Press
18-02-1999
Billboard
By Jim Tremayne
NEW YORK -- When Epic releases silverchair's Neon Ballroom on March 23,
the company hopes the Australian power trio will have fully shed its
teen-titans-of-grunge image in favor of a more mature stance and sound.
Perhaps most important, the Sony-distributed label is counting on an
audience that pushed silverchair's first two albums to platinum status
to embrace the group's newer, more polished musical endeavors.
As flannel-clad 15-year-olds with a high "cute-band-alert" factor,
silverchair-singer/guitarist Daniel Johns, bassist Chris Joannou, and
drummer Ben Gillies-broke out quickly in the wake of Nirvana's
early-'90s breakthrough. Grunge-soaked radio hits like Tomorrow and
Abuse Me helped make global best-sellers of 1995's frogstomp and 1997's
Freak Show.
Now with the Nick Launay-produced Neon Ballroom, silverchair has
ventured further musically from what principal songwriter Johns admits
were "simply structured songs" by releasing a collection that includes
sweeping orchestral moments (Emotion Sickness, with David Helfgott of
Shine fame), hooky pop confections (probable future singles Miss You
Love and Ana's Song [Open Fire]), and familiar torrents of thud-rock
(initial single Anthem For The Year 2000).
"I think structurally the songs on this album are a lot more creative
and a lot less generic than our previous albums," says Johns via
telephone from Australia. "There are some songs on the album that
appeal to people who like straight-ahead rock songs. But the majority
of the album is very structurally different, instrumentally different.
It's based more on orchestral rock sounds rather than traditional rock
sounds."
With so many changes in the tastes of young pop listeners in particular
-- less emphasis on rock, more on rap in the States, electronica in
Europe -- one must ask: How much silverchair audience is left to access
in 1999, and how will the group gain new fans?
"That's always a concern," says Ron Cerrito, Epic's VP of marketing.
"That's our job with our marketing campaign -- not only to focus on who
we feel the existing fans were but also going down into high schools
and to the younger teens to focus on them and introduce them to the
band or reintroduce them to the band.
"For instance, lifestyle-wise we're planning several targeted
promotions and competitions to take our message directly to those
audiences-high schools, snowboarding, concerts, surf-and-skate
retailers," Cerrito says. The silverchair plan includes an extensive
tour of North America and Europe beginning March 10.
According to Epic and Sony brass, the biggest advantage the young men
of silverchair enjoy this time out is their age. At 19 and free of
compulsory educational obligations, the trio can expect to rack up road
miles and frequent-flyer points in the coming year.
"In the same time that these guys have matured so much musically, we
also have really for the first time the tools to get down to serious
business around the world, because they've graduated," says Robert
Bowlin, president of Sony Music International. "They can now do the
kind of touring that a band like silverchair needs to do -- that's the
tour-tour-tour sort of drill. When you also have to worry about them
having to graduate from high school, you don't have that kind of
luxury."
In the band's native Australia -- where silverchair has sold a
staggering 1 million units to a population of 17 million -- Neon
Ballroom hits stores March 8, with a quick blitz of shows to follow.
The American pre-release setup includes a concert tonight, Feb. 18, at
New Orleans' House of Blues, which will be broadcast on the Internet
through label and band World Wide Web sites.