In 1994, the threesome formed a band called Innocent Criminals with another fellow student Tobin Finnane as a second guitarist, though this didn’t last very long and the band reverted back to a three piece. They played numerous shows around the Hunter Region, and they fleshed out their song list with covers of songs by bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. In 1994, the band then entered YouthRock, which was a national competition for school-based bands, and placed first ahead of older competition. On the back of this they recorded their first demo which contained the songs "Acid Rain", "Cicada", "Pure Massacre", and "Tomorrow"
In April of that year, the band's mainstream breakthrough came when they won a national competition called Pick Me, using their demo of the song "Tomorrow". The competition was conducted by the SBS TV show Nomad and the alternative radio station Triple J. As part of the prize, Triple J recorded the song and ABC filmed a video, which was aired on 16 June. For the video's broadcast, the three changed the name of the band to Silverchair. In a 1994 interview with Melbourne magazine Buzz, the band claimed the name derived from a radio request for "Sliver" by Nirvana and "Berlin Chair" by You Am I being mixed up as Silver Chair. It was later revealed they were named for the C. S. Lewis–penned novel The Silver Chair from The Chronicles of Narnia series. Johns later said of the fake story in a July 2007 interview: "We can't just say it's the name of a book and [that] we were looking for a name and thought that sounded good, so we thought we'd come up with a story...".
A bidding war saw the band signed a three-album recording contract with Sony Music subsidiary Murmur Records. In September, their Triple J recording of "Tomorrow" was released as a four-track extended play and from late October it spent six weeks at number-one on the ARIA Singles Chart.
All that was left for the band was to write and record their debut studio album. That’s a daunting thing at the best of times for the most experienced bands. But just how daunting could it have been for a band of three mates who were still at school together, and were all just 15 years of age?
The immediate crunching riff and Eddie Vedder-like vocal from the start of “Israel’s Son” gives this album the punch it needs. And it also gives you cause for pause to wonder just how can three 15 year old kids put something like this to vinyl? It is a little bit ridiculous to be honest. And that opening lyric - “Hate is what I feel for you, And I want you to know that I want you dead, your late for the execution, if you're not here soon I'll kill a friend instead”. What in the hell had Daniel Johns gone through to come up with something like that?! It’s not confronting as such, just really surprising from the outset. The Pearl Jam influence that is one of the band’s loves is obvious throughout, as is the great sound the band gets from just the guitar. Bass and drums. The increase in speed as the track comes to its conclusion is a great finish to the song, a burst of energy that pushes the intensity forward. This was one of the band’s earliest songs and acts as a really strong opening to the album. The first single, and song that got the band noticed and signed, “Tomorrow” follows up, an obvious choice to continue the drive into the middle of the album. This is a re-recorded version of that initial single, and is noticeable with a heavier and better produced sound musically along with more depth in Daniel’s vocal delivery. Many still believe this song is one of the band’s most important moments beyond it being the song that got them signed. It still offers everything that the fledging gang of youths had going for them when they first came together as a band, and still showcases the beyond their years maturity that they possessed at this point of their careers.
“Faultline” harks on the loss of a brother and friend, and is a song of three pieces almost faultlessly (no pun intended) put together. The change in tempo and the drumming, from 2/4 to 4/4, from tom and cymbal smashing to clean hi hat and snare work to the final increasing rolling drum battle to the end of the song, dominates the mood of the track throughout. Ben Gillies does a fantastic job on this song of being the star provider. The rolling mood of the song and the channelling of vocals similar to Live’s Ed Kowalczyk from Live by Johns gives this song a great kick throughout. And then back onto this another of the band’s earliest and best-known songs, “Pure Massacre”. Here is where Johns unleashes a couple of monster riffs, and Chris’s bass line throughout the song makes the song as good as it is, rumbling and rambling throughout and given the opportunity to be the main basis of this track, unencumbered nor dominated by the drums or guitar. In structure this is one of the simpler songs on the album, but the bass gives it its definition, and Johns’s solo through to the song's conclusion adds to charm. The best known and arguably best songs of the band have been front loaded here on the album which gives it the heavy hitting sound to draw you in.
“Shade” dials back the tone of the album and draws back the tempo into a clear guitar dominated song that sounds as though it was again inspired by one of the bands heroes in Pearl Jam. Johns ramps up his vocals by the conclusion of the track which pushes it beyond its inner boundaries. “Leave Me Out” too shows that inspiration, more by the Eddie Vedder vocal again from Johns and the heavily distorted guitar and cymbal smashing drum beat that dominate. “Suicidal Dream” changes all of this up, sounding like no other song on the album. Johns’ agonised vocal delivery here portrays the pain felt in the lyrics, ones that go deeper than kids should be staring at. These two songs sound great and are performed and recorded very well, but there is a nagging feeling that they are missing something to deliver the full punch they could deliver. “Madman” however is the most metal song on the album, with a great crunching guitar riff ably supported by the bassline underneath and the drums crashing heavily over the top. It just sounds like the three of them set up and just unleashed all of their anger and metal tendencies into 2 minutes and 43 seconds. This is still one of my favourite Silverchair songs, Johns’s guitar throughout with a multitude of riffs and licks is just fantastic, the time changes work perfectly, and it just barrels down the highway. Great stuff.
“Undecided” is based around another heavy riff and complementing bass riff on top of the crash and bash drum beat, at times mixing Alice in Chains vibes with other Seattle type influences. “Cicada” is another of the songs here that is outside of the box, that doesn’t sound like the template that has been laid down by the majority of the songs here. Johns’s guitar riff isn’t as distorted, the drums aren’t as heavy handed, and the vocals are in a clearer context in a mid-register and more melodic throughout. Because of its point of difference to the other tracks on the album, this stands out as one of the best. And then the album concludes with “Findaway”, an upbeat up-tempo song with lyrics that are uplifting and positive in their demeanour and output. This song is a leader for so many bands who followed, producing this kind of alt-rock that proliferated the airwaves over the next few years. It gives the album an uplifting end, and finishes off a remarkable debut album.
Growing up in Australia in the 1990’s pretty much meant that you would be exposed to the national broadcasters youth radio station, 2JJJ. It was not only radio where you got to hear the music that commercial radio steered clear of (thus by default making it cool), but it was a station that championed the youth of the nation and especially the unheralded and unsigned bands of the age. If you wanted to hear the alternative heroes of that day and age, you found them on Triple J. And as we have already established here, Silverchair came to prominence by way of this path.
So like everyone else in Australia I was given wall to wall coverage of this band of 15-year-olds from Newcastle who were going to be the next Nirvana or the next Pearl Jam or whatever other big band you wanted to name. And “Tomorrow” was played non-stop everywhere for what felt like years. Which did indeed become a little tiresome. And then when this band was released, it was promoted to the hilt. “Pure Massacre” had already been released as the second single from the album and was one I liked more than “Tomorrow”, and “Israel’s Son” would come a few weeks after this release. So there was already three songs out there pummelling Silverchair into your psyche without even owning the album. So there were things driving me away from this album. Firstly, it was 1995, my black hole year where I did little of anything except try to drink myself into oblivion. And secondly, I definitely pulled away a little (or a lot) because of the hype. Everybody was on board with this album and band, so I couldn’t be. It was like being back in high school again. I am not cool so I can’t like what the cool people like. Everyone loves a band, so I just refuse to engage. And I definitely did that with this album. Indeed, I don’t think I actually listened to this album until early 1997, after I had heard the first single drop from their following album. The album was “Freak Show”, the single was “Freak”, and I thought “who the fuck are these guys?!?!” and it was Silverchair. So on that basis I got “Frogstomp” to see if I had actually missed something I shouldn’t have.
Did I? Probably, yes. I mean, were these kids the greatest songwriters in the world at this point? No. They are kids. Not everything was perfect, and a lot of credit probably has to go to producer Kevin Shirley for getting the best out of them and down on tape. But there is a lot of stuff here that is exceptional for their age. Well, that’s not quite right, because ALL of it is exceptional for a band of their age. And the album still sounds as good today as it did back in the day. And when wearing your rose coloured glasses you can happily say ‘how good is this album?’ But for me, as much as I still enjoy listening to the album – and most certainly have over the last few days in preparing this episode – what I get out fo it most is that it is the platform for what came next. Because the amount that this threesome must have learned in all the initial excitement, then writing and recording this album, then the touring behind it, must have been extensive, such that when it came to writing and recording the follow up album, they would not only be more their OWN band, but would have further experiences and skills to utilise to make an album that was even better. And that is exactly what they did.
Of their five studio albums, “Frogstomp” for me comes in at #3. And through all of the trials and tribulations that these three kids from Newcastle went through over the next 30 years – not all bad but not all good – this album still stands as a testament to everyone that age is not a barrier to living the dream of being a band and recording an album and touring as a living. If nothing else, for those of us who lived through the hoopla, it is a standing reminder of those days of youth.
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