Interview: Silverchair
By Danny Brown
It’s been a long five years since Australian rock band, Silverchair, last assaulted the senses with their triple-platinum album, Diorama. With the singles “Without You” and “Luv Your Life” bringing them worldwide chart success, the three-piece outfit were primed to step up to the next level.
Then, singer Daniel Johns fell ill and battled anorexia as well as a debilitating case of reactive arthritis, and Silverchair disappeared from the public eye. That all changed in 2005, when the band got together to perform and the Wave Aid benefit concert for vicitms of the Asian tsumai – infused by the response they received from the crowd, they sat down and began work on their fifth album, the recently released, Young Modern.
Silverchair recently played Toronto, and PPR caught up with bassist Chris Joannou to discuss the album, the absence from the spotlight and why they feel humble whenever they play live. My thanks to Chris for being such an affable sparring partner and to Amanda Cagan at ABC PR for organizing the interivew.
PPR: First, congrats on the new album’s success. Must be gratifying after so long away?
Chris: Cheers, appreciate it. Yeah, it’s been like six years or something like that since our last one. It’s a long time to be out of the public eye to a certain degree, I guess. But then we’ve been working on this album for the last two-and-a-half years. Dan did some song writing in London, then we all got together and hired a house together out in the country, just outside Sydney. We just set up studio in this big old room and jammed on the new material. (more…)
