Neon Ballroom is the third album from Australian trio silverchair. A unique fusion of intense rock, classical instrumentation and futuristic bleeps and tweeps, this adventurous disc has a maturity and sophistication that sets it apart from the band’s previous albums -- frogstomp (1995) and Freak Show (1997).
Formed in the industrial town of Newcastle in the early '90s, silverchair (Daniel Johns, guitars/vocals; Ben Gillies, drums; Chris Joannou, bass) rocketed to worldwide fame a few years later, selling over 4 million albums while they were still at high school.
After graduating at the end of 1997, the band was finally able to focus full-time on making music. Whereas previous songs were written during short breaks between schooling and touring commitments, Neon Ballroom reflects six months spent solely on creating songs and a distinct musical vision.
"From the very start I was determined to make an album that sounded different," says Daniel Johns.
"When we finished touring the Freak Show album I really thought we’d taken the three-piece rock thing as far as we could. I was just getting a bit bored with it. I decided that I wanted to make an album that combined lots of different sounds and instruments that you don’t usually hear being played together.
"Basically, I just wanted to put an end to all the same old comparisons and carve out our own little piece of turf."
Not only was more time and thought invested into the songwriting for the new album, the writing process was also different this time around.
"In the past I usually wrote the riffs first and then sort of added in melodies and words," Johns said. "But when I first started writing songs for this album I wasn’t coming up with much music. I was writing lots of poems, so most of the new songs actually started out as lyrics which I set to music later on."
This ‘words-first’ approach has produced a set of songs with a very different lyrical outlook than previous silverchair releases. As Johns says, "These songs are definitely a lot more personal. On the first album we were only 14 or 15 so we hadn’t had many experiences to inspire songs. With the second one it was really about the aggression and hate that I was feeling toward certain people at the time. On this album there’s probably a wider range of moods and themes in the lyrics and they’re more based on direct experiences."
The differences in creating Neon Ballroom were not limited to the songwriting; they were also reflected in the recording process.
While the band’s previous discs were tracked in a matter of days or weeks, the third album took two months of recording in Australia and almost a month of mixing in Los Angeles and New York. Using producer Nick Launay (Semisonic, Midnight Oil, PiL, Freak Show) as well as some mixes by Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, frogstomp), Johns and the band deliberately set out to assemble a diverse set of instruments and sounds that would be as distinctive as the songs themselves.
"The basic idea was to take futuristic noises and blend them with more classic influences to create an unusual kind of blend," explains drummer Ben Gillies.
The album juxtaposes instruments like spacey guitars and weird keyboard noises with classic touches such as cello and harp -- sometimes all within the one track. The album’s title is intended to reflect the collision of new sounds ("Neon") and old sounds ("Ballroom") which are found in the music.
The sonic variety also extends to the guest players used on the album. Classical pianist David Helfgott (the inspiration for the Oscar winning movie Shine) can be heard alongside the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on the album’s epic opener, Emotion Sickness. The following track, Anthem for the Year 2000, features sounds from Australian groove guru Paul Mac as well as backing vocals from the New South Wales Public School Singers. Subsequent songs feature keyboard contributions from Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie and renowned jazz pianist Chris Abrahams. Even Daniel’s dog, Sweep, makes a tiny cameo appearance on one track (Steam Will Rise)!
The final result is a distinctive yet cohesive collection that showcases a band of obviously expanding talent.
While Neon Ballroom ventures into new territory in terms of both the songwriting and recording, it contains the heavy riffery, grinding rhythms and intense vocals with which silverchair have become synonymous. Songs like Spawn Again and Satin Sheets, for instance, contain these classic silverchair trademarks.
"Hopefully there’s enough familiar stuff in there to please the people that liked our other albums but enough different stuff to keep it interesting for everyone," reflects bassist Chris Joannou. "It’s taken us ages to get this album right and now it’s going to be fun to get out there and play some gigs!"
Neon Ballroom is a surprising soundscape for any band -- let alone one whose members are all only 19 years old. It combines a wide range of unusual sonic combinations and songwriting ideas to create a resonance all of its own.
It is as if by combining musical futures and musical pasts silverchair have created an album that is truly timeless.
