Like an Australian Prime Minister that was actually elected by the people, a live show by Perth rockers Gyroscope is rare these days.
The band are getting back together for a string of shows that includes celebrating New Year's Eve at Badlands Bar in their home town. “Because we're doing a couple of shows down south prior to Badlands, we gearing up for all three but obviously Badlands is the one that we're looking forward to the most, being on New Year's Eve,” guitarist Zoran Trivic says.
“I can't really give away any secrets, but we always try to change up what we're going to do onstage and change up the set. Nothing gets choreographed so anything can and will happen, but being New Year's we're all going to be in good form and it will be good to celebrate getting the band back together for those shows.”
Between 2004 and 2010, Gyroscope released four studio album and stormed the charts with hits such as 'Safe Forever', 'Fast Girl', 'Dream Vs. Scream', 'Snakeskin' and 'Australia', forever leaving their proud mark on Australian music.
These days Zoran finds himself busier on building sites than he does on stages. “Everyone's pretty busy days these days, so we don't have as much time to get out on the road as such,” he explains.
“Especially in the past years a few of us in the band have had kids of our own and have got mortgages to pay, so the rock & roll music industry, or the music industry in general, is changing and it's a lot harder to earn a living as a musician from selling records.
“You do a lot of touring but there's only so much you can tour as well without putting people to sleep if they've seen you seventeen times in one year.”
As Gyroscope celebrate the passing of this year into the next, they also mark another year together as a band, which for Zoran has always been more of a family unit than a business. “We've been in this band for 20 years and I don't think we even made a living from the band for about the first 10 or 12, so it's never been about the money for us,” he says.
“It's about the same four guys still being in the band today, just enjoying making music together. Probably our favourite thing is getting out on the road and playing live shows; that's what we love to do, so we're glad we can still do it now and again.”
Even though Gyroscope is no longer a full-time venture for Zoran and his bandmates, they continue to work on music and maintain their 20-plus year relationship as friends and musicians. “I think where bands fall down in a heap is when band members start changing and there's not a feeling of equality among the band members,” Zoran says.
“With us, it's always been the same four guys doing things splitting everything four ways. We all wrote our music together. There's not one guy who writes the music for the others and dictates what's going on, so it's always been a team effort – a bit of a gang really.”
