Sound as ever? Book charts why the 1990s were great for Australian music

A new book offers a treasure trove of stories and photographs from the alternative and indie rock scenes that sprouted across the country during the 1990s.

Sound As Ever co-author Jane Gazzo. Picture: Aaron Francis

For authors Jane Gazzo and Andrew P. Street, there’s no doubting where the 1990s rates in the ­nation’s cultural history: “a celebration of the greatest decade in Australian music” is the subtitle to their new book.

Published by Melbourne Books this week, Sound As Ever was born from a Facebook group of the same name that Gazzo started in February 2020, and which now has more than 18,000 members keenly discussing the music of that era in microscopic detail.

The 206-page, oversized book is a treasure trove of stories and photographs from the alternative and indie rock scenes that sprouted during that decade, alongside the birth of the Big Day Out music festival and the nationalisation of youth radio station Triple J.

As well as including contributions from musicians such as Tim Rogers (You Am I), Adalita Srsen (Magic Dirt), Angie Hart (Frente), David McCormack (Custard) and Kram (Spiderbait), it covers plenty of lesser-known also-ran bands, some of which appear in a section titled Whatever Happened To …?

In the opening pages, Rogers writes: “That I’ve been resistant to talk about ‘the ’90s’ as being a particularly fecund period for great music says more about regret than anything else. Regret that I wasn’t more grateful. I had the opportunity to witness performances, recordings and interactions that now appear climactic, dramatic.

“At the time I just dug my chin in my corduroy and pulled my shoulders up,” Rogers writes. “It was the decade of the shrug.”

For Gazzo and Street, Sound As Ever is much more of a warm embrace than a too-cool shrug. Both writers have published books previously, but this one – named after You Am I’s 1993 debut album – was a labour of love.

In Gazzo’s introduction, she recounts her upbringing as a fan and sometime performer in Melbourne’s indie rock scene: the gig guide was her bible, pots were $1, and she judged the quality of her nights out by the amount of ink stamps smudged on her wrist the morning after.

To the co-authors, it was important to capture these stories before they disappeared. “I feel that we need to take stock of our music history, and I felt this sense of urgency to get these stories down,” Gazzo told The Australian.

“My ethos is, I don’t give a shit how many wives Henry VIII had, what their names were and when they died; that to me means nothing. However, I am really interested and passionate about what happened after You Am I released Sound As Ever,” she said with a laugh.

“I’m really passionate about the secret song on a certain album, the line-up changes in (Sydney pop band) the Hummingbirds, and things like that.”

“I really feel that perhaps we don’t give as much importance to Australian music as we should.”