After Gyroscope returned late last year with new music and followed with a national tour in January, comes news the Perth band's frontman Dan Sanders is releasing his own solo material as XIII (pronounced thirteen).
And don't worry, this doesn't mean Gyroscope are going back on a hiatus - the band are still very much alive.
Sure to have any Gyroscope fan salivating, the new double A-side single from Dan, 'Hell Mary | (Don't) Leave Me Alone' released today, will appeal to any punk-rock lovers particularly those who admire Violent Soho, Tired Lion and DZ Deathrays.
Click here to read our December 2017 interview with Dan Sanders talking about the return of Gyroscope.
'(Don't) Leave Me Alone' simmers with mix of hardcore power chords and gritty punk riffage as Dan pours out his grief about the loss of David Bowie with emotive vocals.
The day Bowie died, Dan (a life-long fan of the pop icon) felt similar emotions to the moment when Kurt Cobain passed away. With a bottle of red for company, he decided to record music at his own studio in his backyard shed – dubbed The Cabin.
"I came to the studio and I've never done this before," Dan admits, "but I wrote ['(Don't) Leave Me Alone'], all the instruments, in its entirety.
"I had the Telecaster plugged in, I was necking red wine and that was musically a total Bowie thing. It absorbed me. I felt I was Bowie.
"But I've always got Kurt on one shoulder and Bowie on the other, and it's not heaven and hell, it's two cool dudes in my ears," he adds. "When I'm doing stuff I check with them both and if they're cool I just go with it."
The second track of the double A-side, 'Hell Mary' screams/ oozes Kurt Cobain angst, with strangled, throaty vocals from Dan pared with a strumming acoustic guitar that would leave Bowie beaming with a smile.
So where does the XIII moniker originate? It's quite simple when Dan explains the background. "I was born on Friday the 13th. XIII is me. And by recording under a different name I found it gave me a different headspace and more room to explore my dark side perhaps."
