If Silverchair’s brilliant new record Diorama is a beautiful slice of California sun packaged as audio enjoyment, then the reactive arthritis lead singer and guitar player Daniel Johns has been suffering from is a dark storm threatening to ruin what should be the best of times for Silverchair.
Once criticized for sounding like “Nirvana in pyjamas,” the Australian trio that is Silverchair has continually evolved its sound over the past seven years and proven to be so much more than elite media critics and black frame experts have made it out to be. For the past several months, Silverchair’s mastermind Daniel Johns has been suffering from reactive arthritis, a rare condition that affects less than six percent of the world’s population. The condition causes swelling in the joints, which has made even the slightest movements laborious and painful for the Silverchair frontman. Playing the guitar and touring are tentatively on hold for at least a year.
The tragedy in Johns’ condition is that his single-minded masterpiece Diorama, released in the United States August 27th, is not only the best Silverchair record to date but one of the very best albums of the year in any genre. Diorama is a sonic masterpiece brimming with colors and optimism; it’s simply rock music at its finest.
Diorama’s origins and inspiration reach back over 30 years. In May of 1966, Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys released their magnum opus, Pet Sounds, a sweeping epic filled with lush, complicated orchestration, heartfelt lyrics and sonic colors that painted a picture no one could have imagined from everyone’s favorite good-time surf band. Pet Sounds wasn’t just the best record of 1966, but it has remained one of the most brilliant rock records made to this day. The album set the bar very high, so high that even The Beatles admitted they felt pressured to make a better record than Pet Sounds.
Thirty-six years after the release of Pet Sounds, Johns and Silverchair have encapsulated the same creative fervor of The Beach Boys’ rock masterpiece into Silverchair’s fourth studio album.
Diorama finds Johns doing just what the title implies — molding a small world where the colors are vibrant, the sounds are layered and the music is used as an escape. Early reviews from around the world have been laudatory, but impressive reviews don’t faze Johns.
“I haven’t read reviews in the past, but this time ’round I’ve read some reviews basically because I wanted to do everything on this record I didn’t do in the past to keep it exciting. As for how [reviews] affect me, it obviously makes you feel good if people are responding positively to something you’re proud of, but the main objective when I’m writing music is to impress myself.”
Much different than his brash, outspoken colleagues in the modern rock genre, Johns is amazingly reserved, almost an introvert, an interesting clash with his huge stage persona and presence in his melodically magnetic songs. His introspective approach makes for more refined tracks that have value beyond a couple listens.
Silverchair’s 1995 debut, Frogstomp, was a heavy, melodic slice of rock that found Johns’ power chords and developing vocals pressed against drummer Ben Gillies stick-splitting drum style and bassist Chris Joannou’s deep bass grooves that trademarked the first track and fan favorite, “Israel’s Son.” Frogstomp was an international hit that found favor with fans in the band’s homeland of Australia and eventually reached world-wide on the buzz behind the massive single “Tomorrow.”
The success of Frogstomp allowed the then-teenaged band to tour with the likes of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who asked Silverchair to open for them at the last installment of Brazil’s Rock In Rio festival in 2001. The festival was significant for Silverchair mainly because it played to over 250,000 people during a blistering set that was hailed by many as one of the very best of the festival. This incredible opportunity provided its share of anxiety for the band, though.
“Initially, we were all trying to treat Rock In Rio like any other festival performance, but the atmosphere definitely affected us all, and we were all incredibly nervous and excited,” Johns noted.
Frogstomp’s follow-up, entitled Freak Show, was even darker and heavier, finding inspiration from the likes of Helmet and Quicksand, while Johns began a struggle with an eating disorder amidst a massive touring schedule. His bout with anorexia threatened the longevity of the band, but time heals all problems.
“I think as you get older you learn to deal with life in general a lot better, so that definitely tends to give you a different perspective on touring,” he explained.
The third studio album, Neon Ballroom, was the first effort from Johns’ creative lens that showed his extraordinary songwriting and orchestration capabilities. A six-minute track entitled “Emotion Sickness” with world-renowned pianist David Helfgott (the inspiration for the film “Shine”) was captivating, and the bare, haunting track “Ana’s Song (Open Fire)” was a cathartic unveiling of Johns’ struggle with anorexia and hinted that his creative fire was still burning strong.
Enter Diorama, without question Silverchair’s most compelling, distinct work to date. Johns’ goal with Diorama was to create an escape.
“The lyrics on Diorama are more of an escape from reality and more about creating a new world and a comfortable mental environment in which to dwell for a few months,” he said.
Listening to Silverchair’s records in their chronological progression illustrates the transformation that has taken place on their latest album. While this may signal that something specifically happened to change Johns’ approach to songwriting, he disregards that notion.
“Nothing specifically happened. It was more of a gradual transformation, and musically I wanted to manipulate my own feelings, as I was aware of how music can affect people emotionally,” Johns said.
Lead track “Across The Night” finds Johns paired with another musical icon, legendary composer Van Dyke Parks, a man who worked closely with Brian Wilson over the years and who adds beautiful streaks of color to Johns’ musical composite. The lyrics are optimistic and enigmatic, the song shifting from narrative to a near-dialogue with Johns testing his vocal horizons with lyrics like, “Never seen the sunshine/From higher points than sunrise/I don’t wanna be lonely/I just wanna be alone.”
The swirling elements of “Across The Night” lead into the first single, “The Greatest View,” a musical hybrid that retains the edge of Silverchair’s previous work while further pursuing the bright horizon that seems to loom around the corner throughout Diorama. The darker elements of Freak Show and Neon Ballroom left in the past, the transition from heavy rock to a more progressive, optimistic tone is apparent.
Asking Johns if he feels the album is the best he has written, he is brief and says “definitely,” but that he still has his favorites, one of which is “Tuna In The Brine,” a song at the heart and soul of Diorama. With the assistance of Van Dyke Parks, the near epic track shifts against various time changes and orchestral elements before Johns brings the rolling track to its vocal climax, a barrage of vocals against the intricate track.
“[‘Tuna In The Brine’] is probably the song I’m most proud of on the record, because it was the most labor-intensive song I’ve ever written, but for different reasons I’m proud of ‘After All These Years’ for its simplicity,” Johns explained.
The progressive, heavier rock tracks still find a place on Diorama. “One Way Mule” is a stick of rock dynamite that bridges the gap between the first and second halves of the album, while “Without You” fuses all of the elements of the album into an up-tempo rocker that grows on you with every listen.
The final track on Diorama, “After All These Years,” hints that Johns has finally reached a place where he is comfortable with his position and confident about his music. Singing “After all these years/ forget about all the troubled times,” suggests Johns has found what he has been looking for — comfort and artistic peace of mind inside of his Diorama.
With good fortune, he will be able to bring his brilliant collection of work to live audiences so that such a dynamic album gets the recognition it deserves.
