With "Neon Ballroom", Silverchair have become one of the most popular rock 'n' roll bands in the world. While that brings with it plenty of fun and freedom, it can also create isolation and anxiety. That burden falls heaviest on singer, main songwriter and frontman Daniel Johns - who wrote the new album while taking refuge alone for six months, trying to deal with it all, as well as his own personal stresses. Bassist Chris Joannou and drummer Ben Gillies are more at ease with their situation. We caught up with Ben in Dallas, where the band were playing a benefit show for Kosovo refugees.

How do you find the difference between playing a Silverchair show of your own, and playing to a big festival crowd like the kind you'll see on EdgeFest?
It all depends, really. It's good to play in different environments. Give it a bit of a change, keep it fresh. It all comes down to the crowd, really. If you're playin' a huge show and the whole crowd is going absolutely nuts, it can be a real buzz. But it's the same in a small club, if everybody is going crazy.

Are you touring at a pace that you can all handle better now, or is it still pretty hectic?
I think we've been touring in a pretty good style. We don't do it that hard. It's more relaxed. Everyone's fine.

You have a bit of a reputation within the band - and outside of it - as something of a wild man. "Ben is the Keith Moon of silverchair," say your bandmates. Do you feel like that at all?
I dunno. I think if you like to have a few drinks and to have a bit of fun, then you're the "wild man." If people want to think that, it's fine.

Maybe you just seem like a wild man as compared to your bandmates.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I don't mind having a bit of fun and a few drinks, muckin' around.

Have there been any standout shows, positive or negative, so far?
The standout show for me would be the one we did in, I think it was Baltimore. It was a rodeo show, and I think we played to about 70,000 people. It was absolutely enormous, huge; the biggest crowd we've ever played to. It was very amazing. It was a good feeling. It was a big football stadium or some kind of sporting arena.

Ya gotta wonder how the person in the last row is feeling about things.
Aw, shit yeah. It'd be like watching a bloody matchstick jump up and down!

People think that you get to see the world when you tour, but if you only see it from an airplane window, a hotel room, or a stadium, I imagine you don't get to absorb too much. Is that changing?
These days we've been getting out a bit more and seeing a lot more of the places where we've been staying. And now that we're a bit older, we're more interested in that stuff. More so than we were at 14 and 16, when we were more worried about where the video arcade was. We definitely get out much more.

Have you seen anything of interest in the last while?
Actually, we were in Myrtle Beach [South Carolina] a couple of days ago - we actually had a day off there - and all of us went jet-skiing. It wasn't just yer normal jet-skiing in open areas. It was on this river, and you had a guide going with you, so they took you around. All of us, being from Australia, could relate to seeing the bush. That kind of environment was good [for us].

Jet-skiing down the river. Kinda sounds like an update of Huckleberry Finn.
It was so good, we had so much fun. And they're freakin' fast, too. But we actually do that back in Australia as well.

EXPANDING SOUNDS IN THE NEON BALLROOM

Neon Ballroom is a really ambitious record. Where did you come up with the idea to experiment with strings, pianos, flutes and harps?
I think it was a combination of the fact that we'd just done so much, kinda, straight rock, so we wanted a bit of a change to keep it fresh, and we wanted to stick out and do something really different. Most bands these days seem to be down to the "rock-slash-electronica" sound. Or hip-hop, or everyone's going the computer way. We thought we'd go the opposite way, toward old-sounding instrumentation mixed with modern stuff. There are a few modern-sounding tunes on there. Hence the name Neon Ballroom.

How did you translate those sonic ideas into actual sounds in the studio?
A lady named Jane Scarpantoni wrote all the strings for the album. Daniel had some ideas for strings, and he sat down with her, told her what he thought, and from what he said she wrote them out.

How do you re-create those sounds live?
We've actually got a keyboardist on tour, Sam Holloway. He plays string parts, piano parts, Hammond organ parts. He's a talented man, that's for sure. We did some auditions back in Newcastle in Australia - put an ad in the paper, though they didn't know who they were playing for. We narrowed it down to the last few and he was one of them. He's actually from Melbourne, but he flew up. He was really, really good, so we got him.

"Spawn Again" is one of the few co-writing credits with Daniel and yourself. How did that come about?
Actually, that's probably one of the oldest songs written on the album. We wrote that song for the Spawn movie soundtrack. We had it kind of funkified, remixed for that by a band called Vitro, I think, in the U.K. We liked the song so much that we thought we'd put the original version on the album. It's really fun playing that song live.

CARRYING ON WITH DANIEL DOWN

How did you and Chris deal with Daniel's six-month period of seclusion?
It was alright. If we're doing some pretty heavy touring, we don't really see each other very much anyways. He just kind of did his own thing, and I just did my own thing - went surfing and had fun while he was getting over his depression, or whatever. We didn't really get into it. He likes to be by himself. It's not the best news in the world, but we just let him do his own thing.

Were you two scared about what was going down?
You always worry about this kind of thing, if he's alright, blah blah blah… But in the end, he's got to figure it out for himself. It's hard when he doesn't really talk to anyone, except for his parents, or whatever. It's hard when you don't really know what's going on in his head. We just let him do his thing.

You guys seem to take care of each other a bit when you're on tour.
I think we've got touring down to a fine art. Everyone's really good. If anyone needs their personal space, you give it to 'em. And everyone gets their fair share of shit as well.

I've read where you and Chris room together, but Daniel rooms on his own.
Chris and I get in together because we like to maybe go out for a few drinks. Daniel would much rather sit in his room, watch telly and just chill out. At least that way, neither of us are barging into his room at three in the morning after going out for a night.

You drink anything but beer? Just curious.
Yeah, we get into the spirits occasionally. But beer is definitely the main beverage.

Daniel has said before that real rock 'n' roll comes from anger. But this album seems to be coming more from sadness or pain.
That's probably why it's not as "rock" as the others. But I actually disagree with you, my man. I believe that you don't have to be angry to be able to write rock music.

MYTH VERSUS REALITY

There's some myths that have dogged silverchair that seem to have finally been dispelled. One of them is that thing about being so young. Has that gone away?
Yeah, everyone's finally realized that we're here to stay and we're not muckin' around, y'know? We're a real band. Whereas before, I think to a certain extent we were a novelty, like we were gonna be a one-hit wonder, or whatever. People are taking us seriously. Not that they didn't before, but more, the masses.

Another thing was the constant comparison to Nirvana.
The funny thing about that is that people would compare us to Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but what they don't think about is that would mean that Pearl Jam would have to get compared to Nirvana as well… Some people say stupid shit. I dunno. The fact that people used compare us to those two bands has never ceased to amaze us. Really stupid. We don't really get that anymore.

You have crowds who are so completely devoted to what you're doing that they're freaking out when you show up. On the one hand, it's amazing that you've reached that many people who've responded that strongly; on the other hand, it can probably be a bit imprisoning, especially for Daniel.
It's good to know that fans are that devoted. Makes you feel good. But when they go that one step too far, following you around constantly, always hassling you - when it gets to that point, you want to turn around and say "Leave me alone." But you don't wanna… I don't think you should do that. They're not there for bad reasons, but if they just knew when to call it quits, it'd be alright. Just come and say hello, maybe hang out for a bit, then get out of there. But if someone's around all the time…

Having played "Anthem For The Year 2000," do you it'll be something special, or just another year?
I'm sure there'll be some things that kind of stuff up, that might be 2000-worthy, but I think it'll be just another year. With technology these days, they'll just fix it, quick-smart, and we'll be alright.