Gyroscope Had To Adapt To Survive; Now They’re Thriving

Dan Cribb

"It's really cool to know that you don't have to hang up boots or anything like that, like we initially kind of thought we needed to."

Gyroscope(Credit: Portia Gebauer Photography)

Gyroscope

Gyroscope are “starting to stir up some mischief”, as frontman Dan Sanders enthusiastically teases following the recent release of their first single in six years.

Not only is it significant for fans because it’s the first new music since 2019’s 4YRLV EP, but it’s the first material to feature new drummer Simmy Dreja of Break Even fame, following the departure of founding member Rob Nassif in 2019.

“You've got to adapt to a different situation,” Sanders notes. “We never really left the boil. When the seat was empty for the drums, I literally just jumped on it for a minute just to keep the beat so we could keep writing songs, and we always knew that we were going to keep writing.”

Sanders says they were quick to hone in on Dreja.

“He plays better than all three of us put together,” he shares, “but at the end of the day, we needed to make sure he could fit in to a drum seat that was well warmed and well-loved.

“We all love Rob. We all appreciate all the time and effort and we needed to sort of have that gap closed quite quickly because I didn't want to sit on the drums for too long. I just wanted to make sure that we could continue jamming essentially, doing new music and stuff.”

Funnily enough, the band’s new song isn’t really all that ‘new’. My Broken Spine, which they’ll tour across the country throughout March and April, sees the WA rockers return to their heavy roots, producing a song that captures the raw energy of their acclaimed live show.

“It was an older song,” Sanders reveals, also sharing that they have been working on a “newer batch of songs”.

“But in saying that, it got modernised and a refresher when Sim came on board and as we revisited it… that's when we realised that, because it was written quite a while ago, it sort of had that Gyro feel to it, so the crossover factor was there.

“We mucked around with it a bit more and were able to shape it into something that we thought would be relevant for us to put out and not alienate anyone too much because it's not the time and the place to be doing that for us.”

The band have setup their own studio called The Skullery, where they’re producing and engineering tracks themselves.

“It's our first big taste of engineering and looking at formation of mics or measuring distance between mics or even tuning drums according to songs… we want to continue in that sort of motion too, the DIY method; we’ve come full circle, as Gyro started, it's just feeling like the right thing to do.

“When life sort of catches up and you have kids and real stuff going on, being on your own schedule, there's nothing like it really, is there? You're not under the pump too much. We've been there, done that. I guess there's a time and place for everything, but this suits us really well at the moment, having that studio and having the flexibility.

“We've got to pinch ourselves sometimes and think how cool it is to be able to just rock up there and not be on the clock and be able to just do what we need to do. We've got to mix it externally because the mixing, as you know, is pretty tricky when you're in it, but yeah, apart from that, we sort of do it all in-house now. It's awesome.”

They’ve also established their own label, Skullery Records, which they’ll continue to release music through, allowing them freedom across the board.

“It’s a nice little pocket to go into so we can be productive and know that we've got all the control we need, and we're on our own schedule,” Sanders enthuses. “I guess it sort of feels a bit internal and all that, but at the same time, I don't think we'd want to share too much at this point in time. We feel like we just want to do it our way.

“It's not being greedy; it's more like our way, rather than sharing the load with a label that's sort of going to put you on a flight pattern, ‘You guys can do this and fit into this sort of mould.’ We're like, ‘Nah, we'll point and shoot when we need to point and shoot at the moment because it just really suits our lifestyles.’”

Sanders admits that their recording and touring cycle around previous albums just isn’t viable anymore, and if they didn’t adapt, they might not still be around.

“We used to be 10 months away touring and doing all that stuff. Nothing of that sort of aspect is practical anymore. We have to take a different approach and there's no point trying to battle it, so you make it fit into your [life]... because the other way is you just leave the whole process. You sort of go, ‘Oh well life's taken over.’

“But this way you can continue the work and the stuff you've set up for 30 years, continue that on a different sort of wavelength. At the same time, it's really cool to know that you don't have to hang up boots or anything like that, like we initially kind of thought we needed to.”

The shift in mindset has paid off, with the band producing a number of new songs that fans will hopefully be able to hear in the not to distance future. Sanders says Gyroscope recently spoke about “trying to be prolific” moving forward, “whether it's through singles, an EP, an album, or covers.”

The new collection of tracks covers quite a bit of ground, too.

“One song's got a tempo similar to Doctor Doctor,” he shares. “Another song's a bit upbeat like [My Broken Spine], another one's acoustic, a bit like some of the other stuff we've done. Having a studio, we do a lot of demoing, so a lot of stuff's been chucked at the wall and stuff that's stuck we've kept.

“Now we've chiselled it down, but we're not being precious. We're just like, ‘Look, they're the ones that survived.’

“We never really write the same style song twice.”

2027 will mark 30 years for Gyroscope, but instead of looking back, they’re focusing on the future.

“We've sort of seen it come up on the calendar and we’re like, ‘Holy shit, that's ages.’ It's made us think of the formula that we want to run down for the next five or 10 [years]. You get on it a bit, you don't want to go back, you sort of want to go forward.

“We're starting to get the scrapbooks out and if there's enough hours in the day and the kids leave us alone for a couple of seconds, we might get together and try to catalogue all this stuff for some sort of celebration of the fact.

“In saying that, the stuff's not going anywhere and neither are we, so it might even be 50 years you have to wait for something. It's not a daunting thing by any means. It's almost like, ‘Wow, this is cool that we've been together for so long and been able to continue the path of what we've been doing for 30 years.’

“The first thing we want to do is sort of make a cool website. We've just let things sort of go by the wayside for a minute, so now we can consolidate again, get a little label happening if we can, and make things sort of apparent so our kids believe that we're in a band. ‘You really in a band, Dad?’ You're like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’

“Anyway, it's all good fun, man, and we're enjoying it, so we'll just keep cracking on.”

Tickets to Gyroscope’s My Broken Spine Tour are on sale now.