Darren Hayes Interview: On His Time Machine Concert DVD, Coming Out & Married Life

 

Since 2006, when Darren Hayes both got married and left Columbia Records, the 36-year-old singer released his third solo record, This Delicate Thing We've Made, through his own label and embarked on a successful concert tour. The theatrical Jules Verne-esque concept show went around the world and even sold out the prestigious London Albert Hall.

The Time Machine tour kicked off in Darren's current home of The UK and ended in his birthplace of Australia, and while Darren's enjoying a sabbatical this year with his husband, Richard Cullen, he'll release a record of his final concert, The Time Machine Tour DVD, on July 22. In addition, This Delicate Film We've Made, a music video film to accompany Darren's latest album, is in the works ... so it sounds like a pretty active vacation.

 

 

After the jump, Darren and I discuss his vision for his tour, his life in the media since coming out, a little Natalie Portman stalking and how he knew his husband was good in bed...

 

 

The art and the concepts of this concert look amazing. What was your inspiration? Was this the show you've always wanted?

I guess I have to give credit to - I'd love to say many more highbrow things than what I’m about to say - Madonna and Christopher Ciccone for their 1990 Blond Ambition tour. What I loved about that tour as a kid - and as a gay man, let's face it - was it was one of the first times someone took theatrical concepts and brought them to sort of ... a real, pop audience. I mean, other artists have always done this - people like Peter Gabriel or Laurie Anderson - but here you had the biggest star, and she was using things like theater flats and real set pieces that go in and out ... and there was this narrative drama, there were costumes ... It wasn’t really a rock show, it was sort of a musical. So I always loved that.

And then the designer of this show is a man called Willie Williams, and Willie is really a mentor to me. I fell in love with him when I saw U2’s tour for Zoo TV. He took Bono and he turned him into this sexy, cool, post-modern, almost David Bowie version of himself. We’ve been working together for years, and this show was really our chance to do something that we felt was different.

If you look at pop shows today, all they are is money; everybody just has an LED screen ... This show has a totally different pace than the pop shows of today.

As far as your album, "Casey" is my favorite track, and I really liked the music video's '80s references. Are you a techie who longs for the classics?

Well, first of all, thanks for saying that 'cause that’s my favorite song on the record, too. That song’s all about nostalgia, which is why we used a Fairlight, an '80s synthesizer. I think as a child - I was 11 or 12, really - when we were sort of in the mid-'90s and PacMan came out, and the first Madonna record came out, and then the movie Tron was happening ... I have a real soft spot for all that. It reminds me of the world before it became sort of ... consequence. There’s a real innocence to that technology. It’s laughable now, but there’s a purity and an innocence to it.

We used that imagery a lot throughout the packaging, throughout the music video - and even throughout the tour - as symbols, really. The record’s all about nostalgia, emotional nostalgia, looking back to childhood and attachments and letting go ... and that’s what it’s all about.

 

 

Since you've come out, have things gotten easier for you in the media? I know it was cause for concern for you, at least at the beginning...

You know, it’s still an issue, I think - not necessarily a negative one, but it’s a issue. The thing that I was always afraid of happening sort of has happened and probably always will: in that, your sexuality becomes a novelty, and it becomes the thing that people describe you as. So they’ll say, if not in the first sentence, in the second sentence, that I’m gay. I was doing an interview once for one country - it was an Asian country, quite a conservative, religious country - and they said, "Why did you choose to make this gay album? It’s quite a gay album. You know, it's quite gay." ... I was like, To be perfectly honest, it really isn't; it’s actually quite universal. And I’m gay, so it's made by a gay person, but I don’t think like that...

It’s the chicken or the egg thing: Prior to me coming out there weren’t a lot of openly-gay and willingly-out celebrities. Usually somebody is outed in some way. Most of the famous, American, gay performers were outed; very rarely did someone come out of his own choosing, like I did. That’s why it’s a novelty. I think in 15 years it won’t be at all.

What I enjoy doing is breaking down stereotypes of what it means to be gay. I mean, my particular version of what it means to be gay is that I’m married to a man ... and it kind of ends there, really.

And you appreciate Madonna.

Yeah! Well, I think a lot of straight men do as well. Yeah, well, appreciate/obsessed.  You know even when I’m not hearing what she’s doing, I go to my favorite blog sites. I go there, like, every day to find out what the set list is for the new tour. It’s interesting why she's so famous - and pieces have been written about this - but I think that why we like Madonna is that Madonna represents how gay men have felt. You know, women are underestimated, and I think at the core of why she speaks to gay audiences is that we feel underestimated, or we feel emasculated, or whatever. There are various stages that gays has gone through...

My least favorite phase was when it was adorable: you want to have a friend just like Jack on Will & Grace! And I love Jack, too, but gay people are so much more than just one tiny, palatable facet of what gets portrayed on TV. And I think she, to me, kind of represents a struggle: she’s a woman, therefore how dare she be powerful?

 

 

And before you came out, I read some gay press got very hostile with you. Why do you think that happened? Or why does it happen with gay people, in general?

Well, I think it was an incorrect assumption. I think there’s a huge difference between not being ready to come out and being, for all intents and purposes, a completely out, flaming homosexual and lying because you want to sell more records or you want to sell more movies or whatever.

And I think with me, my coming out was such a long, dark, painful process. It took me so long to even just accept it or admit it to myself, and when I did admit to myself, OK, I’m a gay man, those first two years out of the closet were not a honeymoon period. I kind of went through a dark depression, really, because I was exposed to a world that initially didn’t have a lot in common with my core values in life. You know, I’m someone who prefers to be in a relationship. If I’m in a relationship, I want it to be monogamous.

 

 

I didn’t like that, at the time, there was one slice of the pie that you were allowed, or expected, to be eating, and the older I’ve gotten the more I've realized there are so many different parts of the community. Just the way you dress, the way you speak, the music that you’re into ... Who knew there was a whole sort of gay, indie scene with people who have beards and checked shirts? Not me!

So it took me a long time to find my feet, and while I was doing that, that’s when I was encountering this kind of hostility. Because in my private life, of course, I was out. I was out to all of my friends and family and everybody who loved me. I just ... I didn’t want to be going through my dating - what felt like my teenage years - with the world media watching me. I’m so glad that I was given that period to stumble in and out of gay bars and leave pathetic, heartfelt messages on boyfriends’ answering machines ... who would reject me. None of that ended up on PerezHilton or in The National Enquirer, because back then I was given the space to grow up and really come to terms with who I was ... before I decided to tell my audience.

Now you also have an animated movie version of your album coming out, right?

It’s on its way. I guess it’s just a little music-video film. It’s kind of like Pink Floyd’s The Wall. They're all separate pieces, but they kind of connect together thematically, and they’re all animated to the record. A majority of the work was done by my partner, Richard Cullen.

He’s an animator, right? That’s his job?

Yeah, that’s what he does. It’s great for me because I get things a little cheaper, but it does mean I have to do all the washing up. But he works with another animator, a graphic illustrator called Damian Hale. So most of the stuff is Richard, and then they sometimes collaborated on a few things.

Did it ever get uncomfortable? Like, you looking over his shoulder - since your music is your art and his animation is his?

Yes and no. It’s interesting. We’re certainly not making Swept Away here. First of all, Richard’s background is as a theater director, and, to be perfectly frank, he’s used to working with divas. And I think actors and lead singers are very similar, you know: we sort of have this big ego. And if you pander to that ego, you end up having really bad art, but Richard’s pretty firm in his opinion.

But he absolutely let ideas germinate with me if a particular song had some imagery that I needed to see. He’s really accommodating. I would hope it doesn’t come off like Yoko and John - or, jokingly, Guy and Madonna - but he’s just a very talented visionary. I can express myself through what he does without either one of the ideas taking over the other person's.

 

"On The Verge of Something Wonderful" video

 

When you performed at Albert Hall, I read someone who worked backstage was astonished all you requested was water, honey and tea. Is that true?

Yeah, I don’t know - I’m not really a diva. I think the poshest thing I’ve ever asked for was carrots and apples so I could make juice. ... Wait, can we lie and say that I requested, like, a bong or something? I need to be edged up.

Sure, but you’ve never even thrown a BlackBerry at someone?

Oh, no. She's got some anger issues... and Russel Crowe threw a phone once, didn't he?

OK, I know you're a Star Wars fan. Who's your biggest crush in all of sci-fi?

I would have to say - and Richard and I would have to fight over this one - it’s a guy called a Scout Trooper. It’s a particular type of Storm Trooper in Return of the Jedi. They just kind of look like half BMX biker dudes.

And then the second choice would have to be Han Solo. I was never into Luke. I like the brunettes.

 

 

So not Darth Vader?

No. Although I share Darth’s aesthetic. I'm sure Darth would have been a fan of Tom Ford. Darth had immaculate style, probably was gay. That was a fierce outfit, let's be honest.

Are you a big Natalie Portman fan?

Huge. OK, let me tell you my embarrassing Natalie Portman story. So I was in New York, probably four years ago, and I was staying in the W in Union Square, and she must have been there to promote one of the Star Wars films. And I’m such a massive fan. There’s really a few woman like Natalie Portman and Drew Barrymore - and maybe, maybe Kirstin Dunst, a few years ago - who are my dream sort of straight-for-a-day fantasies.

So I’m on the street, and Natalie Portman walks past, and I can’t contain myself: I yell out, “I love you, Natalie!” and she sort of turns around, and then I hide in a stairwell just in shame, thinking I can’t believe I did that... But that fan gene suddenly just multiplied like I was the Incredible Hulk, suddenly just went, Bam! ... Fanatic. I love you! Yeah, she’s beautiful.

So you'd get a free pass from Richard if you ever had a chance with Natalie?

No, no. We’re in the honeymoon phase now, there’s no such thing as a free pass. In fact, if anyone even brought it up I’d have to chop their fingers off with a light saber. There are no free passes yet.

 

 

Is there anything, now that you guys have been together for awhile, that's allowed that you wouldn’t have done before ... like messes, burps ... farts?

Someone told me this analogy that’s actually quite funny: You can tell when you’re in the new phase of a relationship, because there’s the period where you pretend that neither of you fart. And that’s sort of ... the infatuation phase. We really live in a fartless world...

And then phase two is, It’s funny! And then phase three is just sort of the make-it-or-break-it stage, right? You either tolerate it, or you’re repulsed by it. So we’re just in the tolerate-it phase. But if you’re repulsed by it, you've just got to get out of there.

I read in another interview you said you can tell if someone is good in bed by the way he dances. Can you elaborate on that?

I don’t mean you have to be a “good dancer” to be good in bed ... I think what I meant is you can tell someone's personality by the way they move. Someone on the dance floor might not move much at all, but they might be the coolest person on the dance floor - and you just know they're extremely confident.

But let's be honest, if somebody has absolutely no rhythm whatsoever - and is possibly wearing a thong - I won't go there. That’s just me. I’m not going there.

How does Richard move on the dance floor?

He’s Mr. Minimal. That’s all I’m gonna say. He don’t need to prove nothin'! He’ll just sit there and nod his head occasionally...

Richard is the funniest person in the room, just because he waits for the right moment to tell the joke. Whereas I’m desperate - like I am in this interview - I’ll just keep talking and talking, Look at me! Look at me! ... He just sits back, waits for the opportunity, and bam - he’s the funniest guy in the room.

 

 

Comments

[Stephanie]

Ohhhh, Thanks for that!
That was a great Interview, I have the Time Machine tour DVD and It is spectacular!
Darren is still one of my favorites, can we still get to ask NNN to play one or some of his videos? I miss seeing him on TV here!!!

just a suggestion....:)

[Garret Nordstrom]

AWESOME Show, whatever you say about it just doesn't seem to do it justice!!! I plan on buying the DVD!!! Side note the show is called the Time Machine Tour that makes it H.G. Wells-esque NOT Jules Verne-esque, H.G. Wells wrote the Time Machine!

[felicity]

I loved that interview. darren is swo cute and such and inspiration to all the gays out there to come out and be proud of who they are. I am happy for his and richards relationship darren really does seem happier nowadays and really love talking about the love they share. I love you darren keep up the talent.