Daniel Johns – Most liked Hunter Region Singer

Daniel Johns wins 25% most liked Hunter Region Singer

Above is an article I found in The Herald briefly mentioning Daniel Johns. The Hunter Region of New South Wales basically consists of Newcastle and surrounding small towns.

Happy Birthday Daniel Johns

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL

May you have a wonderful day (even though it’s half an hour until your birthday ends here), where ever you maybe.

Let Me Tell You About An Idol I Have – Daniel Johns

Call me old fashioned, call me nostalgic call me crazy, but Silverchair has always lingered in the back of my head since I was a teenager. I’m not a throw-panties-at-them fangirl but more so, I’m-in-tears-because-he-cut-his-fucking-hair fangirl. Well, I guess on the topic of Daniel Johns cutting his hair, he had to grow up some time, right? He wasn’t always going to be the long haired angst-filled teenager from the country I live in – his name always comes up at the ARIA’s (Australian awards – like MTV but ten times crappier) and when it doesn’t, you know that the award ceremony is rigged anyway and that you’re most likely wasting your time watching them. So where was I? Ah yes, Daniel Paul Johns. He’s also part of the Dissociatives alongside Paul Mac which does the theme song for a popular game show host here called Spicks and Specks.

But Daniel Johns was a home grown Newcastle boy who actually grew up in Merewether, who made his career debut at a ripe age with Frogstomp after Tomorrow won a contest and the utter nonsense of a label war went on alongside his two pals. Okay let’s cut this history crap, his history ranges from Frogstomp to a QANTAS (an airline here) propaganda bullshit commercial. Better time could have been spent, that’s all I’m saying.

Okay let’s get to the point of this blog post, why do I idolise him? Because I can relate to him.

Early on in his career, he developed anorexia, a serious condition that affects the mentality of how a person views themselves in the mirror and the things they eat – most commonly associated with women, but no, it affected Daniel greatly. A majority of the album Neon Ballroom was about his mental struggle with the disease alongside with depression. I remember seeing an interview with him with a host here called Andrew Denton and he said that he was contemplating death because everything was just so bad for him and it’s quite recognisible in his music when you deconstruct it.

And you’re my obsession
I love you to the bones
And Ana wrecks your life
Like an anorexia life

– Ana’s Song (Open Fire)

I relate to it because one of my friends in high school had an eating disorder and I saw her degrade herself almost every day for two years. It really hit home for me, when I listened to this song because I could only imagine what she was going through. But we lost contact after high school .___.

Also the socio-political stance that he takes in such songs as Anthem For The Year 2000. I remember watching this film clip and thinking “omg that guy is so cute!” but I think what got me into this song, and it was the song that got me into Silverchair actually, was how alike the lyrics were to what society was becoming.

Maybe we don’t want to live in a world
Where innocence is so short

– Anthem For The Year 2000

Though I do know that Daniel Johns is friends with Peter Garrett, ex Midnight Oil lead singer/now Australian Labor Party minister who sung political songs back in his time which coincides with Frogstomp’s Israel’s Son (never let your history teacher listen to this song, you’ll never hear the end of how politically correct Silverchair is on this manner).

Hate is what I feel for you
And I want you to know that I want you dead
Your late for the execution
If you’re not here soon
I’ll kill your friend instead

– Israel’s Son’

So I guess you can pin it down to how I can relate to him on a personal matter and to his lyrics, I suppose. I don’t doubt he’s a great man, never been to a gig of his in my life even though I live in the same state as him. But I would love to meet him one day, just to tell him how awesome he is and how he’s inspired a lot of teenagers that have struggled with depression and anorexia in their life. I mean, hell he’s walking proof that there’s always going to be a tomorrow even if you don’t believe there will be. To sing about something is one thing, but to know you can relate to the person on another level is another, and I think that the idols that I have chosen to blog about give me that hope.

Daniel came back a few years with Silverchair and he bought one clear message, he was back and he was better, in which his physical health could be easily detected in his songs on Straight Line, for an example;

Washed the sickened socket and drove
Resent nothing
There’s good will inside of me

– Straight Lines

In other words, it means that he’s better, both physically and mentally. To know that a man could bounce back from all the shit in his life, it shows something. It shows that you can overcome any obstacle and you can pick yourself up again, and start walking like nothing happened to you but at the same time, you’ve learnt from the past and the only thing you can do now is take the past, learn from it, and move the fuck on.