Savage Garden deal with fame,sreaming girls ann the presure of making a follow-up album that shows they'er for real

ALL DARREN HAYES COULD THINK was, "This is not happening!" It was a mantra the Savage Garden vocalist kept chanting to himself, but it wasn’t taking. The nascent pop star went to take a sip of his Powerade,
but then the Edge cracked a joke and Hayes involuntarily laughed, spitting purple liquid all over himself. Supermodel Helena Christensen giggled as the singer coughed and spluttered.

The rain clouds were clearing in the aftermath of the Sydney leg of 1925 Popmart tour. and Hayes had climbed the various levels of celebrity patron-age - the shitkicker VIP tent: the serious VIP tent where Midnight Oil were rubbing shoulders with Keanu Reeves and Samuel L.Jackson - to here:U2's dressing room. "The Bunker". He was on his own. The other half of Savage Garden. the calm. assured keyboardist Daniel Jones. was back on lev-el two. "This is not happening: This is not happening! he told himself.when Bono s assistant brought Hayes in, he walked past Adam Clayton and had to remind himself to be cool. But fuck it. there he was, sitting there in the corner wearing a boxing hood and those black wraparound shades: Bonn himself.The Fly .McPhisto . the man who wrote One, the man who’d just left 50.000 people enthralled. Darren Have s’s godstar was sitting a tew metres away. It was happening.
Hayes w is dripping wet. The Powerade had simply added to the downpour he’d already stood through, dancing at the tip of the catwalk alongside the other true believers, lost in the music. He’d had the chance to meet Bono the previous August. when PopMart was in Los Angeless. Hayes had been transfixed by the show but decided not to go backstage. He didn’t want to be the millionth hand Bono had shaken, another beaming face to be forgotten.

"YOU ALL GO TO SCHOOL, DON’T YOU?" ASKS HAYES. THE GIRLS INDICATE YES. "WELL LET ME
GIVE YOU A LESSON ABOUT SCHOOL. ALL THE KIDS THAT WERE POPULAR END UP ON THE DOLE WITH BABIES. ALL THE NERDS END UP POP STARS."

It was different now. Over the last year Savage Garden had sold approximately four millions around the world — they were on course to double that — including a phenomenal 800,000 in Australia alone. They’d scooped the 1997 ARIA Awards and had a number one in America with "Truly Madly Deeply", the ‘first Australian act to do so since INXS with "Need You Tonight" in 1987. But Darren Hayes didn’t want to meet Bono because he felt successful. He would never dare compare Savage Garden’s achievements to U2. No. Darren Hayes wanted to meet Bono because he was starting to realise the baggage that came with the success. Savage Garden were in the midst of a sold-out national tour and he was starting to feel like he had nothing more to give, that he’d been stretched so thin he would either break in two or simply dissipate. A few nights before, in Tasmania. he’d been asking himself before a show if he could go on. if not tonight, then next week, or next month in New Zealand. or the month after that in Asia. or the looming months beyond that in Europe and America. He was wondering why they’d become a teen sensation, if he could keep his marriage out of the public eye. All of these thoughts. were racing though Darren Hayes’s mind. And then. Bono was looking at him. Gesturing for him to come over and talk….

LET IT BE SAID AGAIN:SAVAGE GARDEN ARE phenomenon. Together with Spice Girls they have spearheaded the return to the top of musical charts around the world giving focus to the desires and needs of generation of teenage. on the whole female fans - But behind all this is two young men from,. suburban Brisbane. Polite. Inquisitive young men who worry a lot about what’s happening them, how they should success how they can prove that their brand of pop is one which will mature and grow. which will reach for resonance and a sense of belief When you first meet Savage Garden they are preparing to have their photo taken.. It is a Saturday afternoon and Savage Garden are standing in a Sydney hotel suite. Looking at clothes prior to shooting new press shots for America. On the Sunday and Monday, with a show also scheduled on Sunday night. they’re, to shoot a high-budget clip for the US of "Break Me Shake Me". Hayes is wearing all black. Most noticeably a pair of Jean’s armour-plated with PVC his locks now cropped. His dewy is’ tones Its lost some of their femininity’, He move around constantly, even as he fights the flu breaking into snatches of song. delving into varied topics of conversation without warning. Now he’s appraising His outfit. "How much is this stuff" he ask the stylist. who’s lacing up Hayes’s boots for him.. ‘$200 for the top and $200 for the pants. 10% less comes the reply. Hayes pauses. then snorts. "Tell ‘em to get fucked." he retorts.

DOLLARS AND SENSE
SAVAGE GARDEN FIND NEW EARTHLY DELIGHTS

For Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones its an accolade they’d prefer to ignore, but nonetheless Savage Garden have debuted at number three on Business Review Weekly’s annual top 50 earnings list of entertainers. Beaten out only by Mel Gibson (a massive $61 million) and equal with radio talkback king John Laws, the Brisbane-based duo earned an estimated $11 million in 1997. Other music based acts in the top 10 included US-based Christian rock act the Newsboys at 5 ($6 million), AC/DC at 7 ($5 million, mainly in back catalogue sales) and grunge tyro’s silverchair at 9 ($4.5 million). Savage Garden’s success made them the only musical act to top noted performance artists Bananas in Pajamas ($10 million). Unfortunately Bland B2 were not available for comment.
1. Mel Gibson $61,000,000
2. John Laws $11,000,000
3. Savage Garden $11,000,000
4. Bland B2 $10,000,000
5. Newsboys $6,000,000
6. Geoffrey Rush $5,700,000
7 AC/DC $5,000,000
8. Nicole Kidman $4,500,000
9 silverchair $4,500,000
10 Manpower $3,700,000

Sitting on a bed, patiently having his make-up done. Daniel Jones laughs. The kevboardist is tall and rangy,
with blond. spiky hair. Up close, you can see the handful of acne scars which pit the right side of his face. When he smiles,which he does often for someone so observant and low-key, his angular face becomes quite disarming. He watched the PopMart show at the mixing desk , standing beside Helena Christensen. "1 said hello and then spent the rest of the show trying to smell her," he notes, grin-ning broadly.

BECAUSE THEY OWN THEIR VERY SUCCESSFUL
records — they only lease them to Roadshow Music in Australia and New Zealand and Sony Music for the rest of the world — Savage Garden have a degree of control most bands can only dream of. "There’s not one cent spent, not one colour used on a front cover that we don’t approve." Hayes later explains. ‘Its very comforting." Right now, Savage Garden are working it for photographer Robin Sellick’s camera. Hayes is a natural, staring off into the middle distance while standing in the foreground, masking his face in the very definition of broodiness. Jones stands behind him, biding his time for a prac-tice he clearly doesn’t place a great Deal of faith in (although he’s never less than professional). As the shoot moves from hallway to penthouse, Hayes takes front and center in every shot. "I’m always aware that I’m in the front of every t-v photograph, but it’s not because I step in front of him," he says. "Daniel takes two steps back. People just assume I’m an egomaniac."
THE FIRST ALBUM THAT BOTH HAYES, age 25, and Jones, 24, bought was Michael Jackson’s Thriller. George Michael is a name they both mention with respect. Out in the suburbs of Bris-bane both youngsters were pop fanatics, giving vent to their obsessions. Jones was so taken with the video for "Thriller" that he and a friend started digging graves behind his house so they could recreate the video; he even began work on making the famous red jacket. Hayes went one better: he built a papier mache FT and rode around with it in the basket of his bike. But the divergent paths the two took towards Savage Garden illustrate the differences between them. By the time he was 3. Jones was more interested in making music than listening to it. He’d started buying keyboards and sequences. creating musical beds for songs. On the New Year’s eve of 1989, aged 15 he did his first two gigs back to back, with covers band, and walked .away with $400. He never went back to school after that. Financially astute. by the time he was 17 he owned his own PA, which he regularly loaded in and out of every ’ pub and club in Queensland. ‘I kind of miss those moments." Jones recalls. "I enjoyed some or those innocent pressures more than these serious ones. Darren Hayes had far more trouble releasing his dreams. "My whole life," he declares. "being a singer or performer was all lever wanted to do." But growing up in one of Brisbane’s rougher suburbs didn’t make this easy. There’s an under-current or anger in Hayes when he describes those years. Is it he’s still upset it boss people tried to dens’ his dreams. Most people I went to school with had two babies before they were 20. One guy is in jail for armed robbery. Another one died in a car crash while on cocaine. Another one is a pimp. That was the level of my peers. I didn’t know a single person who was even a singer. My family weren’t that encouraging which is not a criticism — but my career choice was the most alien thing you could do in my family."Hayes started studying journalism at university, but then threw it in. "Mv rnission as to be a star "he remembers, speaking with an earnestness which can easily veer into melodrama. With his then girlfriend. a fellow Madonna fanatic, the pair auditioned for theater college "1 got in, she didn’t, so I gave it all up her. And three months later she dumped me. I was gutted." Hayes started a Bachelor of Education majoring in Primary School Teaching "something I did not have a drop of passion about." Still obsessed with his dreams of fame, he was sitting in a Lecture in 1992, reading a Brisbane street paper, when he saw a "Singer Wanted ad for a local covers band, Red Ed1 Replying to the ad he found himself it band room, being stared down by Jones and the rest of the band. Red Edge didn’t know any of Hayes’s favorites, while the prospective vocal ("I always knew I could sing, I knew had soul") hated their Oz rock/top repertoire. He sang a piece from Little Shop of Horrors, and even though it voice broke halfway through, he was in It was not an easy adjustment. Hayes not technically inclined, and he perversely refused to learn the words to the band’s set, relying on lyric sheets instead , ("1 still don’t know the words to ‘Khe Sanh’." he announces with pride). The experience, he concludes, was "hideous
HAYES IS WALKRING DOW’N .A CORRDOR to a meet and greet. In the lounge, Hay is joined by Jones, fresh from dinner Five girls — before some shows the number has been as high as 50 — appear. breathless and nervous. There’s nothing studied about teen hysteria, it has a immediacy which distances it from the adult world. Savage Garden are comfortable with it. "So, would you like us to sign some stuff?" asks Jones genially. Tickets, CDs and a stuffed bear are produced. Photographs are taken. One of the girls is red in the face because she’s not taking enough oxygen. "You all go to school, don’t you?" asks Hayes. The girls indicate yes. "‘Well let me give you a lesson about school. All the kids that were popular end up on the dole with babies. All the nerds end u pop stars. "Hey!" retorts Jones, "1 was never nerd."
"DARREN IS BRUTALLY HONEST, EVEN TO himself," answers Jones when asked describe his bandmate. "Sometimes he his own worst critic. He’s so honest that anything he’s feeling comes to the surface, which really helps clear the air in the type of intense relationship we have He reminds me of a kid, not in a bad way but in his naiveté." Asked the same question. Have replies. "He’s probably the most intelligent person I’ve ever met in my life. H doesn’t say anything unless he’s though it through and it’s right. It might take him two or three days. but he’ll come to you and say. ‘1 think you look really insecure when you do that. I’m just bein1 honest.’ And you’ll go red because he’absolutely right. He’s intuitive. Intelli-gent. Calm and confident. He’s devoid of insecurity:’
WHEN U2 BROUGHT THE ZOO TV tour to Australia in 1993. Red Edge was scheduled to play a residency in Alice Springs. Darren Hayes didn’t have to think for long. He left the band. But the other thing he was pondering was writ-ing songs with Daniel Jones. The two had slowly developed a rapport. and Hayes was impressed that Jones and sev-eral other band members already had a music publishing deal. The actual songs, however, he hated. "They were watered down 1927;," he laments. "It wasn’t really my thing," savs Jones. "But then I hooked up with Darren and left that band." The pair began to exper-iment. Happily working by himself at home. Jones would create the musical backing, Hayes would suggest refine-ments and then add his vocals. The fourth song they wrote together was their astral retooling of "She’s Leasing Home". "To the Moon and Back", and afterwards they knew they were on to something. "I turned around." says Jones, "and said, ‘This is as good as anything out there. It’s as good as U2 or a Seal song —the benchmarks.’ That’s when we became really serious. Savage Garden’s five song demo —the duo envisaged themselves as a studio project and were beastly influenced by U2’s .‘Achtung Baby’ — was well -received. although the pair were disheartened by the amount of music industry players whose first queries to them were. "what do you look like?" and "Can you dance?" The duo eventually signed with veter-an manager John Woodruff (Baby Ani-mals, Diesel. Icehouse) in 1995 and he remains the linchpin of the Savage Gar-den organisation and their business part-ner. It was a relationship forged in adver-sity. Because they couldn’t get a record deal (whether because no one could see the band’s potential or because no one was willing to give Woodruff a deal for his own record label is unclear). Woodruff self-financed the album, bringing the pair to Sydney for eight months to record at the home studio of veteran producer Charles Fisher ( Hoodoo Gurus, 1927). Hayes first choice for producer was George Michael. Living in a Kings Cross Hotel on a bet of noodles and missing their families. Savage Garden struggled to finish heir album. Their doubts were constant, their aims shifting each month. Woodruff licensed the album to start up label Roadshow Music, whose early signings had been anything but auspicious. Their first single," I Want You" —Hayes tale about an extraordinarily ‘vivid dream where he met and fell in love with someone so deeply that when he lost them upon waking he became depressed — was released in June 1996. "What makes me laugh about the record is that we couldn’t get a deals so we signed to the joke of the industry Roadshosw . Hayes explains, We had dodgy artwork dodgy videos we had .’-trouble getting airplay at the start. we fulfilled every criteria to be unearthed by ‘Triple
"The day I realised how we commercial we were was the day I realised that Triple J didn’t playlist "I Want You " I was thinking that it would be an indie hit that they ‘d play. Then it was like ‘Actually, you’re the most played band on the Austereo network. He pauses then smiles. "And I’ll take that any day. The band did their first in store appearance as "I Want You" climbed number three on the charts "All these 12 and 14-vean-olds turned up screaming . -. ‘Darren and Daniel remembers Jones. "1 was like. Oh fuck I didn’t want to go through that. By the time "Moon and Back" and then "Truly Madly Deeply had gone to number one. To he followed their self-titled debut album in March 1997 Savage Garden had ,acclimatised to their new surroundings. Hayes and Jones make no bones about making commercial music. but under hat banner they see a world of subtle differences. "I think the best pop is the one shoots from the hip.’ asserts Hayes What troubles me sometimes is that we’ve always wanted to cornpletely true to ourselves, but people always assume that since we make pop music it has to he calculated and all about marketing. It was never that. There a of pop bands and vocal bands aren’t real. They’re not coming from a real place." "What’s so magical about the record we made is that it’s so innocent and earnest. It went out there and said what we want to be. We didn’t care about hip or cool. It was I think unassuming. I think we write really good pop songs. We have a great ear for melody and we directness when it comes to emotion.

SAVAGE GARDEN’S SHOW IS MIDLY choreographed. well-designed and given to U2 homage (which Hayes happily admits to) that the young audience (seeded with the over-30s brought in by "Truly Madly Deeply") scream along With just one album and a handful of b- sides to draw on. there are noticeable points. But live, Savage Garden are a guitar band. Jones plays more guitar then keyboards, while their stage sound is fleshed out by a rhythm section. Extra guitarist and backing singers. "I think we’re a pop band desperately wanting to be a rock & roll band and I think that’s what’s funny about us claims Hayes. The strangest moment is when Hayes, who has so much desire and extreme emotion projected at him in audience he works relentlessly. Dedicates a song to his wife Colby.