Press
01-03-1999
MTV News Feature
Ah, to be a big league music industry veteran before age of 20.
Such is the position occupied by each of silverchair's three members, who all log in at 19 years of age.
While it may seem like an enviable place to be, the gents of
silverchair have had to handle most of their adolescence while under
the weight of some heavy expectations. The band's debut album,
frogstomp, blew up in a big way shortly after its release in 1995,
vaulting the then 15-year-old band members onto music's A-list.
Since then, the band has spent its teen years trying to recapture that
magic. After getting good and angry on 1997's Freak Show, the band has
opted for a more intimate approach this time around for the recently
released Neon Ballroom.
In a conversation with MTV News' John Norris, silverchair frontman
Daniel Johns explained the psychological issues at heart of album, his
need to get away from his anger, and how he decided what emotions to
give away, and which to hold onto when writing the album. He also
outlines why he think everything the band has done so far has been
"leading to something a lot bigger and better."
Are they there yet? Find out for yourself in our MTV News Online feature.
John Norris: Tell me about
Neon Ballroom. Did you all along envision the orchestral direction of
this record or did you just know that you wanted to do something
different?
Daniel Johns: When I was writing Cemetery [from silverchair's 1997
album Freak Show] I wrote the song and then added strings to it later,
and that¹s the only song we really devoted to strings before this
album. This new album was written for strings. So it wasn't written as
a song and then strings were added later.
John: But when you first thought about doing this record, you've said
that the lyrics came first. You started writing poetry [first]. Is that
different? I mean, do you normally come up with music first and then
lyrics?
Daniel: Yeah, with the previous two albums the music was written first
and then I just went home and wrote lyrics and I didn't ever want to
get too poetic with the lyrics in the past, because lyrically I've been
very influenced by old school punk bands like Minor Threat and Black
Flag and Youth of Today and things like that. So I wanted the lyrics to
be very direct. With this album I wanted it to be a little more obscure
and really kind of focus on what I was feeling at the time.
John: What do you think that comes from? As you get older do you get more comfortable writing in a less direct way?
Daniel: Yeah, with the previous two albums the lyrics were very focused
at anger. I was feeling towards certain groups and subcultures of
people and with this album, as I said, musically and lyrically I wanted
to do something that people didn't expect. So I really just focused on
things I was feeling about myself and psychological issues and
lyrically it's a lot deeper and it means a lot more to me.
John: At the same time, they're not traditional relationship songs. It
still seems to me that you're talking about things that have a little
bit more going on.
Daniel: Yeah, it's definitely not about things that are regularly
written about. It's very honest. It's about exactly what I was feeling
in that period. It started as lyrics. It was never intended to be
lyrics for silverchair songs, it was just basically a form of
expression and I liked the words so much that I changed it to a more
lyrical format and put music around it.
John: Like the lyric for Miss You Love, I mean, that's pretty
vulnerable to the point that I wouldn't think when frogstomp came out
you would have been pretty comfortable putting out a song like that,
right?
Daniel: No definitely because with the first two albums it was very
[much] just about anger. I didn't want to do anything too soft. The
softest lyrical song was Cemetery and that still didn't focus on love
because it wasn't masculine or whatever and when your at that age, you
know, [it's a] pretty insecure time so...
John: You don't want to do anything that looks even slightly weak or whatever?
Daniel: Yeah exactly. But with this album I basically came to my senses
and realized I'm never going to be tough anyway so I might as well just
focus on dealing with the issues that I feel.
John: So from a songwriting point of view, do you see yourself moving in a more political or socially aware direction?
Daniel: I don't really want to be the band to speak on behalf of large
groups of people. But really political lyrics have always interested
me. I've always been interested in the Dead Kennedys and '80s hardcore
bands that focus on very political social issues. But I find it a lot
more creatively satisfying to kind of express myself the way that I
feel inside my head or inside my heart or whatever rather than focus on
things that, you know, that are more political. Because I don't know
much about political issues, I just know what I feel strongly about,
something that's good to write about it.
John: Spawn Again is actually a re-recording of the song you did for
Spawn. Why did you decide to do that? Just to give it a different feel?
Daniel: Yeah. We just really liked the song. It was something different
again and we wanted the album to be as diverse as we could make it,
which it definitely is. I mean, we talked earlier about the strings and
about the some of the poppier stuff, but there are a lot of hard tracks
on this album as well. Neon Ballroom basically just covers a lot of the
things we like listening to. It's not limiting in any way. We just did
what we wanted to do, which is good.
John: When you remember your first album coming out or yourself at that
time, do you feel like you've come a long way just as a person?
Daniel: Yeah, definitely. I think when we released the first album I
was 14 or 15 years old so it was it was at the time between 14 and 18
years old I think most people do pretty much the majority of their
growing up or the most dramatic changes in their life occur at that
time. So it's kind of, in some ways, it's uncomfortable looking back
and seeing the change and seeing how you've changed in the public eye.
But in some ways its gratifying to know that you've done that really
strange part of growing up and done it in the public eye and still
managed to maintain a certain level of sanity.
John: Are you still enjoying it as much, or in a different ways?
Daniel: Yeah, in a different way now. When I first started, it was more
about playing live and everything was about energy. Everything was
about being really loud and playing live. I still like doing that but
the reason, the thing that keeps me doing it is just creating music and
exploring different elements of musical and lyrical angles that's good.
John: I don't know if you guys are looking ahead to what's going to be
the next single, but to me, Ana's Song seems like it would be a great
hook. Can you tell me about that song and how it came about?
Daniel: Ana's Song was written as a poem and it was the last one
recorded for Neon Ballroom because it was kind of a bit a bit personal.
I didn't really wanna' [because], as you said before, you've gotta'
kind of put limits for yourself. But because it was so honest as a song
I didn't want to censor myself at all, and just put it on the album. It
focuses on hiding behind a psychological disorder like an eating
disorder or any form of anxiety and kind of hiding behind it to escape
reality, and musically it's a lot simpler than a lot of the songs on
the album.
John: Is there an Ana?
Daniel: Yeah, Ana is a composite of people hiding behind a disorder and it¹s just a play on words hiding behind anorexia.
John: Do you get a lot of press in Australia like trying to find out
who you're dating or who you're you know your private life and does
that kind of thing get to you?
Daniel: It used to get to me a lot. I use to find it really uncomfortable but...
John: So you did get it quite a bit?
Daniel: Yeah, especially on Freak Show, on the second album when we
were, you know, grown up and we weren't looked at as being a kiddie
rock band anymore. Now I still really hate it, actually, but at least I
can deal with it now and make things up and start stories and rumors
and at least make it interesting.
John: Are you excited about this record? I mean, do you feel
differently about this record coming out as you did with your other two?
Daniel: Yeah. I'm really excited about this album because, as I said
before, on the last two albums, we were still really playing them live
and we still like them as albums but always knew they we're leading to
something a lot bigger and better. So this is the first album that I'm
really really proud of. I want people to at least get the opportunity
to hear it and decide whether they like it themselves.
John: Even though it's coming out at a time when maybe the world is not as rock friendly as it has been in the past.
Daniel: Yeah, that's good though. It makes it more interesting. You're not a ripple in the surf, you're a tidal wave.