Melbourne rockers Rocket Science will mark a major milestone in 2018.
“This year is our 20th anniversary and it's the original line-up, which is quite unusual to survive this long,” the group's lead singer Roman Tucker says.
So how did the band form back in 1998? “Basically, I was in a space where I wanted to form a new band and I was putting together this tape and I had a couple of people who I wanted to put the tape out to; to see if they'd be interested in having a jam.
“So Dave Gray was one of them, because I'd seen him play with The Freeloaders. And Kit Warhurst was another one. And Dave really liked it, so he passed it on to Paul Maybury.
“And we wanted to see what would happen, so we had a jam and there was something special that happened that day. I don't really know how magic works but it was something very, very special.
"We actually recorded our first rehearsal, and on our first album it's the last track; an instrumental that was recorded at our first jam.
“We're a loud rock & roll band, influenced by garage and psych and post-punk. I guess we've been playing for 20 years and I think we're still the same people, so we're still generating that same kind of music.
“We've been making sound and doing what we do for a while, so there's a particular character to Rocket Science. It's unique to those four individuals,” Roman says.
Rocket Science disbanded in 2008, but came back together in 2014. “Mick Blood, who is the lead singer of Lime Spiders, he'd had a brain injury. And we were asked if we would do a benefit show to support him in his recovery, and it sort of brought us out of hiatus.
“And when we did the gig it just felt so good to be back together. And we all looked at each other and just thought, 'Yeah we want to keep going'.
"And since then we've been playing shows. Mainly shows around Victoria, but last year we did a tour with The Stems so we did a national tour, which was the first time since our hiatus that we've gone national.”
Rocket Science are renowned for putting on an amazing live show. “What I find engaging is the interaction between the band and the audience, and how that plays out.
“Every gig is unique in that sense, but we really feed off the experience and playing together. You can expect loud and fast pedals. Our message is that there's only one moment and that moment is now,” Roman says.
“We're releasing a single in April and then we're going to go on tour for that single. It's going to be a shorter tour, it'll just be major cities around Australia; playing The Gum Ball Festival then too.
“And then later in the year we'll release an album and do a more extensive tour for that. And then at the end of the year I presume we'll do some festival stuff. Then we're looking at what we can do overseas with the album in 2019.”
Rocket Science Tour Dates
Fri 20 Apr - The Curtin (Melbourne)Sat 21 Apr - Crown & Anchor (Adelaide)
Fri 27 Apr - The Lansdowne (Sydney)
Sat 28 Apr - The Gum Ball Festival (Hunter Valley)
Fri 4 May - Black Bear Lodge (Brisbane)
