We are the youth
We'll take your fascism away
We are the youth
Apologise for another day
We are the youth
And politicians are so sure
We are the youth
And we are knocking on death's door

Never knew we were living in a world
With a mind that could be so sure
Never knew we were living in a world
With a mind that could be so small
Never knew we were living in a world
And the world is an open court
Maybe we don't want to live in a world
Where innocence is so short
We'll make it up to you
in the year 2000 with...

Never knew we were living in a world
With a mind that could be so sure
Never knew we were living in a world
With a mind that could be so small
Never knew we were living in a world
And the world is an open court
Maybe we don't want to live in a world
Where innocence is so short

We'll make it up to you
In the year 2000
Build it up for you
In the year 2000
Make it up to you
In the year 2000
Build it up for you
In the year 2000 with you

Never knew we were living in a world
With a world that could be so sure
Never knew we were living in a world
With a mind that could be so small
Never knew we were living in a world
And the world is an open court
Maybe we don't want to live in a world
World who cares at all

We'll make it up to you
In the year 2000
Build it up for you
In the year 2000
Make it hard for you
In the year 2000
Build it up for you
In the year 2000
Make it hard for you
In the year 2000
Build it up for you
In the year 2000 with you

Music and lyrics by Daniel Johns
©1999 Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia/Big
Fat Llama Music
All rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Australia
Big Fat Llama Music admin. by Sony/ATV Songs
LLC (BMI), 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN
All rights reserved
Used by permission

Paul Mac attacked Anthem For The Year 2000
Jim Moginie added keyboard mogenius
Backing vocals by the New South Wales Public
School Singers and friends
Conducted by George Torbay

Anthem For The Year 2000
(RealAudio clip, 30 sec.)

Anthem recording session
(RealVideo clip, 103 sec.)

Daniel Johns talks about
Anthem For The Year 2000

More from Daniel

Daniel Johns explains Anthem
on Canada's MuchMusic

Triple J's Richard Kingsmill
asks Daniel Johns about
Anthem For The Year 2000

 

 


Scene from Anthem video.


"We are the youth.."


Daniel Jonhs


Chris Joannu


Ben Gillies Recording.
"The whole thing is about youth rebelling against people who
are supposedly more important," Daniel Johns said of Anthem
For The Year 2000, the first single from silverchair's Neon Ballroom
album.

Johns said the lyrics were inspired by the policies of an Australian
political party, Pauline Hanson's One Nation, which would impose
certain restrictions on young people.

"I just think it's silly for Australia," he said. "The more you restrict
young people the more they're gonna resort to drugs or crime or
whatever."

Musically, Anthem For The Year 2000 was inspired by a dream.

"I never really have such vivid dreams," Johns said. "There were
hundreds of thousands of people and they all had their hands above
their heads clapping. I woke up and it was like 3:30 in the morning, and
I thought I have got to write a song so people can do that. So I just went
and wrote this big anthemic kind of rock song and that's what came out."

The theme of abuse of political power is spectacularly carried out in the
music video for Anthem For The Year 2000, directed by Gavin Bowden
(Live, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Appearing in
the video as the robotic figurehead for a futuristic totalitarian
government is Maggie Kirkpatrick, best known as the cruel jail warden
in the television series Prisoner: Cell Block H. Interestingly, Kirkpatrick
(who hadn't met the band before) also comes from Newcastle, and the
members of silverchair attended school with her niece and nephew.

The video was shot with the help of a thousand or so silverchair
supporters who showed up in Sydney on a sweltering summer Saturday
to appear as extras (at the same time the Big Day Out festival hit the
city). The band members shot their scenes in the middle of the enthusiastic
crowd, and even though silverchair had to leave early for a performance in
Victoria six hours away, the fans stayed on to make sure the video shoot was
completed successfully.

Also in Sydney, months earlier in the recording studio, producer Nick Launay
brought in long-time pal Jim Moginie of Midnight Oil to lend a hand on Anthem
(and six other Neon Ballroom songs). Paul Mac, who remixed silverchair's
Freak from 1997's Freak Show album, added his unique touch to Anthem.

For backing vocals, silverchair turned to the New South Wales Public School
Singers and conductor George Torbay. A former member of the legendary
Australian band The Spliffs also added his voice to the sounds of the choir.