Silverchair

The members of Silverchair were all born in 1979 in the Newcastle surf suburb of Merewether. Singer/guitarist Daniel Johns and drummer Ben Gillies started making music together at primary school and schoolmate Chris Joannou later joined on bass. Silverchair's debut album "Frogstomp", recorded in just nine days in early 1995, was a raw sounding slab of edgy alternative rock. A .1 hit in Australia and New Zealand the disc went on to become the first Australian album since INXS to hit the U.S. top 10, selling more than 2.5 million copies throughout the world. The trio also found time that year to record their sophomore album‚“Freak Show‚” which was released early in 1997. A more adventurous piece of work than‚“Frogstomp‚” this disc yielded three top ten singles in Australia‚“Freak‚”‚“Abuse Me‚” and‚ “Cemetery".“Freak Show” went gold in the United States and global sales eventually exceeded 1.5 million copies in spite of the fact that the band had to juggle world tours while trying to finish their final year of high school. After finally graduating from school the band were able to spend much more time creating their critically lauded breakthrough, “Neon Ballroom” which was released in March 1999. The group’s songwriter, Daniel Johns had been battling personal demons as he attempted to adjust to Silverchair’s sudden success and he poured these experiences into his new batch of songs. Determined to shake the constant musical comparisons which had previously dogged his band Johns created a truly original sounding album. Fusing heavy rock with orchestral flourishes and synthetic touches with powerfully emotional lyrics, “Neon Ballroom” was universally acclaimed as a huge creative leap for Johns and his bandmates. In June 2001 the band entered a studio in Sydney with producer David Bottrill (Tool, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) to start work on their fourth album, “Diorama."