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 Putting It Delicately
DARREN HAYES looked to his past to craft the stories and sounds on his third solo album. But the music couldn’t be a further departure from his days with Savage Garden.
“The reality is the music that I make and the person I am is vastly different to who I was when I began,” Darren Hayes explains of his third solo album, due this August. “For the people who really, really loved Savage Garden, they’re not going to like what I’m doing today. And I don’t take offense to that. Now I’m meeting people who would never have listened to the Savage Garden stuff but think my [current music] is really cool.”
The double album, This Delicate Thing We’ve Made, covers the emotional journey of Hayes’ life. A time machine of sorts, it was recorded around the sound of a 1983 Fairlight CMI synthesizer, which he says provided an “otherworldly quality” that he loved from records by artists he grew up with—Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Duran Duran—and influenced the writing of much of the music.
The year 1983 was also a turning point for Hayes. His Australian family life was topsyturvy, in part due to an alcoholic, and sometimes violent, father.
“It was the year I went inside myself the most and the time that I wanted to become a performer,” he says. “Looking at people like Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna—it was a really colorful, exciting year of the megastar. Prince was just starting to come up on my radar. I watched E.T. and The Empire Strikes Back. For a kid who hated his home life, there were a lot of wonderful distractions with music and film.” Hayes has since worked through issues with his dad, now sober, whom he calls his hero. That emotional tearing and healing seems central to the themes explored on the dual-disc album.
Hayes is quick to point out, “It’s not a concept record, but there is a definite idea that begins with a loss of consciousness and goes into the psyche. It’s subtle in that you could listen and not pick up on it, or you could totally.” Whereas previous Savage Garden songs like “Truly Madly Deeply” and his solo hit “Insatiable” were about yearning for love, the new songs are personal stories, including what it is really like to be in a relationship.
The singer and his husband, Richard, reside in London, and he credits a solid, stable bond between the two of them for furthering him as an artist. “It’s made me feel stronger to talk about other things like growing up, my relationship with my past, my father,” says Hayes. “A lot of the album is autobiographical and tries to bring some joy to memories in my life that have been traumatic. It’s more emotional than other records, but more balanced.”
The newlyweds recently celebrated the first anniversary of their civil union—which is legally recognized in the United Kingdom—and have discovered that with marital bliss also comes the occasional, if minor, fight. “The only conflict in our life is who makes the next cup of tea,” Darren laughs. “We live in a Victorian house and there are lots of stairs, so we really flip-flop on whose turn it is. So, really, we just fight over the damn stairs.”
Both men share an office on the first floor of their home. Richard, a former university lecturer turned full-time 3-D animator, has a talent for setting up music equipment that can elude Darren sometimes. “I’m putting together mixed tapes for the music people to listen to before and after the shows I’m doing, and I was having trouble figuring out all of the DJ equipment out,” Hayes says. “He figures it all out in 10 minutes. And I joked, ‘Can’t I just have one thing? Next you’ll be producing my albums, Yoko!’”
Darren points out that This Delicate Thing We’ve Made will come packed with a few extras for fans. “The album will have a companion DVD mixed in 5.1 that will feature 13 animation and short films to songs,” he says. There are also plans for additional tour dates, including stops on the West Coast in Los Angeles and his former hometown, San Francisco. “I’m a Cali boy. I lived [in San Francisco] for seven years and it’d be a dream come true to play some gigs there.”
To get the new music out there, a few test-run shows in London and New York at legendary Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater were set up in the spring. Though unadvertised and unannounced, both shows sold out in less then 10 minutes, setting a record for a venue that has also seen performances from Bono, Dolly Parton, Joss Stone and Elvis Costello. It’s a dramatically different setting than the arenas he toured with Savage Garden, but Hayes is quite happy with his current fan base.
“I’m so lucky that my fans are incredibly, amazingly loyal,” he notes. “It’s a genuine connection [because] they’ve been through this entire journey of growing up with me. It’s been interesting lately, because there’s a whole new audience coming in from MySpace who maybe wouldn’t have listened to my music before, who’ve been converted. It’s beautiful to see my past and future melding together.”
WEB EXTRA! MORE DARREN HAYES!
So you’re about to celebrate your first anniversary – any big plans?
Kind of, but the public date is the date it became legal, however we
actually got married before that. I’m looking at Richard now,
scratching my head to remember the signing date…I think it was June
19th, the day we signed the papers? Yes, June 19th. I remember our
actual wedding date because it was a big deal, but it had occurred
before the civil partnership act had actually gone through Parliament.
Please, I’d be divorced if I forgot that date!
On our first anniversary we went back to the hotel where we had our
reception. All of the staff was so kind and sweet to us. When we had
our wedding, it was clearly a wedding but I think we told the hotel it
was a music industry function. When we went back for our anniversary
dinner everyone at the hotel stopped by to tell us it was the best
wedding they’ve had. It was sweet because we were so discreet at the
time and then after the announcement had been made they told us how
chuffed they were.
How did you two meet?
We met through a mutual friend. Richard was a University Lecturer in
film and theater studies. He has a Masters and on the side he did 3D
animation. He ended up working with Willie Williams, who is one of my
best friends. He does the [lighting and design on] U2 tours, and the
two of them collaborated on a tour of mine called Dark Light over here
in the UK. Richard pretty much does 3D animation full-time now. He just
did some work on the George Michael tour and he did a video clip for a
band recently. I’m getting a bit threatened at how exponential his
skills are getting.
Artists can be moody creatures. With two artists in the relationship, does it create challenges with compromise?
With everyone else it used to. Going out with an artist can be a
nightmare because we’re so moody. I don’t think it is at all with us.
The one thing that Richard is not is moody. He’s very Zen for a
creative person, so he definitely works well with someone like me. To
be honest, we spend most of our time working together, everything from
creating a flyer for a gig to designing the album cover. We’ll go to
the news magazine stand and he’ll get all the 3D animation magazines
and I’ll get all the music magazines and US Weekly [Laughs]
stuff like that. We’ll sit downstairs and spend a few hours just
reading our opposing magazines. But we seem to connect in this subset.
The only conflict in our life is who makes the next cup of tea. He’s
very British. For the first couple of years I used to drink tea a lot
because he did and it’s very easy to become enamored with the cup of
tea. But sooner or later the crave for the cup of coffee came back and
now it’s more complicated to make me a cup of coffee than it is him a
cup of tea. “I made the last one!”
With him being the guy in the heart
of your life, he must be the subject of some of your music. Does that
make him uncomfortable?
So far it hasn’t been a problem at all. I said going in to this album
that people shouldn’t expect this record to be an ode to my
relationship or my love for Richard. Obviously Richard is the most
important part of my life, but having a good relationship just supports
you as an artist. For me, it made me feel stronger to talk about other
things. I would say overall it is a happier record than the last one,
because I’m in a different headspace. There aren’t a lot of traditional
love songs on this album. It’s a very honest, balls and all, what
relationships are really like. The other songs are about growing up, my
relationship with my past, including my father. A lot of it is
autobiographical and tries to bring some joy to memories in my life
that has been traumatic. It’s more emotional than other records, but
also more balanced. Richard has helped make me more feel strong enough
to talk about that stuff, but it’s not like I’m there writing about him
like “there you sit, starring at me…”
So the emotional and story context is very different this time around, but what about the sound of the music?
I played the first of some small shows I’m doing. Half of
the set was brand new music. If there is a fair chance something nice
will be written I’ll go on and look at. The fans are saying it is
completely different. It’s still electronic, but I have a guitarist
again on stage for the first time in a while. It’s probably more
theatrical and more layered. The Tension and the Spark was the
beginning a whole new sound for me. I’m not keen to turn my back on it
anytime soon, but that sound was bitter because there were bitter
emotions. This record is more 3D, if that makes sense.
You always sang lead, but in Savage Garden, you were part of a songwriting duo. Has it been hard to adjust as a solo songwriter?
Believe me I have a lot of help. I’m still first and
foremost a singer. That is my instrument. It’s been quite a difficult
task to me because I’ve had to teach myself that it’s okay to jump on
the keyboard to play something the way I hear it, if only to play to
someone who can re-perform it. It’s given me an incredible sense of
ownership of the music. I’m lucky that I’ve worked with Justin Shave,
the primary producer on this record, as well as Robert Conley, who
worked on the last record. They’re both such calm and patient guys, and
not threatened by my wanting to be involved in that side of the record.
Having someone say, sit down, you program this bit, and look at the
digital laydown, and move this beat over here, really helped. I never
had that before, certainly not with Savage Garden. With my first
producer, Walter Afanasieff, he was such a genius, really, that I was
too intimated to even try. It’s really opened up from how I see music,
and changed the way it sounds.
When you write, do you begin with the lyrics or the music?
Lyrics are always last now. Usually it starts with melody.
The person I’m writing with may have some chords and I’ll come up with
the melody, or I might come up with the chords. It’s rare now that I’ll
have a piece of poetry or lyrics that become the song. Usually the
music will tell me what it’s about. Before I used to keep more journals
of lyrics that I’d try to find homes for. Occasionally with Savage
Garden we’d be in the room at the same time together and something
magical would happen and the words would just kind of come out when I
was humming.
You’re finally giving your American fans some shows. The club dates sold out in minutes. Why have you waited so long?
When I played Sundance I thought it is ridiculous I’ve not
played in America for so long. It had been put in my head a fear of
failure from my record company that you couldn’t be seen as doing
anything less than arenas and having #1s, so there was this whole 5 or
6 years I didn’t do any shows in America because there nothing was
happening, nothing was out. The notion from management and the record
company was if you come back you have to be the biggest, the best,
whatever. It’s so intimidating that you just put America off because
it’s just the fear of failure. Playing Sundance made me realize there
are people here who are so faithful and loyal and have followed what
I’ve done, and would probably want to come and see me live. I sat down
with Willie (my designer), and he’d been telling me for years I just
had to get out there and do it, so we picked two places to start, New
York and London, and build up the awareness again. I’m so lucky that my
fan base is incredibly loyal. It’s a genuine connection. They’ve been
through this entire journey of growing up with me and they’re amazing.
It’s been a challenge lately because there’s a whole new audience
coming in from MySpace who maybe wouldn’t have listened to my music
before who’ve. It’s beautiful to see my past and future melding
together.
Speaking of MySpace, your page is one of the very few where the actual artist is regularly blogging.
I’ve been so shocked at that. I could never let a stranger
do that. Even to this day my sister runs my fan club and she reads
everything and passes stuff along to me that I need to read. It’s
important that if it’s not me directly it is my DNA that’s looking
after the people I love. With MySpace, I feel like while I can write
back to people directly I love it. With Savage Garden, we were at the
forefront of bands blogging and using the Internet and IRC chat rooms
to connect with fans. MySpace is so much more personal. There are
downsides – you do get the occasional person that writes to you and
says you suck. But so far the ratio is pretty positive. You know what’s
cool, sometimes I’ll cruise around MySpace and find someone who digs
artists I really dig like Kate Bush or Imogene Heap and I’ll write
them, hey, just see if you like my record, and they’ll write back and say, is this some PR company? And [Laughs] I’ll write back and say no, it’s me, I’m just looking for people that might be interested in what I’m doing. Some of them came to the gigs. It’s interesting because one is a big rock fan and he wrote, wow, fuck, I’m converted!
I love that challenge of winning over someone who would have been a
hater. I think most performers have a sense of wanting everyone to
adopt you by the end of the performance. I have a similar attitude to
people that don’t know what it is I do now. Now I’m meeting people, who
would never have listened to the Savage Garden stuff, but think The Tension and the Spark is a really cool record, and I know those types of listeners will likely dig this next thing.
You’ve mentioned this record is like
a novel in that it covers an entire emotional journey; the way vinyl
did back in the day, like Carole King’s Tapestry did. Please elaborate.
It’s a bit like vinyl in that each side has its own feeling. It was
written and mastered with that in mind. I wanted as dynamics as much as
possible. We used a Fairlight synthesizer, which is the one Kate Bush
used on Hounds of Love,
and I looked for about 6 months for before it turned up one day on
eBay. There are about 100 left in the world and I’m lucky enough to
have one. She’s clunky and temperamental and I love her.
You put your money where your mouth is by funding this project–-a little scary, yeah?
YEAH! Of course, but it’s that thing of with the fear comes this
incredible freedom and personal satisfaction. There was a period about
two months that I reckon I could have had a nervous breakdown. My
manager has told me that I need to delegate; every tiny thing from art
to layout to directing the video makers to organizing the playlist to
running MySpace. I was spending. I probably spend about two hours a day
on MySpace now, which is nothing compared to before, but it’s given me
a sense of ownership over the whole thing. A lot of satisfaction-–it’s
great.
Why did you decide to forego a traditional label deal?
I was talking with a major record company and interest from another
that I didn’t follow up. It was a label that I always wanted to be at.
They came in about 3-4 times to listen to the record and it got to a
point that they wanted to take the record away. I talked with Richard
about it. I’d just come from 10 years in the contract system with a
label. The last time I had an album that I felt this strongly about I
gave it to a label and they fucked it, really. What would happen if I
signed the contract, got the advance, and they went to radio with the
first single and it didn’t work? Because that’s exactly what happened
last time [with The Tension and the Spark.]
If one song doesn’t they say, yeah, sorry about that! We really loved
it, but…and they move on to the next thing while your life is just
sitting there on a shelf somewhere. To this day I don’t know if I could
have gotten that deal because I stopped the process. I realize there
wasn’t anything I wanted to compromise on, so I knew it made me the
wrong kind of artist to be in the studio system at the moment. I know
exactly what it is that I want and all I really wanted from them was
their marketing dollar. The blessing behind the success that I’ve had
is I kind of have that money. I knew I could invest it in my record and
see what happens. It’s scary but also exciting.
Without their marketing dollar, what is your marketing strategy?
We’re playing music to people now. We’re taking two different songs out
– one to clubs, which isn’t a single, and then another song that will
go on MySpace and YouTube. Both will have animated videos. There will
be a companion DVD mixed in 5.1 that will feature 13 animation and
short films to songs. The first songs are to give people a taste and
build awareness before the single. This record, it’s a lot of music to
get your head around so, we’re releasing it slowly in teaser-mode. In
mid June, we’ll take what we hope is a big single to radio and then the
record comes out everywhere in August.
To check out these animated videos and hear some of the new songs, visit MySpace.com/DarrenHayes and DarrenHayes.com.
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Instinct Online 
written by Whaddaman on May 16, 2007 at 02:05 PM
Fantastic interview thank you so much
written by Robert Tafoya on May 16, 2007 at 04:07 PM
I'm in love...
written by Maggles on May 16, 2007 at 04:17 PM
Great feature and interview thank you so much. Really looking forward to the release of this album it sounds incredible.
written by TSanti on May 16, 2007 at 07:06 PM
I bought the magazine this month for the Darren Hayes article, which I loved.
Thanks for the extras questions. It was a great interview.
written by Leanne on May 17, 2007 at 03:07 AM
Brilliant interview! The new album sounds amazing - can't wait! Thanks for the great feature.
written by Caroline on May 17, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Fabulous interview and really great read - thank you so much. The album sounds fascinating - can't wait.
written by Cat on May 17, 2007 at 01:17 PM
Thank you, that was most insightful. Reading the interview and thinking about the way this new album will be marketed... it brings to mind the old contract system at the big Hollywood studios. That kind of control is a thing of the past, or so we can hope. Brave new world we're in! This artist is leading the way.
written by Anna on May 18, 2007 at 08:23 AM
Good read,interesting artist. Thank you!
written by Pauline xxxx on May 18, 2007 at 12:03 PM
Thanks, great interview, cant wait for the album
written by Joyce on May 20, 2007 at 04:48 AM
What a brilliant interview of a brilliant artist. His new album is going to be huge
written by Dyana on May 21, 2007 at 08:05 AM
Suuper interview!!!
i loved expecially the stuff with Myspace..anbsolutly no comment..
thanx for sharing to us!!!!
written by linds on May 21, 2007 at 01:38 PM
thanks so much for a great, informative interview.waiting patiently for this album.
written by Gilly on May 23, 2007 at 11:52 AM
What a great article - thank you. I loved the Tension and the Spark - I can't wait to hear the new album.
written by Carole G on May 26, 2007 at 12:40 PM
What a fantastic interview, very full and very informative. I can't wait to hear this new album. After the last one got shelved this one deserves to do really well.