"Straight Lines" is a song by Australian rock band

Silverchair Silverchair was an Australian Rock music, rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Newcastle, New South Wales, with Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars, Ben Gillies on drums, and Chris Joannou on bass guitar. The group got thei ...

. It was released on 12 March 2007 and debuted at number one on the Australian

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, becoming the band's first number-one single since 1997's "

Freak A freak is a person who is physically deformed or transformed due to an extraordinary medical condition or body modification. This definition was first attested with this meaning in the 1880s as a shorter form of the phrase " freak of nature ...

". The single was shortly followed by the release of the band's fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Young Modern ''Young Modern'' is the fifth and final studio album by Australian alternative rock band Silverchair, released in Australia on 31 March 2007 and in the United States on 24 July 2007 and co-produced by Daniel Johns and Nick Launay. The tit ...

'' on 31 March 2007. Unlike the songs written during ''

Diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...

'', when

Daniel Johns Daniel Paul Johns (born 22 April 1979) is an Australian musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the Lead vocalist, frontman, guitarist, and main songwriter of the Rock music, rock band Silverchair. Johns is also one half of The Dissociat ...

wrote all the tracks himself, "Straight Lines" was

co-written Collaborative fiction is a form of writing by a group of authors who share creative control of a story. Collaborative fiction can occur for commercial gain, as part of education, or recreationally – many collaboratively written works have bee ...

the Presets The Presets are an Australian electronic music duo of Julian Hamilton (vocals, keyboards) and Kim Moyes (drums, keyboards). Formed in 2003 and signed to Modular Recordings, Modular Records, The Presets released two EPs (''Blow Up (EP), Blow Up ...

' Julian Hamilton. "Straight Lines" was awarded a double-platinum certification by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA) on 2 September 2007, indicating combined digital and physical single sales of 140,000 units in Australia. On 28 October 2007, "Straight Lines" won "Best Selling Australian Single" at the

ARIA Music Awards of 2007 The 21st Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply ARIA Music Awards, The ARIAs) were held on 28 October 2007 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. Rove McManus ...

, as well as "Single of the Year". The song was the most played song on Australian radio in 2007. It charted at number two on the

Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music poll presented by the publicly-funded Australian youth radio station Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Music of Australia, Australian and alternative music of th ...

for 2007 and missed out on the number-one spot by only 13 votes. In January 2018, as part of

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 45 radio stations with flagship stations broadcasting a mainstream/classic rock music format in Sydney, Melbourne, and B ...

's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Straight Lines" was ranked number 74.

Music video

The music video for the song features a dynamic band performance, and was filmed at the Olympic Park railway station, Sydney, by

directors Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

Paul Goldman and Alice Bell (the pair behind the film '' Suburban Mayhem''). The video appeared on the official website on 2 February It was awarded "Best Video" at the 2007

ARIA Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

Awards and nominations

APRA Award

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Song of the Year and Most Played Australian Work APRA Awards for "Straight Lines", written by Daniel Johns and Julian Hamilton, was presented by

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

Track listing

Australian maxi-CD single # "Straight Lines" # "All Across the World" # "Sleep All Day" (demo) # "Don't Wanna Be the One" (live)

Credits and personnel

Credits are taken from the Australian maxi-CD single liner notes. Studios * Recorded at Seedy Underbelly Studio (Los Angeles, California, US) * Additional recording at the Panic Room (Sydney, Australia) * Mixed at Metalworks Recording Studios (

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

, Ontario, Canada) * Mastered at Gateway Mastering ( Portland, Maine, US) Personnel * Daniel Johns – lyrics, music, production, additional recording * Julian Hamilton – music *

Nick Launay Nicolas Launay (born 5 March 1960) is an English record producer, composer and recording engineer, currently residing in Los Angeles, CA. He is one of the most sought after record producers in the world due to his success with recent albums b ...

– production, recording *

Scott Horscroft Scott Horscroft (born 27 October 1977) is an Australian music producer/sound engineer, the owner of The Grove Studios and an Executive A&R Consultant for Universal Music Australia Career In 1999 Horscroft completed a bachelor's degree of Fi ...

– production assistance * Paul Mac – production assistance, additional recording * David Bottrill – mixing * Giancarlo Gallo – mixing assistance *

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– mastering * Hackett Films – artwork

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2007 singles 2007 songs ARIA Award-winning songs Eleven: A Music Company singles Music videos directed by Paul Goldman Number-one singles in Australia Silverchair songs Song recordings produced by Nick Launay Songs written by Daniel Johns Songs written by Julian Hamilton