Daniel Johns signs publishing deal with BMG, including Silverchair catalogue
Newcastle-born singer-songwriter Daniel Johns has signed a multimillion-dollar global music publishing deal with BMG, including his entire catalogue with rock trio Silverchair.
Newcastle-born singer-songwriter Daniel Johns has signed a multimillion-dollar global music publishing deal with BMG, including his entire catalogue with the chart-topping trio Silverchair.
“There is nothing without a heartbeat that I value more than my songwriting catalogue,” Johns said on Tuesday. “Bringing my life’s work as a composer to BMG signifies the level of faith I have in this company and their people.”
Speaking exclusively with The Australian, the multi-ARIA and APRA Award-winning artist reflected on his recording career, which began nearly 30 years ago when he and his bandmates drummer Ben Gillies and bassist Chris Joannou became teenage rock sensations.
“I’m still shocked at how many times I get tagged [on social media] by musicians all around the world playing these songs,” said Johns, 44.
“To be honest with you, I feel that for the most part my songs get more attention than they probably deserve because I don’t tour anymore.”
His proudest moments from across Silverchair’s five-album run from 1995 to 2007 include Emotion Sickness, the stirring six-minute opener to 1999’s Neon Ballroom, which marked a dramatic evolution in his writing.
“When we locked in live, Chris and Ben as the tightest rhythm section in the country brought a muscular glory to that performance that I always loved,” he said. “The song also introduced me to [pianist] David Helfgott, who is one of the most beautiful people on planet Earth.”
As well, Johns counts Tuna In The Brine – an ornate, expansive composition from the band’s 2002 album Diorama – as a personal favourite.
“The more I look back on that album I also think heavier songs like One Way Mule and The Lever are a massive pressure release on an otherwise quite complex pop album, and those sledgehammer riffs have aged really nicely,” he said.
His relationship with his former bandmates is estranged, however, with Gillies and Joannou recently publishing a joint book that detailed their “love and pain” at the circumstances surrounding the band’s unceremonious end in 2011.
Johns’s long-term deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing will end in 2025, at which point his songwriting catalogue with Silverchair – which includes a majority share of much of its history, including No. 1 singles Tomorrow, Freak and Straight Lines – will move to BMG.
The Australian understands the financial terms of the confidential deal extends into multi-millions.
Signing his publishing rights to BMG puts Johns in some rare company in terms of globally impactful songwriters, including two Stones (Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), two Beatles (George Harrison and Ringo Starr), and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Other highlights among his new colleagues at BMG include Andre 3000 of the US hip-hop duo OutKast – “One of the most fearless creative forces in history,” said Johns, who describes him as “a complete enigma … he’s magical” – and British alternative artist M.I.A. (“She’s the most punk rock artist in modern music and an absolute trailblazer”).
The new deal means that the Sydney-based label represents Johns for both publishing and records, after BMG released his second solo album last year.
Titled FutureNever, the genre-hopping work became ARIA’s highest-selling Australian album of last year and the only Australian album in five years to hit No. 1 twice – a feat unlikely to be matched, given overseas artists’ dominance of the pop charts in the streaming era.
For Johns, there’s a family connection to the company, too: his younger brother Heath is president of BMG Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
At this transition point in his career, “Music has given me access to a community of people (many of which I’ve never met) to share this human experience with for the brief time we occupy the planet together,” he said. “Music is a uniting soundtrack for a diversity of experiences, playing out simultaneously across the globe and it’s a beautiful thing.”
His success in this particular field has also afforded him something else: “Music means I’ve never had to get a real job,” Johns said. “And thank f..k for that, because I’m not good at anything else.”
More Coverage
