Triple J interview with Daniel Johns As fans across Australia and around the world tuned in to hear the premiere of silverchair's Anthem For The Year 2000 on Triple J and the Internet, the station talked via telephone with Daniel Johns, who was at home in Newcastle. Following is a transcript of the interview. JJJ: How are you doing tonight, Daniel? Daniel: I'm good, how are you? JJJ: I'm very well, thanks. Thanks very much for joining us. Daniel: That's alright. JJJ: Can you tell us about Anthem For The Year 2000? What was behind making this song particularly? Daniel: One night I was dreaming and I had this really vivid dream that we were playing at this huge stadium and it was really jam packed full of people and the PA blew up and we were playing this show so we got everyone to clap their hands. Yeah, I woke up in the middle of it, it was a lot longer than that, a lot more detailed, but I forget because it was a dream. I just wanted to write an anthemic song which kind of expressed my opinions towards a lot of politicians... people in high positions... JJJ: Obviously the dream left quite an impression with you. Daniel: Yeah, not so much... I just thought it'd be cool to have a big anthemic song and the dream kind of just inspired the musical direction of the song, but lyrically I already had ideas which I just put to that music. JJJ: Mmm hmm. Can you tell us about the idea behind what you're talking about your feelings toward politicians? Can you describe where your feelings are with that? Daniel: Yeah, it was just mainly about fascism and the way that a lot of people are trying to treat certain generations, like I think that One Nation party, they wanna put some stupid law that restricts young people from being on the street after certain times. I think that's restricting the youth from their freedom which they got to have so I don't see why we should have to have young people at home by a certain time. Fascism? This is Australia! We shouldn't have to deal with that! JJJ: They're pretty drastic measures aren't they? Looking at end solutions rather than dealing with the problem. Daniel: Exactly! JJJ: So what about the rest of the album? Because it is quite different from frogstomp and Freak Show and also because it's been such a long time coming. How has the band gone through the process of putting the album together? Daniel: Just when we finished doing the Summer Freak Shows in '97 we originally intended to have a year off just to kind of get over the whole... 'cause we worked pretty hard for the first two albums with the touring and school and everything like that, but after two weeks I just started feeling, really... like I couldn't handle not having anything to do so I just ... wrote lots of poetry and just couldn't really write any music, and I just came up with an idea for an album. I just wanted to do something very orchestral but still make it sound dangerous, not have it sound sweet and safe -- so much stuff you hear on the radio these days is safe, boring rock music. JJJ: And you collaboration with David Helfgott? How did you develop the idea to work with him? Daniel: I was having a meeting with a guy called Larry something... Larry, I can't pronounce his last name, but he was writing the piano part for David and I was just telling him the kind of manic discordant mood of the piano part that I really thought would be necessary for the song and everyone just thought David was the perfect guy for the job because he was Australian and had this kind of element of mystique about him which we thought would be really interesting collaborating with him. JJJ: How did you find - because at Cobram, at the Peaches 'n' Cream festival you performed quite a few tracks from this album -- how was the reception to your songs? Daniel: I can't really... I don't really know 'cause I had my eyes closed and I was just kinda too scared of making a mistake so I wasn't really concentrating. But Emotion Sickness in particular, I think a few people were a bit confused but the rest of the songs like the straighter rock songs like Anthem For The Year 2000 went down really well so hopefully people will like it. JJJ: And you've remixed Spawn as well? Daniel: Yeah, it's not so much a remix, we just re-recorded it with a new version of it because we really liked the song and thought it was wasted just being on a soundtrack. JJJ: Yeah, sure, and what about your tour? It's quite an extensive chock-a-block date-filled tour across Europe and the states as well I believe. Daniel: Yeah, we get worked really hard. JJJ: How are you preparing for it? Eating lots? Training daily? Daniel: Yeah, just basically every morning I wake up at 6 a.m. and just surf until about 3, and then go for a jog about 18 kilometres [11 miles] and then I work out at the gym for three hours, then I come home and eat chickpeas to get protein, then watch Neighbours then quickly get back into the gym, more surfing and basically just work really hard to get the right physique for touring. JJJ: That's great, thats a really full-on fitness program you've got there. Daniel: Yeah, I work myself really hard. JJJ: And I believe London and New York are already sold out? That's pretty amazing. Daniel: Yeah, pretty surprising actually. Yeah, we're happy. JJJ: OK, well, Daniel, can you introduce the song for us? Daniel: What song is it? Anthem? JJJ: Anthem For The Year 2000 -- the one everyone's been wanting to hear. Daniel: I thought you might have, y'know, done a little history of the band first, like maybe Tomorrow and then... but if you just wanna jump straight to the chase... OK, ready? JJJ: Yep, sure! Daniel: This is Anthem For The Year 2000 and it's silverchair's new single. JJJ: Thanks very much, Daniel. Daniel: Thank you! (Thanks to Chairpage for the transcript.) EDITOR'S NOTE: It's not that Daniel was hoping Triple J would play any of the band's other songs first -- it's just that he was told prior to the interview that the station would be doing just that. But as you can see, he was happy to introduce Anthem, which Triple J played for the first time immediately following the interview.
