(copied from Darren's Official Web Site)

 Darren was the singer in Australian pop duo Savage Garden. He was the writer and singer of the kind of evergreen worldwide smash hits that will be played as long as AC has a spot on the radio dial. They were neither fashionable nor critically feted, but Savage Garden was an enormously popular operation. From the four albums that he has crafted so far - two with Savage Garden, three solo.. Darren Hayes has sold more than 25 million records. He broke the record he himself set with Truly, Madly Deeply as most played record on adult contemporary US radio with the further release of 1999's "I knew I loved you". There is not a country in the world that enjoys English speaking pop music that he has not had a hit in. Darren Hayes has dined with Madonna and duetted with Pavarotti. He is the third most popular Australian musical export of all time. Only INXS and Kylie trump the pop Midas touch that few give him proper credit for.

And now he's getting ready to give his fans a new album - listening parties.. A New Tour..and we can't wait!

Date of Birth
May 8, 1972, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Birth Name
Darren Stanley Hayes

Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)

Hair color
Blonde-He used to dye it black (and lets not discuss the 3,000 hair styles he's had!)

Eyes
Blue

Star Sign
Taurus

Spouse
Richard Cullen (2005 - present) He registered his civil partnership with Richard Cullen on June 19, 2006, in the UK.
Colby Hayes Taylor (1994 - 2000) (divorced)

Pet
Wally, a black and brown English Spaniel

He lives in London, but he lived in NYC and San Francisco in the US for several years.

His father, Robert, was a merchant seaman and his mother, Judy, was a nurse.

He has two siblings: an older sister, Tracey, and an older brother, Peter. His sister, Tracey runs his fan club.

Attended the University of Queensland.

Worked as an early education teacher while waiting for Savage Garden's first album to be released.

Deferred his university studies in Teaching at the University of Queensland to pursue music.

Enjoys Ann Rice's vampire novels (Where the name "Savage Garden" came from).

Collects Star Wars memorabilia. (Star Wars Geek is more like it!)

Was a vegetarian for 7 years, but currently eats meat.

Lighting strikes maybe once. Maybe twice.
By Darren Hayes on Saturday, 29 January 2011 at 22:08

I love how music has the power to transport you. Not just emotionally. But sometimes for me, even physically. Songs to me are very similar to smells. You know how the aroma of cookies in the oven, or pine needles at Christmas - can evoke such vivid memories? Old Spice cologne for example, reminds me of being 12 years old and it's Christmas day. My Mother bought me a bottle of it along with a Star Wars 'Speeder Bike' and two figurines: Luke Skywalker in his Jedi Knight outfit and Jabba the Hutt's henchman/confidant Bib Fortuna. The child in me was so thrilled to have been given this adult present of 'aftershave'. And the young adult in me was so relieved that even though I had to grow up soon, I was still young enough to have toys.

A year later, when we were struggling for money, I sold the speeder bike, Luke and Bib along with 50 other Star Wars men for the royal sum of $24 Australian dollars. I used this money to buy Christmas presents for my family as we couldn't afford pocket money and I had no job

At the time, it killed me to sell my toys. I was about to enter high school and I knew I was 'too old' for them. But that was on the outside

On the inside, I was of course still a little boy. I still am really.

And whenever I smell Old Spice - I'm instantly transported to that feeling of being on the cusp of things. Much like I feel now.

This will involve music soon, trust me.

So tonight I went to the gym. I joke about it all the time but the reality is I sort of enjoy keeping healthy. I moan that the older I get the more I seem to have to move in order to eat what I like. But all in all exercise is a necessary evil but only tolerable because of music. When I listen to songs I am transported away from the annoying grind of the treadmill or the ache in my legs. I'm taken away to all sorts of places in mind. Sometimes I listen to songs from my childhood (invariably 80's pop) - sometimes I listen to records that I haven't listened to in an eternity. Like a Stevie Nicks album in its entirely or Prince's Purple Rain from start to go. And when I do, I can relate almost completely with the time in my life that I first heard those records. Prince fills me with a wonder about 'stereo' (it was my first ever walkman and the wonder of a stereo mix!). Stevie Nicks reminds me of my obsession with her and her magic. Of desperately wanting to grow up and see the world. In the Fleetwood Mac album 'Mirage' he sang of San Francisco ('so I'm back to the velvet, underground. Black to the floor that I love. And to a room with some lace and paper flowers. Back to the Gypsy that I was. To the Gypsy.. that I was'). One day I would grow up and live in that velvet underground. And years later still I would listen to the song, on a treadmill in a London gym, and I would want to cry - remembering how much I loved that time in my life. When I was on the cusp.

Like now.

I wonder if in ten years time, I'll be somewhere else in the world, and look back at my adventures in London, and also have a lump in my throat.

Missing it.Remembering it.

And I wonder what song will prompt that emotional reaction?

Do you have albums and songs that reach into your heart and twist it, like they do mine?