"From the very start I was determined to make an album that 
sounded different," says Daniel Johns of silverchair.

But Neon Ballroom isn't just "different." In fact, the Australian trio's 
third Epic album is a giant creative step beyond silverchair's previous 
best-selling releases, frogstomp (1995) and Freak Show (1997). It's a unique 
fusion of classical instrumentation, visceral hard rock, and futuristic 
studio experimentation in which silverchair's much-matured musical talents 
bring out a new depth and soulfulness in their material.

From Emotion Sickness, with its stirring strings and classical piano 
flourishes by David Helfgott, to the plaintive and unforgettable rock 
ballads Ana's Song (Open Fire) and Black Tangled Heart; from the sweeping 
acoustic-tinged Paint Pastel Princess to such flat-out house-shakers as 
Satin Sheets and Anthem For The Year 2000. Neon Ballroom is silverchair 
as we've never heard them before.

The Story So Far

Formed in the Australian industrial town of Newcastle in 1992, silverchair 
(Daniel Johns, guitars and vocals; Ben Gillies, drums; Chris Joannou, bass) 
were still in high school when their first single, Tomorrow, became the nation's 
Number One song in late 1994. In April 1995, silverchair's Frogstomp, became 
the first debut album by an Australian artist to enter the national charts at 
Number One.

Frogstomp was released on US Epic on June 20, 1995—the day before the band's 
North American live debut at the Roxy Theater in Atlanta, GA. Tomorrow topped 
the Billboard Alternative and Rock Airplay charts; and with heavy MTV airplay 
for the song's video, directed by Mark Pellington, Frogstomp was certified gold 
within two months of its US release. A second radio track, Pure Massacre, and 
its accompanying Peter Christopherson video combined with silverchair's extensive 
touring to turn the album into platinum by November. On December 9, the band made
a triumphant appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live."

Frogstomp reached No. 9 among Billboard Top 200 Albums, and remained on the 
chart for 49 consecutive weeks. It is now certified double platinum (over two 
million units) in the US, double platinum in Canada, triple platinum in Australia, 
and platinum in New Zealand. "These young Aussies are masters of sonic sculpture," 
wrote Musician magazine, "deftly using feedback and distortion to build vast 
cathedrals of sound of their barre-chord riffs and lean, catchy choruses."

Over a three-week period in mid-1996, silverchair recorded their second Epic 
album, Freak Show. The 13-track collection, recorded in Sydney with producer 
Nick Launay and mixed in New York by Andy Wallace, was released in February 
1997. With Freak Show, silverchair began to augment its basic punk-metal 
sound with new and diverse elements. "It's got a punk song the 2:18 Lie To Me, 
it's got a song that's six minutes long Nobody Came, it's got loud and soft," 
noted Ben Gillies at the time. "It's even got strings and tympani and sitar on 
Petrol & Chlorine."

“silverchair own the attitude, passion and songwriting skills that most Nirvana 
Juniors can only feebly approximate," wrote Rolling Stone in its 3½ star review. 
"Throughout, silverchair spin out songs strong enough to crack the charts, yet 
the band plays them with the spontaneity of an after-school jam.”

silverchair commenced a headlining US tour on February 3, 1997 in Atlanta, 
Georgia. Three months later, Freak Show (which reached No. 12 on the Billboard 
Top 200) was certified gold; the album went on to sell more than 1.5 million 
copies worldwide. The lead track, Abuse Me, cracked the Top 5 of the Rock and 
Alternative Airplay charts. The band also filmed videos for Abuse Me, directed 
by Nick Egan; and Freak, directed by DEVO founding member Gerald Casale.

The Making Of Neon Ballroom

 After graduating high school at the end of 1997, Daniel Johns, Ben Gillies 
and Chris Joannou finally were able to focus full-time on making music. In 
contrast to their previous albums, for which songs were written during short 
breaks between educational and touring commitments, Neon Ballroom is the 
product of six months spent solely on creating songs around a distinct
 musical vision.

 "When we finished touring the Freak Show album, I really thought we'd 
taken the three-piece rock thing as far we could," Daniel admits, "I was 
just getting a bit bored with it. I decided that I wanted to make an album 
that combined lots of different sounds and instruments that you don't 
usually hear being played together. Basically, I just wanted to put an 
end to all the same old comparisons and carve out our own little piece 
of turf."

 For Daniel, new working conditions led to a new writing process. "In 
the past I usually wrote the riffs first and then sort of added in 
melodies and words. But when I first started writing songs for this 
album, I wasn't coming up with much music. I just started writing lots 
of poems, so most of the new songs actually started out as lyrics which 
I set to music later on."

 "These songs are definitely a lot more personal. On the first album, 
we were only 14 or 15 so we hadn't had many experiences to inspire songs. 
With the second one, it was really about the aggression and hate that I 
was feeling toward cer-tain people at the time. On this album, there's 
probably a wider range of moods and themes in the lyrics—they're more 
based on direct experiences."

 While silverchair's previous discs were tracked in a matter of days or 
weeks, Neon Ballroom took two months of recording in Australia and almost 
a month of mixing in Los Angeles and New York. With producer Nick Launay 
(Semisonic, Midnight Oil, PiL, Freak Show) as well as some mixes by Kevin 
Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, frogstomp), the band sought to create 
from a palette of instruments and effects as distinctive as the songs 
themselves. "The basic idea," explains Ben Gillies, "was to take futuristic 
noises and combine them with more classic influences to create an unusual 
kind of blend."

Thus the songs of Neon Ballroom juxtapose spacey guitars and unearthly 
keyboard sounds with semi-classical touches of cello and harp, sometimes 
all within the one track. This sonic variety also extends to the guest 
players on the album: pianist David Helfgott (the inspiration for the 
Oscar winning film Shine) and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on Emotion 
Sickness; "found sounds" from Australian groove guru Paul Mac and backing 
vox from the New South Wales Public School choir on Anthem for the Year 2000. 
Other tracks feature keyboard contributions from Midnight Oil's Jim Moginie 
and from renowned jazz pianist Chris Abrahams. Even Daniel's dog Sweep makes 
a brief cameo appearance, on Steam Will Rise.

 "Hopefully there's enough familiar stuff in there to please people who liked 
our other albums, but enough different stuff to keep it interesting for everyone," 
reflects Chris Joannou. "It's taken us ages to get this album right, so now we're 
just looking forward to being able to get out there and play some gigs!"

 In this expertly crafted amalgam of music past, present, and future, silverchair—still 
all only 19 years old—have created an album that is truly timeless. Welcome to their 
Neon Ballroom.