Daniel Johns was born on Sunday, April 22nd, 1979 and is currently 20 years old. He lives in Newcastle, Australia in a white house with a large porch. Inside his house is a very "country-like" atmosphere, with wooden floors, wooden cabinets, and glass figurines. His room contains a lot of guitars ("23" as of 1997, but I'm pretty sure Daniel has obtained a lot more since then). Outside his room is another room with a television and exercise equipment. These are random, pointless facts.

Daniel's family consists of his mother named Julie (who once kept track of silverchair's careers when they were underage), his father named Greg (who Daniel has "borrowed" many records from. Daniel's father currently works at a fruit market), his brother named Heath (he must be about 17 or 18 years old now), and his sister named Chelsea (11 years old). Heath is also in a band called Army of Prawns and I've heard that he's into basketball and rugby. It was also once said that Heath and Daniel share a bedroom, but I don't know what their "living status" is at present. Daniel's brother is into bands like Alice In Chains and Green Day, as far as I know. He also recently turned vegetarian. Chelsea takes care of Daniel's precious dog, Sweep, when he's away on tour.

Which brings us to the story of Sweep. "I found my dog in a garbage bag along with some dead puppies. There were three that were alive, so I took her home, fixed her up and now she lives like a queen. With animals it is different to when you're with people, as animals don't like you because you've got money or because they can get something out of you. They either like you or they don't and they can feel love a lot more. You don't have to tell them that you love them - they can just feel it and they know it. Me and my dog are best friends," says Daniel. In fact, Sweep played a roll during the recording of Neon Ballroom, silverchair's third album. She barks somewhere in Steam Will Rise (Track 12). Trivia fact- Sweep misbehaved with Nick Launay during the mixing of Neon Ballroom. Another odd fact is that Daniel has some "interesting" pictures of Sweep in his wallet.

Past pets Daniel has had include a border collie, a goldfish that died in two days, and a mexican walking fish. That's a type of lizard for those of you who don't know.

Johnsie or "Jasper" (those are two of Daniel's nicknames....In an interview Daniel said, "But I used to get called Jasper because everyone thought I looked like Caspar the ghost!") had a good childhood. Very little is known about his childhood, though, other than a few things. First, he used to play trumpet in the school band. (Pictured here) When Daniel was younger, he fell over and a watering can went in his mouth and he had to get stitches. He got hurt quite a lot as a child. He recalls being 14 years old and dropping a bandsaw on his foot. "It went right through," he said.  He also used to have braces... pointless, but many people have remarked about how perfect his teeth are. His fondest memory of being a kid is during Christmas and being surrounded by people, watching him opening his presents. Also, when he was a kid, he was part of the Boy Scouts!! He was a seconder!

During the beginning of his teenage years, Daniel and Ben started up Short Elvis, which was basically a rap group because neither of them knew how to play instruments. Surfing was also a pretty major part of the day. Newcastle beaches are terrific for surfing, if you didn't already know. Daniel was very much into playing arcade games, too. Some of his favorites at the time were Cruising USA, Grand Prix Star, and Indie 500. School wasn't top priority, but if he had to pick a favorite subject, it would be English.

As Daniel got older, he started playing guitar. His first guitar was called the Rocks Axe. "I think I was 12 when I got my first guitar. For the first year, I taught myself and then I had a year's worth of classical lessons. The first song I learnt was probably one by Elvis Presley, but the first good one I learnt was 'Paranoid' by Black Sabbath. They are my favourite band ever! We've got our metal roots!" There's some more things to say about his year's worth of classical lessons. He took them because he had heard Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple had had them. However, he didn't like them very much and quit. After that, according to Chris, "Someone would teach us a cover song of someone else and that would pretty muh be the lesson of the week." Other than that, Daniel taught himself how to play guitar.

Now that you know this stuff, we can get into the Frogstomp Era. Now, lets discuss the lyrics on Frogstomp. Much of them were influenced by things Daniel saw on television as well as real life events. One key date comes to mind which is December 28, 1989 which is the date of the infamous Newcastle Earthquake. This tragedy killed one of Daniel's friends and is the whole story behind the song 'Faultline.' Television shows Daniel watched at the time were Seinfeld and South Park. During the recording of Frogstomp, Daniel used mainly a Gibson Firebird, Marshall amps, and JCM 900 dual reverbs. Touring was a whole different story. At the Santa Monica Pier, while doing a free concert, someone in the crowd decided it would be funny to make a guys head bleed, so he pegged a beer bottle at Daniel's head during the song, Israel's Son (ironically before he sang, "All the pain I feel, couldn't start to heal."). He had to get 3 stitches on his left eyebrow. silverchair's lead singer took it quite well and was even a bit proud of his stitches. "There would have been some good pictures but mum's camera got stolen," he said, with a smile. During this time in his life, he was into all types of bands. They included Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Helmet, Tool, You Am I, Minor Threat, Slint, and Magic Dirt. The car he drove was a Ford Fairmont...

As time passed, even more things happened. He became vegetarian. He later became vegan. His first step was to wear out his suede airwalks. And then in December of 1996, something happened...Daniel got arrested! silverchair and Red Hot Chili Pepper, Dave Navarro, were testdriving the Montero Sport for Bikini Magazine. Daniel got in trouble for driving on the Santa Monica Beach (he seems to have heaps of trouble there!) and besides that, he didn't have a drivers licence. So, Cop #57 hauled Daniel into the police station, gave him looks, made him scared, until Sony got his drivers licence left in Australia. He was released unharmed and actually ended the day signing autographs for the cop's daughter. Fans also learned back in 1996 that Daniel could play drums! He played them on an Australian television show, Recovery!
On to the Freak Show Era! Daniel sported some new looks during that time. First, he had two eyebrow rings (shown here). The second eyebrow ring was done in Australia without anesthetic. Ben was there giving moral support. However, BOTH are out now. One was ripped out accidentally!!! That must've hurt! Hmm...more things...his style of dress changed, too. Forget the band tee-shirts he wore during Frogstomp. He began wearing very weird shirts, one of the famous shirts being one that said in bold blue letters, "NOBODY KNOWS I'M A LESBIAN." This shirt was also auctioned off. He also wore a plain yellow tee-shirt and a bright red sweater. He also got a haircut...it went from a layered shag to dreadlocks! The music he created on Freak Show reflected his feelings being a "rock star" (although he says they're just guys in a rock band who "go home and eat food," one of the many modest things he's said to date). The lyrics on Freak Show were much more personal, not so television based. The equipment he used during the recording also changed. He changed over to Soldano amps. He uses Gibson guitars in the studio and Paul Reed Smith (PRS) guitars on tour because they are more durable. One memorable guitar during the Freak Show Era was a silver PRS, which later got auctioned off to some lucky person. Daniel also has a PRS Dragon inlaid guitar that has been refinished so many times it can't be repaired (which means Daniel can't smash it anymore). It's worth thousands of dollars. If you'd like more info on his equipment, you'll find it in THE EQUIPMENT HUT. You might also be interested to know that Daniel has asthma. This fact wasn't known until the 11th Annual ARIA awards when silverchair performed 'Freak.' Ben and Chris accepted their award, while Daniel went home to get relief from his enhaler after having an asthma attack.

So, this brings us to 1998, a very hard year for this truly talented lead singer and guitarist. He suffered quite a lot, becoming very withdrawn. He stayed at home and played with Sweep for a while, relaxing after a long year of touring. 1998 was a resting year for silverchair. During this time, Daniel rented a house, where many of the songs for Neon Ballroom were written. He'd sit in front of the fireplace with Sweep and play guitar. He didn't listen to any other music, except his own. He wrote hundreds of poems in this house. However, he developed many phobias, including a fear of crowds, leaving home, and food. He thought certain shapes of food felt like razors going down his throat and at restaurants, he was always suspicious, thinking perhaps his food was poisoned. This later developed into a type of 'anorexia,' and is the story behind 'Ana's Song (Open Fire).' "After the last tour, Ben and Chris went from being in silverchair to a totally normal life once again, but I pretty much came home and couldn't deal with a normal lifestyle. I had to lock myself away and do what I knew would give me personal satisfaction-- writing music. But I'm a lot better now that I was at the time of writing the album. Back then I was pretty wrecked!" Daniel said in an article. However, his time in this rented house was limited. The landlord said that Daniel couldn't have any pets and the neighbors were complaining of the loud music. So, he gave Daniel an ultimatum- get rid of the dog and play the music softer...or leave. And Daniel chose to leave. He also got rid of the Ford Fairmont (that happened back in 1996) and he had an XP 1966 Ford. However, he soon bought a Mercedes due to the urging of his accountant. He also started watching a lot of television, from English sitcoms to Ricki Lake, to soap operas like Neighbours. He likes a lot of movies, but his personal favorite is Pulp Fiction. Favorite drink...V8 or orange juice. Okay, those were some even more pointless facts...want another one? Daniel's a Taurus...wow.

So, all these things that occurred in his life, this hard year are all reflected in the deep, meaningful, yet sorrowful lyrics of Neon Ballroom (with the exception of Anthem For The Year 2000 and Satin Sheets). The music was written with string accompaniament anticipated. The whole album concept is all Daniel's idea. "Every time I play these new songs it's like a cleansing experience. Although I remember the first few times I listened back to 'Ana's Song' and 'Emotion Sickness', I felt sick. I couldn't listen to the finished mix the whole way through: it kept bringing back bad memories. Basically it's a musical diary of a period in my life," he once said.

There's so many other things to know about Daniel, but none of them are truly relevant to anything at the moment. However, this is the story of a truly talented and amazing person. He summed it up when he said, "There's definitely a side to being in a successful band that no one really knows about, unless you've actually done it. But when you're onstage and people are getting into something that you've put everything into, I don't think there's a better feeling in the world."