About nine hours ago, I returned from Electric Lady Studios in New York, where string parts were recorded for "Cemetery," one of the songs on silverchair's forthcoming new album. I was there from 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon until about 4:30 Monday morning, so it was a long day, but it was well worth it!

Before you get too excited, the members of silverchair were not there for the session. They are getting ready for a series of live shows in Australia, beginning Thursday night in Perth. But five top-notch New York musicians worked with producer Nick Launay and Assistant Engineer John Seymour to record some excellent string tracks to back up silverchair on "Cemetery."

Jane Scarpantoni played cello and did the arrangements. Matthew Pierce playued violin and viola, and Todd Reynolds, Liz Knowles and Lorenza Ponce played violin.

If you're wondering what violins are doing on a silverchair song, you need not worry because they sound AWESOME! As you probably know, many of the greatest bands of all time (including my all-time favorites, Led Zeppelin) used strings to augment some of their songs. Jane has worked with many artists, including Helmet (which of course pleased Daniel, Chris and Ben no end!)

According to Nick, when Daniel heard a preview tape of Jane's arrangement for "Cemetery," he commented, "I reckon she's a hell chick!" (Jane got a big laugh out of that!) She is looking forward to meeting them when silverchair return to New York to finish mixing the rest of the album.

It seems we are lucky to even have "Cemetery" as a silverchair song! When Nick was at Daniel's house in Merewether earlier this year to discuss what songs would be on the new album, Daniel didn't mention "Cemetery" because he didn't think it would be the kind of song the entire band could perform. Julie Johns, Daniel's mom, told him to "play the ballad" for Nick. Daniel said he couldn't find the tape of it in his room.

"If I find the tape, will you play it for Nick?" Mrs. Johns asked. Daniel said OK, and his mom went to his room and found it straight away. Nick listened to it and told Daniel it was an excellent song (which is true!) and that it would be great for the band (it is!)

Daniel plays acoustic guitar on "Cemetery." The acoustic he used in the June recording sessions in Sydney is a 1950s-era Gibson which belongs to Rob Hirst, drummer for the legendary Australian band, Midnight Oil.

Though he probably won't be credited on the new album, Oils guitarist Jim Moginie plays the Mellotron on "Cemetery." (As someone who is not a musical expert, I can best describe a Mellotron as an instrument that takes recorded sounds and plays them back in a musical way.) It was Moginie who provided the connection between silverchair and Jane Scarpantoni, which led to her doing the arrangements. Jane picked the four superb musicians who worked with her, including Lorenza Ponce, who has her own solo CD out.

Lie To Me

working title was "Liar"

cemetery

the Adelaide Review ran a cover story by Patrick McDonald based on an interview with Ben Gillies. Ben was asked about the sound of the new album.

Of "Cemetery," Ben said, "On one of the songs there's strings and I play timpani on it... it sounds great. It just makes the song sound really huge."

the door

In its Sept. 18 edition, Rave featured an interview with Chris Joannou by James Struber. Chris commented on one of the songs on the new album, "The Door."

"One song was a really slow sort of thing and we hated it, but we kept playing it and just sped it up and it sounded better, then it ended up on the record," Chris said. "Daniel has that song for a couple of months, it got the name 'The Poxy Song,' we sped it up and it sounded great."