Since Silverchair’s indefinite hibernation, Daniel Johns has dabbled in various projects. A soundtrack for the motion picture My Mind’s Own Melody, Atlas for Quantas Airlines, collaborated with The Veronicas, 360 and played live with Van Dykes Park. All these projects sound so far away from his work with Silverchair.
His debut single continues in this vain. Aerial Love is a smouldering, sexy, electro-pop number. A far cry from the early grunge songs, that thrust him into the charts as a school kid. Daniel has more sensitivity in his voice now and he is free to explore this not shackled by any genre. Aerial Love sounds like a soulful whisper of a man comfortable with expressing his voice. His sultry vocals, compliment the ambiance of the music. “We got this aerial love” is as smooth a delivery as you will hear sang on any track this year.
Johns as an artist has continued to evolve after Silverchair’s debut album, Frogstomp and follow up Freakshow. 3rd album Neon Ballroom saw a more epic, orchestral backed sound, written about his battles with anorexia and anxiety. Album opener Emotion Sickness is a grandeur piece of work, boasting the talents of David Helfgott on piano. 4th album Diorama is arguably a modern classic inspired by musicals. John’s writing and song structure was at its most complex and experimental. Van Dykes Park, who worked with Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), provides arrangements for the album. This was a colourful expression that saw him exorcise the demons of his past. 5th album, Young Modern is swaggering with creativity and triumphant sounding songs.
Daniel is one of the most overlooked artists on the planet, he has a back catalogue of songs many would love to have written. He continues to push musical boundaries, let’s hope people discover him in this lifetime and not when he is gone. Daniel johns is an important artist.