Silverchair: Feel Three.

Diorama is in stores Easter Sunday.

I have to confess, the first time I heard Silverchair, I was pretty damn jealous. After wasting my high school years in the pursuit of volume, and pissing money away at an alarming rate on guitars, amplification and all kings of band stuff, along come a trio of kids from Newcastle who go and sign themselves a multi album deal. Dammit.

Seven years since the release of Tomorrow, and the subsequent Frogstomp album, there’s little denying Silverchair have deserved their time in the sun. Their first three albums garnered the band international acclaim, and they’ve become a massive touring drawcard in their own right. After hitching their wagon to this year’s Big Day Out, the time has come for the release of album number four.

“Since the Big Day Out we’ve had the last couple of months just relaxing,” drummer Ben Gillies explains. “It’s the final wind down time before everything really kicks in. Daniel’s had a bit of a knee problem, so he hasn’t really been in a physical state to sort of do very much, so that’s put us back a little bit. The three of us have just been soaking up the extra time.”

But that time is almost up. Slated for release on Easter Sunday, and clocking in at just under an hour, Diorama is a bold and expansive affair. As evidenced by it’s first single, The Greatest View, the vision of songwriter and frontman Daniel Johns continues to reach further from their almost simplistic roots. Diorama is an album lush with textures, from the strings to horn sections of Tuna In The Brine, the sweet layering of Would Upon Your Shoulders and the intimate unlisted piano solo that closes the disc. But they’ve not forgotten how to rock, as evidenced by tracks like Lever or One Way Mule, with riffs the size of lunar craters.

“It was a little bit different, the way we went about making this album,” Ben continues. “Daniel wrote all the stuff, and what happened was he came to Chris and I and said I want you to come up and hear some stuff, and it’s pretty much all unfolded since that day.”

Production duties this time around have been outsourced to David Bottrill, whose talents have graced the work of Tool and Peter Gabriel in the past.

“We had to find a producer, and Daniel went overseas for a few weeks to suss out a couple of guys. We actually had a lot of trouble finding a producer at the start. It was a creative thing. The people Daniel spoke to were interested in working with us and being a part of the new album, but we didn’t feel like any of them really felt like doing something different to what we’ve done before and what other people are doing.”

“Things that David had done before were really out there, and on a personal level as well it just clicked. He was up for trying new things and really taking a bit of a risk and trying something completely different. We so knew what we were going to do and we knew every element that had to be done. He really pushed the three of us to get the best performances he possibly could, and capture our excitement.”

Looking back through the recordings the band have made over the years, it’s hand not to be impressed by the progress they’ve made, both as songwriters and as musicians. Just try and run Frogstomp and Diorama back to back as a stark comparison. Go on, you know you want to…

“Like anyone that’s fourteen or fifteen in their first band, we had a lot of room to move. That was one of the positives of being successful at a young age was that we had room to grow as a band. Over the four albums we’ve evolved as people, and it’s just a part of growing up that you’re going to change. People change, musical tastes change. It’s all for the better, it’s all good. We’re still proud of everything we’ve done, but we’re changing as musicians.”

“I very very rarely listen to our older records. Sometimes I’ll just think, shit, I haven’t heard Freak Show in a darn long time and I might pull it out and have a bit of a listen, and generally have a bit of a giggle to myself. Over touring the songs generally morph into something a little bit different to the recorded version. Songs change and little subtleties you played when you record the album are different. I’ll generally have a bit of a laugh at it.”

Even after gracing the stage of the worlds largest music festival, Rock In Rio, Silverchair still get a kick out of playing their own headlining shows. Which, of course, can’t be too far away with the album already wrapped up…

“It’s been good getting back out in front of an Aussie crowd,” he enthuses. “We haven’t done it in a fairly long while. Playing at home always feels better than playing overseas. We enjoy it wherever we’re playing, but if you get to do something in your home country you just feel more connected to the people.”

“I think it’s always exciting to play shows. The two driving forces in this band are recording and creating music, and the other is entertaining people and playing in front of a crowd. It’s the two main reasons to do it. I love the live side of it. It’s so much fun. You can’t get sick of it, it’s like a natural drug.”

“We like to keep the music real. For us, if we’re going to put on a show, it’s going to be different, so it’s more of an experience rather than just listening to a CD with some live video.”