For a long time silverchair was only "another grunge band", who only made headlines 
of their own because it's members were still in high school. Often labeled as 'grunge 
light', or just a teenage Nirvana copy, silverchair had to endure quite a lot of 
trouble from the press or from Cobain widow Courtney Love, who had it in for the 
singer/guitarist Daniel Johns. She reportedly pointed out, that he might look like the 
late Kurt Cobain, but is lacking his talent- at least in her eyes.

With their new album Neon Ballroom silverchair show that they've got far more to offer 
than being just another teenage band, or the Hansons of grunge. They didn't just graduate 
from school, they also graduated musically. Neon Ballroom is an album a lot of bands 
would be proud of, even bands that have been in the business for a good deal longer than 
silverchair.

Small wonder that Daniel Johns looks almost smug, when he confesses: "I did exactly what I
wanted to do, and creatively, I'm really satisfied with it."

Neon Ballroom isn't just another grunge album; Daniel gets really personal and seems to pour
his heart out. He's a declared animal peace activist, though he confesses that he's not a
fanatic.

 "If I was fanatic about it, how could I be in the same band as two of the biggest meat eatters
 on the planet? But I support the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As I said, I'm
 not fanatic or anything, I support them as good as I can, I think everybody should, and
 sometimes I address the subject in a song."

 Daniel takes his position in the spotlight of the media very seriously, without try to exploit
 being a public figure, he still tries to make his audience aware of things that happen, and
 thinks it's his duty.

 "I'm not trying to be a teacher, I'm not trying to tell people what to do and what not to do, but
 to be honest, I'm really happy if I get mail from them and they write 'That song really made
 me think. Thanks' I see it as some sort of responsiblity. I'm in the spotlight, so I owe the public
 something. You can't just sit back and say, 'It's only music .' That wouldn't be fair at all, if a lot
 of peoplr listen to it, then it's not 'just' music anymore. Being an animal rights activist is
 something I do take seriously, and as I said, I got alot of mail from fans who never thought
 about it before, until they heard me talking-or rather singing about it in a song."

 Daniel Johns isn't just into animal rights, he has also been a vegan for about two years. While
 vegetarians refuse to eat meat, vegans go further and don't eat any products of animal origin,
 or their by products. Vegans don't eat dairy products, honey, eggs, or wear leather . He admits
 that it's a strain being a vegan when touring.

 "People just don't get it. You wouldn't believe it, a lot of them think it's necessary to eat
 animals in order to stay healthy. That's not true. For me it wasn't the health aspect but my
 conscience, but I actually think it's healthier not to eat meat. All the meatarians out there
 should check it out. The meat is full of horrible hormones and medication, of course it would
 be better if they'f realize what's going on with the animals and how cruel it is, but even if
 they'd just worry about their own health it would help. The health thing is just one of the
 advantages.

 "But what's even worse is the animal testing, that's why I wrote Spawn Again, it's all about that
 and hopefully it make some people think."

 Neon Ballroom seems to be their most personal album so far. It seems that Daniel Johns was
 battling with a lot of demons and addressed them in his songs. Another issue that's really
 surprising was his depresseion. He confessed that he's on some mood elevators, just to be
 able to function and get a grip on his emotions. Which was the subject of the song 
Paint Pastel Princess.

 "It's similar to Prozac, antidepressants, they take the highs and lows away, keep you on the
 same level, but at the same time they numb you. Unfortunately I need them, but it doesn't
 mean I have to like them.

 "I think I got more personal on Neon Ballroom, and maybe I'll regret that I was so open about
 it, I'm pretty sure that somebody is going to throw a lot of issues back into my face, but so
 what? Those were things that were going around in my head, I thought about them and it
 seemed logic that I wrote songs about them."

 But silverchair weren't just emotional; theu even addressed things like unemployment and
 irresponsibility of governments. The attitude most politicians have towards the younger
 generation irks him without end. An other issue Daniel is passionate about he cleary
 addressed it in their song Anthem for the Year 2000.

 "I think the goverment treats us like shit, they think the youth is a bunch of people who are
 wasting their lives on drugs and loud music. They're so full of prejudices, they can't even see
 over the rim of their cup. But you know what? The more they're trying to treat us like a silent,
 stupid minority, the more the youth is going to revolt and rebel. Believe me, they're treating us
 like little kids. In Australia there's a law that bans people who are under 18 from the streets
 after midnight. Now that doesn't sound so bad, but think about it, when you're under 18 and
 you visited you buddy, you're not allowed to walk home at night.

 "The politicians probably think they're able to save the world, but I don't think because you
 lock teenagers in houses at night, it's going to help the unemployment. Nor will create new
 jobs -except they employ a lot of cops who're going to make sure that they don't see anybody
 under 18 at night."

 Considering that Daniel has so much passion for the subject, it seems that there's even a
 chance that he might be politically involved one day, or might become a politician himself.
 But that's something he shrugs off with a laugh, but he doesn't want to deny the possibility
 completely.

 "Maybe, but I don't really know. You know, I don't want to be the voice of a whole generation,
 but as I already said, I think it's important to use your popularity to address important issues.
 I don't want to tell anybody what to think, but I like to give them hint -whatever they make out
 of it, that's up to them."

 Neon Ballroom seems to be the album on which silverchair grew up. It's still silverchair, 
but it shows them from a far more grown up side, musically and lyrically, it sees things 
from different perspectives instead of just sounding angry. Daniel doesn't deny it.

"Well, everybody gets older and I was never much of a party guy. I simply sat back 
and thought about things, you know, thought about my own problems and it was almost 
therapeutic.

"I think it's very satisfying to process and digest your feelings, to turn them into lyrics 
and then write the music for the lyrics. Without music I would bottle far more up, even more 
than I already do. I seem to communicate through my songs, as if they're some sort of 
medium, a medium where I can express myself.

 "When we started, music wasn't so important to us, it didn't have the same priority it has 
for us now, not the priority it should have and deserves...There were so many things that 
distracted us. When we toured, we had coordinate our touring schedrule with our school 
schedule, a teacher was always traveling with us. We simply didn't have the time to sit down 
and think about our songwriting, or concentrate on it.

"Only now I had the chance to do that, to sit down and think about it. I could think about how
I'd like to start with a new album. I wanted an album that would sound new but still familiar,
nothing too crazy, but I still wanted to experiment a bit."

 Some of his expressions seem to be downright scary, like his confessions, that he seems to 
be incapable of having a working relationshop, due to the fact that he's scared of getting close 
to somebody.

I'm almost a hermit. I only like being at home or with my family, I know they love me and I
can trust them!"

 While Ben and Chris spent their two-year break partying on the beach, Daniel worked like
 crazy, it seems that the sucess silverchair had and still has, didn't really satisfy him.

 "Well, I tried to hang out and party, but I've never been much of a party animal and within two
 weeks my fingers started to itch, literally, I wanted to do something. I felt the need to do
 something. I think our first two albums were OK, they were kinda solid, well done hard rock,
 not really original but solid. I always knew that I wanted to do more with the new album, that I
 wanted a different angle...I wanted an exciting album, something like an artistic statement,
 but I didn't want to appear to be a real wanker.

What I did was move out, get my own house and barricaded myself in, I spent two 
years there, just watching TV and thinking about the new songs, writing, 
watching some more..."