Following his candid podcast series last year, former Silverchair vocalist and guitarist Daniel Johns is revealing even more about his struggles and journey on new YouTube documentary Inside The Mind Of Daniel Johns.
In the first part he reveals why he wanted to reconnect with his former Silverchair bandmates drummer Ben Gilles and bassist Chris Joannou for a song on the album, and how it felt when they declined the offer.
I really wanted to play with them again for the feeling, but I've never had a problem with playing with other musicians, I just didn't want to play under the banner of Silverchair
"I asked them, not out of necessity, I asked them because I wanted to kind of make it clear that I don't have an issue with them as people," explains Johns in the first episode of the new docuseries, titled Reclaim Your Art." And I really wanted to play with them again for the feeling, but I've never had a problem with playing with other musicians, I just didn't want to play under the banner of Silverchair.
"I've wanted to just get into another vehicle and it felt right, that I'd established myself as an artist outside of Silverchair, to ask them to come back in and then when they didn't want to I didn't care. It's just like, I asked you it's cool. I'll play the drums with spatulas…"
The song in question was album opener Reclaim Your Heart and Johns did indeed end up tracking drums for the song himself – with a pair of spatulas. As you'll be able to see towards the end of the episode above.
The song also sees Johns picking up his electric guitar again for the climatic outro.
One of the most successful band's in Australian rock history, Silverchair split in 2011 with over 10 million album sales and Johns has since released two solo albums, including the electronic leaning Talk in 2015, plus an album with Dreams – his project with Empire Of The Sun's Luke Steele.
Gilles and Joannou have been involved with various music projects with the former recently launching his own YouTube series Behind The Beat breaking down the drum parts of some of Silverchair's best-loved songs.
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