Cosmopolitan Magazine (Sweden)
March, 2002

(Special thanks to Lena for sharing this article with us!)

Not Only A New Haircut

-Darren Hayes of Savage Garden has made a solo album too.

C: Do you feel a lot of pressure to succeed as well as Savage Garden?

D: I don't want to compete with my success. I'm proud of SG, but this is a whole new career. I feel like a completely new artist now.

C: Was it planned for a long time that you guys in SG would go separate ways?

D: The truth is that Daniel never wanted to be in the limelight, and one day he wanted to stop traveling. That made me consider a solo career since I didn't want to give up performing.

C: Do you want to do this for the rest of your life?

D: I don't want to stop singing. And I love writing songs.

C: You've said writing without Daniel is like being unfaithful to him.

D: Yeah, I was terrified the first time! You get like an old couple when you've worked together for ten years. Writing songs is very intimate.

C: What's the special Darren-sound?

D: It shows that I listened a lot to soul when I was little. The album is also a mix of what I listened to during that time, like Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue och British pop.

C: Do you care about your looks?

D: Definitely less than I used to. At the first photo session we did, I found a bottle of black color, and thought that was a cool thing. And all of a sudden it became my image. I used to dye my hair and make it straight, but then I let it grow.

C: Isn't it strange when everyone around you is working to make you happy?

D: Yeah, but I'm a nice boss. I'm generous. This morning, for instance, I paid a Yoga instructor to come up to my room, and since some of the people who work with me also love Yoga, I invited them up too. I try to do things like that a lot.

C: When did you start performing?

D: When I was five I used to organize performances at home. My mom helped me to write notes that I put up in my neighborhood. But no one showed up but my mom.

C: When did music "catch" you?

D: My sister was the one who had albums in my family when I was little, and it was one in particular that I liked. She made me make my bed and stuff just by saying "if you do that, I'll let you listen to another song!"

C: Tell us about your first love!

D: We were five, and her name was Natasha and lived across the street. I used to force her to kiss me, and if she didn't I told her I wouldn't be her friend anymore. Twelve years later I had my first real love. And her name was Natasha!