Dropping Science

Giants Of Science are a Brisbane institution. Not an institution like a school, more like a rehab clinic. Even when you think you've got them completely out of your system, every few years they come back like a relapse of massive guitar riffs, heavy drums and twin melodies spiked with big doses of drunken humour. Only instead of getting less drunk...

Steve Lynagh is best known for his work behind the drumkit with the Giants, but his influence on the group extends beyond his core duties. Ever since their debut EP Blueprint For Courageous Action, Lynagh has contributed some of the prominent guitar riffage that the band are well known for.

“I've always been interested in the guitar side of things, and I've played guitar in a couple of bands as well,” he says. “I've always liked guitar-driven music more than a band with a really good drummer. My ear's always more in tune with what the guitar is doing when I listen to a band. I've noticed something interesting with my taste of music, and that's that I always like bands where the drummer seems to write a lot of the music – there must be something in that I pick up on. Like when Nick Anderson was in Entombed, I thought they wrote some pretty awesome shit, or even someone like Dave Grohl I think is a pretty good songwriter.”

The planets and stars aligned a couple of years ago when the Giants recorded an EP with local producer Darek Mudge, which for a while seemed like it might never make it off the shelf. Lynagh says that we should be seeing the results from that session shortly. “It looks like the working title is what we're gonna stick with, which is simply Four Songs In The Key Of E or something along those lines. We realised after recording that they are all in E, so we thought why not just go with it and ride that wave of un-imagination,” Lynagh laughs.

With two years having passed since the recording, Lynagh is a bit fuzzy on some of the details of the session itself, but says that the writing process for the Giants has always gone the same way. “It's always been very collaborative,” he tells. “I don't think it's ever really been like one person who brings something finished to the band and says, 'This is how it goes'. Someone comes in with a riff and then everyone adds their two cents worth.”

Giants will be joining Brisbane rock heroes SixFtHick and HITS for the annual Devil's Kitchen Festival, as well as heaps of other Brisbane bands. Described as a 'Stoner Punk Rock Fest', one group of stoners Lynagh is particularly keen to check out are his mates New Jack Rubys. “I went to a show of theirs a couple of months ago and they just go from strength to strength, they're one of Brisbane's – or even Australia's – hidden gems.”