Silverchair are a three piece rock band from Newcastle Australia. The group was formed by three schoolmates (Daniel Johns, guitar/vocals, Ben Gillies/drums, Chris Joannou/bass) around 1992, using the name Innocent Criminals. They first attracted public attention in mid 1994 when they won a demo competition supported by the Australian radio station Triple J. This quickly lead to a recording contract even though at the time the bandmembers were all only 14 or 15 years old.
Their debut album, Frogstomp, was a raw, muscular slab of angst riffen rock. Recorded in just nine days, it was released in 1995 and quickly became a huge hit not just in their homeland but also in North America where it entered the top 10 on the back of the single Tomorrow. At the time, some critics said that the group was derivative of many other alternative bands, particularly those from Seattle but that did not stop Frogstomp from becoming a multiplatinum success around the world, eventually selling more than 2.5 million copies.
Silverchair toured the world in between their schooling commitments including stints supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers in the U.S.
In 1997, they released their sophomore album Freak Show. The album saw the band starting to find a more original sound while Daniel Johns' lyrics dealt with the pressures of adapting to the sudden fame. In Australia and parts of Europe the album yielded huge hits such as Freak and Abuse Me but, although it went gold in the U.S., its sales performance was not as strong as Frogstomp.
Following their graduation from high school the band started work on the album that became 1999's Neon Ballroom. Daniel Johns had been through many emotional problems and he used the album as a catharsis for his personal demons. Employing a wider range of instrumentation, his heartfelt and distinctive songs had a sound which not even the harshest critic could call derivative. As a result Neon Ballroom attracted tremendous critical acclaim around the world, particularly the haunting Ana's Song" and the epic Emotion Sickness (which featured pianist David Helfgott, the inspiration for the movie Shine).
Freed of their schooling obligations silverchair was able to tour much more extensively in support of Neon Ballroom. These efforts bore fruit with the disc ultimately outselling Freak Show with global sales in excess of 1.5 million copies.
Now, all just entering their twenties, Silverchair have established themselves as a formidable live rock band. Unlike many of their contemporaries they have continued to evolve musically while attracting a loyal, and growing, fan base. They now seem established as a band with a long career ahead of them, a result which would have seemed highly unlikely when they first burst onto the music scene as teenagers back in the ninties.
Silverchair All Music Guide Biography
Silverchair quickly rose to international stardom in 1995 by mining a mix of Nirvana and Pearl Jam on their debut album, Frogstomp. Buoyed by the angst-ridden single "Tomorrow," Frogstomp topped the Australian charts and cracked the Top Ten in America, making Silverchair the first Australian act since INXS to enjoy such success in the States. The three bandmates gained just as much notoriety for their age; at the time Frogstomp was recorded, they were all 15 years old. While grunge's popularity decreased as the '90s progressed, Silverchair grew and continued to enjoy a wide audience, with both Freak Show and Neon Ballroom reaching platinum status at home and gold status abroad. By the time the group shed its post-grunge beginnings in favor of an expansive, imaginative sound (including string sections and progressive rock tendencies) in the 2000s, Silverchair had become one of Australia's most successful bands ever.
Originally called the Innocent Criminals, Silverchair was formed in 1992 in Newcastle, Australia, by three schoolmates: guitarist/vocalist Daniel Johns, bassist Chris Joannou, and drummer Ben Gillies. Two years later, their demo tape was chosen as the winner out of 800 entries in an Australian talent contest conducted by Nomad, an Australian music television show, and a local radio station, 2JJJ-FM. Included in the prize was a day in the radio station's recording studio, as well as a video for their winning song, "Tomorrow." 2JJJ-FM and Nomad began playing the video before the Innocent Criminals had signed a record contract, which helped the band earn a following of fans. It also began a bidding war among Australian record labels. By the end of the year they had a deal with Murmur, a subsidiary of Sony.
Before the release of their debut single, "Tomorrow," in September 1994, the group changed its name to Silverchair; the name was derived from Nirvana's "Sliver" (which was accidentally misspelled as "Silver") and You Am I's "Berlin Chair." "Tomorrow" became a major hit in Australia, reaching number one; it would eventually become the country's fourth-biggest-selling single ever, as well as the most played song of 1995 on U.S. modern rock radio. In January 1995, Silverchair released a second single, "Pure Massacre," which also hit number one. That same month, the band recorded their debut album, Frogstomp, in just over a week. Upon its release, Frogstomp became the first album to enter the Australian charts at number one, and it went platinum within a week; it would soon go multi-platinum and spend six weeks in a row at number one.
Silverchair's success in the United States was nearly as quick. Released in America in summer 1995, Frogstomp began climbing the U.S. charts quickly, thanks to heavy MTV exposure and modern rock airplay for "Tomorrow." Soon, the album went platinum in America as well, and by the end of 1995, "Pure Massacre" had become a radio/MTV hit in the U.S.
Silverchair toured throughout the first half of 1996, recording their second album in the second half. The band returned in early 1997 with Freak Show, a record that received better reviews than its predecessor yet failed to match its sales. The guys graduated from high school that same year, toured the world a few times, and looked ahead to their next album. Neon Ballroom followed two years later, and though songs like "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" (a track about Johns' struggle with an eating disorder) and "Anthem for the Year 2000" did moderately well on the charts, they also failed to do much for Silverchair's American sales. They toured extensively over 1999 in the U.S. and Europe before taking a year or so off to regroup. Their next album, 2002's Diorama, was a shockingly creative and impressive step forward that showed the band shedding their grunge past and adding horns, strings, and mature lyrics to their arsenal. It sold quickly in Australia and Silverchair picked up multiple ARIA Awards that year, including Best Rock Album and Best Group.
A year later, the band went on an indefinite hiatus, and Johns collaborated with Paul Mac as the Dissociatives, releasing a gold-selling album with him in 2004. Silverchair regrouped early the next year to put on a benefit concert for victims of the prior year's devastating tsunami. They soon began work on a new album, funding the recording themselves to remove the added label pressures from the past. The resulting Young Modern surfaced in early 2007 and debuted at the top of the Australian albums chart, making Silverchair the only Aussie band to enjoy five number one albums. Later that year, the band set another national record when they swept the ARIA Awards, bringing their total to 19 and eclipsing John Farnham's previous record. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
