Back in the summer of 1995, three Australian 15-year-olds had a massive hit in the U.S. with “Tomorrow.” The song became the most played track of the year on U.S. modern rock radio, and their album “Frogstomp” sold over 2.5 million copies.
Since then, Silverchair — comprised of frontman and guitarist Daniel Johns, bassist Chris Joannou and drummer Ben Gillies — has put out four records, all achieving massive success everywhere around the world, except the U.S. The band is especially popular in their home country of Australia.
“You can’t base all your success on one country,” Joannou said. “The world is a pretty big place. The U.S. is one of those places that you could tour all year, and we just can’t do that. It’s frustrating because you want as many people as possible to hear your music, but the U.S. is not the be-all and end-all.”
The band’s latest release, “Young Modern,” was recorded late last year, and has become one of its most critically acclaimed records.
“Recording ‘Young Modern’ was probably the most enjoyable recording experience we’ve ever had,” Joannou said. “We started out in Australia in a little house in the country. We just sat around playing music all day and at night we’d have little campfire dinners. It was almost like a boys’ club out in the bush.”
Prior to the recording of “Young Modern,” the band’s future was up in the air, Joannou said.
“We hadn’t played together as a band for a couple of years, and then we did this tsunami benefit concert called Wave Aid,” Joannou said. “Before Wave Aid we hadn’t even talked about doing another record. Then after playing that gig, we all were just so excited about playing music together again.”
The hiatus gave band members time to pursue things outside of Silverchair. Gillies formed the band Tambalane, Joannou did some producing and Daniel Johns formed The Disassociatives with noted Australian electronica artist Paul Mac.
“I think having all that time off to go do things outside of Silverchair and give ourselves a break from it all was a really good thing to do,” Joannou said. “It was good to just step out of what is Silverchair.”
The band is currently in the middle of its first full-scale U.S. tour in nearly seven years.
“It’s great that we are getting out to places we haven’t played in ages,” Joannou said. “It’s been really exciting to see that people are coming out and haven’t actually forgotten about us. We’ve even seen some familiar faces from quite a few years ago. It’s been a good six or seven years since we’ve been out to some of these towns.”
The band will make a stop at the Diamond Ballroom in Oklahoma City tonight.
“I honestly can’t remember the last time we played in Oklahoma,” Joannou said. “The last time we were out that way was probably 1999, but I am not even sure we played there then.”
