THIS
WEEK: Shane Lamotte discusses Silverchair’s
Frogstomp
You have to give Living Illusion credit: the Edmonton band
has not only put out an independent CD, which they just
celebrated at a release party a couple of weeks back at
the Sidetrack—but they’ve also accompanied it
with a DVD featuring an acoustic song and an interview with the band. Pretty
ballsy for a group that is still establishing itself, wouldn’t one
think? But Living Illusion doesn’t really want to play by any set music
industry rules; brothers and founding members Shane and Jason Lamotte are
champions of the independent spirit and want to show off that an up-and-coming
band can do more than record a simple demo and pray for the best.
For Shane, the album that most influenced his musical career is Frogstomp,
the 1995 debut from Australian youth-rockers Silverchair. As those of us in
our 20s and beyond will recall, the Aussies in question were a genuine rock
phenomenon simply because the members of the band were 14 and 15 when this
album was released. No member of Silverchair was old enough to drive a car
when the band’s first single, “Tomorrow,” became an MTV fave.
And while many critics at the time dissed the kids as simply being Pearl Jam
wannabes who won a few talent contests Down Under, Silverchair had a simple
formula for success: even at such young ages, the band members had a penchant
for writing simple, hooky rock music. And it helped make Frogstomp the first
album in Australian history to enter the domestic chart in the number-one slot.
And it was those rock melodies that made Lamotte a fan—and want to be
in a band even that much more. “They were all so young, the songs weren’t
difficult or very hard to play,” he says. “But the melody lines
were so catchy and they could write simple, catchy hooks, too. And those songs
just got stuck in your head.”
Lamotte has been playing guitar since Grade 7, about the same time the Silverchair
trio got together. And the fact that three guys who were so young could go
on to find fame and fortune was not lost on Lamotte. “It was the first
CD that made me think ‘why can’t I do this?’” says
Lamotte.
As well, what impressed Lamotte is that, despite the ages of the band members,
Silverchair was able to do something with a debut that hardly any band ever
does: according to him, the music was mature enough to make him think the band
had been recording for years. “It is rare that a band’s first album
is so solid that everyone likes it and connects with it,” he says. “But
they did it.”
Unfortunately, the band could never replicate the success of that debut,
and few music fans outside of Australia have heard their fourth and most
recent release, Diorama (which, by the way, has earned the band the best
reviews they’ve
ever received). At the moment, Silverchair are still together, but Chair man
Ben Gillies has taken time to work on his other band, Tambalane, which embraces
a funky ’70s groove and has received good press in Australia.
As for Lamotte, Living Illusion is the realization of a dream he had when he
was just 17 and started a band with his friends on Vancouver Island. He was
crushed when, upon graduating high school, none of his friends wanted to go
on, so he moved to Edmonton, joined up with his brother and started anew. After
all, why let go of a dream when a trio of Australian kids showed you that if
things go your way, it could come true? V
By STEVEN SANDOR
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