Love Letter To A Record: Gyroscope's Rob Nassif On Jebediah's 'Slightly Odway'

Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.

In this series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.

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Gyroscope’s Rob Nassif – ‘Slightly Odway’ by Jebediah (1997)

I can’t think of an album that is more influential in the world of Gyroscope than this album. When we first met Dan Sanders our singer, he had a Jebediah fan site for goodness sake. Zok and I were already playing Jebediah covers in our set. Brad might have even had a crush on Vanessa, just saying.

They showed us all, that a band from the suburbs of Perth could make it on a national level. We went to some of their earliest shows and I actually snuck into the Slightly Odway 18+ album launch at Planet Nightclub in 97′.

Let’s talk about the album though, I think what Jebediah so masterfully captured on this record was the energy of their live show. So many of the songs just drip in sweat and youthful exuberance. Opening track ‘Leaving Home’ sets the benchmark incredibly high. I was floored the first time I heard this on the j‘s. This would go on to be one of their most popular songs and set the album up beautifully. The music video to the song was so relatable as well, filmed in their local neighbourhood. Jebs felt real, they felt like one of us.

‘Harpoon’ is without doubt another highpoint of the album. The lyric; “It was over, ever since you went and shot me, like a harpoon in my heart” is just amazing. As a 17-year old, this lyric really spoke to me, Kev’s unique voice also added so much flair to what might have been considered a ballad.

It’s probably worth mentioning that around this time, Australian bands had an awesome national platform to have their music heard, and it wasn’t just triple j. It was a TV show called Recovery, which was on-air every Saturday morning. Jebediah played on Recovery a handful of times, often playing unreleased songs from what became Slightly Odway. I was one of the many kids who recorded these Recovery episodes and would then rock up to the next show singing ‘Benedict’ at the top of my lungs even before it was released.

‘Teflon’ was a huge single off the album, but my stand-out was a track called ‘Puck Defender’, the chorus is dynamite! The bass line at the start is iconic and it still stands up today as one of my favourite Jebediah songs.

The band would go on to help Gyroscope in a number of ways. They offered our first serious support slot when we were all still in high school. It was a secret show on a Tuesday night in Fremantle, Brad’s mum had to escort us in the licensed venue and we had to leave straight after we played as we had end of year exams the next day.

In 2002, we would sign to their indie label ‘Redline Records’ and they would invite us on what became our first ever tour around the country. We are forever grateful to Jebediah for this wonderful album and for all the help they gave us along the way. A real class act.

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One of Australia’s most endearing and celebrated rock bands, Gyroscope have just announced a slew of national tour dates and a self-produced new EP ‘4YRLV’ (pronounced ‘For Your Love’) – the first taste of music since their double A-side ‘Crooked Thought / DABS’ released in 2017.

Howling with angst and sizzling with frenetic grunge energy, this is possibly the most raw and untamed we’ve ever heard Gyro sound.

Check out title track ‘4YRLV’ — and catch their full list of tour dates — below.