Australian rock trio Silverchair has set a July 9 North American release date for its Atlantic debut, “Diorama,” which will arrive in Australia in April via new independent label Eleven. “This is our third comeback,” jokes singer Daniel Johns, who was only 16 when Silverchair broke internationally in 1995. “I think we’re going to be like Kiss and just increase the amount of makeup as we go on.”
In an unlikely pairing, Silverchair turned to Van Dyke Parks, best known for his collaborations with Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson, to provide arrangements for three tunes. “I showed demos to a lot of people and told them the instrumentation I wanted to use and the mood I wanted to convey, and our manager suggested Van Dyke,” Johns says.
“After All These Years,” a beautifully orchestrated, lush ballad is particularly reminiscent of Wilson, but Johns says he’s no copycat. “I assure you, I was unaware what the Beach Boys sounded like until the album was truly over,” he admits. “But after we worked with Van Dyke, I wanted to explore what [Wilson had] done in the past.”
First single “The Greatest View” will go to radio in the U.S. in May, having already reached No. 3 on the Australian singles chart in January. A North American tour is in the works for around the time of the new album’s release there.
“Diorama” is the follow-up to 1999’s “Neon Ballroom” (Epic), which has sold more than 520,000 units in the U.S. to date, according to SoundScan. The album spawned the top-15 rock airplay singles “Anthem for the Year 2000” and “Ana’s Song (Open Fire).”
