SILVERCHAIR

Silverchair Sign With Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group (ILG).
Young Modern Set For A July 24th Release.
Trio Confirmed For Lollapalooza And Plan A Full US Tour This Summer.

Monday, May 21, 2007: New York, NY: Multi-platinum selling Australian trio Silverchair – Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter Daniel Johns, drummer Ben Gillies and bass player Chris Joannou - have signed on with Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group to release their fifth studio album, Young Modern, in North America on July 24th 2007. The album will come out on Eleven: a music company, in association with Warner Music Group.

The band is already confirmed for a mainstage appearance on Lollapalooza, Saturday August 3rd in Chicago and they have plans for a full North American tour this July and August. Dates will be announced shortly. While they played a handful of acclaimed, sold out shows in New York, LA and Toronto earlier this year, the forthcoming dates will be their first full tour of the U.S. and Canada since 1999.

Silverchair are one of the most acclaimed and successful bands in Australian music history. They have had more #1 albums in their homeland than any other Aussie band (they have enjoyed five chart toppers, Midnight Oil had four #1’s, while AC/DC and INXS each had three). Their music has evolved hugely since their teenage years and they’ve now grown into 27 year old critical darlings – a feat that seemed highly unlikely back in the mid-90’s.

Young Modern is Silverchair’s first album of new material in over five years. The disc is the fastest seller of their incredible career to date having been certified double platinum in less than a month. Its lead track “Straight Lines” has become the group’s biggest hit since their 1995 breakthrough, “Tomorrow”, racking up a month at #1 on the Aussie singles charts. The album is the follow up to 2002’s cult classic, Diorama, which saw Silverchair embracing melody and orchestral flourishes and combining it all with brighter, more surreal lyrics. It was a huge creative leap whose Stateside release was impeded by an arthritic condition that prevented Daniel Johns from touring or doing any promotion until a year after its US release. Young Modern picks up where Diorama left off, expanding the bands’ sound even further by combining an infectious blend of melodic indie rock with eclectic pop sensibilities.

On Young Modern, lead singer/guitarist Daniel Johns shared the producer role with Nick Launay (Midnight Oil, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads) who had helmed earlier Silverchair albums Freak Show and Neon Ballroom. Diorama producer, David Bottrill was brought in as mixer. Paul Mac was again on hand for keyboard duties as he was with the group’s two previous albums and legendary Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks reprised his Diorama role penning orchestrations for three songs which were recorded in Prague with an 80 piece orchestra.

“It took me a long time to realize that the sound Ben, Chris and I make when we play my songs is something special”, says Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns. “I’ve been thinking a lot since we finished the album about were this fits into the other stuff we’ve done. The way I see it the first album was all about naivety, the second one was anger, the third one was depression and the last one was escapism. Young Modern is all about acceptance. It’s about embracing who we are as band and just really enjoying ourselves. Hopefully listening to this album will make other people feel what we feel when we play these songs together because I’ve finally figured out that that’s a very special feeling.”

Press Contacts:
Amanda Cagan @ ABC PR – 818-990-6876 – acaganpr@aol.com
Andrew Steinthal @ ILG – 212-707-3086 – Andrew.Steinthal@WMG.com

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