Who's who:
MP: Matt Pinfield, host
DJ: gee, this is Daniel Johns
CJ: Another toughie, Chris Joannou
BG: hmmm, this might be...Ben Gillies
Now, while transcribing this, I noticed something. Chris sure did an awful
lot of talking! This is a huge thing!!!!! Pretty amazing, eh? K, here we go:
[Intro, videos from: Orbital, Bis, Morcheeba]
MP: Welcome back to 120 minutes. I'm here with Daniel, Ben and Chris from silverchair. Welcome guys. Good to heave you
here and it's been a while since I, uh, run into you last, since Reading Festival.
CJ: 2 years
MP: God, yeah, I think it was. Actually, last time was on when you were, uh, finishing the Chilli Peppers
tour on a snowy, snowy night in Nassau. Now, since then you've recorded your second album, Freak Show and, um, you worked
with Nick Launey, is that how the name's pronounced?
DJ: *says it the right way* Launey [note from the grrl: he makes the name sound soo exotic. Matt butchers it ;)]
MP: What's that?
DJ: Launey
MP: Yeah, that's right. Now, tell me a bit about working with Nick. Now, I know he's worked with Killing
Joke and PIL and Old Gang of Four. Were you fans of, uh, some of the music he's done before on
some of the records?
DJ: Um, we're just, uh, he'd done a radio edit for "Tomorrow" the first time we'd actually
released it, so we knew him from there and he had a ot of really good ideas and we wanted to experiment
a lot more on the second album. He was like a mad scientist so we thought, you know, he'd have some ideas.
MP: Yeah, I mean, I noticed that on this album compared to Frogstamp [note from me: yeah, he actually said Frogstamp. What a dumbass ;)],
Frogstomp, excuse me, whatever I'm saying, you know, it's. it's all Black Pudding, right?
DJ: Yeah, yeah
MP: We're not Black Pudding fans but we'll say that. Uh, you used violins on this one and timpani drums, you've
experimented on this one with some different instruments.
BG: Yeah, we just, um, we wanted to, um, have a bit of variety on the album. Like, that's why
we, we had, we got a punk song on there, got, like, really quiet songs and then some really
heavy songs on there. Yeah, we just wanted to experiment. Well, just try all different stuff.
MP: Yeah, you definitely did some great tracks on there. We're gonna check out
your video, though, from Freak Show, for the song called "Freak". So here it is, it's on
120 minutes.
Now, as you know, MTV screwed up royally. silverchair fans were not treated to the sweaty
"Freak" vid. Instead we say some bad 80's/early 90's rap video called "Freaks" by Whodini, complete with barely
dressed chicks shaking their ass in the camera and guys with big gold chains.
[Videos from Whodini, Daft Punk and Foo Fighters]
MP: I'm talking with Daniel, Ben and Chris of silverchair, again. The name of the album is Freak Show.
By the way, happy belated birthday Daniel.
DJ: Thanks very much.
CJ: Oh man!
MP: 18 a week ago and, uh, actually, you're gonna tour now. You were doing part of a tour, is it
true, with Radish and Johnny Lang as well or is that true?
DJ: No, at the moment we're touring with a band called Handsome and, uh, another band called
Local H.
MP: Right, OK, um, both.
DJ: But, um, I've heard of Radish somewhere. [note from sArAh: like, is that supposed to nake up for it or something?]
MP: Well, you know what I had heard, was told, that. I'm confused, yeah, I'm, because ya' know that, what it was, somebody
actually said you were supposed to because it was Radish, they're about 15 or 16,
and Johnny Lang's a 16 year old guitar player. How do you feel about that, when people make reference all the time
to your age? Because uh, um, is it something that, does it bother you after a while? Do you find it..
DJ: It's a bit irrelevent, but...it's uh, it doesn't really bother us that much.
CJ: It's kinda happened so much where you just, uh, you just shrug your shoulders and say, 'Oh well, it's just happening again.'
MP: There it is.
CJ: Yeah, it's nothing that important anymore.
MP: Yeah..I'll tell you. Nothing else that poeple should be psyched about because, eh,
there's a lot of other younger musicians, you know, with the motivation that can say, 'Hey, we can do it, that we don't have
to be a certain age to do this.'
DJ & CJ: Yeah.
MP: Kids play so well. You guys play absolutely well live and you do write great songs
that, uh, age doesn't really have any issue at all. Yeah.
DJ: For a while [note from who else?: Matt totally cut off Daniel. I'll bet it would have been good material
to quote.]
MP: Now, out last video, uh, that we saw, "Freak, was directed by, uh, Jerry Casale (sp?) is that..
CJ: Casalle
MP: Casalle. I pronounce his mane wrong every time. *CJ laughs*. You know, I have all his Devo records
but anyway, *all laugh*. What are you, um, did you see some of the other stuff that he did and you decided
you would like working with him?
DJ: Um, we didn't really see too much of what he'd done before, but we, um, knew just from listening
to Devo that, uh, he wasn't the straightest guy in the world and we wanted something that
had a bit of a twist to it and, uh, we thought any member of Devo would be perfect. *everybody but DJ laughs. Not even
a smile from him! Geez, have a little sense of humor, eh?*
MP: Yeah, they did their masters of some of their earlier videos and even some of the stuff they did now.
We'll be back with silverchair in a minute, but until then, check the top 10 singles in alternative music this week in America.\
[note from moi: SP's "eye" was #8!!! Yea!]
[commercials, then a clip of "Tomorrow"]
MP: Welcome back to 120 minutes and I'm Matt Pinfield here with the members
of silverchair. Let's go back and give people a bit of history and talk about how
you recorded Tomorrow originally and we just came out of seeing a little bit of Tomorrow. [from me: that has
to be one of the longest sentences ever =O)]. The song was huge here in America and of course
in your home country of Australia. Now, you won a radio contest or like a radio station
contest, isn't that how it happened originally?
CJ: Uh, a TV, um, show called Nomad and we entered a demo, and, um, it was Australia wide and we
ended up winning that and we got to, um, record the song, which was Tomorrow and
we got to make a small budget film clip and, um, it actually got played on JJJ, which is a
radio station in Australia where we recorded the song in their studios and it kinda just traveled on from there.
[note from note girl: yet another epic sentence. hello, run on sentences ring a bell?]
MP: Yeah, then you just got to deal with the first single, the EP came out, "Stoned" on there?
CJ: Um, yeah, right. Stuff like that, right.
MP: Now, speaking of "Stoned", that got put on a soundtrack, not to long ago.
DJ: Yeah, it was on the "Mallrats" soundtrack.
MP: Yeha, and you've been on "The Cable Guy" soundtrack. You were on the , um, MOMm um, Mother
Ocean Surfrider Foundation record.
DJ: Yeah.
MP: You did Surfin' bird. You guys are all surfers as well?
CJ: Yeah, we did a tour in Australia with the Surfrider Foundation with Everclear.
MP: And that was fun? How is it playing in you home country? Is it, uh, something you really
enjoy doing?
DJ: Yeah, it's cool. We, um, pretty much enjoy playing wherever we play. It's like, I don't
know. It doesn't really matter what city you're playing in.
MP: Wherever you are, you have a good time, just as long as you're doing it. We stil have
lots more to talk about with silverchair, but right now it's the latest from Chemical Brothers.
[videos from Chemical Brothers and Depeche Mode <--That is a good song, It's No Good.]
MP: *talks about Depeche Mode* I'm Matt Pinfield and I'm here with silverchair. And, uh, let's talk about
the incident in Bikini Magazine, you getting arrested driving *everybody but Daniel laughs. Again* [note from SARAH:
you can read the Bikini article here, well, as soon as I type it ;)] around Daniel.
Was that Santa Monica with the beach and the piers and everything? And the old...
CJ: It was a bit further down, wasn't it?
DJ: Yeah, further down.
BG: [note: haven't heard from him in a while] It was on a private, private part of the beach, so
I think that's why we got in a bit more trouble that you would've.
MP: I hear you've become good friends touring with the Chillis and, uh, you were there with Navarro. What, what does
the incident, how did it all come about? Why were you there in the first place?
DJ: Um, it was just there for an interview, um, with Bikini Magazine. I think
he writes for that particular mag so we thought it would be good, to do it with him rather than a general
we don't know.
MP: Dave's a great guy and an amazing guitar player.
DJ: Yeah.
MP: So, yeah, so it was a pretty scary situation for you, or was it?
CJ: It was weird. We were just sittin' there and all these sirens were coming in the distance and 'That's not for us.'
And you hear this 'Get out of the car!'
MP: What was it? Get thit camera out of my face of I'll haul your ass in, into jail? *everyone, even Daniel laughs!*
DJ: Yeah, some what.
MP: Yeah, something like that.
CJ: Yeah.
MP: Great photos in there from all that craziness. Now,um, as far as touring America, now, of course Australia's you've
done too. The Big Day Out festival. Did you headline the last one that happened down there or..
DJ: No, we, um, no we didn't do the last one. We did one about thwo years ago and that was the only one we did. The
rest of the time we just played our own shows.
MP: Now, Frogstomp was pretty new at that point, wasn't it?
DJ & CJ: Yeah.
CJ: Yeah, it was right in the beginning.
MP: Yeah, things have, I mean, you were becoming famous very fast at that point in your home country. Now, how did that
affect everything with you, I mean, how's with your family. Now, I know your families come over here and seen you on tour quite a bit and with school.
Um, how did things go there as far as school goes? Did you have to finish up or do kind of a touring thing on the sides? Or..
CJ: Um, at the beginning it was kind of a bit hard juggling with the school stuff, but, um, we had a fair bit work to catch up
when we got back and stuff like that, but now that we've a tutor with us, uh, it's not that bad. We just to a little bit of work every once
in a while.
DJ: He just hangs out on the bus or the opera and stuff like that.
CJ: Yeah, yeah, he goes to, what did he just go see?
BG: He went and, like, instead of going to our show..
CJ: He ditched us.
BG: Last nightm he ditched us and went to see "Les Miz". *Daniel finds this really
funny. No one else finds it that funny. Go figure.*
MP: "Les Miz". Oh, boy, can-did. New musical. *everyone laughs*. Shoulda been checking
you guys out. OK, stick around 'cause we'll have more with silverchair after the break so don't go
anywhere.
[commercials then "Israel's Son" clip]
MP: Welcome back to 120 minutes. I'm Matt Pinfield still here with Ben, Chris and Daniel of silverchair. We
saw a little of "Israel's Son". great song. I love that sonicially beginning of that song and the way it moves. Now, when
we first me, we were talkign about bands that you love. We were talkign about Pavement, and, um, what would you consider
musical influences 'cause people always seem to think, 'Oh well, they must like this.' [note from me: Notice how Matt
specificially did not menchion Nirvana, but it was on his mind. ;)]. Then, when I met you, your musical influences were all over
the place of things that you like to listen to, which I thought was really cool.
DJ: Yeah, we, um, listen to a lot of different stuff, but, um, our main influence's from when we were
about 12 years old when we were playing in Innocent Criminals. *Chris and Ben laugh* like Black Sabbath.
CJ: Such and Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and Hendrix and all that kind of stuff just 'cause that's what our
dads listen to really. Just come home from school and they'd be playing it and after a while it just grows on you
and you really like it. We still listen to that kind of stuff a lot. As well as a lot of psychedelic funk jazz fusion.
Yeah, the acid sort of stuff, the acid jazz.
MP: Yeah, nowadays we're assuming that at that point, all 4, all 3 of your fathers were kind
of on the same line of the old school hard rock and metal stuff.
CJ: Yeah.
MP: Yeah, like you'd come home and hear Paranoid and House Of The Holding and things like that?
All: Yeah.
MP: Well, that's cool. I'll bet your families are really proud of you, actually.
CJ: Yeah, they support us and stuff and lots of stuff.
MP: Them being big music fans themselves, you know what I mean.
All: Yeah.
BG: [note from the chair girl: Now, if you read this, notice that this was brought up a while ago.] It was pretty
funny. I came home from school or somewhere, I can't remember where and my old man was listening to, uh, Ministry.
MP: Yeah.
BG: I just went outside.
DJ: And then he squashed a cockaroach on the wall.
CJ: Yeah.
DJ: And he made a grapher (something like that) on the wall with a pen.
MP: Yeah.
DJ: Yeah.
BG: He said Ministry did it to him.
MP: Which record was it in particular?
BG: Um..
MP: Was it "Land Of Rape and Honey"?
BG: The one with New World Order on it.
MP: Oh, yeah.
DJ: Ministry made him do it.
MP: Yeah.
BG: Yeah. [me again: Notice how many times they say Yeah.]
MP: Yeah, that'll do it to you. That just won't fix on that album along with some serious things.
But it's good to hear. Well, listen, I want to tell everyone to go check out silverchair's latest
album Freak Show as well as their debut Frogstomp. I just want to say thank you for coming. It was
good having you.
DJ: Thanks a lot.
BG & CJ: Thanks.
Wow, that was hell to type. Hope you appreciate it =O)
Wow, did you have fun doing that???
K, news really sux!