New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/33368.htm
Carole Ann
By DAN AQUILANTE
THE prettier the rose, the sharper the thorns.That's the lesson of love Savage Garden grows on its latest album, "Affirmation," and 28-year-old lead singer Darren Hayes knows that firsthand.
After living through the wild success of the band's 11 million-selling self-titled debut, he separated from his wife and was ultimately divorced.
To exorcise the feelings of loss, he moved to Manhattan to lose himself in mundane tasks in the world's most exciting city.
Hayes did his own laundry, got groceries, cleaned his apartment and - between all the fetching and scrubbing - managed to get his feelings about relationships on paper. What he wrote became the heart of the painfully honest "Affirmation" disc.
The songs are often heartbreaking love songs, but that hasn't stopped the band's core of young female followers from snagging 7 million copies of the disc so far.
Although the other half of Savage Garden, Daniel Jones, stopped talking to the press a while back, Hayes is a gregarious, open pop star, willing to speak about his life on and off the stage.
He spoke to The Post during rehearsals for the Savage Garden tour that lands at Radio City Music Hall Tuesday.
Post: You lived here in New York for a while. Why didn't you stay?
Hayes: I was going to buy an apartment on the Lower East Side. It was very expensive, very beautiful. I paid for it in cash. There was this board meeting and I was in, then I was rejected.
Post: Why? Because you're a wild rock star?
Hayes: I'm the Disney of rock stars. They loved me, but they wanted me to sign papers that said because of my profession I wouldn't have any of my friends stay over. I said, "What if my partner Daniel Jones wanted to stay over?" They said officially, he can't.
Post: Did you try to make them reconsider?
Hayes: No. Two weeks later I bought a house in San Francisco. I've been happy ever since.
Post: Why is that?
Hayes: When I was living in New York, I was going through some very rough personal things, and a lot of that is recorded on this album.
Post: Are you speaking about your divorce?
Hayes: At that time, it was still a separation. But yes, it was relationship stuff. I loved the city then. It was the perfect place to be alone; to really soak up the isolation.
Post: Could you compare Americans to Australians?
Hayes: I've often said we're very similar. Australia is like a baby America - or better yet, America in the '50s. It's the same land mass; we've both been brought up on the same pop culture. And apart from our British sense of humor, we are socially very much like Americans.
Post: Is Manhattan like Australia?
Hayes: Manhattan is like another planet. That's what's so intoxicating about it.
Post: What is the song "Crash and Burn" on "Affirmation" about?
Hayes: It about New York. About my disconnection from my culture, from family, from friends.
Post: "Affirmation" has a sense of sadness about it, but it never nose-dives into self pity.
Hayes: Morrissey from the Smiths has the corner on the melancholy, but I do enjoy sadness; looking at it, exploring it.
Post: The tunes aren't complete downers.
Hayes: Each song does have a sense of light at the end of the tunnel. The album is the anatomy of the end of a relationship.
Post: Are you and your image different?
Hayes: You look at yourself through airbrushed photographs, video clips, the press reports, and you think, "That's not me."
Post: But it is a facet of you.
Hayes: Yes, but you can't take that seriously.
Post: You've sung with Pavarotti, sold 18 million albums - you're a famous guy.
Hayes: I'm not that famous. There are levels of fame, like the Michael Jackson or Madonna famous, where you can't go anywhere because you are you. I wouldn't like that. I have this really quiet life when I'm apart from Savage Garden. When I'm stopped on the streets, people might say, "You're the guy from Savage Garden," but not, "You're Darren Hayes." There is a certain amount of anonymity there.
Post: Your partner, Daniel, enjoys his privacy by not doing interviews anymore. What's he like?
Hayes: He is a misplaced - no, miscast - person. He is the wrong guy for the job. He got all this attention without knowing what it required. It's no accident he doesn't do interviews - he just doesn't enjoy it. I'm ambitious and I want the music to sell.
On the last tour, when we were talking to the press, it always seemed like there was tension between us, but during those interviews, he was just miserable. He didn't realize what he'd bitten off and what he was in for. He is just not a celebrity. He is very, very deep, intelligent and sensitive.
Post: How would Daniel describe you?
Hayes: He's done it. He said I'm the most unique person he knows. He thinks I'm a bit of a clown who thrives under the spotlight, who deals with the tension. He also said I was very emotional. We are both emotional; we just execute things in different ways.
Post: You are now single again and your audience is predominantly young and female. Are you seeing anyone?
Hayes: I am so single, so available. You know what? I've been in a relationship since I was 17. Being single again has been terrifying and exhilarating, too. I'm definitely a believer in romance. I am as romantic as the songs would suggest, and I do believe in the concept of "The One" and I'm in the chase for that. I want to live up to the lyrics I've written.
