Sugar On Top

04/30/1998 1:04 PM, LAUNCH
Lyndsey Parker

"We weren't hearing the kind of music we wanted to hear from anyone else, so we said. 'Well, let's do it ourselves,'" muses Daniel Jones, one-half of the dreamy Australian duo Savage Garden, as he explains why he and his musical partner Darren Hayes risked crafting an album of slick, satiny, synthy dance-pop at a time when angst-mongers like Pearl Jam, Live and Silverchair still clogged the airwaves Down Under and the world over.

"We were the ugly ducklings back home in Australia, as far as what was cool and what wasn't," Daniel admits of what at first seemed an act of commercial suicide.

However, it turned out that Darren and Daniel weren't the only ones out there eager for relief from the current onslaught of sad-sack guitar-grunge: six million pop fans agreed, according to the latest sales figures for Savage Garden's self-titled debut, a collection of perfectly polished, radio-ready gems that definitely has the high-pro-glow.

Ever since the LP's first single--the sassy, saucy "I Want You"--unexpectedly skyrocketed to the top of the charts over a year ago, perky, peppy pop acts like Hanson, Aqua and the Spice Girls have teeny-bopped their way through the doors of opportunity that Savage Garden have flung wide open. But Daniel insists that he and Darren weren't trying to stage a Top 40 pop revolution when they first started working on their album. "We just did what we had to do, what we felt was right, and for whatever reason, it worked for us," he shrugs humbly.

It easy to understand how Savage Garden came up with their stylish, silky-smooth sound, considering their chic Euro-pop influences: glamorous, glossy '80s acts like Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, all of whose songs Darren and Daniel once played while eking out a living in a Brisbane pub-rock cover band. But unfortunately, just as new wave pretty-boys Duran Duran once had trouble getting anyone to take them seriously, Savage Garden's music has often been smugly dismissed as disposable bubblegum fluff. It's a classic case of Duran Duran Syndrome: if a band is Tiger Beat pinup material (Darren and Daniel are almost supernaturally handsome, all knife-edge cheekbones, Windex-blue eyes and overripe rosebud lips), has a passion for fashion (they always look dashing in their form-fitting, jet-black ensembles), and fills the world with silly love songs (Savage Garden's name may be an Anne Rice reference, but other than that the only thing "dark" about them is their all-black wardrobe), they will invariably incur the wrath of music critics, alt-rock purists and female fans' jealous boyfriends.

Daniel isn't rankled by the slurs of Savage Garden's detractors, however, because he and Darren never hoped to win those people over in the first place. "I think you give up before you even start about getting credibility within pop music," he remarks with good-natured realism, "because you'll never convince an 'alterna' person that pop music's cool. We realized from the beginning that our market is not the music critic--so we would never be persuaded to try and please those people." He then adds quite matter-of-factly: "And while six million people may hate [our music], we know that at the moment six million people like it."

Make that six million and counting. Savage Garden's current phenomenon of a single, "Truly Madly Deeply"--a sugary, unabashedly weepy ballad sure to be the top slow-dance request come prom season--has been a permanent fixture in the top 10 for a mind-boggling four months (even knocking Elton John's seemingly invincible "Candle In The Wind 1997" out of the No. 1 position). Something about this tear-jerker of a song--which borrows its title from an equally romantic four-hanky film by the same name--has truly, madly, deeply connected with hopeless romantics even beyond Savage Garden's already enormous fanbase. Daniel has a sweetly simple explanation for the ballad's far-flung appeal: "It's a very honest song, very pure. It's a love song. And people like to feel love. God help us when we don't want to anymore! That's all we've really got that keeps us going."

Ironically, a radically different take of "Truly Madly Deeply," bearing little resemblance to the lush, orchestral version popping up on the radio every five minutes, almost wound up on Savage Garden's album. "What we were going to do is make it a closer at the end of the album, and it was going to be a lot less produced than what it turned into," Daniel recalls. "We thought about having a very simple, melodic tune that was pretty much just bass, piano and drums, and then we started to fill it up with a little bit more vocals, and put some strings down, some pads, and thickened it out a bit, and put a little reverb on the snare...and all of a sudden, it's a No. 1 pop ballad!"

If Savage Garden's jaw-dropping chart numbers and sales statistics aren't enough to silence their naysayers once and for all, the group's upcoming world tour should do the trick; even hardened skeptics are bound to be impressed by the way Savage Garden successfully recreate the lush, lavish sound of their album onstage. Of course, Savage Garden did start out as a two-person studio project, so they're bringing along an additional five band members on the road--a drummer, a bassist, two backup singers to replicate Darren's backing vocals (which he performed himself on the album), and another guitarist to take over whenever Daniel plays keyboards. Daniel's just grateful that the touring lineup consists of only seven members. "Being that there were no boundaries on us when we were in the studio, it's surprising sometimes that this isn't 13- or 14-piece band!" he gasps.

With so much happening for the duo in the past year--two massive smash singles, a multi-platinum album, a record-breaking 10 trophies at the recent ARIA (Australian equivalent of the Grammy) Awards--it's commendable that Daniel has managed to keep such a low-key attitude and level head. What's his secret for taking success in stride? "I tend to just ignore it. Sometimes that might come off as a bit arrogant, but it's just a self-protection mechanism. You don't want to get too into it, because the moment you start believing that you look like you did in the video because that was a fantastic shot with great lighting and makeup and blah blah blah--the moment you think that's what you are, you'll come crashing down when it all ends."

So Daniel is wisely aware of the fickle, fleeting nature of pop megastardom. "I sometimes feel like I have somebody else's ticket, but while I've got it, I might as well have a good look around," he jokes sheepishly. "Our goal was to record an album, and if it had sold 10 copies or 10 million copies, we would've still enjoyed the process. The sugar on top is that we've become fairly successful in a very short period of time."

Obviously, Daniel isn't worried about how long Savage Garden's "sugar" will stay on top. "I'm not terribly fussed, because I just enjoy music. I just enjoy what I do; I was happy before any of this happened. Even if my music wasn't selling, I would still be doing this for myself."