Sincerely solo whatever the hairstyle

As one half of Australia's hugely popular Savage Garden, Darren Hayes had it made. But he's much happier on his own, he tells CATHRIN SCHAER.

"I'm an anti-pop-star kind of pop star," he says proudly. Funny that, considering that Darren Hayes was, until recently, half of Australia's Savage Garden and ostensibly one of his country's biggest pop stars.

Also interesting was the pop-star gossip about Hayes which meant fans couldn't be sure what they should pay more attention to: Hayes' newly blond hairstyle or his new solo album?

Gossips had it that Hayes was so keen to distance himself from the band with which he had risen to fame that he had - shock, horror - changed his whole look.

They also speculated that his new hairstyle had caused the reshooting of Australia's most expensive music video, for the first single Insatiable, taken from his debut solo album Spin.

"No, no, that video rumour is false," Hayes says, not the slightest bit annoyed. "And I just stopped dying my hair and grew it a bit. It's the colour I was born with."

Despite the good-natured replies, Hayes definitely dislikes this kind of chit-chat. "Because I want you to know about the songs I sing and the music I've created as opposed to how I am on this really great miracle diet or something," says the 29-year-old ruefully (and before anyone gets too excited, he's not on a miracle diet).

"I think with my ethics and with what I strive for, it's basically similar to what an old-fashioned entertainer might want. You know, I want to hit that high note, I want to be consistent.

"I look towards the people who've lasted, the people who could do it and who were not just products of the publicity machine."

Because the publicity machine is something Hayes knows all too well.

After meeting in a Brisbane covers band, Hayes and co-writer Daniel Jones formed Savage Garden in the mid-90s.

By 1997 their debut album had sold 10 million copies and they'd become the first Australians to reach No 1 in the United States since 1987.

Which meant that by 1999 Savage Garden were at the top of Australia's rich list, with earnings of more than A$35 million. Over the four years they were together they sold 20 million records. They had also unintentionally been tarred by the boy-band brush.

The pair went into songwriting as a studio project, but now everywhere they went they were greeted by mostly teenage, mostly hysterical and mostly female fans.

"It was funny. People didn't know what genre we should be in because we didn't dance and we wrote our own songs," Hayes recalls sarcastically.

Behind those healthy bank accounts Hayes and Jones weren't exactly laughing all the way to the bank. And late last year the truth came out. Savage Garden had secretly split almost a year earlier.

In fact, even after the first album the bandmates were estranged, with Hayes going to live in the US and Jones staying in Brisbane. Most of the second album was written on separate continents and via email.

And when it came to touring and promotional work to launch that second album, Jones was even more reluctant, telling Hayes he wanted to leave.

At the time Hayes, who was also going through a divorce, said: "I freaked out. I said, 'This is your responsibility. If you don't release this album you're going to mess up my career. I've stood by you'."

So the plan was that Jones wouldn't officially leave the band and that Hayes, who's always been described as the public face of Savage Garden anyway, would promote the new album on his own.

"It was a marketing nightmare," Hayes told Australian reporters last year, "trying to market this band that was two people, with one guy blurry in the background."

However, happily for Hayes, he has come a long way since then. While the ex-bandmates are unlikely to be what he calls "buddy-buddy" again, at least he's now promoting an album that's all his own work.

Although Spin doesn't venture into any particularly new musical territory, former Savage Garden fans are sure to enjoy what Hayes believes is a more intimate, sexier and slightly less saccharine offering.

More romance-friendly, middle-of-the-road pop music then? Maybe.

"I would take that as a criticism if what I was doing was calculated," Hayes replies, still good-natured.

"But it's not. This is sincere and it's done with a pure intention.

"People always ask, 'Is he for real? Is he really that sweet?' Well, I guess you either dig this kind of music or you don't."

The vegetarian, yoga devotee with a soft spot for cartoon characters the Powerpuff Girls also reckons he's made some important choices about the quality of his life.

"Just simple things. I live in a place that's pretty secluded, just out of San Francisco. It's not really the epicentre of cool or of the business.

"And I spend my money on things like flying my family to be with me or travelling with someone I can do yoga with - rather than fancy cars.

"Basically," the earnest, honest anti-pop star concludes, "I'm focusing my energy on making sure I remain a real person with my feet on the ground."

* Darren Hayes' Spin is available now.