionsare clearly not so swayed by primadonna notions, as they are by his simply wanting to get it on solo. Photographer, stylist and journalist stick around.

THERE’S THE THING ABOUT DARREN HAYES.WHILE HE’S OBVIOUSLY AN EDUCATED, WELL
TRAVELLED AND UP MARKETLY ENTERTAINED YOUNG MAN, HIS SOCIAL DIALOGUE IS LITTERED WITH DOUBLE ENTENDRE AND INNUENDO.
are by his simply wanting to get it on stylist and journalist stick around. Throughout the remainder of the the misconstrued idea that much of the public has regarding celebrity in crowd friendshios. Darren refers to the general perception that just because he and Kylie Minogue and Natalie Imbruglia are from the same turf, the three must automatically be the best of friends. People tend to believe that because we’re celebrities, we know each other I don’t even know Natalie. She is stunning though, and Y I love the fragility to her voice.’’ And Kylie’? “Well I saw Kylie recent-on a plane from New York to LA. We saw each other and went ‘Oh my god!’, gave each other a big hug and she said she wanted to get together soon, and then walked off. I yelled out ‘I’ll call you!’, then realised I didn’t have her number!”. He laughs. “She’s just that likable and has a certain effect on me.” So was Darren ever into the Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound that dominated Kylie’s music in the late 1980s? ‘I did have a problem with that sort of thing. Complete fabrication.” So you never bought a Rick Astley record? “Absolutely not. I always saw through that. But I always dug Kylie, and I am not ashamed to admit that I bought several of her records.”
Darren starts to groove to a different tune. Somebody has put on the new Regurgitator aLbum, and hes very much getting into the track I Love Tommy Mottola. Did you know this song refers to a certain brunette Australian songstress apparently making it with Tommy at the moment?. Tommy Mottola, for those not au felt
with the back-of-the-scenes of the music industry or into reading the first few pages of Who Weekly, is the head
honcho of Sony Music who is known for dating and, er, doing, beautiful divas that happen to ride his [abel.
Darren doesn’t mind a little superfluous gossip himself, engaging in further discussion over the Melbourne songstress in question and no, were not telling who she is, safe to say she’s big enough to perform to arena audiences].
With the rest of the shoot unfolding relatively effortlessly, it becomes flagrantly obvious that the man truLy is
at his most fluid and relaxed self when left to work it his way, and without distraction. ‘Can I put my hand down my crotch?” asks Darren chesirely, lounging over an unkempt bed while mockingly getting off on daytime television schlock. We may now be seeing the side of him that so desires flirtation with the camera, and some true signs of the general media philandering which has paid dividends to those limelight loving predecessors who have inspired him. If one thing does remain clear, it is that Darren Hayes has enough unique savoir faire to keep his head above water should any major tidal wave of a drama be forthcoming. Who knows what the next procreation will be for Mr Hayes, especially with a brand new millennium to took forward to, where every star-struck teen wilL took toward their latest lust icon for a neo-infusive hit to simultaneously tease and excite their own impressionabLe persona. And with the optimistic views the Savage Garden boys have adopted in their latest music offering, the sky may well be the only Limit, and a no-holds-barred philosophy the only viable attitude.

Thanks To Cream Magazine