Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972 in Brisbane, QLD) is an Australian singer-songwriter. He's best known as the vocalist of the hugely popular 90's duo Savage Garden, whose international hits included "Truly Madly Deeply", " I Want You" and "I Knew I Loved You". Hayes' first solo album Spin was released in 2002, carrying on in the same musical vein as Savage Garden, with a less soft rock sound and more edgy R&B vibe, although the first single Insatiable was a ballad, reaching Number 3 in Australia. Other singles "Strange Relationship", "Crush (1980 Me)" and "I Miss You" also performed well in charts. ...show more

Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972 in Brisbane, QLD) is an Australian singer-songwriter. He's best known as the vocalist of the hugely popular 90's duo Savage Garden, whose international hits included "Truly Madly Deeply", " I Want You" and "I Knew I Loved You". Hayes' first solo album Spin was released in 2002, carrying on in the same musical vein as Savage Garden, with a less soft rock sound and more edgy R&B vibe, although the first single Insatiable was a ballad, reaching Number 3 in Australia. Other singles "Strange Relationship", "Crush (1980 Me)" and "I Miss You" also performed well in charts.

Hayes spent two years working on his second solo album, The Tension And The Spark. Other than the track "I Forgive You" which was produced with Madonna collaborator Marius De Vries, the entire album was produced by Darren himself and Robert Conley (with whom he had previously toured and recorded Crush (1980 Me) for Spin). The album marked a bold change of direction from Hayes. Conley's production was almost entirely electronic, with acoustic instruments buried under walls of sequenced sounds.

Although artistically this was a huge step forward and earned Hayes the strongest praise of his career, it seemed to alienate a large portion of his audience who were expecting another album of radio friendly pop songs. The first single Pop!ular was released on July 12, 2004. This single reached Number One on the US Dance Charts, and fared well in the UK. His follow up single, Darkness, failed to chart, leaving Dublin Sky - the planned third release - in limbo. ...show less