Press
08-08-1995
Frogs & Llamas, Silverchair Story By the Guy who's Late for Work
(Concrete Press (Newcastle, N.S.W., Australia))
While most year 10 students around the state are currently lamenting on
missed opportunities from their Moderator exams, there are three
teenagers from Newcastle that you could excuse for their minds being
somewhere else. Somewhere like the American Billboard Top 100 chart
where their debut album is sitting pretty at number 32. The album [is]
frogstomp, the band is of course silverchair. This weekend (August 12)
sees the boys play a rare all-age gig in Newcastle before jetting off
to the U.S. and Europe for another series of concerts. It seems the
silverchair juggernaut has just blasted into outer space.
The last twelve months has seen an incredible metamorphosis for a young
band that started out as Innocent Criminals. From garage jamming to
international success, the three-piece outfit have come a long way from
the early gigs where they virtually made up the lyrics to the songs as
they went along. In what can only be described as a touring blitz, the
lads have spent the last few weeks playing across Europe and the U.S.
at selected shows and festivals creating a media storm along the way.
Their debut U.S. show at The Roxy Theatre in Atlanta sold out in a
matter of hours while another 1,500 disappointed punters that had lined
up for three blocks for tickets were turned away. In Europe they played
at some huge shows including the Roskilde Festival in Copenhagen where
they shared billing with bands like Offspring and REM. It's about as
hectic a touring schedule can get for any band. Getting back to the
normalities of home-life must seem quite sedate.
"Yeah, it's heaps good," says vocalist/guitarist Daniel Johns. "It's good being back near a beach."
In a couple of weeks the guys will be back overseas in the thick of it
to play more gigs. A more extensive tour of the States has been planned
as has a bit of a holiday this time.
"We didn't get to see anything of America. It was just travel, have
interviews, play a gig ... This time I think we are going to spend a
week or so at the beach in Los Angeles just surfing and hanging out."
After that, the 'chair head over to Europe for a few more shows.
Included in this stint is an invitation to play at the legendary
Reading Festival in London where they will share the stage with the
likes of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Pennywise, NOFX and White Zombie. This
is a huge achievement for any band. Most would consider it the pinnacle
of their career; performing there at the age of 16 is just phenomenal.
Daniel is not quite sure what to expect but if the highlights from the
recent tour [are] anything to go by it should be huge.
"We played festivals and stuff but the ones we played with Page and
Plant (from Led Zeppelin) were probably the best. My favourite gig was
this small pub gig in France. There was about 400 people and there was
no punter barrier, just a tiny little stage and everyone was getting up
there and running around. It was really intense. We were all just stage
diving and jumping around. We didn't play any good but it was hell fun."
Daniel scoffs at recent media reports of the band earning enough to
build a bionic man ($6 million). Still, the album has been enjoying
some incredible success on the American charts. For the uninitiated,
these charts can be quite confusing. silverchair first broke through on
the Heatseeker Chart, a listing for acts that have never had a hit on
the official Top 100 chart. The CD debuted at No. 8 before spending two
weeks at the top spot. Then they cracked the big one, the Billboard Top
100, coming in at number 55 in their first week. Since then, the album
has leapt like the prize winning amphibian on the cover to 43 and now
32.
"It's pretty good," says Daniel nonchalantly. "It doesn't really bother
us if it doesn't go any better than that, but it would be pretty good
if it keeps going as well as it's going. So, yeah, we're pretty happy
with it."
It's a bit of an understatement. I know if I had an album in the Top 50
in the States I'd be letting everyone know about it. But that's not
silverchair's style. These guys are as down to earth as any normal
16-year-old guys. Hell, most of the time they don't wear any shoes,
that's how firmly they've got their feet planted on the ground!
Talking to Daniel, you are left in no doubt what his great love in life
is. Music. He knows a heap of information about bands, musicians,
instruments, crowds, etc. He's got a great collection of hard to get
vinyl records like some Pearl Jam stuff still in their plastic covers
unopened. For my visit, though, I am treated to a barrage of current
favourites. One in particular is the vinyl version of Helmet's "Strap
It On." Of course, it is blasted out of the stereo in much the same
fashion as the reaction silverchair get from the crowds they play to,
full bore.
"The crowds in America were unreal, they mosh really weird. They like,
run out and leave this big gap in the middle of the floor. I don't know
how they can create this gap because it's so packed but they do. So all
these people are squashed around this big gap and then everyone just
runs in punching and jumping all over each other. They just hammer each
other. It looks like hell fun."
The crowd at this weekend's gig at the Newcastle Workers Club sure have a lot to live up to.
"The Llama Ball should be unreal. We just want it to be a really heavy
night. All the bands on the bill are cool, it's going to be so heavy
and loud. That's the reason why we had to change from the basketball
stadium to the Workers Club, because of noise complaint reasons."
With seven totally intense bands playing in five hours it should be an energy zapping affair.
Playing with stacks of other bands on festival bills has exposed the
silverchair lads to a plethora of musical talent around the world.
Surprisingly, though, Daniel votes Australian bands as equal to, if not
better than their overseas peers. "You don't have to go far to find
good bands. I reckon there are heaps of good Australian bands like You
Am I and Magic Dirt as well as other unsigned bands like Midget,
FACEplant and HARDWARE that are all just producing hell music."
For the more established acts on the rock scene, the rapid rise of
silverchair can be a bit mystifying, but Daniel admits that working
with quality people in the industry has allowed the band to progress at
a fast rate. "We've got good advice from a lot of people, like Kevin
Shirley, and Tim Rogers from You Am I. He's told me a lot about guitars
and stuff."
Also, having better equipment has helped too. "Yeah, like Chris
(Joannou). He's got a heaps better bass sound. He's just got all this
really good gear. His sound now is really bottomy and really clear but
it's still got a bit of that break up in it. It sounds unreal. When I
first started I had a 60-watt Fender amp. Now I've got better gear and
it's a lot better. Ben (Gillies, drummer) has got a whole new kit and
he's just goin' off."
The lads from silverchair are not content to just rest on their
laurels. They already have plans for the future. "Findaway will
probably be the next release here. We could release Undecided or
Suicidal Dream, but if we release Findaway that will be five diverse
songs from the one album," explains Daniel. "Then the next album we do
is going to be really experimental. We are going to use some really
different tunings and weird changes in different time signatures and
stuff like that. There's also going to be heaps of feedback, something
kinda like Sonic Youth."
Just for the record, how does Daniel think he went in his Moderator
exams? "I should go all right, I reckon. In English, I think I went
pretty good, in Science I went pretty shit and in Maths just average."
Well, if the media can come up with a figure like $6 million from a
band doing a couple of shows in the States and having an album on the
charts for just three weeks, then surely a Year 10 kid can be excused
for making a few simple mistakes in an exam, don't you think?
[Thanks to Lisa Theunens for the transcript.]