Daniel Johns (Silverchair) in '95: "Guitar Solos Are DUMB" (Grunge Killed Shredding)

The Grunge Era: Revisiting Silverchair's Rise to Fame

In this episode, we delve into an article from Alternative Guitar magazine, reminiscing about the grunge era of the early to mid-90s. The host reflects on the mainstream popularity of guitar-oriented music during that time and shares his personal connection to the era. Focused on the band Silverchair, which emerged as young, inspired musicians from Australia, we explore an interview with Daniel Johns, the band's lead singer, and guitarist. The discussion covers Silverchair's sudden rise to fame, their musical influences, and their unique place in the grunge scene. Whether you're nostalgic for the 90s or discovering Silverchair for the first time, this episode offers an enlightening glimpse into one of the defining bands of the grunge movement.

00:00 Introduction and Overview of 90s Guitar Music
00:48 Spotlight on Silver Chair
02:20 Interview with Daniel Johns
03:33 Silver Chair's Rise to Fame
06:03 Daniel Johns on Guitar and Influences
13:49 The Evolution of Silver Chair's Sound
14:57 Conclusion and Personal Reflections

Transcript

Silverchair

[00:00:00] Hey, rock fan. I have a doozy of an article for you today from this magazine right here. Alternative Guitar three. Now in the early nineties to mid nineties. Guitar oriented music, specifically grunge was huge, and it was really the mainstream type of music on the radio back then. And it's not like today.

[00:00:17] Today is mainly pop, hip hop and rock. Radio stations are far and few between. But back then, as a guitar player, myself, learning guitar, loving the guitar, playing gigs, it was an ideal era to just grow up in, in the early to mid nineties. And guitar World was already a. Famous magazine, but they started releasing alternative guitar, a side magazine to placate to a lot of the grunge stuff and a lot of the alternative, quote unquote music coming out back then.

[00:00:46] And I dug it all up. This is one of them. And I'm gonna talk about one of my favorite bands back then. Silver Chair, believe it or not, silver Chair. They weren't one of the original grunge. Bands, right? Like Nirvana and Pearl Jam Sound Garner. They all came out early nineties, but they were one of the, I mean, you could call 'em like imitators.

[00:01:04] You know how just like any movement, a lot of the music companies start signing or looking for bands similar to what's popular at the time, and Silver Chair was one of them. Luckily they were early on. A lot of what happens in movements is that by the end, nearing the seven to eight year mark. Or even before that.

[00:01:23] Nowadays it's probably much faster. The trends tends to die down and, but these companies, music companies are still. Trying. And so they're still trying to sign bands that kind of sound like the originators. And a lot of times it just becomes super watered down, pretty much crap. Now, silver Chair wasn't one of those bands.

[00:01:40] They were early on. A big reason why you listen to music is you want some inspiration. Not only is the music awesome, but you want to be inspired. Either their singer inspires you, the lyric inspires you, or something about that band inspires you. And for me, being young, a guitar player kind of in high school.

[00:01:59] I was really drawn to Silver Chair because these guys were on their teens. They were like me, they were in their teens and uh, I think they were probably like 14, 15, 16 years old and they were playing like awesome songs. And that really in itself inspired me. Not only I liked the music, I liked their story essentially behind the band and how they came up.

[00:02:20] Alright, so let's get into this article now. They interviewed Daniel John, so he's the main songwriter, singer, and guitar player. They were a trio, they were a drummer. Bass player, but he's the main guy, so they interview him. And so I'm really curious to see where his mindset was at. Remember, keep in mind, he was a teenager.

[00:02:36] Okay, so let's just see where they were at and let's do this.

[00:02:44] Put these suckers on. All right, clarity. Okay. Silver Chair by Gary Graff. Daniel Johns and his silver chair cohorts are not old enough to drive by their own accounts. They don't date much either. They are a band of KLO youth, but they do have a hit record. While certainly not the first smooth cheeked, youngsters to attain stardom, silver chair are a whole lot hippier than Tiffany or Minuto.

[00:03:11] Not sure what they're referring to. I hope they're not referring to Tiffany back in the eighties that as an elementary kid, had a huge crush on. Tiffany, what was her hit? I think I'm alone now. I think is the hit. And she did a cover of The Beatles. I wanna hold your hand. But anyways, I think she had about two albums in her.

[00:03:29] Huge crush in her, so hopefully they're not knocking her 'cause I'd be very disappointed. Alright, let's continue their hit tomorrow. Four minutes of steamy grunge that could easily have come out of Seattle as Newcastle Australia Silver. Cheers. Homeport marked the band as hot, fresh newcomers on the modern rock scene.

[00:03:48] Fresh is the operative term as John is just 16, and his band mates bassist, Chris Jonu and drummer Ben Gillies are only 15. All three are in the Australian equivalent of 10th grade. Wow. Not too long ago, they were carefree surfer dudes playing rugby on the beach and making up rap songs in their bedrooms.

[00:04:09] Eventually they got instruments. Joanna had to be cajoled into taking a bass and became basement rock stars. We just expected to play in a garage for the rest of our lives. Says John's, I should say. We just expected to play in a garage for the rest of our lives. It says John's, but all that changed when they entered a tape of three songs, including tomorrow in a radio station competition.

[00:04:32] They won first prize, which included the chance to record the song professionally and film a video. So can you imagine? Can you imagine at that age you enter a contest, you win, and all of a sudden money's thrown at you to record these songs and film a video. Man, what a freaking wet dream that must have been for them.

[00:04:53] I'm assuming they only had three songs. They're their album ffr Stomp. If you haven't heard it, go check it out. It's pretty cool. It's very raw, very basic stuff, but man, it really still gets me to this day and they probably had to round out. Their songs and come up with additional songs to come up with an album.

[00:05:10] Pretty cool. Tomorrow took off spending six weeks at number one in Australia and netting silver chair a record contract, and then their Frogstomp album entered the Australian charts at number one leading to a chance to play their a d and craft across the Pacific. That goes to show what kind of period that was for these kids to come out with an album.

[00:05:34] A rock oriented album and hit number one, that was just unbelievable. And that can only happen back then if kids tried to do that today. Absolutely not. It's a different setting, different landscape right now with the internet that was pre-internet. You know, you gotta remember the printing of this album originally appeared in Guitar World December, 1995.

[00:05:53] That was like the early days of the internet. And for a band like that to break out worldwide is pretty amazing. Absolutely amazing. Okay, let's continue. Perhaps most surprisingly of all the band has met with similarly spectacular success here in the birthplace of grunge. Silver chair is managed by the musician's, mothers, but when it comes to talking guitar, Johns makes it clear that it's he who holds the act strings.

[00:06:19] Alright, guitar World asks, what was your first guitar, Daniel John's replies. I just got a guitar about three and a half years ago, and it was like a $70 Really cheap. Guitar. I learned three chords. One of the first songs I played was Paranoid by Black Sabbath, and then I started doing rock and roll by Led Zeppelin and stuff like that.

[00:06:38] Those were your influences? Yep. Black Sabbath, d Purple and that kind of stuff. You're a little young for those groups. Where'd you hear them? That's exactly what I was asking myself. My parents record collection, he says, of course it was. It was either that or an older sister or an older brother. They all have that music in there.

[00:06:56] And I couldn't afford to buy my own CDs. They had a lot of deep purple, black Sabbath, led Zeppelin, the doors. What were you doing with your time before you picked up the guitar? We just surfed and chucked the football around down at the park. It was a rugby league football. I didn't really play in positions.

[00:07:12] We used to go around for fun and chuck the ball around. Are you much of a surfer? We do it as much as we can. We're not really good. It is just fun, something to do. So was it love at first sight when you got your guitar? Were you playing all the time? John says, not really. When I first got it, I didn't know how to play anything.

[00:07:28] I just picked it up. Never really practiced at all. Then I learned classical guitar for a year and started practicing a lot. It was all right. The reason I did it was I got a deep purple video and Richie Blackmore said he did classical training for a year, so I wanted to copy him. Did you learn much from those lessons?

[00:07:45] Yeah, I learned a lot. John says it made me practice more. I had to get stuff right for when the guitar guy came. He was pretty good. How did you jump from your parents' music to your own favorites? My dad went and bought a sound garden record because he heard, they sounded like Black Sabbath. He turned it on and I really liked it.

[00:08:04] Then someone told me to sit down and listen to Pearl Jam, and I really liked that. Oh yeah. PJ Baby, for those of you listening, I'm wearing your t-shirt. Then my nextdoor neighbor said, if you like Black Sabbath, listen to helmet. She had all the helmet records. Now I'm really into that and tool the Rollings Bands and Quicken bands like that.

[00:08:26] Good taste. Good taste. My friend. Guitar World asks, how much does it grind you? When everybody talks about how much silver chairs sounds like a Seattle band. Not too much. Really. Pearl Jam and Sound Garden were really big influences. When we first got a record contract, I still like them and listen to them a little bit, but we don't like them now as much as we like helmet and tool, we're more into that New York hardcore kind of sound right now.

[00:08:52] That's more our new stuff. That's more of what our new stuff sounds like. It's heavy music, but it's still with a melody, not full on screaming like Rollins, I can't do that. It sounds dumb. What were your first songs? Me and Ben started writing rap songs. First they went for about 20 seconds or something, and it was just something to do.

[00:09:10] Then I started learning guitar at 12 or so and started writing proper songs. They were really bad. The first one was, felt like it and had three or four chords in it. Probably tomorrow was the first proper song we wrote that we liked. Have you become Australia's biggest guitar hero since Angus Young?

[00:09:27] John says, I'm not a guitar hero. To me, it's just part of being in a band and it's like a, it's not like a main instrument. It's part of the band you mean? There isn't a wicked soloist lurking inside you, John says. I don't really like that kind of stuff. I never really liked it. I don't think it sounds good.

[00:09:45] If you're in a three piece band, really, it just loses all his guts and you're just playing this thrift and all of a sudden you go into this really fast guitar solo and stuff. Okay. Him saying that though, I gotta say Frog Stop has some really kick ass solo, so obviously something in him loves a solo.

[00:10:01] It's interesting you feel that way because all of your early heroes like Blackmore and Tommy Omi, love to take solos. Yeah, we like that kind of stuff, but if you've got to be. All right. We like that kind of stuff, but you've got to be good and be able to do that. I can't do it. He laughs. We used to be a four piece and I played quite a few solos back then, but when the other guitarist left, I just said, stuff this, we're just gonna keep it sounding ballsy, fat and cut out all the solos.

[00:10:29] Sometimes like in tomorrow, there's a little bit of a guitar solo. But that's as much as we do. None of our new songs have any guitar solos or anything. Usually a guitar solo for me is just a breakdown in a song or a bit of a change. Wow. So that was like definitely the signs of the times. 'cause pre grunge, it was all about shredding and how fast you can play and how many notes you can.

[00:10:49] Fit in a second, but Grunge really killed all that and solos went away. Metallica's album, Saint Anger came out during that whole grunge stage and they totally killed their solos. So it sounds totally different and looks like he's definitely influenced by that whole grunge movement. What's your favorite solo on a record?

[00:11:05] My favorite guitarist ever is Richie Blackmore, but my favorite solo is Jimmy Page and Heartbreaker. That's an unreal solo. Paige was an influence too. Yeah, quite a bit. We used to listen to Zeppelin all the time. Ben was probably the most influenced by Led Zeppelin. He loved John Bonham. I was more into Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.

[00:11:24] Who are your favorite guitarists from punk and alternative rock movements? John says, I don't really like individual guitarists. I like guitar riffs. I don't say I like the guitarist, but I don't like the band. Who are your favorite guitarists from the punk and alternative rock movements? I don't really like individual guitarists.

[00:11:42] He says, I like guitar riffs. I don't say I like the guitarist, but I don't like the band. If it's a good guitarist and a bad band, I wouldn't like him any better. Has a good point. 'cause if it's a bad band, you probably won't listen to music anyways. Do you feel like you're still improving as long as you're playing?

[00:11:58] I guess you're always improving. I'm not really keen on being the best guitarist and seeing who can play the best solos and stuff. To me, a guitarist is part of the band. As long as I like what we're playing, as long as I keep. Good time and don't stuff up too much. I don't care if I improve too much. Do you take music class in school?

[00:12:17] Yeah. It really sucks. You do really dumb crap. You don't wanna do just stupid old folk songs and stuff. You just sit there tapping wood sticks. It's really bad. You have a hit album though. Don't the teachers treat you any differently? Nah, they just treat us like the other people. They say, okay, sit down and shut up.

[00:12:36] And we sit there and we don't say anything. One of my friends in class really likes punk, so when we get free time, he picks up an acoustic guitar and they get on the drums just to muck around and we'll play a really fast song. It usually sounds really bad, but it's super fun. Okay. As you can see, Daniel John's answers are not the most sophisticated.

[00:12:58] Again, he's keep in mind, he is like 15 or 16, and it's all about having fun. That's the essence of it. Even to this day, like I'm pushing 50 right now. I turned 50 this year, and I try to get together with the boys. Every couple weeks to just jam out. And you know what? The attitude, when you get together with the guys in the rehearsal room and you're just jamming away, it's like the attitude that Daniel Johns is saying right now.

[00:13:24] It's all about having fun. It's all about playing, not really worrying if it's good or not. You're just playing. It could be super bad, but it's super fun. And that's where we're at right now, me and the guys, and that's what it comes down to. And he, that totally translates to what he's saying, but it's awesome.

[00:13:40] Stomp Rock was great and then I gotta say they started weaning down in the second album. I thought it was a Nirvana copy. It was too much like Nirvana. One thing I really did appreciate about Silver Chair is that they did evolve their sound, and as Daniel Johns matured, his songwriting matured, and the sound evolved and matured as well.

[00:14:00] I gotta give it up for Frogstomp, though. That's a classic. When that came out, obviously they were in their teens, they were young, so they're influenced by grunge, so it does sound grungy. But what really inspired me was, like I said, the fact that they were so young. So that album definitely is special. Now, there ones after that freak show, that was okay.

[00:14:17] It was still grungy, it was still Nirvana esque, but then they started evolving with Neon Ballroom and then Diorama, and then the last one released back in 2007. Young Modern. That was a drastic change of their sound, so I really did appreciate that. I love bands that evolved. Don't get me wrong, I love A CDC.

[00:14:36] We all bow A, CD, C. Untouchable, but I prefer a band that kind of changes their sound and evolves. You gotta have to, 'cause you're a songwriter. If you're starting writing songs from 15, they're definitely gonna sound different than when you're 30. So I really appreciated Silver Chair and they're a very unique band.

[00:14:53] I think they're probably one of the most famous bands out of Australia. All right. I hope you enjoyed that in little interview. I certainly did. It definitely took me back, especially reading about Frogstomp and me sitting in my room and just blasting that and just being inspired by them. Woo. I tell ya, I'm hoping kids these days have the same thing.

[00:15:11] I'm sure they do. I just love to see rock be a little bit more mainstream these days, but again, that's just an old fart talking.