Freak is a song by Australian rock band Silverchair, released as the first single from their second album, Freak Show (1997). The song was released as single album on January 13, 1997. The song reached number one on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, Silverchair’s second single to do so after Tomorrow in 1994. The band would not have another number one hit until Straight Lines in 2007.
Tracklist:
- Freak
- New Race
- Punk Song #2
- Interview
The music video for Freak was directed by Gerald Casale, a member of Devo. The video was filmed in Los Angeles, California, on December 5 and 6, 1996.
The video features the band playing in an oven-chamber, monitored by a scientist in a control room. Their sweat is collected by a doctor and taken to an elderly woman in an adjoining room. The doctor touches part of her flesh with the sweat, and it smoothens. The doctor injects a large amount of sweat into the woman, and she regresses to being middle-aged. The doctor calls for more sweat, so the scientist turns up the heat, as high as 175 °F in the oven-chamber, causing the band members to sweat even more. Their sweat drains into a sort of water cooler, where the doctor collects a glass of it. She gives this to the woman, and when she drinks it, her youth returns. However, she is still not satisfied, so she orders and drinks another dose and turns into an alien mutant. She loves the new look and pays the doctor. When this is all done, the heat lamps are turned off, and the room now seems to appear very cold. The band punch out their time cards and walk out.
The heat lamps in the video are actually orange lights; the band members were sprayed with water to make it look like they were heavily sweating. The scenes featuring the old woman were filmed separately at another studio.
The video for Freak won the International Viewer’s Choice Award for MTV Australia at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards
Silverchair
Daniel Johns: vocals, guitars, sleeve art direction
Ben Gillies: drums, timpani, percussion, sleeve art direction
Chris Joannou: bass guitar, sleeve art direction
