You may know Darren Hayes as one-half of Australian pop duo Savage Garden, whose songs infiltrated the adult contemporary radio waves throughout the late ‘90s, but the popular Australian export is also a solo artist who has endured an evolution both musically and personally.Hayes is the product of a working class Brisbane, Australia upbringing. In the early ‘80s Hayes fled his abusive, alcoholic father with his mother and siblings to live in a caravan. Although Hayes' father has been sober now for 25 years, Hayes credits his tumultuous upbringing with providing him ample writing material. Hayes got his start in the music business when he joined the group Crush with Daniel Jones, and the duo eventually formed Savage Garden in 1997 and released their eponymous debut album followed by their second (and last) record, Affirmation. Savage Garden split up in 2001 after spawning the super successful single "Truly, Madly, Deeply," which topped the U.S. charts for nearly a year.Hayes (now divorced from his first wife and relocated to San Francisco) launched his solo career in 2002 with the pop record Spin, which was a smash success in the U.K. and Australia. Spin was followed by Hayes' sophomore solo release, The Tension and the Spark, which signaled a change in his musical focus (and also in record labels). The subsequent years were spent touring the U.K., Australia and Asia before Hayes returned to the London studio in 2006 to begin recording the double album This Delicate Thing We've Made. In 2007 Hayes entered into his second marriage, but this time in a civil partnership in London with partner Richard Cullen. This Delicate Thing We've Made is Hayes' first record made as an openly homosexual man, and the album gained comparisons with Kate Bush and David Bowie thanks to the record's use of the synthesizer and Hayes' finally solid musical voice.