From Eli.com
Recording the vocals...
... for his new solo
album, The Tension and The Spark,
in a home studio in San Francisco, singer/songwriter
Darren Hayes, who sold 23 million records worldwide
between 1997-2001 as one-half of the multi-platinum
duo Savage Garden, began to appreciate the irony of
the phrase, "pop will eat itself." It was
June 2003, a
sweltering California day, and Darren felt a déjà vu
evoking the humble beginnings of his recording career
in Australia some eight years prior.
It was the summer of
1995 and in the spare bedroom
of producer Charles Fisher's home in Sydney, Hayes
was creating the astonishing vocal tracks for 'Truly
Madly Deeply', a classic song that would go on to hit
the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1998 and
change Darren's life forever. By the time "I Knew
I
Loved You", from the second Savage Garden album,
Affirmation, took its own place at the top of the Hot
100, the group's eponymous debut album and
subsequent sophomore release were well on their
way to generating sales of more than 20 million
albums around the world. To this day, "Truly
Madly
Deeply" and "I Knew I Loved You" still
hold the
record as the #1 and #2 longest running songs to
sit atop the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
By late 2003, with
one successful solo pop album
(2002's Spin) to his credit, Darren Hayes was
reassessing his artistic goals. Having created an
already enduring pop music legacy, Hayes felt
ready to expand his musical palette, developing
new sounds while intensifying the range of his
musical and lyrical sensibility. He was, in effect,
beginning anew, keen to follow his muses into bold
and adventurous new territory.
Most of The Tension
and The Spark was recorded,
quite literally, in a bedroom (albeit a bedroom with
state-of-the-art recording equipment). Hayes had
decided to record his new album at home, under
the radar, in order to fully explore, and enjoy, a
level of artistic freedom he'd never granted himself
previously. Keeping a low profile, Darren Hayes
wrote and recorded a collection of songs bristling
with candour, urgency, and authenticity.
