WHEN Geoff Green was in high school, he was teased because he was taking piano lessons.
Decades later, it appears that this Swan Hill resident has had the last laugh, forging a successful musical career and becoming a pioneer of Australian electronic music.
"Pianos weren't the "in things" those days and I got heckled at school," he said.
"One day we did a phys ed course and we were out at the Swan Hill oval, and the phys ed teacher said "Boys, we've got a piano boy in our class" and sent me on six laps of the oval."
Green bowed to the pressure and much to his mother's displeasure, he gave up the piano. But he struck a deal to start learning the guitar, and eventually found himself back in front of the keys.
"I took lessons in guitar and taught myself, but then keyboards started to come into fashion. I began transposing chords from guitar onto piano. I eventually taught myself piano via the guitar and as time progressed, became fully involved with keyboards," he said.
After finishing school, Green worked at Murray Valley Food Processing factory, before he headed down to Melbourne to work in the public service.
While in the city, Green worked full-time while pursuing his musical career, and became more and more interested in the world of synthesisers.
He met up with another electronic musician, Steve Braun, and the two collaborated on a project that would last the best part of 10 years.
The duo formed the band Cybotron, an all-electronic band, with no live drums, guitars or vocals. In an age when Aussie pub rock was at its finest, this group certainly bucked the trend.
Green said interest in the underground band "took off", and it wasn't long before they were doing national tours and receiving media attention from newspapers and publications, including Rolling Stone magazine.
They even got a run in popular magazine Cleo, where Cybotron's music was listed among the top 10 most un-romantic tracks, an achievement Green is happy to laugh about.
As a band that was making its way up in the music industry, Cybotron toured alongside many well-known acts, including Split Enz, Daddy Cool and German electronic band Tangerine Dream.
"When I did Countdown I was talking to Molly Meldrum, and he'd never heard (our) kind of music before. He said "That's going to make it big one of these days", and now electronic music is used so much," Green said.
But after three albums, Green said the pressure became too intense, and the band called it quits.
"We were going to do a world tour. We virtually had the airline tickets in our hands but due to a lot of the stress, the band folded up in 1982," he said.
"It was just when we about to hit the big time. We had tour dates lined up in Germany, France, Italy and England."
While the life of professional artists is usually glamourised, the extensive touring and recording took its toll on Cybotron.
"You sleep during the day and you're working through the night. You're rehearsing some days and spending a lot of time in the studios for weeks on end," he said.
"You're virtually eating and sleeping at the studios, living in each other's pockets."
With the Cybotron days over, Green returned to work but maintained his passion in music, joining other bands and doing more experimentation.
He returned to Swan Hill in the 1990s, and while the region is a long way from the musically-proud city of Melbourne, Green still enjoyed some artistic highlights.
One of those came when Green and four other local musicians put together a band for a one-off show to support Sir Bob Geldof when he visited Swan Hill.
The other was when the Swan Hill town hall opened after being refurbished, when Marina Prior sang a Beatles' cover with Green accompanying on the piano.
"That was a buzz and it was only for a few minutes. But to be playing piano with Marina Prior singing, that was a big highlight," Green said.
Green also has been vice president of Smart 99.1FM since 2004, and donated his time to play the honky tonk piano at the Pioneer Settlement.
These days Green continues to write music, and is incredibly adept at performing a variety of styles. He says opera, blues and country music have always influenced him and hopes to release a new electronic album in the near future, but there is still some way to go.
While music has always been a constant in his life, Green said solving crosswords is also one of his passions.
"It sparks you up and gets you thinking, it gets the brainwaves happening. I do about five a day," he said.
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