DNA Magazine (Australia)
This Delicate Thing He's Made
Darren Hayes
(issue #92) September 2007

Thanks to Hayley for the scan and for typing this up!

Darren Hayes' third album is a dazzling double affair and the first since marrying his boyfriend, Richard. He spoke to Marc Andrews about Kate Bush, coming out and letting go.

Why a double album?
It was purely an artistic decision. It came mostly because of an obsession with Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love.

The very first words on the album are "peel back the layers".
In some ways it's picking up from where my last record left off, which was quite dark. I'm proud of it, but it was a very sad record. The beginning of this one is, "Here we go under the water and into the dark corners of my mind and we might be afraid of what we find there, but we go there anyway!" There are some songs written three weeks before the album was finished and some are three years old.

There's an interesting mix of ballads and electro songs.
I put the tracks one after another like that. The record is structured so that after the first disc you can go have a cup of tea before you continue. I like the idea you have a longer period of time to express yourself.

Some might have expected you'd make an album of love songs about your husband.
These songs are all written after I was together with him, but bizarrely are not really about him. The effect of having a good relationship on my song writing is that it's made me feel creative. I respect him because he is a theatre director and a brainiac and he was cheering me on in terms of branching out. I feel very supported in taking risks, not just musically but in subject matter, too.

Do you mind talking about him or prefer people concentrate on your music?
I'm torn because I've always been a private person. That has nothing to do with my sexuality. I've never offered up my domestic life as a commodity to sell records, but the last few years I've realised the way I grew up, my attitude to being gay and my relationship with my dad - all these private things - were affecting my music. I felt there was a massive disconnect between me as a songwriter and me as a public person. Being happy and in a good relationship made me want to open up about these things. People understand these songs are coming from a genuine place.

how was coming out for you?
It's such a weird thing because I didn't even felt like I did. I just got married to a man.

That would do it!
Yeah. I thought if I simply lived my life with a certain amount of decorum and in a private manner and never lied about it that most people would probably just know.

on walk away on your new album you sing "I've been angry for so long". Have you moved on?
I hope so. That's about my dad. It's together with another song, Neverland, about fantasizing about killing your father from an eight-year-old's point of view. I thought maybe I could stop this man from hurting my mother. I turned that pain into a song, because talking about this stuff as an adult probably saved my life.

and yet they come directly after the hopeful first single, on the verge of something wonderful.
That song basically says, I judged you, and maybe that was wrong and maybe someone hurt you too. I look back at it now with a much happier heart.

This delicate thing we've made is out now. Darren is touring Australia throughout October.

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