After finishing up their hugely successful Freak Show tour the boys had originally
planned to take a year off, but as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men..
"After about two weeks, I started getting really anxious to write again. So I went
and living in a house for three months by myself and basically didn't leave except to go grocery shopping."
The self-imposed exile has paid off handsomely for Johns and his bandmates. Perhaps one of the
most sparkling examples of silverchair's new musical diversity is the album's opening track,
'Emotion Sickness', a brilliant collaboration with pianist David Helfgott. "The song is really
sort of pretty [but] I wanted something that was very unsettling very manic and discordant," explains Johns.
"I had seen documentaries on (Helfgott), and the movie Shine, and I really respected what he did musically.
David just seemed like the perfect guy, and personality-wise he really suited everything the song is about"
After a 13-month leave of absence from the stage, the lads were a tad nervous about performing new material
to fans, so they billed themselves as a cover band and sold tickets to an unsuspecting crowd. "We didn't
want to do it as silverchair, just in case we sucked," laughs Johns, "But it ended up being a
really good show so we were happy."
With first single ('Anthem For The Year 2000') about to be released, and a tour just
around the corner, the trio will be dealing with global success and heavy duty
schedules again in no time. Thank goodness they no longer have to worry about finals.
Interviews/Articles
The main page