"In spite of all the refinements that conspired to make art- the dizzying perfection of the string quartet or the sprawling grandeur of Fragonard's canvases- Beauty was savage. It was as dangerous and lawless as the earth had been eons before man had one single coherent thought in his head or wrote the codes of conduct on tablets of clay. Beauty was a Savage Garden"

With a single add in the brisabne music magazine Time Off, the beginning of savage garden manifested itself. In 1992, Daniel Jones' band Red Edge needed a lead singer. After an outturn of 20 people, Darren Hayes, despite singing out of tune and having his voice break half way through a section of 'little shop of horrors', was in. But they both relised something more was happeing. "The biggest change was right at the start" says Daniel Jones "It felt so right when darren and I met and started talking about music. To me  that was a point in my

After writing their fourth song, 'To the moon and back', they both knew they were onto something. "I     turned around," says Jones, "and said, 'This is as good as anything out there. It's as good as U2, or a seal   song - the benchmarks.' That's when we became really serious". Fueled by determinatiopn, high ambition  and self- assurance the pair spent 12 months in Daniels home studio- writing and recording. During this time, Darren was working at a video shop, awaiting a responce from record companies and publishers. Under names like bliss and Inferno's dante, they sent out over 150 unsolicited five-track demo tapes, which included 'to the moon and back', 'mine', 'a thousand words', 'stepping stones' (the original name for break me shake me) and 'universe'. The demo recieved limited interest, and the duo were dishearted by the number of music industry players whos first queries were "What do you look like?" or "Can you dance?". Finally a serious offer came from veteran manager John Woodruff, who managed 'baby animals', 'AC/DC', 'diesel', 'the angles' and 'ice house', who flew over to brisbane the next day. He signed them to his recording company ( JWM) and his publishing company (roughcut music) and self financed the recording of the album. Mid-1995 he set them up with noted producer Charles Fischer (1927, Hoodoo Gurus), over a period of 8 months they recorded 'savage garden', in the red light district of kings cross in sydney. 'Savage garden' was knocked back by most Australian majour label record companies, and eventually the small independant label Roadshow Music was licenced to distribute the band's music in australia.
 

In june 1996, the single 'I Want You' was released, and immediatly gained massive responce at radio and peaking at number 4 on the Australian singles chart, earning them a nomination for 'best debut single' in the 1996 ARIA awards and went on to become the highest selling Australian single for 1996. In september 1996, savage garden were flown to meet with ARISTA ( home to TLC, Toni Braxton and Whitney Houston). They performed four songs live: "to the moon & back", "universe", "truly madly deeply" and "santa monica". The record companies were impressed with what thet saw, and out of Arista, Columbia, A & M and Universal records, Columbia offered the best deal, so in december savage garden flew back to New York to prepare for the release of the record in America. In early 1997, the second single in australia,  "to the moon and back" went to number 1. Savage garden entered the albums chart at number 1 in april. The American interest began when radio consultant Guy Zapoleon, of houston-based Zapoleon Media Strategies, attended a radio conference in Australia. There he heard 'I want you' on the radio, and took a copy back to the US where he made DAT copies for radio assosciates. Before release, 'I want you' was recieving airplay on as many as 50 US radio stations. 'I want you' debuted at 31 on the billboard charts in America ( highest ever entry for a debut single by an australian artist), and reached number 4 in the singles chart. 'I want you' reached no. 1 in Canada, Israel and Turkey. In Australia, Truly madly deeply debuted at no 1 ( where it stayed for 8 weeks), and for the first time, the same band has occupied the no 1 spot in both the singles charts and the album charts.

In may 1997, savage garden launched their first live dates, where they performed at quickly selling out venues, and ammassing rave reviews in all the capital cities.
 

In september 1997, Savage garden was nominated for a record breaking 13 awards by the 'Australian Record Industry Awards (ARIA), and won 10 of the 13 nominations: best album, best single (truly madly deeply), song of the year ( to the moon and back), best group, best debut album, best indipendant release, best pop release, highest selling single ( truly madly deeply), engineer of the year (charles fischer), producer of the year ( charles fischer). At the awards, they performed an orchestral version of 'to the moon and back', which was written and arranged by Daniel and then given to Jackie Orszaczky for orchestration.

By January 1998, truly madly deeply reached number one in the USA, where it knocked Elton John's 'candle in the wind' out of the np 1. spot. truly madloy deeply has also done extremely well all over the world, going no. 1 in Canada, New zealand, Singapore, India, Turkey and  Israel. January 29th marked the beginning of their first full stage international tour named the 'Future of Earthly Delites'. Beginning with Australia and New Zealand, savage garden performed throughout Asia, Europe, America and  Canada.

By the end of 1998, savage garden collected another dozen awards, including (from the 1998 aria's) outstanding achievment award, highest selling album and various awards from the billboard music awards, world music awards, MTV awards and others. As they prepare to release their second album, 'savage garden' has spent 19 weeks at no 1, 16 of those consecutive, and has has stayed in the top 40 for over a year and a half, going  platinum over 10 times in australia alone, selling over 11 million copies worldwide so far.