The last time Dave Johnstone, guitarist and founding member of Ammonia saw his bandmates Alan Belmont and Simon Hensworth was when they played the Perth leg of the Big Day Out in 1999. It was the last show of the tour and Johnstone was exhausted.
“We had lived in each other’s pockets for six solid years,” he says. “And we were just burnt out. There was nothing left in the tank.”
When the trio walked off stage for the last time, Johnstone didn’t look back.
Ammonia’s rise from small time Perth indie trio to household name status in the mid to late ’90s was meteoric.
Singles such as ‘Drugs’, ‘Sleepwalking’ and ‘You’re Not the Only One Who Feels This Way’ became staples on the triple j playlist and the band toured the country constantly and enjoyed supports with international acts such as Foo Fighters and Swervedriver.
The trio were initially courted by the then-newly formed Murmur Records who were also chasing Silverchair at the time. Ammonia became the label’s first signing whilst Daniel Johns and co were signed up soon after.
Ammonia’s 1995 debut record Mint 400 saw American heavyweight Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Rush) on production and helped beef up their already guitar-laden grunge sound.
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The album peaked at number 15 on the ARIA charts and began a cycle of touring, live shows and promotion that was both frantic and constant for the next six years.
According to Johnstone, the cracks started to appear after the release of the band’s ‘artsy’ second album Eleventh Avenue (1998) – recorded in the States with Dave Fridmann of Flaming Lips and Mogwai fame. Johnstone cites the heady mix of the three personalities, coupled with the unwavering rigors of life on the road and a non-stop touring schedule.
“I’m probably just as much to blame as the other guys but it was just hard,” admits Johnstone. “Living in each other’s pockets for that amount of time… we just needed a break.”
Johnstone was 28 at the time of Ammonia’s break-up and was contemplating a future which didn’t involve living out of a suitcase or waking up in a different city each day.
Johnstone soon moved to Melbourne and joined the 9 to 5 workforce with a job in IT – a job he still does today – but coming off the road to a ‘normal life’ wasn’t without hiccups.
“I literally went from touring in a band and then all of a sudden I was in a suit working in an office…and my brain was not dealing with it at all.”
Initially, anxiety followed Johnstone around for first few months of Ammonia’s split, but settled once he started jamming again with mates purely for fun. Music became his therapy.
He’s played in a number of outfits over the years including The Peaks, Parlour and The Lazybirds but has enjoyed the benefits of playing for enjoyment and pushed himself to try out a variety of different musical styles.
Even though the old hits are still played on radio or sometimes seen on Rage, Johnstone has been reluctant to revisit Ammonia until recently. The resurgence of 90s Australian music through the Facebook group Sound as Ever last year, meant that Johnstone began listening to old demo’s again and watching old videos. He got some Melbourne mates together and started jamming the old tunes.
“I kinda thought, maybe I’d like to this, but I didn’t need much prompting,” he laughs.
Johnstone quickly reinstalled his old management team from back in the day and has booked his first show in July as ‘Dave Johnstone from Ammonia’ on the Sound as Ever stage at the Leaps and Bounds festival. He intends to play the old hits as well as some personal gems and forgotten B-sides he still has a fond affection for.
“It’s a trip playing all the old songs, cos I literally haven’t played them for twenty years but all the muscle memory is there.”
When the big single ‘Drugs’ is mentioned, he recounts stories of people singing it to him over the years and how that song, (#27 on the Hottest 100 in 95) opened doors in the US and Canada. “Drugs got us all around the world,” laughs Johnstone.
Leaps and Bounds will hopefully be the first of many shows out of the indie wilderness for Dave Johnstone, who is looking forward to his kids seeing him play Ammonia songs for the first time; as well as bridging the 22 year gap since he last walked off the stage at the Perth Big Day Out.
“If I don’t do it now, I’m never gonna do it,” he smiles. “But it definitely feels like a good time to be doing it.”
Dave Johnstone from Ammonia plays the Sound as Ever stage with The Killjoys and Rob Clarkson
Friday 16th July 2021
Fitzroy Town Hall, Napier St, Fitzroy
