Daniel Jones (musician)
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- For other persons named Daniel Jones, see Daniel Jones (disambiguation).
Daniel Jones (born 22 July 1973, Essex, United Kingdom) was one half of the Australian pop duo Savage Garden. He is the youngest in the Jones family and has two older brothers, Oliver and Jonathan. Daniel grew up in Brisbane, Australia and, even as a child, music was a big part of his life, with his brothers also possessing musical talents of their own. Daniel taught himself how to play guitar and piano/keyboard, which he frequently alternated between during Savage Garden's first tour and then just played guitar during the Affirmation tour, which had a larger backing band.
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[edit] Early career
When Jones was about 18 years old he was in a band called Red Edge with his brother and some friends but the band needed a singer. Daniel Jones put an advertisement in the local Brisbane music paper Time Off, looking for a suitable singer. Darren Hayes was one of the people showing up at the audition and he got the job. After being in the band for some time, Hayes got tired of performing other people's songs and he was ready to quit Red Edge and since Daniel Jones wanted to create his own music, he made the difficult decision of leaving the band together with Darren Hayes. This marked the beginning of Savage Garden.
[edit] Savage Garden
The other half of the pair, Darren Hayes, performed all of the vocals whilst Jones mostly provided instrumental backing. Hayes and Jones wrote and performed all of their own music and had a global hit with "Truly Madly Deeply" in 1998 and "I Knew I Loved You" in 2000. Originally, both men travelled the world to promote their first album as well as perform singles. As travel strain and other issues began to take their toll on Daniel, he decided that he was not comfortable with the press junket circuits and the intense scrutiny from fans and media that came with them. When Darren agreed to take on the lion's share of the promotional duties for the band, Daniel took charge of rehearsals for the backing band that Savage Garden took with them on tour, as well as setting up the musical arrangements for the tour. The duo eventually split up in 2001. Full information can be found in the Savage Garden article.
[edit] After Savage Garden
In 2001, Daniel began assisting an Australian band named Aneiki, the group consisting of Jennifer Waite and Grant Wallis. They were the first band to be signed to the music label Daniel had started named Meridien Musik. Daniel knew Jennifer as one of the back-up vocalists who had traveled with Savage Garden during the Future of Earthly Delites tour for the first, self-titled Savage Garden album. Daniel helped produce their first album Words in Place of Objects and co-wrote four album songs with Jennifer; "Dearest", "She Says", "Saving Grace", "Feel This Fool" and the B-side "Sugarlust".
In 2002, Daniel worked with another Australian duo called Bachelor Girl to co-write a song called "Falling" for their second album Dysfunctional. In 2004, Daniel helped produce for Australian pop-rock musician Julie Strickland and the Australian act The Wish (singer Peter Freebairn and Bill Kio) for their respective debut albums. And in 2005, Daniel worked with yet more Australians: Tori Horgan (on her debut album) and Paul Black. Daniel continues to demonstrate his interest in discovering new talent, and producing that talent with his new state-of-the-art Meridien Musik Studio, which he built himself.
In May 2006, it was announced that Daniel had purchased the legendary recording complex located at 301 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. This landmark recording studio was purchased from Tom Misner who owns the global SAE organisation and Studios 301. Throughout its long history, the studio was also owned by the EMI Group. The studio was purchased to start Level 7 Studios and to continue Meridien Musik in a new location. Daniel is also rumoured to be participating in the upcoming season of Australian Idol as resident producer.
Today, Daniel Jones is working on his record label and is living in Sydney, Australia. Jones married his long-time girlfriend, Kathleen de Leon Jones, a member of successful children's group Hi-5, on October 9 2005.
The couple's first child, Mikayla de Leon Jones, was born on July 26 2006.
[edit] Trivia
- Daniel's most used nicknames are Dan, Waggin, Jonesy, and Caniel. His mother gave him the nickname Caniel after a misspelling in a school paper after Daniel scored a goal in a game of soccer.
- He has two Golden Retrievers; Texas and Jackson.
- Daniel dropped out of Year 10 at Shailer Park State High School to pursue a musical career.
- His hair colour is blond.
- His eyes are green, though they sometimes look both blue and grey.
- Daniel is 1.80 metres tall. That's approx. 5'11".
