(P= Paul Gargano, C= Chris Joannou, D= Daniel Johns and B=Ben Gillies)
P:The things that immediately struck me about this record, is that it sounds
like silverchair. Past records have sounded a lot more like the bands that have influenced you.
C:IT's another leap. I think Freak Show was more like Frogstomp than this one, althought it
was still a huge leap, we wanted this one to be even bigger.
B:Yeah, I think it's a really big step for us. I also think it is an album
that people can listen to and say: "That's silverchair." On the first album we were compared
to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and on the second album we were compared a bit to Nirvana, and then Led Zeppelin --
Although Zeppelin's fun becuse we love them. This one is just basicly us, right down the line, no question about it.
But I think all new bands get compared to other bands anyway.
D: Exactly. I don't think this album sounds like anything else. Which in a way has already given me the kind of satisfaction that I really
desired, so sales really aren't that important to me now. I'm already satisfied with what I've done.
P: The last album didn't sell as well as Frogstomp. Did that worry you? That's got to be a little intimidating heading into this release.
D: No, it doesn't worry me at all, I realy could care less if it's successful or not. Of course, I'm going to do a certian amount of press and the business side of it,
because I want it to do well, but if it doesn't, I'm not going to be devestated or anything. I could have easily writen an album full of "Tomorrow," gotten
the biggest producer in America to do it, and had songs that would get played on the radio so I could sell 10 million records, but I didn't because I wanted a record that was honest.
C: And, Freak Show picked up where Frogstomp didn't sell well. Where it didn't do well,
it made up for it in different areas. We just need to get out more shows. That was tough last year because we had school and restrictions. Now we don't have to worry about that sutff, it's so much better
to just be able to concentrate on one thing, we can get into a routine insted of having to do half of everything.
B: We just do the music we want, if people like it, that's cool. If they don't, there's nothing we can do about it.
The public is unpredictable.
P: Was Neon Ballroom approached differently than your previous albums?
D: Yeah, it was approached a lot defferntly. The first two albums were written with the music being second to something else -- like school, and everything else that teenagers go though. My mind was on many things, and music was just
one of them. One this album, music was the only thing I was doing, and the only thing that I had to concentrate on. i approached it defferently in that all of the songs were written as poetry. In three months, I wrote about 112 poems, and
I made a collage out of the poems, and turned the words that meant the most to me into songs. Then I wrote the music around the words, rather than writting the words around the music.
P: Was that intentional, or was it just the way it happened?
D: No, I consciously did that because i wanted to approach this album totally opposite to how I did the last two. I wanted to keep the good characteristics of silverchair, but I also wanted to do something
that was totally different and no one else was doing.
P: What do you think it was that you did differently?
D: I think structualy the songs are a lot more abstract. I think the lyrics are a lot more vague but they mean a lot more because you have to really look into the songs.
It's very much like a movie, in the way that if you actually sit down and just lose yourself in the music, you will feel a certin mood. The last two albums were very traditional
had rock. There was nothing particularly different about them, they were just good rock songs. This album is quite different than anything else, and hopefully still good. I think it is
P: Ben and Chris, did you guys write at all on this record?
B: Daniel wrote most of the album. In our year off, he turned into a hermit, we didn't see him that much. Me and Chris were keeping normal hours, and usrfing and hanging out with mates.
I didn't really think about the writing, I was just thinking about having a good time. I did have a hand in two songs, though -- "Spawn Again," which was actually for the movie Spawn, and
"Trash," which is kind of heavy, a fast, punky one, but it didn't make the album. I am going to try and be more involved with the writing on the next album. this time I was just lapping up the great
atmosphere here in Newcastle.
C: I must say, I tried writting on my own, but it really sucked. It was pretty ordinary. Basicly, Daniel wrote it all himself. We came into rehersal after a long break, and Daniel had all these
songs almost finished. We just went from there. There were little changes, but nothing major.
P: So what did you guys do while Daniel was holed up writing?
B: We just had the whole last year off. It was sooo good! It was 12 months of pure leisure. We went surfing, went out with mates, hung with the girlfriends, and have got some good tans going, as well.
C: well, there was a large chinck of it where we did absolutely nothing, just went surfing, four-wheel driving on the beach, and did a lot of camping. The rest of it was pre-production getting the songs ready, then recording.
The last of it has been getting the artwork ready for the album.
P: What was it like for you, Daniel, doing all the writing?
D: It wasn't a good time all the time, but I'm glad that I did it now. It was very satisfying, I wouldn't say it was fun.
It was really hard at times, very tedious at times.
P: So you basically wrote the whole album by yourself. What does it mean to you? What is the Neon Ballroom?
D: The Neon Ballroom is pretty much the most special thing in my life. It's pretty much a musical diary of the hardest time in my life.
When I was having a lot of personal troubles and a lot of mental difficulties, the whole thing was documented into poems and then the poems were
documented into songs. To say the album is just another album -- although it might be to anyone else -- to me it's the most special thing that I could have
ever released because it's just totally a musical diary.
P: So the songs relate to the times in your life?
D: Well, most of the songs are about anxiety and depression and mental imbalances, different forms of mental disorders and things I was going through
in the period after Freak Show until now, and my way of dealing with a lot of the problems. I would write down poems and express myself though poetry and music.
P: What are some of theses songs about? Can we start with "Anthem for the Year 2000," the first single?
D: Yep. "Anthem" if about policitians looking at the youth and treating them like dirt, like they don't exist, like they're never going to mean anything, like they're
just obsessed with drugs and sex. It's about politicians and their fascism and their yuppie mentality. It's just speaking on behalf of what my friends are feeling, and what
I and and a lot of young people in Australia are feeling.
P: How about "Ana's Song (Open Fire)"?
D: There was a time in my life when I had these really bad phobias of certian food because I thought they would cut my throat or cut my stomach. I couldn't eat
anything hard, and for like six months I was just eating soup and fruit. Everything was distorted and that's pretty much what "Emotion Sickness" is about as well.
P: How does the title "Ana's Song" relate to it?
D: It sounds like a love song, and it's kind of a love song to anoerxia. Ana being the first name, Rexia being the last.
P: And "Emotion Sickness"?
D: It's just a play on words. I think it's a very captivating song title. It really sums up what the song is about. It's about all sorts of emotional disorders and problems in someone's head.
P: "Spawn" was writen for he movie, right?
D: Yeah, but the lyrics have changed this time around it's acutally called "Spawn Again" now. It's about animal experimentation
and the exploitation of animals in laboratories.
P: Was that what it was written about to begin with, or did you change the meaning?
D: No, that was what that was written about to begin with but there's a whole new change in the middle, a new verse.
P: "Miss You Love"?
D: "Miss You Love" is about being stuck in a mental state and not being able to find any form of love outside your family because
you're too afraide of commitment and getting attached to someone.
P: It's bassed on a personal experience i presume?
D: Yeah, each song on the album is totally personal and straight from the heart, except for "Year 2000" which is straight from the heart, but speaking
on behalf of a whole lot of people.
P: Were these all problems that you were dealing with through the first two albums?
D: Yeah, definitly, but hey kind of increased after Freak Show. I really went though a rough
patch and had a lot of problems. There was a stage when I was going to leave the band because I just had to sort myself out.
So, yeah, that's all documented on the album, which is why it's so speacial to me.
P: Is that why there was such a long break? The other guys talked about taking a year off...
D: Yeah, partially. In that year off I just really wanted to focus on creating a really special album.
I thought the thrid album is really the time where you say, "Okay, I'm going to take a huge risk and just do something totally different from
what people expect."
P: It's sounds like you've succeeded, the album is really a step up for silverchair
D: Yeah, definitly! I've achieved everything I wanted to achieve with this album, so anything good from here is a bonus.
P: How about the emotional traumas? Have those been alleviated a little bit?
D: Yeah, I've learned to deal with them a bit more. A lot of it was just frustration of not being about to create something I wanted
to create, and a lot of it was that i was just too obsessed with creating an album that was totally satisfying. I pretty much live for music, so it
kind of relieved a lot of the pressure once I had done that. On the last two albums, I was too busy trying to please other people. I think that took a toll on my brain--
I was just too worried about what other people thought. On this album I was purely trying to please myself, and that was it. Musical masurbation. I think a lot of people
are going to preceive some of this album as being wanky, because it's so grand and big, but that doesn't bother me. I know a lot of it I just wanted to make as grand as possible.
It's not a wank album, but I can see how some people are going to preceive it as being some big musical statement, like some Pink Floyd guitar thing.
P: THere's nothing wrong with Pink Floyd!
D: Exactly, I just wanted to create music that was actually art, not just music.
P: So it's deffinitly more fulfilling for you to make an artistic statement?
D: Oh definitly. I have never understood bands that just go and get the biggest producers in America. They
totally just write these songs that are obviously just written for the radio -- they start the song off with a chorus and just do verse chorus, verse
chorus, ect.. Although a lot of people like it, I certainly don't understand what's satisfying or gratifying about it. I think it's a lot more satisfying
to do something different and make an artistic statement and sell no records, because then you can look back on it in 40 years and say, "Yeah, that was good!"
Rather than "Yeah, God I'm rich," I'm glad I did this rather than sell myself out just to make money.
P: The money's important though. If you don't make money, you'll need to do something else to survive.
D: Well, of course money is important. I'm not saying I don't like money -- everyone likes money! I'd love to be able to have a house that looks like a jungle
and be able to drtive around in a BMW, but if I don't have it, I don't particularly give a shit as long as I have a roof over my head
and a bike. We were lucky with the first album that we got signed when Alternative music was so popular. I think that set us up financially, anyway. That gave us a lot
of room to experiment with the next two albums. Especially with this album.
P: I think that's something a lot of music fans don't realize. People always get mad when bands "change their sound," but as an artist,
there's no challenge in doing the same thing over and over again. You need to evolve and grow.
D: Yeah, it's like any occupation or profession. You've got to set yourself new goals and new challenges in order to
keep it interesting. A lot of bands are so dull and boring because they've been doing the same thing over and over again because they know
that if they keep doing it, they are going to keep achieving commercial success. That kind of thing just doesn't appeal to me at all. It's deffinitly what I'm
talking about with the whole radio thing. It would have been so easy for me to sit down and write Freak Show all over again, but to get a certian level of satisfaction, you have to take risks. I think
we're taking a big risk in changing our musical direction, but I think we've kept enough of the positive elements of silverchair to keep silverchair fans satisfied.
P: That leads to the whole issue of credibillity. Does it bother you guys when critics just write you off as a "boy band"?
C: Everyone has their own opinion, but at the end of the day, you have genuine fans who keep coming back. We're not really worried about pleasing the people who aren't interested.
We're just happy about getting out there and playing for the people who want to listen.
B: It does piss me off to a certain extent. A lot of our songs are harder than some people might think,
if they'd only sit down and listen to them. I don't understand human being sometimes. It's just so silly.
D: With the first album, the only reason we appealed o the whole teenage audience is because we looked young and fresh and we looked like a healthy version of a rock band.
But, as people get older, you lose that whole fresh-face image. People just get sick of seeing your face. That's when people have to say, "OK, are they good at music or did they just
totally rely on looking nice for the teenage girls and shit?" We never purposely appealed to that audience. We always avoided doing interviews with teen press and stuff, because we knew that if we
could just see the whole teen thing out, people would eventually start listening to the music and judge us for the music rather than what we looked like. I was worried about what people though of us on the first
two albums, I was always obsessed with wanting people to think we're cool. I didn't want to sell records, I just wanted people to think we're cool, and that was it. But, I'm at the stage now where as long
as the music I am writing gives me satisfaction, and as long as I'm achieving what I want to achieve, then I'm totally cool with however people want to perceive us. I don't care. I don't want to try and have to convince people.
P: "Emotion Sickness" immediately grips you, it has big orchestral sound, and that carries thoughout the record. What led to your working with David Helfgott [the pianiest who inspired the movie Shine]?
D: I was talking to the album producer and I was saying that I wanted a really crazy, manic, discordant piano part on top of this song because it's kind of beautiful. I wanted something crazy and manic and dark over the top of it.
I had seen documentaries on David and the movie Shine, and I thought he'd be really good for the part, so we got in touch with his manager and he agreed to do it. That was really good!
P: Did you feel comfortable working with him?
D: Yeah, it was strange, but it was really exciting. It was one of the most satisfying days of my life. Just having someone that special playing on a song that meant that much to me was really good
P: Continuing though the album, is "Dearest Helpless" a referance to yourself?
D: Yeah, it's like every song is a page of a diary. There's nothing in any of the songs that I've made up for artistic benefit. It's totally honest, just written in a lyrical, poetic manner.
P: What's "Satin Sheets" about?
D: That's about the corporate world looking down on people. If I walk into a restaurant or a cafe or something thee's thing whole yuppie mentality of people who think I shouldn't be there because I don't brush my hair. But I've
probably got more money than them. It's about people who think that unless you look rich, you're not rich, and if you don't look rich, you don't deserve to be at a cafe having a cup of coffee.
P: "Paint Pastel Princess"?
D: That's about anti-depressent drus taht totally level you out. You no longer feel highs and you no longer feel lows. It's all the same.
P: As the closer, is "Steam Will Rise" a song of fufillment tying it all together?
D: That's just the perfect song for the end of an album. It's very cryptic, I think it's very repetitive in ways it's very boring, but it's written to be boring. It's supposed to get you in a frame of mind.
P: Did the album succeed as therapy for you?
D: It's very theapeutic. I think without writing this album, I would be a bit of a wreck. This is my therapy and the way that I express myself. Hopefully, when people hear it, it can help other people who are going though the same kind of thing.
P: I know a lot of people felt that way about songs on the last two albums and I'm sure it will happen again. I think a lot of fans can relate because your frame of reference is better than that of someone twice a listener's age.
D: Exactly. I think it's because we're in the same age bracket. Our fans are growing with us and they might not go through the same problems, they can appreciate how hard it is.
P: Ben wrote some on Freak Show. Was there ever the change of him writing with you on this?
D: Yeah, Ben co-wrote a few of the sons on the last album, but this time around, I just had this vision in my head. I just wanted to do it. If I didn't do it with the silverchair album, I would have done it myself because I just had this vision
and I needed to do it. They totally understood what I neded to do, so they said, "Go for it."
I presented them with the songs and they really liked them, so it worked out well.
P: Does that distract from the whole element of being a band? When it gets to that point is it more of a Daniel Johns solo project than a band?
D: No, it's still a silverchair project, but I think it's a lot closer to me than Ben or Chris because I'm just very close to it. They're close to it because they played on it, they just didn't actualyl write it.
P: So, there's no rule that someone couldn't write a song with you, it just happend to work out this way?
D: Yeah, exactly, I just wanted to do everything my way. I said, "If you don't want to do it, that's cool, we'll do another album, and I'll do this another time." They just understood what I wanted to do and were cool with it.
P: This will be the first time silverchair tours without their parents.. Is America safe?
C: I don't think it will be that different, since our parents were always of doing their own things anyway and we never really saw them that much. I think it should be good though!
D: There's going to be a lot more freedom because we don't have to worry about anything but playing music. Whereas before we had to worry about the music and keeping up with what we were doing at school, and keeping our families happy,
this time we just have to worry about playing music, so I think there will be a lot more freedom on the road. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'm not sure yet.
B: I'm looking forward to just playing live, it's one of our preferred pastimes. The actual traveling though, I hate, it's one of the crappiest things in the world. Unless you're traveling to the coast for holiday, but sitting on planes
and busses for 20 hours is just a nightmare. It just pisses me off!
D: Live preformances are a whole different thing. The album is more of a piece of art. With live performance it's about projecting a certain energy at the crowd. We're not going to try and reproduce the album live, that's just not something
that's going to happen. We're just going to play with as much energy and integrity as we can.
P: What does integrity mean for silverchair?
D: Well, just being true to yourself and not selling yourself out. Not saying "OK, I've got this song and we'll sell 10 million albums, but we won't like the sound."
Anyone who will do that is just copping out, and I just don't have time for it. I'm just not going to be like that. Unless I like it myself, I'm just not going to present it to the public.
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