Pop Duo

Savage Garden's Darren Hayes, left, and Daniel Jones, right. "This is just a big ride." Photo by DAVID HUNT
    In a world of post-grunge pop, Brisbane's Savage Garden stick out like new romantics at a heavy metal convention.
    They play synthesisers not guitars, sport what can only be described as hairstyles and write toe-tapping pop songs reminiscent of '80s acts such as Duran Duran, Howard Jones and Tears for Fears.
    If the fashion police had their way, they'd be run out of town. Yet while the ARIA Awards are lavished on hip alternative rockers You Am I and Regurgitator, this synth-pop duo from suburban Brisbane are quietly preparing to become Australian music's next big thing.
    Two days ago their first single I Want You - the highest-selling Australian single in 1996 - moved to Number 14 on America's Billboard chart.
    A second single, To the Moon and Back, is already this year's highest-selling Australian single and the band's first album will be released simultaneously in America and Australia later this month.
    Shows in Coffs Harbour and Mooloolaba this weekend mark their debut as a live band and a warm-up for a national tour which begins next month.
    Under the watchful eye of veteran rock manager John Woodruff, whose past credits range from The Angels to Girlfriend, they've signed an international deal with New York's Columbia Records (Village Roadshow handles them in Australia).
    Industry pundits have them as favourites to repeat silverchair's success in North America and a push into Japan, Britain and mainland Europe is imminent.
    Rolling Stone's music editor, Andrew Humphreys, is among their boosters. "The band to crack America is not going to be You Am I, it's going to be these guys," he said. "Sure, they're out of step [with music fashion] but there's a great honesty there which I find quite refreshing."
    Surprisingly, 24-year-old singer and lyricist Darren Hayes and 23-year-old keyboard whiz Daniel Jones seem to be taking impending pop stardom in their stride.
    Hayes attributed the band's breakthrough to a shift in the musical climate, particularly in America, towards pop: "None of this was calculated. We were born in the early 1970s and our idols are people like Prince, The Human League and Duran Duran. It's just the music we were always going to write, and now the climate has changed to let us fit in."
    The seeds of Savage Garden were sown five years ago when Hayes auditioned for Jones's "bland, straightforward Oz Rock band". "I sang the audition piece in the wrong key and my voice split, but we clicked immediately," said Hayes. The Oz Rock band dissolved and Hayes and Jones formed a songwriting partnership with big ideas.
    "We shared the same goals and it was always very businesslike," said Hayes. "We sat in a room, sent out 150 demo-tapes and waited for the calls. We didn't think for one second they wouldn't come."
    Even so, luck played its part. A disc jockey at a Dallas radio station began playing a copy of I Want You bought during a business trip to Australia. The audience response was immense, so copies were distributed quickly to other stations. "By the time we got to America, the song was on moderate rotation," recalled Hayes. "We had the pick of record companies and management."
    The band's success hasn't been hurt by Jones's and Hayes's boyish good looks. The acting editor of Girlfriend magazine, Vicky Mayer, confirmed the existence of spunk factor. "They're quite androgynous, like Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet," she said. "The music is accessible too. A lot of girls get into hard rock because the guys they fancy are into it, but they tend to prefer stuff that's melodic."
    Hayes is modest about his teen-scream appeal and career prospects. "I've never been the kind of person anyone would stop in the street," he said. "This is just a big ride. If it lasts five years we'll just enjoy it while it lasts."

By RICHARD JINMAN, Entertainment Writer