Darren Hayes has enjoyed a career that has spanned well over a decade and has seen him move from a band to solo artist.
I caught up with the singer-songwriter to talk about his new single Bloodstained Heart, the success of his latest album and what lies ahead in the rest of 2012.
- You are about to release your new single Bloodstained Heart so what can we expect from the track?
It’s a really emotional, classic love song and I think it’s a twist on love song really because it talks bout love when times are rough.
How if all else fails you have to turn to other people who stick by you no matter what, even if it looks like you are not going to win the battle you still have each other above everything else.
- I was reading that you called this song 'one of the most important songs I've ever made' and I was wondering why that was?
It’s really emotional and I wrote it about a very personal story in my own life and for a family member who was going through a really horrible time and I was rendered helpless; it was one of those situations were I could do nothing to prevent someone I love from being hurt and all I could do was stand by them.
I think Hollywood sells us one view of what a happy life is and what happy ever after is but the reality is that life is never smooth sailing. That just seems to strike a chord with me and is use to make me what to cry when I sang it, I have thankfully got over than now (laughs).
- It's an emotional record and personal record so how do you feel about opening yourself up when you are writing it?
I think that is the bear minimum that you should expect from a song writer really, I couldn’t make a record if I didn’t believe in it and if I hadn’t lived it. I just think that that is an unspoken agreement between myself and my audience they know they know that I am going to be completely honest on the record.
In my private life an in my public life I really try to retain a really healthy sense of space, I am not a celebrity, for that reason because I have my life and from my life that’s what I am inspired by and that is what makes me make the records that I do.
- The song is lifted from the album Secret Codes & Battleships and this was your first album in four years so did you plan to take so much time between records or is it just the way that it has worked out?
Every time I finish record I swear I am never going to make one again, it’s the truth, and it takes me a while to miss music and miss the music industry. I don’t love the music industry and I certainly don’t love fame but I love entertaining and I love being an artist.
But it takes so much out of me emotionally when I put myself out there that I always need to retreat and experience my life so I have something relevant to say, because let’s face it the songs that we take into our hearts are songs we feel we could have written ourselves and are about us and that only comes from being a real person and not getting swept up in any of that stuff. So for me it takes time to collect those stories and feelings.
- The album has been a huge success so you must be delighted by the way that it has been received?
I have certainly had a lot of airplay, which is lovely; I haven’t been played on pop radio and Radio 2 for a long time. I think having had the career that I have had, I have had some very lucky moments in savage Garden and with my first solo record these were very commercially well received projects but I never take it for granted.
But it is lovely when you make a record like this and people pay attention… if you are not demanding it or expecting it like a spoilt prince then it really is a lovely surprise.
- Some of the reviews are calling this the best album that you have made so how much would you agree with that?
Well I am not going to disagree with that. I am really proud of all of things that I have done but I think that this one has gotten better reviews because it is more accessible. And very proudly I think this is very reminiscent of Savage Garden and why wouldn’t it be?
It was half of me and half of where I started from and I turned forty in May and it’s been twenty years in the business so it’s a full circle record and full circle moment.
- The album has been partly released on your own label Powdered Sugar so why did you decide to go it alone as they say?
I decided to be independent when my contract with Columbia ended, I think that was back in 2005, and it was a really messy break-up, I made a record that I loved and they refused to release it in America; which was really difficult.
And so I learnt that I never wanted to give anyone that much power over my records again so I decided to release a record on my own but it’s tough and it’s expensive.
But this time it has been lovely because I own the record but I have gone into partnership with Universal and EMI and we are on the same level and I really like that; they know what I want to achieve and they are to offer support.
They are a fantastic team of people that know how to do what they are doing but I am respected enough to make the decisions that I believe are the right ones.
- So how much do you like that freedom?
To be honest I have always had that freedom but I think that the thing that really scared me was how fickle the industry can be; one of my favourite bands in the UK are the Hoosiers and they had a top ten single off their last record and while it was top ten the music industry was saying ‘yeah they are about to be dropped’.
Actually the single might have reached eleven or twelve and because it didn’t quite reach that threshold, the album wasn’t even out yet. I think the idea of putting yourself in that position is terrifying you could make an album, as I have done in the past, and it could just sit on a shelf getting dusty because some executive somewhere feels that it’s not going to make any money; but if that was the criteria then so man artists’ career would never have seen the light of day.
My career began with rejection I have 150 letters in a file from record companies that have said ’no’, ’no’, ’no’ but I just kept going.
Because the music industry is obsessed with the fact that it is struggling a lot of bad creative decisions are made and a lot of new artists don’t necessarily get the support that I did at the beginning of my career.
- Are we going to see your label take on new artists?
No, I don’t think I would ever want to be the bad guy (film). It’s a vehicle for me and my things and it’s lovely because it’s tiny and we get to work with the big boys but we get to go home to our tiny and plush office.
- You played some shows in the UK at the back end of last year so and are we going to be seeing you hit the road again in the UK in 2012?
Yeah I will be touring in September and October, we are putting together a run now; before the end of March we will hopefully make an announcement and release some dates.
I am hoping to play in other countries and places, of course in Australia, but there are plans for me to visit places that I haven’t been in a decade. So it will be a very busy summer for me and onwards.
- You have enjoyed a career that has spanned over a decade so how have you seen yourself develop and alter as an artist in that time?
Like anyone I think I have just grown up and it is lovely that I have had the opportunity to do that through song, I can look back on certain videos, pictures and songs and can personally got ‘oh my god what was I thinking’.
But I would never really criticise because those points lead to a different point. It’s ironic I think sometimes that maybe the most successful moments of my career I wasn’t as happy as I am today - I don’t sell the kind of records that I use to but the quality of my life is better and I think that reflects in the music that I make.
- And what about the industry itself how have you seen that change?
I think it’s always changing and I just think that it is in a state of flux at the moment. But the really exciting thing is we, the people, love music as much as we every have and I think music is consumed at such a high rate now it’s almost like you can’t catch your breath - there is so much out there.
The only negative for me is those financial considerations sometimes cut creative decisions in half and that is disappointing. But we don’t know what the music industry is yet I will Google this interview in ten years time (laughs) and I am sure that it will have sorted itself out.
But right now it’s a bit confused. We use to charge for plastic disks and now we can stream a song, we can steal it, we can download it - it’s a tangible thing and we just need to adjust to that.
- You have an army of fans all over the world so do you have any message for those fans reading this interview?
I always say thank you for remembering me because this is an incredible job that I have been given and the people that listen to me any buy my records essentially employ me. This is the best job in the world and I am just grateful I get to go to work everyday doing something that I love, so thank you.
- Finally what's next for you?
Next is a cup of coffee at Starbucks (laughs). No I’m about to a ton more promo and then I am off to Australia to do some work on The Voice and see my family, which will be lovely. Then back for some more promo and getting into touring.
Darren Hayes’ new single Bloodstained Heart is released 27th February.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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