Their big break came in the years 94 to 95 when they won a national demo competition with their song ‘Tomorrow,’ which gave them the opportunity to record the song properly and have a video clip made for it. The song went to number one on the Australian charts and as if that wasn’t enough it also became the most played song of the year on U.S. modern rock radio.

The band also scored a number one with the release of their debut album Frogstomp. At only 15 years of age, they found themselves having to juggle stardom with school.

Their new found fame made it near impossible to live normal lives. They were hounded by fans and paparazzi if they ventured down to their beloved beach. School was difficult, some fellow students gave them a hard time, trying to cut them down to size, and Daniel was beaten up on occasions for being different.

They released another album ‘Freak Show’ in 1997 and it was during the recording and promotion of the album that Daniel Johns developed an eating disorder. He said on ABC’s Enough Rope with Andrew Denton that he did it to “gain control,” because “everything was so out of control around me.” He said “I just had all this energy, a lot of it was negative and I had a lot of things in my head that I couldn’t deal with.”

Diagnosed with anorexia and now graduated from school Daniel went in to record their third album Neon Ballroom. In hindsight, Johns said: “I felt like a slave to it (music), I hated music, hated it, and then there were other times where I just hated myself and everything I’d ever done.” Yet he didn’t shirk from the personal when he wrote about his demons in the best received song from the album, ‘Ana’s song.’

And I need you now somehow
And you’re my obsession
I love you to the bones
And Ana wrecks your life
Like an anorexia life

It was after the third time that a doctor told Daniel that if he kept going down this path that he’d probably die that he started getting really worried. Fear of death wasn’t going to help him. “Anorexia is basically just a result of fear anyway, so you’re scared the whole time. So it’s not… fear that’s going to cure you ‘cause it’s kind of what starts it. So I don’t know what it is that cured me… Something inside me made me want to live.”

‘Diorama,’ Silverchair’s fourth offering came with a much more positive outlook. Of this Daniel said “I was kind of using it as a rope to pull myself out of something, I was still in a pretty strange and messed-up place. But I had a real desire to impact people positively, as opposed to just having people relate to my sadness and despair.” Talking about the process of writing songs for the album Daniel said “There are times where you’re writing a song and there are moments where you feel like it’s God, not you, doing it. I was just there.”

Just as things were looking up for the band, Daniel was hit with a case of reactive arthritis. He could barely move and had to endure excruciating pain for over a year. In 2003 Silverchair were forced into an indefinite break. “The arthritis went from bad to worse, and went through all of the bones in my body, through my spine, up into my neck, I just couldn’t move. That… drove me crazy. ‘Cause I didn’t have anything to rely on anymore. So that felt like just as much of a sickness as the arthritis. It was a real learning experience for me.”

The frustration that came with Daniel’s illness brought with it a new perspective and appreciation for life during his recovery. He married Natalie Imbruglia and worked on a musical side project called The Dissociatives. But there were always plans to get the band back together.

Following the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, Silverchair took to the stage for a one-off gig at ‘Wave Aid’ to help raise funds for the victims of the disaster. This was the spark the band needed to reform and begin work on a new album.

‘Young Modern,’ like all four previous albums, went straight to number one on the charts, a feat unmatched by any other Australian artist. The release saw another change in direction musically and is arguably their most mature album to date. It seems fitting that Daniel, Ben and Chris were all fourteen when they formed Silverchair – the band is now fourteen years old and while some things do not change, there is a clear new direction for the group.

Daniel says “It took me a long time to realise that the sound Ben, Chris and I make when we play is something special.”

With a new lease of life they are embarking on their biggest tour of Australia with mates Powderfinger. The tour will take in every capital city and fourteen regional centres kicking off from Silverchair’s home base Newcastle on August 29th, winding its way all over the nation before coming to a close in Wollongong on October 23rd.

The ‘Across the Great Divide’ tour is also going to be used to promote reconciliation, something which is close to the hearts of both bands. Instead of using corporate sponsors to fund and manage the tour, they formed their own company ‘Powderchair’ and teamed up with ‘Reconciliation Australia’ to carry the message that reconciliation is a story all of us can participate in.

Who could have imagined fourteen years ago that three loud young musicians from Newcastle would one day be leading the reconciliation cause? Starting their own company? Funding their own recording? Changing the world?

Who could have imagined that the young man who once penned songs like ‘Suicidal Dream’ and ‘Abuse Me’ could come out with lyrics like “All across the world / There are things we need to forget and forgive / Sometimes we have to try and shed the damage we don’t need”? Daniel, Chris and Ben have seen pretty low times and have come out better for it.

Truly, whatever the past has been, it does not have to determine the future. Maybe we each need to endure the tough times before we can, like the song, ‘Luv your Life’. As Daniel says now: “I love life, it’s the best thing in the whole world.”

RECONCILIATION AUSTRALIA

If you want to know more, www.reconcile.org.au is the website which fronts a campaign aimed at reducing the 17 year gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous children.
This campaign reaches across the historic divide in respect, trust and understanding to generate a national conversation about bridging the gap.

The site has been created as part of this year’s 40th anniversary of Australia’s most successful referendum, where more than 90% of people said YES to equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens. It was a referendum unlike any other, driven by the Australian people – indigenous and non-indigenous – working side by side.

Reconciliation Australia director Shelley Reys says the tour represents an unprecedented opportunity to reach a new generation of Australians and introduce them to the work of reconciliation. “The story of reconciliation needs 20 million voices and having these two bands using theirs is an incredibly powerful call to action for young Australians.”