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In 1994 Nirvana wannabees, Silverchair entered
a completion on Australians no. 1 radio station Triple
J, the prize was a free recording at Triple J
and a video that was all to be aired on SBS's Nomad
program. Of course, as history tells us, these spotty
little droogs of 15 to 16 years won with their song,
‘Tomorrow’. After the clip and interview had been aired,
record companies from all over Australia were ringing
in wanting to know how they could get them signed.
Needless to say, the single and the eventual debut "frogstomp"
propelled them straight to number one on the Murmur
label.
From here, Silverchair began to tour big style
in America and Europe with stadium filling bands like
Red Hot Chillie Peppers and Everclear.
And in a quiet little nutshell, Daniel Johns and his
boys sold millions. And signing to Sony made
millions more.
In many ways, this is not a start that arguers well
for a band keen to assert down at heel credibility and
a measure of desperate longing. No furtive myths of
a live act and attitude shaped in Hamburg to fall back
on, no tragic, existential childhood in Seattle to inflame
the post-romantic nerve-endings. It was perhaps too
smooth a transition from obscurity to popularity for
any grunge-act to credibly build on. Where was the slow-burn?
The slow-ride?
 And
to be fair, where was really the grunge? You'd really
begin to think that Silverchair should serve
a timely reminder that no band that wants to taken seriously
as artists or as 'punks' should succumb with such alarming
gameness to the industry machinery.
With hindsight it is then possible to ring a certain
amount of extra significance from their recent parting
with Sony and the creation of the band's own label,
'Eleven', operated by their manager John Watson and
general manager Melissa Cheney: the casting aside of
the machinery for a first time taste of freedom. A symbolic
de-robing of popular identity? Well yes, if you're going
to be cynical - but their new album 'Diorama' - to be
released here in the UK on July 29th - suggests Silverchair
may yet spawn that fragile gem of credibility.
Produced by Dave Bottrill (Tool, Peter Gabriel) 'Diorama'
is a suitably wide screen and epic affair for a band
that already confess to wishing to sweep the listener
out of their everyday lives into the brave new (digital)
world of the magical. It's big on brass, it's big on
strings and it's big on sound.
This might not be the simple heroic tract that a 15
year Daniel Johns may wished to have traversed or even
the one that may serve him the most good in the long
run - but it's a path he finds himself on nonetheless:
"I have never had a social life, don't ever want one
because it's boring. I'm just not very good with people,
and you meet people every night who expect you to be
this rock star with these developed social skills, which
I don't have. So I feel uncomfortable. I am very scared
of being outside my home for long periods of time. I
start sweating and shaking and having panic attacks
if I am not at home. I get very anxious and am scared
in crowds and things like that."
Fear of crowds or not, there's something in John's character
that simultaneously invites and repels success and it's
this very tension that pervades the album: in parts
sweepingly melodic and inspired, in parts wilfully self-conscious.
Still playing to stadiums, perhaps. Still playing safe,
emphatically.
This might be Silverchair's time in the UK - what with
Melaton, Starsailor and HoobaStank's
three stars in ascendancy. Nobody is looking for another
prophet - nobody's is looking for a tortured soul. Something
bigger, something bolder and something brighter is where's
it's at.
But whether or not Johns is going to be satisfied settling
for half this time round is another matter, as one can't
help but sense that beneath the sheen of the production
and the sweetness of the lyric is a bubbling cauldron
of ambition.
Whatever the band's claims, they could never be experimental
or avant-garde - but it's a charged and impressive release
all the same. You just have to alter the criteria for
greatness, that’s all. And this is really as good and
wide as pop-rock is going to get this year.
As something of a pathetic irony for a band struggling
to be taken seriously, Johns reveals that the name of
the band's new label was inspired by Spinal Tap: "Like
the amplifier in the movie 'This Is Spinal Tap', we
don't just want to go to 10, we want to go to 'Eleven'."
In anybody else's hands, this may very well have been
amusing.
Silverchair will be joining gruff upstarts, The Coral,
Athlete and Gemma Hayes at this year's V2002.
All are confirmed for the event, which takes place at
Stafford Weston Park over the weekend of August 17-18.
Alan Sargeant for Crud Magazine© 2002
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| 04/02 1 Giant Leap - My Culture
04/02 Elfpower Interview - Andrew Rieger - Creatures
04/02 Frou Frou Interview - Guy Sigsworth/Imogen Heap
04/02 Gomez Interview - Ian Ball
04/02 Idlewild - Live - London Astoria
04/02 K's Choice Interview
04/02 Leaves - Live - Camden Dingwall
04/02 Longwave Interview - Exit
04/02 Lucy Mongrel Interview
04/02 Oasis - The Hindu Times
04/02 Phantom Planet - Interview
04/02 Unwritten Law - Interview
04/02 VUE - Coordinates Interview
05/02 BRMC - LIve - Kentish Town, London
05/02 Breeders - Title K
05/02 FC Kahuna - Machine Says Yes
05/02 Moco - Live - London Monarch
05/02 Need New Body - Interview
05/02 The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live - Soundhause, Northampton
05/02 The Bellrays - Meet The Bellrays
06/02 Fleadh Festival - Finsbury Park
06/02 Frou Frou Coordinates Interview
06/02 Incubus - Interview - Mark Einziger
06/02 North Mississippi Allstars - Interview
06/02 Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not
06/02 Proud Mary - Live - Northampton, Soundhaus
06/02 Pulp - Live - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe
06/02 Reindeer section - You Are My Joy
06/02 Silverchair - Diorama
|  | 06/02 Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window
06/02 Soinc Youth - Interview
06/02 The Burn - The Smiling Face
06/02 The Coral - Live - Roadmender, Northampton
06/02 The LIbertines - Live - The Social, Nottingham
06/02 The Vines, Sheffield Leadmill
06/02 Trik Turner - Interview
06/02 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live, Soundhaus, Northampton
07/02 12 Stones Interview
07/02 Arolo -Interview
07/02 Buy To Let Doncaster - Anti Social Behaviour
07/02 Cassius - Interview
07/02 Farrah - Interview
07/02 Glassjaw - Interview
07/02 Neil Michael Haggerty - Interview
07/02 Hoobastank - Running Away
07/02 Leaves - Interview
07/02 LL Cool Jay Interview
07/02 Oasis - Live - Finsbury Park, London
07/02 Polyphonic Spree - Live - Camden Monarch
07/02 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
07/02 Super Furry Animals - Interview
07/02 The Beatings - Live - Metro Club London
07/02 The Bellrays + The D4 - Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street London
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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