This series is about influential music and what it did to me. I’m starting with Tomorrow.

In 1994, three teenagers in Australia, between the ages of 14 and 15, submitted their demo tape with two songs to a demo contest held nationally. One of the songs was called Tomorrow. The other was called Pick Me. The band at the time was called Innocent Criminals. Tomorrow ended up winning that demo contest. The prizes included studio recording at Triple J and a recording contract. Innocent Criminals changed their name to Silverchair. They got a professional recording of Tomorrow and finished the entire Frogstomp album by 1995. Frogstomp was also released in the United States, and Tomorrow peaked on the US charts in 1995. That is when the song Tomorrow found me.

I love the song because it checked all the boxes for me at the time. For alternative rock, it had that light verse, heavy chorus shape that bands before them had already staked out like the Pixies. It had a killer guitar solo. The song was big and anthemic. It was singable. It met me exactly where I was. The lyrics feel cryptic, and to this day I have no idea what it’s about, but it didn’t matter. The track felt like home.

I was 13 years old. The band was merely three years older than me. I was playing guitar and making music too. There’s a lot to be said about representation. Knowing how young the band was showed me something I didn’t know was possible. I could do it too. And if I wanted to be on par with these guys, I only had three more years to do it. I’m not alone either. Kids the world over were suddenly empowered seeing Silverchair explode out of nowhere onto a global stage with one song.

Ultimately, for me as a musician and as a human, it gave me permission to try and write music and to do it my own way. It also gave me vision. I saw myself in Daniel Johns. The idea of living a life devoted to music was something I realized that I wanted.

The video below is the US official upload on YouTube. The Australian official video is here.

References

  1. Wikipedia, “Tomorrow” (Silverchair song) — Pick Me / Nomad national competition, Triple J recording and ABC-filmed video as part of the prize, release of the Tomorrow EP, charting, US modern rock success and second (Pellington) video for the American market; Innocent Criminals as the pre–Silverchair name.
  2. Wikipedia, Frogstomp (album) — 1995 album, including US release timing.
  3. Silverchair (official via YouTube), “Tomorrow” (US version, official video).
  4. Silverchair (official via YouTube), “Tomorrow” (Australian version, official video).
  5. Hero image — Nick Hasted, Silverchair: Frogstomp review, Louder / Classic Rock, Future plc, published 12 June 2015 — original CDN JPEG https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7bjhF2P2cdGP9Nj5UdmgGh.jpg; this site hosts a resized WebP derivative at /images/silverchair-frogstomp-louder-hero.webp for performance. © Future plc / the photographer as credited on Loudersound; attribution is not an implied licence beyond personal use.
  6. Wikipedia, Pixies (band) — context for the quiet‑loud / soft‑verse‑loud‑chorus dynamic often discussed in 1990s alternative rock (comparison is mine, not theirs).