Elysium originated in the inner western suburbs of Sydney in 1997 when a few schoolfriends, John Ganas, Alex Edenborough and Daniel Kho, kicked around the idea of recreating the music of their favourite band Silverchair in the music room at Canterbury Boys High. Launched as a trio upon an unsuspecting audience at a Canterbury Girls High dance, the local reception stirred the band

Adopting an original-music-only approach and desperately trying to ignore the fact that they were only 15 and, therefore, locked out of every gig in town, the band decided to lay down demos, as many as possible, as often as possible. They even picked up a band member

One demo paid off when Marshall Cullen of Damien Gerard Studios invited the band to appear on his celebrated Grow Your Own compilation series. Bolstering their growing musical ability with the guest appearance of Amanda Brown of the Go Betweens on violin, Of Boys and Girls was the track of choice. Reviews were encouraging -

Channel V received just under 2000 demos. Elysium made the final 100, then the final 10. They felt they were on the brink of creating that inner west monster. Along with the final-10 position came a taste of what could be. Newspaper articles, TV appearances. And, in the re-recording of Of Boys and Girls, Silverchair, represented by bassist Chris Joannou, came out of the music room and selected Elysium as the one to produce for Channel V

Elysium didn

Elysium, 5 years down the road to somewhere, have joined in the great struggle that faces all young Australian bands - low-paid gigs, major label indifference, unscrupulous promoters and all the pitfalls that bedevil one and all. But one thought drives them on - if a band can survive a gig at Canterbury Girls High School, then the rest is easy!
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