Born: May 8, 1972, Brisbane, Queensland, AustraliaFormer Savage Garden vocalist.
Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972 in Brisbane, QLD) is an Australian singer-songwriter. He's best known as the vocalist of the hugely popular 90's duo Savage Garden, whose international hits includes "Truly Madly Deeply", "I Want You" and "I Knew I Loved You".
Hayes' first solo album Spin was released in 2002, carrying on in the same musical vein as Savage Garden, with a less soft rock sound and more edgy R&B vibe, although the first single Insatiable was a ballad, reaching Number 3 in Australia. Other singles "Strange Relationship", "Crush (1980 Me)" and "I Miss You" also performed well in charts.
Hayes spent two years working on his second solo album, The Tension and the Spark. Other than the track "I Forgive You" which was produced with Madonna collaborator Marius De Vries, the entire album was produced by Darren himself and Robert Conley (with whom he had previously toured and recorded Crush (1980 Me) for Spin). The album marked a bold change of direction from Hayes. Conley's production was almost entirely electronic, with acoustic instruments buried under walls of sequenced sounds. Although artistically this was a huge step forward and earned Hayes the strongest praise of his career, it seemed to alienate a large portion of his audience who were expecting another album of radio friendly pop songs. The first single Pop!ular was released on July 12, 2004. This single reached Number One on the US Dance Charts, and fared well in the UK. His follow up single, Darkness, failed to chart, leaving Dublin Sky - the planned third release - in limbo. Ironically, "Dublin Sky" was considered by many to be one of the strongest and most accessible songs on the album and the most likely to be a hit.
Truly Madly Completely, Savage Gardens greatest hits album was released in late 2005 and featured two new songs - So Beautiful and California. The tour, 'A Big Night In with Darren Hayes' followed in 2006. In July 2006, Hayes announced that he had married his boyfriend of two years, Richard Cullen, in a Civil Partnership Ceremony.
Hayes released a double album, This Delicate Thing We've Made, on 20 August 2007 on his newly formed independent label ''Powdered Sugar''. "The record features 25 songs recorded with the help of a Vintage 1983 Fairlight CMI syth - a cinematic, theatrical and epic Pop Opus." The first single to come from Hayes' third album was On The Verge Of Something Wonderful to be followed by Me, Myself and (I) later in 2007.
In mid 2010, Hayes announced the completion of this fourth solo album. It is being mixed by Robert Orton. The album will be released in 2011.
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From Wikipedia:Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is a UK based Australian singer-songwriter. Hayes debuted in 1996 as the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden, whose 1997 album Savage Garden propelled them to superstardom. It spawned the singles "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back", and the airplay number-one "Truly Madly Deeply". The duo followed the success of their debut album with Affirmation (1999), which also produced several hits such as "I Knew I Loved You", "The Animal Song" and "Crash and Burn". Savage Garden sold more than 23 million albums worldwide before parting ways in 2001.
Hayes released his first solo album Spin in 2002. The album sold two million copies worldwide, debuted at #2 in the UK album charts and spawned the hit single "Insatiable". Hayes' second solo album The Tension and the Spark marked a big change of direction for the singer-songwriter, showing him experimenting with electronica and darker lyrics. NME wrote about Hayes and the first single from the album, Popular saying it was "A twistered masterclass in career reintervention...This guy is a genius." While The Observer said "This album is no folly and succeeds, often to the point of all out triumph, on its own terms." Hayes parted way with his record company in 2006 and started his own independent record label Powdered Sugar, from which he would release his third solo album This Delicate Thing We've Made (2007). Including his work with Savage Garden, Hayes has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide.
In mid-2010, Hayes announced the completion of recording his 4th solo album which is being mixed by Robert Orton, who is best known for working with Lady Gaga. The album will be released in 2011; his management are currently in negotiations for a worldwide release. The microphone he used for recording vocals was the same one Michael Jackson used to record his Thriller album.