silverchair are from Newcastle, Australia. It all began when Daniel Johns, Chris Joannou and Ben Gillies entered their song "Tomorrow" into a national demo competition. Tomorrow ended up winning first place out of 800 entries from other groups across the country. The prize was a day in the recording studio in Australia’s national alternative radio network 2JJJ-FM (known to Aussie’s as Triple J). The song was then added to Triple J’s playlist. All of a sudden requests for Tomorrow started ringing off the hook and before Daniel, Chris and Ben had time to blink, their song was bumped up into heavy rotation all across Australia!

Daniel: "After school, we used to go to Ben’s garage and "muck" around. (Aussie-speak for "fool" around). We never really set out to get a record contract. We just entered for something to do. We didn’t think we’d win anything. So when we did, it was like a surprise."

I first met Daniel, Chris and Ben when they were only 15 & 16 years old. At the time, they were touring in between school during their summer holidays. (Australian summer holidays begin in January and end around April). They were promoting their first CD, Frogstomp. Back then, silverchair used to be managed by their moms. When asked what that was like, Chris responded, "Well, we didn’t have to pay em!"

silverchair are one of the few bands that actually stayed in school full-time. Neon Ballroom, silverchair’s 3rd record is the boys’ first CD written after graduating from High School.

Daniel: Frogstomp and Freak Show were both written when we were still in school. We didn’t really have a lot of time just to totally focus on music. It was always a part-time thing. With Neon Ballroom, it was a lot more creatively satisfying because it was written when we actually had time to think. It didn’t feel like we were being rushed... that we had to do it during certain hours of the day. I was writing when I naturally felt like it."

Chris: "Even with touring, it’s better. When we were in school it was like we had to basically think two separate things."

At their graduation which happened at the end of 1997 right after the Freak Show tour, the boys wore "white shirts" and "blue shorts" and apparently looked "stunning" on Prom night. "Did you have dates?", I asked. "Yeah!", they responded. "Each other?", I continued to ask, "Yeah!", was their answer.

Back in 1995 when I first met silverchair, I asked Daniel about why he doesn’t write songs about girls:

Exan: "You’re not writing about school or girls... Are you trying to go beyond teenage angst and write songs that anyone can relate to?"
Daniel: "I can’t be bothered writing about girls, cars and school cuz there’s no point! If we’re playing a really heavy song and I sing about a girl or something, it doesn’t really fit in so we don’t do it!"

Exan: "What’s wrong with girls?"
Daniel: "Nothing.. I just can’t be bothered to write songs about ‘em!"

Daniel’s obviously changed his tune with songs like Miss You Love on Neon Ballroom! But of course the album still rawks with tunes like Anthem For The Year 2000.

Daniel: "I wanted to have a stadium rock song & lyrically it’s about the youth standing up for their rights because it’s basically aimed at a political party in Australia trying to impose restrictions on young people."

Daniel’s dog "Sweep" also makes an appearance on Neon Ballroom!!!

Daniel: "Sweep is always getting called a boy & she hates it! I was doing lots of my vocal tracks with my dog in the vocal booth on Steam Will Rise. I was singing really quietly so she thought I was singing to her so she just barked to react and it was in the right place for some reason. I think she knew because she’s very talented so she barked in the break and it came in perfectly so we kept it!

In the UK, Neon Ballroom became silverchair’s 1st Top 40 hit!

In Canada, the album is already certified Gold!! In Australia the album debuted at #1, making it the 3rd No. 1 album debut for silverchair in their home country!!