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Date Posted: 21:50:00 03/27/02 Wed
Author: rockin' chair
Subject: Daniel interview and update on his knees

taken from the chairpit.

Silver Lining

Despite health scares and a near badn break-up, Daniel Johns is lovign ever Silverchair moment.

Diorama ***1/2
The Newcastle trio's fourth album opens with the cinematic scope of Across The Night, an out-of-left field introduction to the capitalised Silverchair - thanks to Van Dyke Parks' oddball orchestration. The three Parks collaborations are the best stuff on Diorama. Tuna In The Brine features distrubingly Kate Bush-esque falsetto from the vocally in-form Daniel Johns, while Luv Your Life is an uplifting, beautiful and almost perfect rock ballad. Old-school Chair fans shouldn't fret because One Way Mule and The Lever rock out as if the boys are back in short pants. In between the hard rock and orchestral rock there's a lot of brine. World Upon Your Shoulders opens exactly like Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and it's strange to hear Australia's answer to Nirvana and Pearl Jam sounding like Creed at times. Lyrically, Johns struggles. "Violent. Big and violent. Like a thing that's big and violent," he sings on World Upon Your Shoulders. Johns is yet to improve on the Kylie-level complexity of Tomorrow or Freak and this is the stumbling block Silverchair need to overcome if they're going to evolve into a truly great rock act.

Thoughts of Chairman Dan

After a three-year break, Silverchair are back with a new album, Diorama. Daniel Johns sheds light on his health scares, teh band's near break-up and being a "lesbian".

Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns admits to being mentally unstable during the recording of Neon Ballroom due to an eating disorder. He won his battle with anorexia - the subject of Ana's Song - but faces another health scare as the top Australian rock act unveil their fourth album.

Two weeks ago it was revealed that Johns has been rendered partially disaabled to reactive arthritis, a rare form of arthritis that has left the singer with painfully swollen knees. The 22-year-old is recovering at home in Newcastle.

Johns says he first felt strange last November when Silverchair were mixing the new album, titled Diorama. "I woke up one morning after being sick and my right knee was really sore. I thought I must have slept on a weird angle or something," he explains. "It spread to both my knees by January this year, while we were doing the Big Day Out tour. I started getting on pretty heavy arthritis and anti-inflammatory medication to try to cure it."

Johns says stress during the mixing process triggered a virus, which caused the onset of the arthritis. Doctors have told him that it could take between three months and three years for him to recover. [shit!! poor bugger :(] Until then the singer will hobble around with a walking stick. "We're still going on tour. I don't know how physical I'm going to be on stage." However, Johns doesn't sound depressed. He's excited about Diorama, on which he displays growing confidence as a songwriter.

Drummer Ben Gillies, bassist Chris Joannou and Johns enlisted Sydney dance music guru Paulmac and Midnight Oil's Jim Moginie to play keyboards. Silverchair's management also put Johns in touch with Van Dyke Parks, who completed the orchestral arrangements on three tracks. Parks is legendary for his work with an array of artists, most notably on the Beach Boys' unreleased Smile project.

The new-found assurance in the studio saw Johns take on a co-production role, alongside producer David Bottrill (Tool, Peter Gabriel). "On the last record I wasn't mentally stable, so I didn't know what I was doing." Johns reveals. "This time we felt a lot more confident. I had a really clear idea of what the record was going to be like. I knew what was happening on ever song, so it was like this map and we just had to follow it."

Diorama will be released on Easter Sunday. Combine this with last year's Archibald Prize portrait of Johns in a Christ-like post and cheeky commentators might wonder whether the straggly haired singer is sending us a message. "Im trying to tell you that we're going to be bigger than Jesus," jokes Johns. "I have no idea why it is being released on Easter Sunday," the vegan muses, before adding: "I think it's so anyone who doesn't eat dairy can still get a gift on Easter."

Taking the metaphor a step further, does Johns ever feel crucified by the media? After all, UK tabloids have run stories about Prince William fighting for the affections of Johns' girlfriend Natalie Imbruglia. And, even more bizarre, he's been accused of being a lesbian. "I never feel crucified," Johns laughs. "I'm pretty happy with the way my life is. I've been under pressure from an early age, but I've learnt how to deal with it." An explanation: Hollywood - a B-side on forthcoming single Not Without You contains the line "I'm the first male lesbian.". Johns says he wrote the song before the lesbian story circulated and that it's about androgyny, not the rumours.

Despite assurances from Johns that he doesn't care about "stupid" newspaper stories, the intense glare of the public spotlight took its toll. After Neon Ballroom, the band announced an indefinite break to take pressure off the lead singer. "I had been in Silverchair since I was 14 and I didn't know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life," Johns says. "I didn't know if I wanted to continue with Silverchair.

"Even when I was writing this record, it wasn't until I had written 10 songs that I decided it was going to be a Silverchair record. "I don't see why I would go solo at this point," Johns continues. "I'm writing the songs I want to write. We have a real understanding of what I want to do musically, and Ben and Chris are really cool with it. They were happy to take a back seat."

So, with doubts erased and the trio working towards the same goals (Daniel's), Silverchair returned - with a capital S. Johns says that the band began with a lower case s because they were being "morons". "We made it a capital S to signify a change in direction, to show that it's a new beginning."

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