Press
01-10-1995
Fresh Blood
By Sandy Masuo (Rip)
Daniel Johns, Chris Joannou and Ben Gillies lead lives that are full of
all the ordinary sorts of things that preoccupy 15-year-olds
everywhere: school, the quest for a driver's license, video games, rock
music, hang time and the tasty waves at the beaches near their home
town of Newcastle, Australia. Three years ago they even started a band
called silverchair, but there's nothing ordinary about the music they
play.
The band's debut album, frogstomp, churns and burns with the kind of
intensity and savvy that elude a lot of bands twice their age. Though
the 11 tracks are full of allusions to their influences, they never
fall into tribute and mimicry. There's a steely glint of Helmet
(Israel's Son, Undecided), the draining charge of Soundgarden (Pure
Massacre) and the sludgy impact of Black Sabbath (Leave Me Out). Johns'
vocals resonate with energy that veers between the introverted anxiety
of Kurt Cobain and the extroverted ardor of Eddie Vedder. In Cicada,
when he sings about growing up being like a cilvil war, he makes the
Guns N' Roses metaphoric opus seem a little blustery. Yet for all the
seething feelings that give frogstomp its fetching edge, the boys
behind it come across surprisingly low-key.
"We'd been going to school with each other for years and everything
just fell into place," bassist Joannou says very matter-of-factly,
defying any expectations of turbulent tales of teenage angst. "Ben and
Dan were mucking around once and asked if I wanted to play bass, and I
said, "OK, why not." We started mucking around in his living room and
moved to the garage. Then we started entering demo competitions and
ended up winning one. Everything went on from there 'cause one of the
songs got airplay and, yeah, it went really well."
"Really well" is a polite understatement. After winning the demo
competition, which was sponsored by an Australian music video show,
they took advantage of their prize -- a day in a real recording studio
-- and completed a 7-inch single, Tomorrow. Last summer (our summer,
that is), the song became a top-5 hit in Australia, riding the
alternative charts for months. Based on the strength of that single and
a four-song-follow-up EP, silverchair were added to the line up of this
year's Big Day Out, Australia's answer to Lollapalooza. The big summer
(their summer, that is) tour last January through February took them
all across Australia. So far, Tomorrow is double platinum and frogstomp
went platinum within a week of its release down under.
Up over here in the States, the album has been making a smaller splash,
but a splash nonetheless. With Tomorrow clambering up the charts and
frogstomp in tow, silverchair will be spending their summer vacation
(they still have two years of school left) trekking around the U.S. to
support the album. It's an adventure that most kids (and a lot of
adults) only dream about. "Yeah," Joannou says, unfazed by it all.
"Everybody tells us that."
[Thanks to Amanda for the transcript.]