The Aussie duo behind that big buzz of a hit, "I Want You", steps onto the shores of Singapore for a wild two-day visit. Angela Lee finds out if Savage Garden's Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones really are as different as chalk and cheese!

LIME: Some one once described you two as "chalk and cheese". Who's the chalk and who's the cheese?
DANIEL: Ahh.... I'll be chalk today.
DARREN: All right. I'll be cheese. Very unwillingly though. (Laughs) An American reporter wrote that. He was trying to say that we're two very different people from two very different backgrounds, with two very distinct personalities and very different looking, too. Musically, Daniel writes mainly instrumental pieces and I write lyrics and melody. We have very distinct roles within the band. Chalk and cheese was just a very bad way of describing it!

LIME: So it's not that one of you is cheesier than the other!
DANIEL:  No. I don't think I'm a piece of chalk.

LIME: Are you best friends?
DANIEL:  I don't think you should have one best friend. You should have three or four best friends.
DARREN: I have two very serious relationships in my life, and this is one of them. But for me, my best friend is the person I love and want to spend the rest of my life with.

LIME: What are some of the things that drive you crazy about each other, and the things that keep you together?
DARREN: I think the answer you want is that my feet smell and Daniel picks his nose, but neither of them are true. We have a really serious working relationship and a friendship we respect. It's been five years.
DANIEL:  I think Darren is extremely talented and we can sit and talk about what we want to create for hours and upon hours and hours. We have the same vision and know what we want to achieve.
DARREN: What I like about Daniel is that he does all the things that I can't do. I hear these pieces in this song and I'll hand it over to him and he'll turn it into something amazing.

LIME: Tell us about some of the things you two really want, but don't really need.
DARREN: A wave runner.  Heh heh! I've been eyeing that baby on display in the hotel.
DANIEL: I want a helicopter. I'm sick of cars and traffic.
DARREN: Things I don't really need, right? 'Cos I need a holiday! (Thinks for a moment) My private little Neverland with cinemas and stuff!
DANIEL: My family.
DARREN: You know what? I think I have everything I need already. I don't want anything I don't need.

LIME: C'mon, you don't mean that....
DARREN: It's true! I can live up to your cliches and tell you this career is tough. The truth is I'm being paid for doing what I love, travelling around the world and having a ball. And getting a crack at success.
DANIEL: What we're ultimately after is to put out a really good touring show and play to as many people as we can.
DARREN: It's such a satisfying feeling. You feel like you did when you were 10 years old and you put a cape on your back and pretended to be Gene Simmons from KISS! Only now you're being paid to it!

LIME: Have you guys sometimes been mistaken for a boyband?
DANIEL: No. Our first song, "I Want You", is a good introduction to the band. We don't want to force the point about not being a boyband or being a boyband. It's not about telling somebody what you are; it's up to them to decide.
DARREN: It would be horribly desperate for us to stand up and say, "Look, this is what we do!” You don't have to be too intelligent to work it out that we write all our own songs. We actually produced our own record - and neither of us can dance!
DANIEL: And.... we get pimples!

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