Hayes has undergone a few other ordeals by fire, such as the first time the fledgling Garden went to New York. “We were flown there to audition for Clive Davis (then boss of Arista),”Hayes says. “I sat in a room and auditioned for him and about 20 attorneys. I was terrified and I remember thinking, I’m a long way from Brisbane here!” And from flying beer cans, as it turned out, because Savage Garden have become Australia’s biggest pop music expert since the days of Men at Work and INXS.
A full-fledged new millennium pop star Hayes might be, but don’t think he doesn’t take his position seriously. “I think the irony in our job as pop stars is that I actually mean it. We make pop music that sells to the same kind of masses as Britney Spears and yet our songs come from a real place. “Because I have a love of commercial music I think people associate that with McDonald’s or think that it doesn’t mean as much to you as Bob Dlyan’s records mean to Bob. But they do to me.”
While Hayes has never talked publicly about his private life, that doesn’t mean he won’t reveal himself in his music. “The entire Affirmation record is personal. On stage and on the album, where people are paying their hard-earned money, people deserve honesty. But I clock off after I’ve down the record and done the show.”
Hayes now lives in San Francisco but he shuns the celebrity lifestyle. “I’ve always said I have never done drugs and I never would do drugs and I’ve been shocked at how much partying you see in Hollywood. These people really do play hard. “I’m not interested in that at none. I rarely do the social scene or stop on the red carpet because a lot of it is fake.”
 |
|