Daniel Johns has released a new song called Aerial Love, his first in eight years. It debuted on Triple J on Thursday and was released online.
It’s a soft and slow, soulful ballad, that sees Johns alternate between a sultry croon and a nicely controlled falsetto over a throbbing drum beat. Working with Johns on the song was New Zealand producer Joel Little, best known for his work with Lorde and Broods.
Lyrics to Aerial Love may include a coded reference to the singer’s return to the scene (“change my old ways, take a piece of the future”), and stylistically it marks yet another musical departure from his previous projects, the heavy grunge act Silverchair and electro-rock group the Dissociatives.
His last release came in 2007, Silverchair’s Young Modern, and in the intervening years, the musician has been writing and producing records for acts as diverse as pop duo the Veronicas and rapper 360.
The song taps into a current musical landscape dominated by electronica, and slots nicely into the alternative-R&B genre popularised by artists like FKA Twigs, How to Dress Well, and in his native Australia, Chet Faker.
Johns’s last public performance was at Beat the Drum, the 40 year celebration concert of Triple J held during Sydney festival. His seven minute cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit – a band for whom Silverchair were often unfavourably compared to – divided audiences.
The song Aerial Love will be followed by a new four-track EP on 13 March.
