How Does Your Garden Grow?

Pretty quickly if your Savage Garden! At your request, we present an in-depth squiz at the most fertile gardeners in Oz.    In two seperate corners of the globe, less than a year apart, two little bubbies were born. Who knew they would grow up, meet and form Savage Garden, the coolest Australian band in yonks?  Daniel Jones popped into the world in Essex, England, the youngest of three brothers, before moving to Brisbane as a young child. "My brothers picked up musical instruments from the time I was about eight. I just followed suit really."  Darren Hayes was born in Brissie, also the youngest of three. "I'd never left Brisbane until this year - music's the only thing that's ever taken me out of the country." Despite coming from a pretty non-musical household, baby Daz swiftly developed a reputation for being a little loudmouth. Basically he annoyed the hell out of everyone around him with his non-stop crooning.

The fateful meeting of the boys was, um, pretty unexciting actually. Dan had a band and needed a singer, so he put an ad in the paper, and who should show up ... Darren! Still, for the boys, the meeting was significant. Daniel says, "We both knew it wasn't going to be too long before we were writing songs together away from the other guys in the band."

Darren continues, "We were both incredibly ambitious. We really connected that year and there was a lot of positive energy and positive thinking in terms of us getting together. I think Daniel and I just shared a common goal, we were interested in the same kinds of music and the way that we wanted to handle it was very similar."

Up the Garden Path

Soon after their meeting of minds, the boys made a conscious decision to devote themselves to music full time. It wasn't easy. Darren recalls, "I was a kid who always did really well at school. I was at uni, hopping between all sorts of different degrees. So I think a lot of people were shocked when I turned around and said, 'Hey, guess what? I'm deferring all my subjects and I'm going to be in a rock band!' In the end, my family were nothing but supportive, and now they're our biggest fans. They keep every snippet of info on us."

Daniel agrees that it's not an easy thing for parents to go through. "My parents knew it wouldn't be long before we achieved something within music," he says, "but every now and then, I think it scared the hell out of them that it's actually happening, it's getting bigger every day and things are really starting to open up - not just in this country but overseas as well."

Er yes, about that. Let's just look at those figures, shall we? Debut singles, "I Want You", number three on the charts, went platinum, biggest-selling Australian single for 1996. Not bad. Second single, "To The Moon & Back", also platinum. Highest position - number one if you don't mind. Third single, "Truly Madly Deeply", still charting. Come on guys, that's vereey impressive.

Banding together

However, don't presume that it's all caviar and first-class hotel rooms for the boys. Says Darren of recording Savage Garden's self-titled debut album, "It was a pretty emotional time, the whole recording process. We'd been away from our loved ones for about eight months. We learnt so much about each other cos Daniel and I were stuck in a room eight hours a day working. We were also living together in a one-bedroom flat. So tension was high."

Right, so lots of arguing and bitching, escalating into full-on fisticuffs, eh?
Says Daniel, "We can count the number of arguements we've had on one hand."
"Only three!" says Darren with a smile.
"Pretty good, eh?" pipes Daniel.
"The thing is, Daniel and I are friends, and if we weren't working together, we probably would hang out more, because I'm like a crazy, zany person and he's just a ... a beautiful person! But music is so demanding. If we hung out together all the time, we'd end up killing each other."
Another demanding aspect of the fame game is being recognised by fans, but says Darren with glee, "It happens quite a bit - and we love it!"

"Yesterday, for example, we were at the airport, we'd just come back from LA and we looked like hell! We had three girls inching their was over to us. They sat behind us, they got the camera out, one of them got her foundation out and touched up her nose, and then finally turned around, shaking and said, 'Hi!' They shoved these magazines with pictures of us in and said, 'Oh my god, can you sign this!' So they were a bit over the top but, it's great. It's a great feeling." Who wouldn't love it?

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