Savage Garden

Oh, my God.

And who's here in this office but the sweatiest version of Krychak we've ever seen? I think he looks like he is in Savage Garden.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I would swallow my...

No, that's Eve Six.

What's Savage Garden's hit? Chicka Cherry Cola.

Ah, like a Chicka Cherry Cola.

I mean, that's real.

We want that vibe back.

And I always think about it as like when VH1 came to South Africa and your Savage Gardens, all of those groups, your Linkin Parks and And how it started to grow.

How are you finding your identity within this very big saturated market of music? You have artists as big as Lizzo who are like, you can be following me.

I won't even appear on your algorithm because that's how many artists are out there.

Yes, Baby I'm a Homosexual sings Darren Hayes over the shimmering 80s pulse of his first solo album in a decade.

This may not seem like a newsflash for the man who's been married to his partner, Richard Cullen, for 17 years, but in recent interviews, the former Savage Garden frontman has spoken tearfully about his most successful years being in the closet, then straightwashed by the music industry when he found the courage to come out.

Shooting the video for his single, Insatiable, he'd been told he looked too gay.

Now 50, he found himself watching artists like Troye Sivan and Lil Nas X just arrive as their authentic selves.

I'm a gay man who grew up in an era where the word used to be shame and vilify people like me, so I wanted to reclaim it, he explains.

I'm also a recording artist who came up in an era where being openly gay was frowned upon, and I experienced firsthand the attempted erasure of my true identity from the marketing department of a major record label.

Launching with the lead track, Let's Try Being In Love, the album begins with an electronic motif not dissimilar to Donna Summer's disco classic, I Feel Love, an apt reference for a collection that sees the former Savage Garden star channel his sexuality.

Refreshingly, it's not a gimmick.

Yeah, yeah.

He also got married and every song was a Savage Garden song.

It was a Savage Garden themed wedding.

Actually, speaking of songs, I think it was producer Alessia was saying earlier that she knows someone called Rhiannon who is named after the Fleetwood Mac song Rhiannon, which I think is pretty cool.

That counts.

If

you're like an adult contemporary band, you're like, where's Soundgarden? A little bit like Savage Garden.

Where's Soundgarden? Get lost, Soundgarden.

That's a

ACDC.

Listen to Savage Garden instead.

I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your friend.

Is that official?