The Innocence And Desperation Of Gyroscope's 'Sound Shattering Sound'

Gyroscope take us through their 2004 major label debut, Sound Shattering Sound, ten years after its release.   

Confidence In Confidentiality

Zoran Trivic, guitar: By 2003 or so, we had put out what seemed like 1000 EPs, compilations and cassette tapes (whaaat??) and we were obviously hanging to finally drop our first full-length. With the no bullshit intro riff and the hollow verses, we were able to make that quiet/loud thing happen – that ‘thing’ we learnt from listening to too much grunge in the ‘90s.

Dan's and Brad's vocals complement each other quite radly, and with some solid drum-filling and a bit of face-melting we probably created our greatest ode to one of our favourite bands (At The Drive-In), as well our very first tune on our very first album.

Fun Gyro Fact #101: A fan once told me and Brad that if we had a kid together it would be Omar Rodríguez-López. True story.

Safe Forever

"I could play it backwards from end to start whilst in a coma... fuckin’ left handed too, boy!"

Daniel Sanders, vocals/guitar: Such a fun song to play live – love it! Pretty much every single time I think we have played this tune, it has made me reflect on where I am as a human in general.

There’s always a few smiles going ‘round up on stage between us mob when we kick it live too, I know that. The muscle memory I reckon us four have to belt out this song is crazy, bordering on superhuman. I could play it backwards from end to start whilst in a coma... fuckin’ left handed too, boy!

Memories of certain times and places, companions on excellent adventures, channelling visions of relationships past, present and future or just four bogans rockin' out on stage... I dunno, it just makes me and my homeboys on stage feel safe, somewhat invincible. I think I lose myself in that moment.

Take This For Granted

Trivic: For the most part, Take This For Granted was something I remember that came together pretty quickly for us. I brought the intro riff and verses in to band practice, and Robby and I gelled on them pretty quickly. Dan and Brad hopped in on the chemistry, and it felt like an hour later we were screaming “I miss you” on repeat.

I can't speak for Dan lyrically, but I feel like this tune always represented the home-sickness that the four of us would experience while we were away doing what we loved most.

This song remained a staple song in our live set for the next ten years and still today reminds me of home and the loved ones that we are lucky enough to have in our lives.

Hollow Like Cheyenne

Sanders: On this record in particular, Shauno [Shaun O’Callaghan] at Couch made my parts sound ten million times better coming out of the big speakers than they sounded going into that shit – always did a mint job. Cheyenne kicks in with a quick nod to my favourite Beatles song.

From what I remember, we used a high-functioning alcoholic horse-goat to write pretty much most of my other lyrics and melodies. I do remember getting the title from watching a documentary about the nuclear bunker that was hollowed and built into Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado back in the ‘60s… That was cool.

Doctor Doctor

"Tom DeLonge from Blink-182 played a cover of it during soundcheck when we toured with them in 2004..."

Rob Nassif, drums: I still remember the day we wrote this song. Brad Campbell waltzes in to rehearsals singing a zesty little melody... "Doctor, doctor help meeee" . We all joined in and started jamming along. Twenty-five minutes later, we all walk out of the jam room laughing and high-fiving about how much we love the tune and how quick we wrote it. To this day, still the quickest song we have ever written.

This song really signifies a big moment in the world of Gyroscope. It was the first song we ever wrote that got a really big reaction from the crowd even before it was released.

We felt there was something special about it as we went into the studio to record it. It went on to be the first song we got some serious triple j love for, and is for a lot of people one of the first Gyro songs they heard.

Tom DeLonge from Blink-182 played a cover of it during soundcheck when we toured with them in 2004... Yelling from the stage: "Hey Dan, how do I play that fucking riff at the start?" Funny stuff.

For me personally, I still absolutely love playing this song and it’s the oldest song that remains in our set. I'm often really spent at the end of this tune as it’s an easy one for me to play and sing along to. Most of all it’s a whole lot of fun.

Misery

Sanders: Even in my youth, my brain was never one to recall past conversations too well. I remember faces without a hitch but names… I guess they’re just labels anway. Old Misery Guts, I like to call this song. After revisiting Old Misery Guts, I forgot how much I enjoyed how the middle eight (or bridge or whatever-the-hell-you-call-it bit of this song) sneaks in and brings a whole different vibe with her. It was written the same day Michael Jeffrey Jordan retired from the NBA, in honour of His Airness Air Jordan #23.

Get Down

Nassif: This song is a bit of an ode to the Weezer Blue album. That album is one of the few albums we can all agree is probably top five in all four of our collections. Check out the Weezer-esque vocal melody over the top of Zok’s [Trivic’s] solo in the middle eight to see what I mean. This is one tune that people have been wanting us to play live for ages, so I'm excited to finally bring it back and get it rocking once again.

Midnight Express

Trivic: Midnight Express was actually from the Midnight Express EP, recorded by the late and great Shaun O'Callaghan. To me, this early Gyro tune represents everything that is Gyroscope in four minutes and 15 seconds: the brightest lights and the darkest shades.

We were a young, serious, fiercely positive, and desperate bunch of fuckers back in 2003 and 2004 – on social security, and on the road. This tune reminds me of a time when we were really writing songs off the cuff; when we didn't really know or care about song structure, we let the songs write themselves in a way.

Put simply, Midnight Express sounds like four dudes in the same band, playing the same song, at the same time. A lot of bands don't, or have never had that and for this song I'll always be thankful.

Are You Getting Any Better?

Brad Campbell, bass/backing vocals: So my favourite song off SSS is Are You Getting Any Better?. I remembered how much I like this song after playing this recently. It’s got a bit of swagger about it but it also kicks your arse at the same time. It's got some really nice grooves happening, so rhythmically it's a lot of fun to play.

It’s not your typical Gyro song structure either. It’s kind of all over the shop with a couple of verses at the start, a couple of choruses in the middle and then all the other bits after that! It takes you on a bit of an adventure, so I think that’s why I like this one.

My Hands Are Tied

Campbell: Wow, this song is like the old t-shirt that you find in the back of your wardrobe that you forgot you even had! I don’t think we’ve played it live since we wrote it, so this will be testing the old memory bank when we start jamming it for the tour.

One thing I do remember about it is that its working title was ‘Casserole’. Dan used to sing ‘casserole’ over and over in the chorus. The new lyrics are heaps better!

Driving For The Storm

Nassif: Still one of our favourites to play live. This is my one and only contribution to lyrics and a vocal melody in any Gyro song. We had written the tune and Dan had come up with some great verse parts but was stuck on the chorus... We all went away and had a crack at a chorus. My idea was simply to mimic the bass line that Brad was playing. The lyrics were one of the first things that came to mind and boom, the song was finally finished.

You Try Waiting This Long

Campbell: We always wanted to write albums that took you on a bit of a ride sonically, and to me this is the perfect way to wind everything up. It begins delicately, but then progresses into something a little more desperate and it ties in so well with those morbidly sincere lyrics that Dan is so good at.

Reflecting on this album, I’ve realised that without us even knowing, it encapsulates everything we were going through at the time of writing these songs. The songs are innocent, honest, rebellious and desperate. This is what happens when four mates get together with nothing to lose. It’s something you can’t manufacture – it is a true reflection of what Gyroscope is.

For more details on Gyroscope's forthcoming tour head to theGuide and The Music App.