FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| MUSIC Savage Garden with Zuckerbaby Do you ever wonder what causes people to snap and lose it? (I mean besides their treatment by the US postal service or the fact that mom let them play with Barbie.) Could it possibly have something to do with the fact that our brains are being asked to process an outrageous amount of information which is growing at a rate we just can't function at? I have a tough enough time dealing with the fact that not only do I know what coprophilia is, but I can see it happening on a computer screen any time I want to. Now, imagine being in a wildly successful, internationally recognized rock band, spending each day in a new country, in a different culture? What the hell would that do to your perception of the world? "It's an incredible experience - it doesn't leave you," says Daniel Jones, one-half of the Australian act Savage Garden. "We played in India, which is an incredible country, but the poorest person in Canada is extremely wealthy to these people. The stage set-up was about 100 meters away from the end of a runway at an airport, so every five minutes a 747 would come flying over us while we were trying to play and just completely drown out the whole sound of the band. "The next night we jumped on plane and flew to Monte Carlo for the World Music Awards. We went from one world to the next. If you said you were going from New York to Vancouver you could get a grip on it, but going from India to Monte Carlo - one of the poorest places in the world to one of the wealthiest - you sort of go, 'I don't get what's going on in this world, I really don't get it,'" he says. For the past two years Savage Garden have had every opportunity to come to grips with the ways of the world, as they've been endlessly touring their self-titled debut to every city that will have them. And when you've sold almost eight million copies worldwide, that's a lot of stops. North America is the last point of destination for the pop rock duo responsible for the hits "I Want You," "To the Moon and Back" and "Truly Madly Deeply," although their record company brought them here over a year ago on a promotional tour (including a stop in Calgary). In fact, Jones says Canada, out of all the nations he's visited, has - during the promo trip as well as on several vacations he's taken here - definitely made a lasting impression on him. "Believe it or not, but this is true - a lot of people have asked me where would you live in this world, and I'd have to say Australia. And if it wasn't Australia I would actually live in Canada," he says. "I guess I get a similar sort of feel for the people as I do in Australia." The laid-back attitude, the self-deprecating sense of humor.... "Yeah, and we both don't like Americans," Jones laughs, before offering a half-hearted "just joking." "I find them interesting and very amusing at times. The thing that I hate is the frequency in their voice that somehow you can hear it if you're sitting in business class and they're sitting in back row economy - you can hear these Americans talking on the plane. And it's not that they're talking any louder, it's the frequency of their voice that cuts through the volume of a jet engine." After this last jaunt through Canada and the US, the sound of jet engines will cease and the pair will return home to begin writing and recording their follow-up in a home studio that's nearing completion. Jones admits neither he or his songwriting partner Darren Hayes have had much time to work on new material while on tour, and he's unsure of the direction their songs will take. The one thing he is certain of, however, is that everything, everywhere and everyone Savage Garden's paths have crossed since 1996 will find some small place in the music they're set to create. "We've experienced a lot culturally throughout the world and that doesn't leave you, so it doesn't matter where you are (writing or recording) it's going to come out, I guess. We'll soon find out," Jones says. "I wouldn't mind finding the meaning or the balance between going from India to Monte Carlo and writing about that. What's inside those two places? What's in between them?" |