Savage Garden of pop delights

Aussie singers hit the big time with their debut album

Success has been swift, sweet and sweeping for Aussie synth-pop duo Savage Garden.

Singer Darren Hayes and keyboardist Daniel Jones have seen their self-titled debut sell seven million copies worldwide, including over 900,000 copies in Canada, and spawn massive hits with To The Moon & Back, I Want You and Truly Madly Deeply.

They were also named the best-selling Australian artists at the World Music Awards.

As further proof of Savage Garden's meteoric rise, they play their first Toronto concert at the 16,000-seat Molson Amphitheatre Wednesday.

"This opportunity does not come very often to many performers," says Hayes, speaking down the line from his tour bus enroute to San Antonio.

"There's just been so many amazing moments. We just played a show in Red Rocks, Colorado. It may never happen again and it was the most incredible venue. You know, I was really emotional on stage, and they're the moments where you just think, 'My God, I'm so blessed.'"

So far it's been an angelic ride, although there has been some critical backlash and questions about Savage Garden's credibility due to their rapid ascent.

"Sometimes people don't get the band," says Hayes. "They think maybe it's a teen thing or a Milli Vanilli thing or whatever, and we've never been desperate to prove otherwise.

"It's just, 'That's cool, listen to the music, come and see us live -- if you get it, you'll get it. You'll come on board.'

"It isn't unfair to categorize us as a bit of a sensation because even from my perspective, it's seemed very quick sometimes."

Not that Hayes would have preferred a more steady growth.

"I think it's been just about right actually," he says. "If you look at teen bands like Hanson or the Spice Girls, that's been quite incredible. I'm sure their lives must be just crazy and I'm kind of glad that we haven't exploded like that because I sometimes wonder, 'Where do you go after that?'"

Hayes says he and Jones are no mass-market teen idols.

"I keep reminding people that I'm 27 next year, got wrinkles, getting the bald patch, having to work out to keep that beer belly away," he jokes.

"I don't even drink beer and I'm getting a beer belly. You know what I mean, I'm a man here, guys."

As with so many "overnight successes," Hayes and the 25-year-old Jones met seven years ago in the Brisbane bar scene before losing their band and concentrating on their shared "musical vision," which incorporates a distinctly '80s sound.

"The first record was written in a bedroom in Daniel's home, with his mother knocking on the door with toasted sandwiches," relates Hayes.

Hayes, who listened to Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna as a teenager, says frequent comparisons to '80s groups like Wham! and Duran Duran are taken as a compliment. Although growing up, it might have started a rumble.

"In my school, you were either into Duran or you're into Michael and the two teams did not meet," says Hayes with a laugh. "And I definitely had the white glove."

And how did that go over?

"A white boy from the poor suburbs of Brisbane, Australia? -- not cool. I used to think I was black until my black friends told me, 'You're not black,' and I had to accept that. And I accept that now. That's the one thing, I don't think Daniel and I can dance for crap."

Hayes says he's anxious for Savage Garden to begin work on their second album, but the group is less than half-way through their current 40-date North American tour which wraps up Aug. 29.

A six-week break follows, so Hayes doesn't expect they'll be back in the studio until December or January. The good news is that it might be in Canada, specifically Bryan Adams' new Warehouse studio in Vancouver.

"That's probably the vibe we're looking at," says Hayes.

"There might be a few people that we want to work with there as well, but it's still in the formative stages."