Silverchair

01-09-1997

Silverchair, Essential Band Stats

(Circus)

DANIEL JOHNS
Age: 18
Birthday: April 22
Family: The oldest of three children, his father manages a fruit stand.
Former Bands: Short Elvis (the first song they did was Hound Dog)
Inspiration For His Songs: Dreams and television programs

CHRIS JOANNOU
Age: 17
Birthday: November 10
Family: His father is a dry cleaner. He has an older sister and a twin sister.
Best silverchair Gigs (according to Chris): Performing at the Fillmore in San Francisco and Madison Square Garden

BEN GILLIES
Age: 17
Birthday: October 24
Family: His father is a plumber. He has an older sister.
Favourite Bands: Led Zeppelin (especially drummer John Bonham)
Former Bands: Short Elvis
Latest Hairstyle: Johns decided to give him a shave after one of their U.S. shows.

SILVERCHAIR
Birthplace: Newcastle, Australia
Hobbies: Surfing at the beach in Merewether or Newcastle, relaxing at home and watching TV
Former Moniker: Innocent Criminals
Toured With: Local H, Handsome, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Everclear, Automatic
Common Influences: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Helmet

Their Rise To Success: Formed in 1992, they taped their anthem Tomorrow for a contest sponsored by local alternative radio station 2JJJ-FM two years later. The song was added to the playlist and earned heavy rotation. National label Murmur released it and it eventually became the fifth most successful Australian single ever. Their debut album frogstomp, was taped in nine days in Sydney and was released March 1995, and three months later in the U.S. and Canada. It later sold double platinum.

On Old Grunge Influences: They once claimed the dug Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, but then they began liking more aggressive groups like Tool and Helmet and the New York hardcore scene

Singles From Freak Show: Abuse Me, Freak, Cemetery

Lifestyles During Touring: The members say they keep more to themselves, and their parents (especially their mothers) are wilder

What's Next For silverchair?: They've been playing several festivals in Europe and America since their U.S. tour wrapped in June. Most importantly, they're busy concentrating on graduation from high school. Meanwhile, they recorded a cover of the Clash's London Burning in June for an official tribute album. Meanwhile check out their collaboration with Vitro on the Spawn soundtrack released in July.

SELECT SILVERCHAIR QUOTES

Behind the first album's title: "I was at a guy from our record company's house one night and I was looking through his CDs because he's got a really good collection. I found this '60s pop collection record and I was going (laughs) 'Why do you have this?' I looked at the back and there was this song some guy did called frogstomp and I said 'that's a pretty good name.'" (Johns)

On Freak Show: "This album is more influenced by -- we haven't been listening to Seattle at all. It's been more like Tool and Rage and Korn and we've even been getting into Sepultura and a lot of heavy stuff. We actually got back into the old stuff as well, like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and all that." (Gillies)

The difference in approaches to recording both albums: "When we went in to record frogstomp, we had an idea but we really didn't know how to get it. So we just went in there and turned everything up to 10 and just played. With Freak Show, we had ideas how we wanted each song to sound and how we wanted the guitars, the drums, and the bass to sound." (Johns)

"We can go and play in front of 30,000 people and we wouldn't give a shit. We wouldn't be nervous or anything. But if we played in front of our friends we'd be like really embarrassed and really nervous." (Gillies)

What do they see themselves doing in 10 years?: "Hopefully still playing in this band. If not, we'll be playing in other bands, or sitting at home getting fat, sitting in front of the TV. Eating hamburgers, going to the beach." (Gillies)

Did the band ever dream it would amount to this?: "We just wanted to be a garage band. We started playing Black Sabbath and Zeppelin covers because we had nothing to do. We never expected to do anything." (Johns, as told to Rolling Stone)

[Thanks to Haylee and Amanda.]