The release of a new book by Silverchair's Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou has created further tension with troubled frontman Daniel Johns. IA music reporter David Kowalski spills the beans (on toast).
IN THE NEWS this week, the one story that seemingly consumed all the oxygen in the Australian online musical ecosystem was the ongoing argument between the ex-members of Silverchair regarding an upcoming book release and an ABC documentary. As reported by yours truly back in July, the rhythm section of the band – Ben Gillies and Chris Joannou – are planning to release a book called Love and Pain, telling their side of their rags-to-riches story.
Back then, I mentioned how these two had remained rather circumspect and largely silent in the media in response to whenever lead vocalist and guitarist Daniel Johns made some disparaging comments about them. Now, the book has been released, however, it was the two-part ABC documentary on Australian Story that set the cat among the pigeons.
In keeping with my former sentiments expressed in these pages, I thought Gillies and Joannou would be very respectful in their discussion of Silverchair’s history, and their struggles with fame, substance abuse and health issues. And in the program, largely they were. They were brutally honest about their own personal struggles and I felt they dealt with Johns’ issues tastefully.
Johns, on the other hand, didn’t really want his personal battles discussed on the show, nor did he want ‘Ana’s Song’, written about his battle with anorexia, in the show either. He also wanted a copy of Love and Pain to check what was being written about him (a fair request, but it was not something the show’s producers could do anything about). He was also invited to be interviewed for the program and he declined. As such, he has vetoed the retransmission and streaming of Part 1 of the show on the ABC iview platform.
Johns detailed his side of the story in an Instagram post on 24 September.
The thing is that most of what was discussed about Johns’ health issues was already in the public domain anyway and he largely put it out there himself. For another thing, as if Gillies and Joannou would be derogatory about Johns’ sensitive issues when that would open them up to possible legal action. It is a fair request to be able to see how personal struggles would be dealt with in a documentary. However, if offered an opportunity to contribute and it is declined, one cannot seriously complain about the results.
The to-and-fro between both sides of this argument is tiresome. Each member of the band has expressed a desire in the media to reacquaint and repair friendships, and even if they never make music together again, the equilibrium of the universe would be restored if they could tolerate being in the same room as each other for five minutes.
JKBX — muso fan investment service
Launching recently is a new music investment service named JKBX (aka Jukebox). The service aims to sell off a certain slice of ownership of a song, either the writing, recording or production thereof, in the form of a secured investment. It's not unlike owning shares in a company, in return for a regular dividend or slice of royalty payment. In other words, invest in your favourite song for around US$20-30 (AU$31.32-46.99) a share and the music you listen to will be earning you a passive income stream, according to the company site.
So far, the initial offering of material is from major artists such as Adele, Ed Sheeran and Beyonce, but it still needs full approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. And how much they will pay in royalties to each shareholder remains to be seen. Apparently, the artists also get a fair payment from this system as well, which is a marked improvement from the fractions per cent stream per view on YouTube.
This is a marked difference from the Kickstarter or GoFundMe model, which many artists have used in order to finance the making of a product and guarantee sales and distribution once the product is issued. However, what the investors have in their hands really amounts to very little. Unlike investing in a public company, there are no voting rights, no say in the usage of the material in films or television and no ownership of any copyright. The investor doesn’t get a say in any new works the artist creates and as such, the investments are in existing catalogue works.
Will this have any effect on the unfair distribution of royalties in this brave new world of streaming? Watch this space.
Frangipanis in July
Newcastle, NSW-based independent artist Daphzie has dropped a dreamy slice of pop on her new single, ‘Frangipanis in July’. She described her music on her website as ‘the product of the kid with Katy Perry posters all over their bedroom walls but whose favourite album is Radiohead’s, The Bends’. ‘Frangipanis in July’ is an accurate distillation of those two seemingly disparate influences. There are gorgeous pop hooks galore with a healthy dose of slightly melancholy guitar explorations, with a warm bedroom production feel. I like where she’s going musically and I’m keen to hear more.
Beans on Toast
British folk-punk singer Jay McAllister has been plying his trade under the name of Beans on Toast for almost 20 years now. His simple but very pointedly opinionated songs have taken aim at everyone from Fleet Street gossip columnists hassling Kate Moss to Prince Harry. Every year on 1 December (Jay’s birthday) he releases a brand new album and it is usually around this time of year that the first fruits of the album start to appear.
This latest track takes on the ever-growing phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI). He cleverly admits within the lyrics to actually using ChatGPT to write the chorus of the track, despite the fact that he is both fascinated and terrified of the idea in equal measure. He asks some interesting questions about the possibilities of this new technology, in his inimitable style.
The new album is called The Toothpaste and the Tube and it looks to be another state of the nation summation of life in the last 12 months, set to music to strum along next to a campfire.
LISTEN TO THIS WEEKS SPECIALLY CURATED PLAYLIST BELOW:
David Kowalski is a writer, musician, educator, sound engineer and podcaster. His podcasts 'The Sound and the Fury Podcast' and 'Audio Cumulus' can be heard exclusively here. You can follow David on Twitter @sound_fury_pod.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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