Silverchair Ends Relationship With Sony Music

10/11/2000 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(10/11/00, 5 p.m. ET) - Aussie trio Silverchair has ended its half-decade relationship with Sony Music after three albums and more than 6 million units sold worldwide. The group will now seek a new label, with an announcement to "definitely be made within the next four weeks," according to a statement posted on the trio's official website (chairpage.com).

Quoted on the website, Silverchair manager John Watson says that while the relationship was a "successful one," it has "run it's course." Watson further states, "The company was unable to give the band the kind of future controls over their music which other labels are offering, so it was simply time to move on."

With a sound often compared to Pearl Jam and the added novelty of its members being in their mid-teens, Silverchair rose to fame amid the grunge explosion of the early and mid-'90s. The band's debut album, Frogstomp, reached platinum status in the United States for sales of 1 million copies while its single, "Tomorrow," earned top-of-the-chart status on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks listing. However, successive efforts--1997's Freak Show and 1999's Neon Ballroom--mustered sales of only a half-million each in America.

Silverchair is currently writing and rehearsing at home in Newcastle, Australia. The band will perform at the Rock In Rio festival in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in January.

-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles

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