The stage is set up like a loungeroom, complete with couches, coffee table, lamps and plants.
Hosted by the ultimate MC, Dylan Lewis, Johns is also joined onstage for the show’s duration by his mate Luke Eblen, a photographer/videographer he’s collaborated with for almost a decade.
“This has changed everything, to be honest,” the former Silverchair frontman admits of these “healing” in-conversation events, before revealing there’s a lot of new music on the boil. We eagerly anticipate what’s in store.
Check out our gig guide here.
“Better than mine!”: Johns on Eliza Hull’s Tomorrow cover
Upon learning that Eliza Hull is in the audience, Johns endorses her stunning version of Silverchair’s Tomorrow – which features in the TV series, Playing Gracie Darling. “I thought it was better than mine!” he extols.
What So Not’s “demonic angel”
Mad props to What So Not (aka Chris Emerson) for coaxing Johns back onto the stage after he’d sworn off performing for good!
Watching footage of Daniel Johns’ surprise guest appearance during What So Not’s 2019 Laneway Festival set in Sydney – materialising from an upright coffin, no less – we SO wish we were there. In character as a self-described “demonic angel” – dressed in white, resplendent with fuschia, feathered-wing epaulettes – Johns performed Freak sans Silverchair, for the first time, and his guitar solos were majestic as ever.
During the Lewis-led conversation that follows, Eblen outlines Johns’ live comeback: “There was one rehearsal and the muscle memory was crazy.” We also learn that Johns purchased the guitar he played on this occasion from Gumtree.
“It was supposed to be on Neon Ballroom, but I forgot about it, to be honest”
The first demo we’re treated to tonight is All The Time In The World. This unreleased track was recorded on a 4-track in the Johns family home, in the wee hours (hence his hushed vocal delivery). After this captivating song – featuring just vocals, acoustic guitar and occasional moody synth – washes over us, Johns reveals it was supposed to be on Silverchair’s Neon Ballroom album (1999). “But I forgot about it, to be honest,” he adds. “I didn’t even know it existed until about three or four weeks ago.”
“I knew that people, including myself, wanted experimentation”
While creating 2002’s Diorama record alongside Van Dyke Parks, the composer would routinely greet Johns with the salutation, “Hello, Young Modern!” – hence the title of Silverchair’s next album, which dropped in 2007.
The demo for Waiting All Day, from Young Modern (which was recorded back in 2004) features guitar, vocals and layered harmonies – it already sounds brilliant in this embryonic form.
Johns has referred to Diorama, The Dissociatives (Johns’ passion project with producer/DJ Paul Mac, which spawned 2004’s Gold-certified, self-titled album) and Young Modern as a trilogy of sorts.
Heading into the Young Modern era – Silverchair’s fifth and final studio album, co-produced by Johns and Nick Launay – Johns admits he was starting to get frustrated: he felt restricted by Silverchair’s grunge association, but longed to create “more psychedelic stuff”. “I knew that people, including myself, wanted experimentation,” he reveals.
Origin story: Straight Lines
Melbourne’s special guest is one half of The Presets, Julian Hamilton, who is welcomed to the stage with rapturous applause.
Johns and Hamilton co-wrote Silverchair’s hit single Straight Lines, which won both Song Of The Year and Most Played Australian Work at the 2008 APRA Music Awards. Hamilton points out the pair performed together on this very stage as part of Silverchair’s Diorama tour.
When Silverchair needed a touring keyboard player, Hamilton auditioned and got the gig. During his audition, Hamilton recalls Silverchair’s drummer Ben Gillies goofing around behind the kit and trying to make Johns laugh, which was “really sweet”.
Hamilton first started jamming and mucking around with Johns on hotel pianos while touring, first with Silverchair then The Dissociatives (for which Hamilton, The Presets’ Kim Moyes and James Haselwood were touring members).
We’re told that Straight Lines started its life at Johns’ place in Newcastle, with Hamilton seated at the piano and Johns on guitar. Hamilton recounts this song grew from a “plonky, slow, pretty” chord progression on piano, eventually taking shape in three or four different songwriting sessions across about a year.
While the pair played pool at a pub in Newcastle, Hamilton remembers hogging the jukebox and playing ‘anthems only’ for inspiration. He mentions U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name and Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run as particular references.
Hamilton describes some of Johns’ vocal melodies in this song as “bird-like”, which is spot on: the “oo-oo”s really do sound like an owl, huh?
The Straight Lines demo that follows features piano, guitar, computerised tom drums and synthy bass. The clarity of Johns’ vocals is striking, his delivery so affecting we get teary. The audience claps along and some even rise to their feet for a boogie. The way this song builds – subtly and incrementally – is genius.
The magic of this chart-topping, multi-award-winning, 2x Platinum-certified single exists even in demo form. Both Johns and Hamilton admit they knew they had a smash hit on their hands. Hamilton shares that Gillies and Silverchair’s bassist Chris Joannou were also super-excited when they first heard the Straight Lines demo.
Hamilton then mimics early Presets material – vocalising “We. Are. Try’na. Be. Cool”, in robot mode – and we’re in stitches. When asked how working with Johns impacted his own songwriting, Hamilton acknowledges the melodic shift in The Presets’ material, citing This Boys In Love and My People as examples.
All hail Rasmus King!
Actor/professional surfer Rasmus King – who plays young Daniel Johns in What If The Future Never Happened?– was only 15 years old when the featurette was filmed. Prior to tonight’s screening, Johns compares King’s acting ability to the late, great Heath Ledger and he’s not wrong.
Fun fact: What If The Future Never Happened? took many years to complete. Initially, Johns intended for the featurette to accompany his second solo record, 2022’s FutureNever.
