An article from smh.com.au

[Source]

Back on home ground
Craig Mathieson
October 22, 2011

Darren Hayes just released his cooly
eclectic new album Secret Codes and
Battleships.

IT'S morning in London and Darren Hayes is a sad geek. The former Savage Garden frontman, who as a kid in the Brisbane suburbs papier-mached his own E.T. to sit in a basket on his bike, has just added to the already bulging coffers of George Lucas by purchasing the complete Star Wars saga on Blu-ray DVD. But he couldn't fully enjoy the three movies that illuminated his childhood because of the numerous small changes Lucas had made over the years.

''It's hard because I love George but when he animates eyelids on Ewoks you just think, 'Why?''' sighs Hayes, who knows something of the same temptation. Savage Garden's phenomenal leap to international success - their self-titled 1997 debut album has sold more than 18 million copies - left more than a few dodgy outfits and simplistic songs as part of the duo's brief legacy.

''Things that you do become part of the pop culture canon and to mess with that is a disservice to your audience,'' he says firmly.

At the age of 39, Hayes is returning to the proving grounds of his youth. Released yesterday, his new solo album, Secret Codes and Battleships, is a determined effort to renew his chart-topping status.

A self-confessed ''terrible celebrity'' because of his low public profile, Hayes has been making promotional appearances again. And while he'll back his songwriting, Hayes doesn't have the usual pop star's Peter Pan complex. ''I try to remind people that I'm nearly 40, because we don't let our stars age, particularly women,'' Hayes says. ''I used to always feel older than I was, but now I look the age that I feel … I don't mind looking 39.''

Hayes is a charming conversationalist, self-aware but possessed of a tart wit. Fame has been a kind of extended therapy session for him and he can be both deeply analytical and self-deprecating.

''Secret Codes and Battleships is quite a bruised record. At its heart it's optimistic but they're songs about what it means to be loved. They're not the airbrushed, idealistic view of the world I had 20 years ago,'' he says. ''A lot of my life has been the pursuit of happiness and as I've got older I've realised it's just fleeting moments. There's a lot of murky stuff in between and that's on the record.''

The album is coolly eclectic: pop songs such as Hurt and Talk Talk Talk rub up against the forceful Stupid Mistake and the baroque tragedy of Black Out the Sun. The clipped club rhythms are contrasted with icy, sombre strings and guitar parts that echo the favourite players from Hayes's youth, Prince and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham; the seafaring imagery a reflection of his father, a merchant sailor and former alcoholic.

Hayes spent several years on Secret Codes and Battleships, working with a variety of co-writers. The power to be always right, bestowed on him by Savage Garden's success, fell away. On one track, Don't Give Up, Hayes found himself being challenged by his co-writer, Steve Robson, to improve a substandard lyric. ''Rather than get offended I took it as tough love. It made me competitive,'' says Hayes, who has long drawn inspiration from criticism. Savage Garden's biggest hit, the gooey 1999 ballad I Knew I Loved You, was written by Hayes and co-member Daniel Jones after their American record label boss told them their second album, Affirmation, didn't have a hit. ''Here's your f---ing No.1,'' Hayes told him when the song was delivered shortly afterwards.

That's the bravado of a younger man and it's not just that Hayes has outgrown that, it's no longer his defence mechanism. For many years Hayes felt he was writing the songs but it was an alter ego that got on stage before thousands of screaming fans to perform them.

It was the same when he was growing up in a tough working-class community and he was so scared that the taunts were true that he was gay that he convinced himself he had to be a straight man, a belief that extended to marrying childhood friend Colby Taylor in 1994. The two separated in 1998 before divorcing in 2000 and Hayes came out publicly in the middle of the last decade.

The singer married his boyfriend, animator and director Richard Cullen, in 2006 in London and after years on the road has taken to home life, learning to cook (boeuf bourguignon is a specialty) and realising that he didn't need personal chaos to inspire his lyrics.

''I was resigned to not finding anyone but when you do and they're perfect - I adore Richard and I love our life together - there's also this thought of, 'What am I going to write my records about?'''

Secret Codes and Battleships answers that question. ''I don't want to be the last person to find out that no one wants to hear me any more,'' he says with a laugh. ''But a lot of this stuff is what I do best and I'm going to reclaim it.''

■Secret Codes and Battleships is out through Universal.