Savage Garden is an Australian duo formed in 1994 by Daniel Jones and Darren Hayes. Daniel Jones, born on July 22, 1973 in Essex 
England moved to Brisbane, Australia as a young child, he plays keyboard, guitar, programming and sings back up. Darren came from a long line of musicians, so his love for music started when he was very young. When he was little, his brother had a drum set and when he went out, Daniel would sneak into his room and play then, he took piano lessons when he was seven. By the age of ten, he was playing the keyboard and drums in pubs and hotels. Daniel’s musical influences were, Peter Gabriel, XTC, and Tears For Fears. Darren was born May 8, 1972 in Brisbane, he is both the lead and back up singers. At a young age, he began showing alot of intrest of getting into entertainment by singing and acting around the house which led him to act in many school plays when he got into high school. After high school, Darren attended college, to study journalism, Drama and education. His influences include, Prince, The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, and Duran Duran. Both the guys are songwriters. Daniel was playing with another band called Red Edge, when he put an ad in a Brisbane music paper for a lead vocalist, Darren was studying to be a teacher when he decided he wanted to get into the music scene, he saw Daniel’s ad and responded, “We clicked imeadeatly” (Darren Hayes, Savage Garden biography) Darren joined the band and in 1994, He and Daniel decided they were tired of playing other people’s music so they left the band and devoted their time to writing and the band, Crush was formed. Darren and Daniel soon found out another Australian band also had that name so, they bought the name from them but, then they found another English band called Crush so they decided to call the band Savage Garden which was thought of by Darren, it was from an Anne Rice novel where “she describes the world as two levels, one as a very beautiful place but,in the other, underneath, we’re all savage beasts” (The conception of savage garden) in the other,Darren and Daniel so fired by self assurance, sent out over 150 demo tapes to record companies and management all over Australia. One by one they got rejected until John Woodruff heard their tape and thought they had a chance, he immediately flew to Brisbane to sign them to JWM, his record company. Their first self titled album was recorded in Sydney, Australia. It was produced by Charles Fisher and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. Woodruff released the record to an independent label, Road show Music and in 1996 their first single, I Want You, was released in Sydney.
The single went platnum and became the highest selling single in Australia for 1996. It was also nominated for a Aria Award for the Best Debut Album in 1996 just two weeks after it’s release and it rised to #3 on the national AMR charts. It debuted at number 31 on the Billboard charts which was “the highest chart entry ever for a debut single from an Australian artist.”(village.com) It had a slow start until Rosie O’Donnell who loves the part in the song that says “chick-a-cherry cola” began playing it on her show and eventually invited them to appear and perform on the air. Their Second single, To The Moon and Back, “which adresses the insecurities of a teenage girl” (savagegarden.com/bio)quickly became a hit, reached number one and sold 135,000 copies in Australia and was in the top 30 in the US. Their third and most sucessful, Truly Madly Deeply which is a love song “distilled from the purity of heart” (savagegarden.com/bio),sold 160,000 copies and debuted at number 25 on the billboard charts. Their album was released on March 24, 1997 and debuted at number 1 on the national ARIA chart where it spent 19 weeks. The album has sold 9 times platnum, 670,000 albums, in Australia alone. Savage Garden launched their first live tour in Australia, May 1997, preforimg at sold out shows. Then in 1998 they were on the road again with their The Future Of Earthly Delites World Tour. Their CD was number 9 on the top ten best selling albums list from Dec 29, 1998 to Jan 3, 1999. In late 2000, there was media speculation that the band would break up due to Hayes starting his solo album project. He announced that Jones was taking time off to work on a record label he had founded. The band took a hiatus but was expected to reform by early 2002, however in October 2001, Hayes announced that Savage Garden had broken up.
