APRA Music Awards 2023: I Feel Electric by Daniel Johns is a finalist
A funky, sensual track by Daniel Johns titled I Feel Electric is a finalist for peer-voted song of the year at the 2023 APRA Music Awards | SEE ALL NOMINEES
A funky, sensual track by Daniel Johns titled I Feel Electric is a finalist for peer-voted song of the year at the 2023 APRA Music Awards for excellence in Australian songwriting.
In contrast to his arrangements with Newcastle rock trio Silverchair, which became increasingly ornate across its five albums, the song – from Johns’s second solo release, titled FutureNever – is clear and unmistakeable in its intent.
“I had no interest in embellishing on something that I already felt was done, arrangement-wise,” Johns told The Australian. “For me, that is f..king restraint, when you compare it to records like [Silverchair’s 2002 album] Diorama, where I just wanted more and more sections, and more and more parts.”
I Feel Electric, said Johns, “is pretty straight down the line, like a Parliament funk jam. Some people will find that boring – but my cool friends go, ‘That’s what’s up!’” he said with a laugh.
The song has clearly resonated with Johns’s fellow Australian songwriters, as about 2900 APRA AMCOS members voted on the final five nominees for the coveted annual prize.
Also in contention for song of the year are works by the late Archie Roach (for his track One Song), Flume (for Say Nothing), King Stingray (for Lupa) and Julia Jacklin (for Lydia Wears a Cross).
I Feel Electric has an unusual origin story of collaboration between two vocalists. Built on clean guitar chords, an elastic bassline and a sparse drum pattern, its initial producer added the voice of a US singer named Moxie Raia, about whom the former Silverchair frontman was none the wiser.
“I’ve never met her in my life; never talked to her,” Johns told The Australian. “I don’t know what she looks like. I don’t know what she’s done in the past. I’m completely ill-informed. I just thought she slayed it, and I was like, ‘That’s f..king amazing’. I f..king love it. I always look forward to her bit.”
A pop singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, Raia is a credited co-writer on I Feel Electric, alongside producers Maxwell Bidstrup and Mark Landon aka M-Phazes.
Johns, meanwhile, is a serial winner at the APRAs, having previously won song of the year in 2008 for Straight Lines, Silverchair’s chart-topping single. He has also been named songwriter of the year on three occasions across the band’s career, in 1995 (with drummer Ben Gillies), 2003 and 2008.
In March last year, shortly before the release of his album FutureNever, Johns crashed his grey SUV into an oncoming van while drink-driving on the Pacific Highway near Newcastle. After the accident, the singer wrote on Instagram that he had been “self-medicating with alcohol to deal with my PTSD, anxiety and depression. I know this is not sustainable or healthy.” In July, he was given a 10-month correction order for high-range drink driving, and disqualified from driving for seven months.
The APRA Music Awards will be held on April 27 in Sydney, where songwriters will be honoured for releasing the most performed works in genres including alternative, rock, blues & roots, country, dance, hip-hop, pop and R&B.
In the breakthrough songwriter of the year category, finalists include members of King Stingray, Sampa The Great, Budjerah, 18YOMAN (aka Vincent Goodyer) and Spacey Jane.
The latter group, an indie rock quartet from Fremantle, recently had the dubious honour of being the only Australian act to feature on the weekly ARIA top 50 album chart, when the peak recording music industry body revealed its annual sales data last week.
In a concerning trend for local artists, who are regularly dwarfed on the charts by huge streaming numbers from overseas acts, Spacey Jane’s second album Here Comes Everybody appeared at No.41.
This week on the ARIA top 50, Australian representation has doubled to two artists: Spacey Jane ranked No.49, while Sydney rock band Ocean Alley was at No.32 for its second album, Chiaroscuro. It was released in 2018, and for its five-year anniversary, the band commissioned a vinyl repressing limited to 1000 units worldwide.
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