RS: Videos were a really big part of 80s music and I've read
that you're doing eleven videos off this CD.
Darren Hayes: Well there's two different types of videos we're
doing. The pop videos that we do for TV – MTV and The Box – are
really fun, big elaborate pop videos. The first one is for "On The
Verge Of Something Wonderful," which was done by the same director who
did videos for Black Eyed Peas and Eminem – so it's all big fun and
spectacular. The things that really interest me are the online ones
that we've been doing. My partner is a 3D animator and there's a team
here in London called One Dot Zero, and they've been really interested
in doing these completely animated crazy conceptual interpretations of
what the music is about. We'll kind of slowly sort of drip-feed those
throughout the progress of this album and then eventually put the
record out again in surround and record all those videos on it.
RS: Very cool. What made you think of putting Janice Dickinson
in the "On The Verge" video?
Darren Hayes: Well honestly, she was in the lobby of the hotel when
I was in LA shooting the video. My publicist introduced me to her and
I loved her instantly as I was a big fan of the show. I thought she
was equally quite terrifying and stunning, and I jokingly just said
'oh, you should be in the video.' She's so on it that she got her
people to call up our people and all of a sudden she was on the set
the next day. I liked it because Janice is always portrayed, and she
does this herself, she portrays herself as this kind of ferocious
nightmare, but she's actually very vulnerable. I don't know that
she's ever had anyone treat her the way that we did because I said to
her that I just want you to look beautiful. I want you to be like the
supermodels that I looked up to as a kid with wind machines and
glamour and she really loved that. To me it was kind of a nod to that
80s excess, the whole video has 80s references and she was right at
home.
RS: Going from 80s to now, you launched a lot of the tracks
online on your MySpace and got a huge amount of traffic. What was
that like for you to get such a big response to your new music?
Darren Hayes: It's a real relief. I was saying to someone the other
day that you can't count on radio anymore, it's great to have it if
you can get it. The big corporations are so tied into the record
companies and with the media relationships, sometimes one company,
whether they admit it or not, is controlling twenty or thirty radio
stations. The idea that you would base your whole record on whether
or not you have airplay is slightly outdated, and MySpace, for me, has
been incredible. I think we're coming up to something like a hundred
and eighty thousand plays of On The Verge Of Something Wonderful and
it's only been up there for four weeks. You couldn't pay for that
kind of exposure, it's amazing.
RS: You're also having a lot of success in the UK with The Box
and with people voting for it as opposed to the major corporations
dictating it. So what's your take on the whole major label versus
indie split that you've gone through?
Darren Hayes: I think major labels are really good for new artists
and I hope that labels continue to invest in new music because I'm
only able to do what I'm doing because I'm backing myself financially,
because of my commercial records that I've sold in my past I can
afford to do this. For established artists, I think labels are really
constricting. I look at somebody like Madonna and I love her records.
Outside of America, her last album did extremely well and did
extremely well at radio, but she was basically ignored in the US. I
think if you have the ability, the funds and the music, you can think
of your own ideas and move forward. There's not really much a major
label can offer me anymore apart from a marketing dollar. To me the
major labels system is a necessary evil but I'm glad I'm not a part of
it anymore.
RS: Where did the name of your record label, Powdered Sugar, come from?
Darren Hayes: I had a Texan friend called Tyler and she came over to
my house once when I was in San Francisco. I said you look beautiful
tonight, Tyler, and she said, 'why thank you.' I said oh you have
makeup on and you look gorgeous. She said "oh honey, this ain't
nothing but powdered sugar." I thought it was such a funny comment and
I liked the association between that and pop music, it being sort of
glamorous and instantaneous, disposable at the same time. So I called
my label Powdered Sugar.
