Daniel Johns’ olive branch to former Silverchair bandmate Chris Joannou

Weeks after hitting out at his former bandmates in a TV interview, Daniel Johns has offered a seemingly futile olive branch to a Silverchair member.

Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has posted a rare shout-out out to one of his former bandmates in an apparent olive branch which was ignored.

The 43-year-old Straight Lines singer took to Instagram to wish guitarist Chris Joannou a happy birthday, alongside a throwback photo of the duo performing onstage.

But in an awkward snub Joannou, also 43, doesn’t follow Johns on the social platform and hasn’t yet liked or commented on the photo, a day after it was posted.

Joannou is not an avid social media user, and hasn’t posted on Instagram since May.

Elsewhere, hundreds of Silverchair fans were happy to see Johns sharing a message of support to his former friend.

“It makes me so happy when you send messages to your bandmates,” one wrote, another adding, “This post made my day!”

The post comes just two months after Johns hit out at Joannou and drummer Ben Gillies in a TV interview, bringing their years-long tension back into headlines.

In an interview with Carrie Bickmore on The Project in September, Johns suggested the trio – who broke up in 2011 – were not on the friendliest of terms.

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Joannou now lives out of the spotlight as a Newcastle venue owner.

“Bitterness, jealousy, anger, like anything,” Johns said of the reasoning behind their falling out.

“I don’t have any bad feelings, but I know. I know bitterness and I know jealousy.

“One of the guys in particular has taken a real shining to kicking me while I was down and while I was in rehab and stuff. Saying I was exploiting mental health to sell records or something along those lines.”

Johns said he felt Gillies, 43, was particularly jealous of his success beyond the band.

“They’ve not shown me any respect. Me and Chris have a very passive relationship,” he said.

“Ben, for some reason has a real issue with me being successful without him. That’s sad because I wish him all the best honestly, but unfortunately he doesn’t want me to branch out.”

Johns hit out at his former bandmates in a September interview on The Project.

Silverchair got their big break in 1994 – when they were in their early teens – after being signed by Sony Music subsidiary Murmur Records.

Their debut album, Frogstomp, was released the follow year. It had been recorded in only nine days when the trio were aged 15.

Despite that, it became a number one album in Australia and New Zealand, and sold four million copies.

Their following two albums followed on the same trajectory of success. Freak Show in 1996 and Neon Ballroom in 1998, both hit number one in Australia.

Diorama, released in 2002, became their fourth number one album and spent 50 weeks in the top 50.

Young Modern, their fifth, was released in 2007, and featured one of their biggest ever tracks, Straight Lines.

But it would turn out to be their last as a group.

Silverchair on a 2007 cover of GQ magazine.

Then teens Chris Joannou, Ben Gillies and Daniel Johns met at school. Picture: Mick Hutson/Redferns

According to Silverchair’s website, in 2009 the group had begun work on their sixth album, but by mid-2011, they announced their indefinite split.

“We formed Silverchair nearly 20 years ago when we were just 12 years old. Today we stand by the same rules now as we did back then … if the band stops being fun and if it’s no longer fulfilling creatively, then we need to stop,” the trio wrote in a statement at the time.

“Despite our best efforts over the last year or so, it’s become increasingly clear that the spark simply isn’t there between the three of us at the moment.

“Therefore after much soul-searching we wanted to let you know that we’re putting Silverchair into ‘indefinite hibernation’ and we’ve decided to each do our own thing for the foreseeable future.”

Johns, who released his second solo studio album FutureNever in April, has lifted the lid on his relationship with his former bandmates in recent years. He’s repeatedly claimed his decision to quit the band wasn’t received well.