You asked for it!
Before Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones, the twosome known as Savage Garden,
began writing hit songs such as "I Want You" (you may know it as the
"chic-a-cherry cola" song) and the current ballad "Truly Madly Deeply" from
their self-titled debut album, these two Australian cuties actually sang
cover songs! "I had been in a cover band ripping off other people's
songs to make a living," Daniel, 24, has confessed.
Coincidentally, Daniel's future bandmate was doing the same:
playing other people's music. Yet Darren even went so far as to tour
his country singing covers. And though he enjoyed singing and was making
good money doing it, deep down in the Down Under, Darren wasn't happy.
"I'd sing all these classic songs--none of them were my own feelings,
or my own emotions--and my heart would sink a little," the 25-year-old has
said.
Darren quickly realized that he was fooling himself into believing
he was a real singer. "You mistake their applause for what you are
doing," he's said. "But it's just that they recognize the songs.
That's all."
Meanwhile, as Daniel sang at night, he wrote his own music
on the side, until a publishing company took an interest and suggested he
find a frontman. He placed an ad in the newspaper and Darren responded.
The reasoning was simple, according to Darren, who's said he was thinking
at the time: "Hang on, something is definitely wrong about this picture because
I don't enjoy (singing covers) at all. The sort of music that I was
to write, I don't see in clubs and I don't see it in pubs."
Why was that? Because the era was grunge. "You
have to remember that three years ago, music, especially in our country,
was very Nirvana, Pearl Jam," Darren has explained. "So many clubs
were guitar-rock oriented."
After meeting and clicking with each other, Daniel and Darren
formed Savage Garden. Putting their lives on hold, the two spent a
year writing the songs that ended up on the their 1997 album--none of them
similar to the classic rock covers they once sang. Instead, the sound
is similar to '80s pop music, which reflects the guys' own musical influences.
"When I was growing up, my world was Star Wars, Michael Jackson,
Duran Duran--these were the supergods of my youth," Darren's said. "When
you get to a stage of writing music, you react to your influences."
Still, there are those who dismiss pop music--and Savage Garden--as
being fluffy. But who wants to listen to angry, thrashing songs all
the time? "Pop music means it's popular because the general population
enjoys it," Darren has said. He's right. Just look at the success
of groups such as Hanson, the Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls and 98 degrees,
among others, whose pop songs now dominate the charts. "I really do
believe people are warming to simple, honest pop songs again," Daniel's said.
And there's nothing better than adding Savage Garden to that mix!
BOP