There is not a lot written about Darren's life before Savage Garden. We know the obvious. He sang in a couple of musicals and went to Teacher's college and auditioned for this guy named Daniel Jones. But let me tell you what hours bugging Darren and stalking his sister and Mother have revealed.

Darren was the youngest of three Hayes children but the only one to be born in the State of Queensland, Australoa. Prior to his arrival, the entire clan originated from Sydnely. Way way back when, the Hayes family can be traced back to Ireland. Darren's Mother's family named Hannon originates from Limerick.

But back to the story.

So Darren was a perfectly happy little baby who, at the age 3 and 4 could sing but spent most if his time talking to imaginary TV audiences on his home cooking show. Alone.

Mrs. Hayes says Darren would amuse himself for hours just pretending. She said you could give him some tape, paper and colour pencils and he'd be happy all day.

He was a fanatic about the things he loved. When E.T. was the rage, he'd draw pictures of the alient all day. When Star Wars was the thing, he would write the sequels to the movies before George Lucas had. Admittedly, the stories weren't quite the same (Luke and Leia fell in love!) but Darren confesses "I had Yoda in a lightsabre battle years before Attack of the Clones".

The think that really changed the focus was of course, Michael Jackson.

"Music to me became very real and tangible the moment I heard the album Thriller. I couldn't believe my ears. Suddenly I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life"

Rumour has it that Mr. Hayes, along with the rest of the world, would moon walk everywhere. That or be C3PO while washing dishes.

Sister Tracey confirms that Darren sand so much it was sometimes a little... err... dare we says it? Annoying?

"Oh I hate to admit it now... but his singing used to nearly drive me insane... but he was so cute he usually got away with singing Thriller constantly during very important episodes of The Love Board... well they were important to me!"

Although Darren had guitar lessons (he started so young he had to be given a child sized on) "with strings so steel my fingers would bleed and I hated my guitar teacher" - it wasn't until high school that music became a reality.

"I studied the trombone can you believe it? I quit when someone told my lips could end up as big as Louis Armstrong. Maybe I didn't stop quick enough!"

You may not have guessed it, but being the only boy in the high school choir was really the true test.

"I loved singing so much that I risked daily torment to get up on stage and sing. I absolutelu loved it. After a while I started to be given solos and then eventually leads in the school musicals."

Those musicals for you Darren Spotters, were "The Man Of Steel" (a Superman musical where he played Jimmy Olsen) and "Bye Bye Birdie" (where Darren played the lead Albert Peterson).

His final year of high school confirmed his life drea, Winning a scholarship to a performance camp gave Darren the encouragement to try performance as a career. He was, however, encouraged not to persue the field by, of all people. his high school counsellor.

Although auditioning and winning places in the Kelvin Grove campus of QUT, where he could have studied everything from acting to producing, Darren gave up the opportunity to study teaching.

"It's a complicated story and I can't believe I am even telling you, but basically my sweetheart at the time didn't get into the course and I did. So I decided to give it all up for her. How romantic huh?" Three months into his new 'teaching' career the girlfriend dumped him and Darren was left wondering what the hell he was doing with his life. He spent the next few years doing assignments at the last minute (getting top grades) and trying to start a band.

"I would be in a tutorial making SINGER WANTS TO JOIN YOUR BNAD posters instead of doing my work. I had almost given up when I stumbled upon Daniel's advertisement in Time Off magazine. And the rest is history."

Daniel and Darren did eventually get their record deal but even after recording the first Savage Garden albume, there was a 12-month period where the guys sat around basically doing nothing and going broke. That's when Darren dusted off his teaching qualifications and was a substitute teacher for a while before landing a job teaching preschool in a day care centre. He taught for 8 months and to quit "the day my preschoolers came in and said WE SAW YOU ON T.V!! I had a few mothers wanting my autograph and that's when I knew that maybe my music career might actually take off."