Secret Codes And Battleships

Secret Codes And Battleships
Out October 21
"At the age of six, I knew I wanted to be famous more than anything. At the age of 23 I was a star, but I saw
through the facade pretty quickly. Now, I'm my late-thirties and I still know I was born to do this. And I know
too that this new album, Secret Codes And Battleships is, beyond any doubt, right up there with the best I can
do. I'm back at my fighting weight."
After two phenomenally successful albums with Savage Garden, three pioneering solo albums and 26 million
sales, Secret Codes And Battleships is singer-songwriter Darren Hayes's first proudly mainstream pop album in
four years and it might just be the best of his career. "It feels like I've woken up from a coma," he chuckles.
What a long, strange, sometimes despairing, mostly magical trip it's been. The kid from the trailer parks of
Brisbane who loved Star Wars (but not so much he didn't sell his precious collection of Star Wars toys to buy
Christmas presents for his family) and Michael Jackson always knew he was going to make it, even after he
turned down one of Australia's most prestigious stage schools to stay with his girlfriend: "She dumped me four
months later; probably for the best since I turned out to be gay".
He flirted with journalism, he taught pre-school kids, but once he and Daniel Jones became Savage Garden and
their self-titled debut album went 12X platinum in Australia, 7X platinum in the US and 4X platinum in the UK,
the world was theirs. As experiences go, there can have been few more bitter-sweet. "I was airbrushed within
an inch of my life, but at the end of it all, I'd written songs which people genuinely seemed to love". Then, in
2001, they imploded and, for Darren Hayes, things really became interesting.
2002's Spin ("It was supposed to do a George Michael; it didn't, but it did quite well") set things off nicely. Two
years later, The Tension and the Spark was a poke in the eye to those who assumed Darren was merely a pop
poppet. Dark, angry, but life-affirming, it wasn't a huge hit, but more to the point, "it saved my life. It was a
record about overcoming depression. Consequentially it was very difficult to make."
In 2007, This Delicate Thing We've Made was the first on his own label Powdered Sugar and it was a double,
both inspired and flawed. "I knew that, even as I was recording it," admits Darren, "but it's a record I had to
make to get to where I am now."
Since then, near-silence, although the hardcore fans who ensured his most recent British gig at the Royal Albert
Hall in 2007 was a sell-out know and adore We Are Smug, Darren's eccentric but rewarding download-only
outing of 2009, ("it wasn't an official release; think of it as my Black Album," he chuckles). The final track, The
Pressure, celebrated not merely the end of his San Francisco sojourn, but, for all the wonders of his work since
Spin, the beginnings of musical renewal. After all, as Darren notes - "It's easy to be strange, there's no
discipline and it's a bit of a cop out". It was time to get back to work and time to merge the boundary pushing
with Darren’s ability to move people with a humdinging pop song...

Of course it wasn't that simple and still rather bruised, Darren decided to write songs for other people rather
than himself. He signed a publishing deal with SonyATV and collaborated on songs for a host of artists,
including some from Simon Cowell's stable. "At first, I was terrible," he admits. "Because my songs are so
personal I found it difficult to write them and give them up for adoption. So I'd sabotage the process and make
the songs so very, very, personal they wouldn't get chosen. Frankly, it wasn't great for the artist or for
SonyATV, but then it was the truth.
"I've learned from that experience and I'm much better at it now. I'm willing to let songs go. I know what feels
like a Darren Hayes song and what would, in all honesty, work better in the hands of another artist. After all,
understanding whether a song is for me or someone else, is part and parcel of being a writer."
And now, the songwriter is also a performer again. Darren has re-connected with that fanatical fanbase, signed
to a major label (Mercury) and rejoined the mainstream with Secret Codes And Battleships, which was
recorded in Stockholm, Los Angeles, Sydney and Darren's home studio in London. He's collaborated with
Swedish writer/producer Carl Falk (Nicole Sherzinger/The Wanted); writers Steve Robson (Taylor Swift/Leona
Lewis) and Phil Thornalley (Pixie Lott/Natalie Imbruglia), plus Australia-based, long-term collaborators Justin
Shave (Fatboy Slim) and Robert Conley (Amy Meredith). There are reunions with both the multi Grammy Award
winning maestro Walter Afanasieff, who produced Savage Garden's Affirmation album and Darren's Spin and
Rex Goh, Savage Garden's long-term guitarist. The album was mixed by Robert Orton (Lady Gaga) and
mastered by Bob Ludwig.
On one level, as Darren says, it's about "holding on to love as everyone around you is breaking up. I've found
somebody who completely gets me: I never thought that would happen". The string-laden (courtesy of Mattias
Bylund, whose father arranged Abba's records) first single Talk Talk Talk, Don't Give Up and Hurt tingle spines,
touch hearts and tighten stomachs with the melodic flair and searing honesty that is Darren's calling card. And
he's never done it better.
On another level, it's about the things we don't say to each other, the secret codes of the title. It's an album
packed with seafaring imagery (Darren's alcoholic father was a merchant seaman) and it's a deeply personal
journey from despair ("I'd forgotten how to dream," he admits) to hope. As with all journeys, there's a
beginning, a middle and an end.
Bloodstained Heart concerns the "worst day of the worst month of the worst year, but it says I will pick up your
pulsing, bloodstained heart from the gutter and we will get through this, together", while Cruel Cruel World
stems from a time "I was in LA feeling so lost and disjointed I just wanted to crawl home". It's a special record
from a special songwriter.
There'll be intimate gigs in Britain and the US this year and a more extensive, more expansive world tour in
2012, with sets designed by Darren's long-term collaborator, Willie Williams. And now, the man who lives with
his husband and their dog, who still adores Star Wars (and he auditioned for Attack of The Clones, but that's
another story) and who cooks the meanest boeuf bourguignon you've never tasted wants the world again.
"I want to know if I've still got it," he insists. "I'm so tired of people asking me if I still make albums. I look at
people I admire such as Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel and I want to emulate their longevity. I'm not made for
making records that are secret: I'm not very good at that. But I am good at playing for thousands of people and
I am good at saying things we all have in common. It's easy to pretend you don't care and you don't want to
write more songs for a generation. I do care, I do want that and I do know I'm not done yet."
www.darrenhayes.com
For further information please contact:
Director Promotions – Australian Artists Alicia Reynolds (02) 9207 0595
National Publicity Manager Suzy Byrne (02) 9207 0591
National Publicity Manager Paula Dredge (02) 9207 0598
Senior National Digital Promotions Manager Julia Hobbs (02) 9200 4384
State Offices:
NSW Craig Redfearn (02) 9200 4382, Diana Caruso (02) 9200 4383
Dan Baker (02) 9207 0615
NSW/SA Andrew McLaughlin (02) 9200 4381
VIC Julia Hill (03) 8646 0711, Trevor Farrugia (03) 8646 0710,
Brittany Walker (03) 8646 0702
QLD/NT Tim Potter (07) 3252 4354, Jordan Wiggins (07) 3252 4354
WA Pat Garoffolo (08) 9381 7863
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