It’s been a little quiet on the Gyroscope front, but not for much longer. I caught up with drummer Rob Nassif today to chat about the band’s upcoming appearance at Queensland’s The Lost Weekend festival, album number four, and their dedicated, and tattooed, fanbase.
You’re one of the headliners of The Lost Weekend festival, which seems a lot more chilled out than a Big Day Out or Homebake. What made you want to do this kind of show?
We love this sort of festival. For some reason Gyro, I guess because we do have quite a rocking live show and we are quite a loud band, we sometimes miss out on these sort of festivals, the Merediths and the Golden Plains of the world. I think they look at Gyro and think “Oh gee, bit of a loud rock band.” And we are, definitely. But when we got offered the chance to play this festival and we saw the line-up we really wanted to be part of it. And credit to the organisers for asking us, because we’re really looking forward to it.
So will you be camping with the rest of the punters?
I’m working it out. We might actually! I camped at Pyramid Rock about two years ago. That was lots of fun, so there’s a chance. I’m just working it out with my girlfriend at the moment. We’re thinking, because we’re playing on the Friday night I think, so we’re going to possibly stay and hang out. It looks like a fun little festival.
You mentioned the line-up, which has some brilliant local and international acts. Is there anyone you’re particularly looking forward to watching?
We’re all very excited to watch Tumbleweed actually. We all loved Tumbleweed a lot when we were growing up, and when Gyroscope first started they were definitely a big influence on us. As a matter of fact, our name Gyroscope was taken directly from a Tumbleweed song called “Gyroscope.” For years whenever we’d play in Wollongong, we’d always dedicate a song to Tumbleweed because that’s where they’re from. So to actually finally be sharing a bill with them, playing with them, it’s going to be great.
It’s so nice to see them back in action after all these years.
Yeah, it’s great man. I think they were always a little bit underrated, Tumbleweed. They’re a great rock band. We might pluck up the courage and go say g’day to Richie or whoever, and say “Hey man, we stole our name off one of your songs.” That’d be cool.
You’re just months away from releasing your next album. What can you tell me about it?
It’s something we’re really proud of. I definitely think it’s our best album, straight out of the bag. The longer you can spend on an album, the better. And with Breed Obsession, because we had such a long lead-up time between when we finished and when we actually released the album, we were already writing songs for this album the week Breed Obsession came out. So we got a bit of a hard start, and that allowed us to basically spend a year writing songs for this record. And as a result of that, I think the quality of the songs that came out just kept getting bigger and better. The original songs that you’re thinking “This would make a great album” slowly get nudged away because you keep writing better songs, keep experimenting more.
And you couple that with the fact that we were paired together with a world-class producer, Gil Norton, who we had always wanted to work with and who had done some of our favourite records. All of a sudden it’s like not only are you thinking that you’ve got the best songs, but you’re paired with the person that creates a sound that you love on records. It’s one thing having the songs, but when you match that with the production and the sound that suit them, it just strengthens them again.
And then take that to the next level were you go, “OK, where are you going to record it?” And then you end up recording it in a world-class studio on the other side of the world. Like, all these little variables that slowly take away from the songs or the band or the music or the album, they only strengthen it. I think we got all of the key factors perfect, we got it all right, and as a result I feel like this is a really strong body of work, and a body of work that I think people that like Gyroscope will love because it’s very true to what we do live. It’s a really energetic album, it’s a really rocking album from start to finish, and it’s a really cohesive body of work. So I hope people feel the same way I do about it. I’m just so proud of it.
Now you mentioned working with Gil Norton who’s done some fantastic stuff with everyone from the Pixies and Foo Fighters. What did he bring to the recording?
It’s a really interesting thing. I had really high expectations, obviously all the bands he’s worked with, just through reading press articles you hear about what a hard-arse he is, all these different things that you’re constantly hearing. But I can honestly say he blew all of my expectations out of the water. He was fantastic. With Gil it’s all about “Does it feel right? Does it feel good?” and if it does, that’s great. If it doesn’t, it’s like “What can we do to make it better?” It’s not anything specific. It’s just a case of feel.
We were over in Wales for nine weeks, and the first two weeks of it we spent in the studio, all set up. Gil would basically sit in the middle and we’d play the songs, and he’d just raise his hand and say “You know boys? I don’t know about this part here.” And we’d really stop and we’d think about it. He just brings fresh ideas to the table, and it’s nothing specific. It’s more just encouraging you to look at the songs in different ways and try new things. And through that trial and error, amazing things happen.
There’s a song on the album called “Baby I’m Getting Better,” and when we wrote it – it was actually the first song we wrote [for the album] way back in March 2008 – it was a country song. And at that time we didn’t know the direction of the record. It had really beautiful melodies, but once we decided we wanted to make a big rock album, that song never really fitted in with the other songs we had. But Gil’s whole approach was “Look, these melodies are brilliant melodies. If we can turn this into a rock song, we could have a great song for the record.” So the challenge he gave to us was, how do you turn a country song into a balls-out rocking song? And it’s very hard, especially if you’ve been listening to that song for 18 months to think outside of the square. But Gil was just like “Think of this as the acoustic version of what is a great rock song. Just go in there and rock it out.” And we did. Just from having a fresh perspective, which is coming from Gil, we went into the rehearsal room and pumped out the song and tried a bunch of different things, and within an hour we had rewritten the song, and it’s as you will hear it on the album. It’s a really upbeat punk rock song, and you would never in a million years imagine that it was a country song.
It’s amazing the different perspectives a great producer can encourage and bring out of you. He was a real dream come true.
Breed Obsession was a real breakthrough album, which achieved such massive mainstream success. Do you feel any pressure following that up?
Not really. To be honest, I felt less pressure with this record than we did with Breed Obsession. With Breed Obsession, when we were writing our record, we were all broke. We were absolutely out of money, we were at a real crossroads in that sense because we couldn’t really afford to keep doing the band. One of the guys was in the process of getting married, and another engaged, we were all getting older and getting to a point in your life where it’s not good enough to just be living off 150 bucks a week and being a total poor-arse. It’s all well and good when you’re in your early twenties, it’s fine. You’re 22, you’re touring around the country, you’re living off the dole, it doesn’t matter. And we did that, we went through that phase. I look back on that as some of the greatest days of my life. But the sad fact and reality is that as you get older, there are other things you need to be able to do in your life. Because if you want to have a family one day, it’s not much good that you can’t even pay the rent of the house you live in.
So with Breed Obsession, there was an awful lot of pressure because we were all basically about to run out of the little bit of money that we’d saved up through the band, and we were paying ourselves a small little wage out of. It was just a real negative point in time. We’d lost our long-term manager, and there were all sorts of rumblings at the record company. We weren’t even sure we were going to be able to record Breed Obsession. So there was a lot of negativity at that point of time. So writing that album was really tough, because you’ve got to put all of that aside, and the four of you have still have to gel and get on and write songs. So we did that and luckily, thank god, Breed Obsession did really well for us.
So when it came time to write this record, there was a real sense of relief because the band’s in a much better position, a much healthier state of mind. We’re all earning salaries and if we want to do things like buy a house, just get a simple mortgage like anyone in a job would do, we are now able to do that for the first time in our lives. So writing this record was really enjoyable. It was a lot more stressfree, a lot more exciting in a lot of ways, and I think it’ll show in the songs because it’s a really focused record. I listen to Breed Obsession and there’s like an acoustic song, and a piano song, and a rock song, and there’s a drop-D heavy song, and there’s a pop-punk song; there’s so many things going into that album, so many different styles, and to me it represents what was going on in our lives. There was so many things going on in our lives that we didn’t have a great deal of focus. Whereas with this record we’ve had that taste of success now, and we’ve finally broken through. It’s like “Let’s do what we’re good at. Let’s make a big monster rock album, something that’s still exciting and something that we can play every song live with. So I just feel like the pressure really wasn’t there. It was much more enjoyable than the pressure we had on ourselves for Breed Obsession.
You’ve released one track, “Live Without You” to radio and fans online. What has the response been like so far?
It’s been really good. We just gave it to Triple J. Triple J have been such big supporters of our band, and we wanted to do something special just for them and just give them a song. And also just give our fans a taste of the record I think. It’s a really cool song to get a vibe for and see the kind of direction that this album’s heading in. I think it’s a good representation of the energy of the album. It wasn’t even a single or anything; just a song to get the vibe back out there and get people interested.
And so far Triple J have been awesome and been giving it a great spin, and I guess the next step now is releasing the first single, which will be in about two weeks time.
You’ve got a pretty hardcore fanbase. I believe many are even sending you photos of their Gyroscope tattoos. How does it feel to know people love you that much, they’re prepared to ink it onto their bodies permanently?
Look, it’s a big honour isn’t it? That’s huge. We’ve all been fans of doing that with the bands we love; Dan’s got an Alkaline Trio tattoo and Zok’s got a Rocket from the Crypt tattoo. It’s a massive compliment, but it’s something that we’re really proud of. The reality is that without those fans that come and support us and get tattoos and buy tickets to the shows and buy our albums, we can’t do what we do. People are all like “Gyro, you’re such a good live show, it’s great to watch you live.” But it’s like that because the fans are so passionate about what we’re doing. If you’ve got one thousand people screaming out “Safe Forever,” and we’re playing it, it’s like a two-way relationship. Like they’re so awesome to us, so we try to up it and be really awesome and give them a live show and an experience that they’re going to remember. All this sort of thing with the tattoos that seems to be coming through in the last couple of years has been really amazing. And if anything, it just spurs us on to rock harder and write better songs and hopefully they keep growing and evolving with our band. It’s really great, I think people that got into the first album, Sound Shattering Sound, there’s still a fair proportion of those people who are still fans of our band. It’s pretty rare these days that people will stick with you and follow you and get excited about each new album release. It seems like they stick with us, and at the same time we find new fans along the way and new people get into the band and it keeps growing. I just hope we can keep growing with this record as well.
You’ve been in this band for more than a decade now, which is so much longer than many bands survive. What’s your secret?
I think a decent level of friendship between all the members is really important, and a respect for each other. We’re really lucky in the sense that we all started this when we were teenagers and we were all buddies, and as much as it was about jamming and practicing a few times a week, it was also about going out and having a few beers together and going to gigs together. I think that we’re all good friends, and that’s a really big help. And like I say, a common respect that we all have for one another is really good.
And the other thing I think is just a really good work ethic, hey? It’s so easy to be a slacko if you’re in a band. You can say to yourself, I’m going to dedicate my life to this band and I’m going to go on the dole and I’m going to do music, but you then have to really apply yourself and make sure that you are out there rehearsing five times a week and touring constantly. The great thing about Gyroscope is that all four members from day one have all had a really strong level of dedication, even when we were in high school and we were studying for our exams. It was like, “Alright, we still need to rehearse a minimum of twice a week, and once in a rehearsal room and once at Dan’s house.”
And at the end of the day, you just need to enjoy it don’t you? If you’re doing something you enjoy, you don’t care. You just keep doing it because it’s fun and you get a kick out of it. As long as we’re all enjoying it, it’s not a big deal to stay together for ten years or however long it’ll be.
January’s the time for making New Year’s resolutions. What do you aim to do this year?
I hope that with this record we can take another step and keep playing great live shows. Hopefully just keep the trajectory moving upwards. Let’s hope it’ll do well and it can be heard by as many people as possible and it gets received well. And most of all, that we play the best shows of our careers this year. There’s no complacency setting in. We want to just keep getting better, and I think we’ve gotten better on this record, but we also want to get better in the live show. I’ve had a look at some of the tour dates and we’re playing some of the biggest venues we’ve ever played. So hopefully we can step it up and people can come along on the ride with us, and we can take it to the next level.
Image used with permission from Warner Music Australia