Daniel Johns Quotes

I'm aware that if you keep shifting there are going to be people who really respect you for it and just as many who go: 'There's no stability with that dude. I'm going to buy Nickelback's new album.'

This guy, he just taught me chords and stuff. And after a year, I thought, I can't be bothered having lessons. So I just decided to figure out my own stuff. I never wanted to play all those fast solos. I just thought, I'll be like Pete Townshend of The Who. I'll do what he does and play powerful chords and stuff.

I wanted a song that people could perceive as a love song, while the lyrics are actually very angry," he reveals. "That song is about not being able to establish a relationship with anyone, not being able to experience love outside of family. I've been with girls but only for short periods of time because I'm a but scared of commitment, so after a month it's like... I'm scared that if I really like someone it won't happen, so I cut it short. A lot of the time it just feels like it's not real love. We've got girls screaming and stuff, girls saying they love us, but I think they're in love with the idea of being in love with someone onstage or in love with people they see in magazines or on television. That's not real - it's totally false.

Not being able to tour for Diorama was definitely a huge disappointment. I was (and still am) really proud of that record but i also feel like the response to it was better than expected given the circumstances. It inspired me to top it with Young Modern.

On "Miss You Love", quoted in *

The water out of the tap is very hard to drink

On "Anthem for the Year 2000", quoted in *

Love me for my mind, because I'm a dangerous heart

I would do the track and put guide vocals on it and Eddie really loved the version and said he wanted to keep my backing vocals in so my girlie harmonies are in the background. My 14-year-old self would have fucking died knowing that.

The whole thing is about youth rebelling against people who are supposedly more important. It's about youth having total control over their own minds. They do not need overweight people in suits telling them what to do and how to act. It is all about just being yourself. The chorus is very sarcastic. It is not supposed to be taken seriously.

That [song] was about an execution I saw on tele, that was an ad I saw on tele. I got this video of an execution, and I just saw it, and I was watching it one night, and I had a dream about it, and I woke up and thought, 'Oh yeah, that's pretty cool', and I wrote a song about it.

There's hopeless smiles better than mine

When we were first playing, even though it was derivative, playing music was the best, there was nothing better. And then by the second album (Freak Show) we were like, playing music makes me angry, and by the third album (Neon Ballroom) I was like, I need to play music cos life sucks. And now all of a sudden there's this really youthful enthusiasm in the band, everyone around us, there's this real positivity and everyone's vibing off the music.

Take the rope to my heart and fall

Rock Sound: Did you have an imaginary childhood friend?