There’s a chair in there… Silverchair’s Frogstomp turns 30

Silverchair’s Frogstomp was released 30 years ago today. Has there been a more remarkable debut in the history of Australian music?

The band members – Daniel Johns, Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou – were all just 15 when the album was released. It was recorded in just nine days during the Christmas school holidays, costing about $40,000 to make, which was a modest budget for a major label record in 1995.

Frogstomp knocked off Green Day’s Dookie to take top spot on the Australian charts. It was the first local debut album to enter the charts at number one. It spent three weeks on top.

In the US, the album soared to number nine, becoming the first Aussie album to crack the American Top 10 since INXS’s X in 1990.

Here’s the amazing true story of Frogstomp...

Silverchair – then known as the Innocent Criminals – were discovered via a demo competition, “Pick Me”, on a TV show called nomad on SBS. Entrants had to explain, in 25 words or less, why they should be picked.

In green texta on a piece of yellow cardboard, the band scribbled: “We’re not hip-hop or rap. We’re rock! And we love to play.” And they submitted a six-and-a-half-minute version of Tomorrow, which they’d recorded for $75 at Platinum Sound Studios on Joy Street in Cardiff, a small town just outside of Newcastle.

Daniel, Ben, and Chris wrote the music together; and Daniel came up with the melody and lyrics, playing an Ibanez JEM “with a busted neck”. The song was born out of a jam in Ben’s bedroom. “It felt like an electric spark,” the drummer recalls. “We were all doing our own thing, but we were in sync.” And then Daniel started singing:

“You wait till tomorrow!”

The nomad crew made the Tomorrow film clip.

The Innocent Criminals were announced as the “Pick Me” winners on Thursday, June 16, 1994. “It took just 25 words and a song that knocked our socks off.”

Tomorrow was immediately a hit on Triple J, which led to a bidding war between Sony and Mushroom Records. The band ended up signing with Sony’s new label Murmur and then changed their name to Silverchair.

Murmur’s initial marketing plan was to sell 6000 copies of the Tomorrow EP. It ended up spending six weeks at number one, selling 200,000 copies in just three months. And it won ‘Single of the Year’ at the ARIA Awards, as well as ‘Highest Selling Single’ and ‘Breakthrough Artist – Single’.

Instead of accepting the awards themselves, the band sent Josh – the seven-year-old son of their producer Kevin Shirley.

With the enormous success came a swift backlash, with some critics calling the band “Nirvana in Pyjamas”, “Silver Highchair” and “not Soundgarden but Kindergarten”.

Comedian Robert Grayson, aka Hanuman, released a parody, (I Turn Four) Tomorrow, under the name of Silverpram. It was nominated for an ARIA for ‘Best Comedy Release’ and reached number 72 on the ARIA charts.

But Frogstomp was a monster. It went six-times platinum in Australia, triple platinum in Canada and double platinum in the US.

Tomorrow topped the US Mainstream Rock chart as well as the Alternative Airplay chart.

In 2011, Prime Minister Julia Gillard gave US President Barack Obama an iPod of Australian music. It featured Tomorrow.

The album’s second single, Pure Massacre, hit number two in Australia, as well as number 12 on the American Mainstream Rock chart. Daniel said the song was his reaction to the war in Bosnia. “It’s pretty stupid, war,” he explained. “So, it seemed like the right thing to write a song about, rather than about the usual – girls or whatever.”

Sony in the US initially planned to issue Israel’s Son as Silverchair’s first single, but they had to change tack when American radio started playing Tomorrow. In Australia, Israel’s Son became Frogstomp’s third single, reaching number 11.

And the album’s final single, Shade, a powerful song about abuse, was the trio’s fourth Top 40 hit, peaking at 28 in Australia.

The band revealed their teenage sense of humour on the album, stating: “No llamas were harmed in the making of this album”, adding that “on the third day God created llama” and “Silverchair support the liberation of the Llama Nation.” The band later called their fan club the Llama Appreciation Society.

And if you’re still wondering about the origins of the album title, Daniel was flicking through the record collection belonging to Sony’s John Watson, who would soon become the band’s manager. He came across a Stax compilation featuring a Floyd Newman song called Frog Stomp.

Silverchair released four more albums. All five albums debuted at number one. The band went into “indefinite hibernation” in 2011.

Thirty years after it landed, the Frogstomp legacy is huge. Itinspired kids all around the world. Dean Lewis revealed to STACK that it was his first album. “It was a gift from my dad, who also bought me the chord book, which I just didn’t understand,” he said.

“I’ve never been good at playing chords. But I love Silverchair so much. I played the CD over and over and I remember the excitement of going through the book – it was white with a green frog on the cover. It was just the excitement about the potential of learning, even if I didn’t do it. I still play the album sometimes and I still love it.”

Reflecting on the record, Daniel Johns said: “It’s really honest. It’s just three Australian kids thrashing it out in the studio and that’s exactly how it sounds.”