MUSIC FEATURE
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SILVERCHAIR
DIORAMA
In Album Tales, Bryget Chrisfield hits you with
some juicy nuggets of wisdom surrounding
classic records. This month it’s Silverchair’s
mind-blowing corker from 2002, Diorama.
Following the Neon Ballroom
tour promoting their 1999 album
of the same name, Silverchair
announced they would take a
year’s hiatus from performing live.
Daniel Johns had been prescribed
antidepressants for years, but,
when he went off his meds and
started feeling the full range of his
emotions once more, Diorama –
his self-described “detox album” –
poured out in vivid technicolour: a
fantasy place to escape to. During
the excellent doco Across the
Night: The Creation Of Diorama,
Daniel reveals making their fourth
record made Silverchair feel
“young and enthusiastic” again.
At this stage of their career, The
Chair had signed with U.S. label
giants Atlantic Records and were
working with their biggest budget
to date. But Atlantic initially
shelved the album, with Daniel
detailing during an interview:
“The American record company
wanted to pull so much stuff
out of the arrangement and, you
know, ‘American radio doesn’t
play horns, can we get rid of
that?’ and then, ‘Can we get Fred
Durst from Limp Bizkit to produce
it?’ And I was like, ‘Can everyone
get f-cked?’”
And aren’t we all super-stoked
that he stood his ground!?
The deleted Silverchair album
Once the Neon Ballroom tour wrapped, Daniel
demoed-up a bunch of new songs he’d written,
inspired by California desert-rockers Kyuss. Then,
after deciding these songs sounded too much like
Silverchair’s previous output – and also fearing
the band would back themselves into a corner
if they continued down this heavy road – Daniel
permanently erased these demos of material he’d
been working on for about 18 months, and started
over.
Year
2002
point where my body started eating itself – that’s
how upset I was.” During Diorama’s mixing
process, Daniel started experiencing joint pain and
swelling, which was later diagnosed as reactive
arthritis.
The ARIA performance that changed it all
Because Silverchair’s management had the
foresight to preserve the rights for Australia,
Diorama was released in this territory in March,
2002 (even though Atlantic
initially refused to put it out
in the States). The album
Painting with piano
Even though he couldn’t
debuted at #1 on the ARIA
actually play the instrument
Albums Chart, and was on
its way out of the charts
at the time, Daniel committed
seven months later when
to writing Diorama on piano.
While teaching himself how
the band was invited to
to play, Daniel placed prints
perform at the 2002 ARIA
Awards (where The Chair
by artists including Salvador
Silverchair in 2002, L-R: Ben Gilles,
collected five trophies).
Dali and Brett Whiteley –
Daniel Johns, Chris Joannou
which inspired Across the
Daniel has since revealed
Night and Tuna in the Brine
that he was only able to play
guitar for about three minutes per day around this
respectively – on top of his piano, detailing during
time, so had to gradually build up his strength to
an interview: “I was trying to score their work.”
Paul Mac – who was later brought in to help
manage The Greatest View’s 3:40-minute duration.
translate Daniel’s vision – has admitted that, at the
Following Silverchair’s performance of The
Greatest View – resplendent with brass section
time, he thought releasing Diorama could spell
“commercial suicide” for Silverchair.
plus Paul Mac on keys – Diorama rocketed back up
the charts, which encouraged the band’s American
Making Diorama took a toll on Daniel’s health
label to finally release the masterwork.
When Silverchair’s U.S. label reps heard
And those who had been snoozing
Diorama, they didn’t get it. “I remember the
on Silverchair’s musical evolution?
record company locking me up in the hotel
They were suitably wowed...
Daniel
ly
room, saying, ‘We need a rock single’,” Daniel
Johns recent
s
announced hi
recalled, “and it was just, like, I felt the album
m
new solo albu e
was finished.” In the startlingly good Who Is
Never, du
re
tu
Fu
Daniel Johns? podcast, he reveals, “It really
Continue reading the full article
out April 1!
made me angry, and it really upset me to the
online at stack.com.au
JB UNCOVERED
BONOBO
Fragments
GET IN ON THIS FRESH RELEASE
Fragments is the most emotionally intense record that Bonobo has ever made.
It’s no surprise that it’s also his masterpiece.
Out January 14th.
XX
AUGUST 2020
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