| Australia’s premiere synth-prog outfit have played to their strengths and have covered the Australian modern classic “This Boy’s in Love,” originally by Electronic duo The Presets. Fusing together Voyager’s signature epic electro progressive power prog metal with a huge pop song, the VSets version is sure to be a hit! You can watch Voyager’s performance video of the song at THIS LOCATION. The band comments on the cover: “The Presets song is one of those songs that I heard and thought ‘I wish I’d written this.’ At the time it came out it was so fresh in Australia, and so bizarre that it became so popular because it’s really very much Euro Style Dark Synthie EBM. Given that a lot of Voyager songs start out as electronic ideas, this semi-obscure modern Australian classic was a no brainer to cover. We hope you enjoy!” |
| Moreover, Guitarist Scott Kay recently taught fans how to play a riff from the band’s song “Colours” in the latest installment of Guitar World’s “Sick Riffs” series! In addition to the play-through, Kay also includes the tablature. Watch and learn at THIS LOCATION. The song is taken from the band’s 2019 release, ‘Colours in the Sun,’ which can be downloaded and streamed HERE. ‘Colours in the Sun’ was recently the winner of The Independent Music Award in the Rock/Hard Rock Album category. The record was released in November of 2019 and landed a coveted #1 placement on the Australian Independent Albums chart! ‘Colours in the Sun’ also debuted at #7 on Independent Label Albums as well as #27 on Official iTunes Australia. Moreover, the band has reissued 2017’s ‘Ghost Mile’ as a digipak version, which contains three bonus tracks which were recorded during the VOYAGER show at ProgPower in 2017. It can be ordered HERE. ICYMI: Earlier this year, VOYAGER‘s music video for “Runaway” was exclusively premiered via ‘Eurovision – Australia Decides!’ Following an application via the Song Portal, the band finally received recognition for submitting a track and were paid tribute on the live television broadcast that aired on Saturday, February 8 on the Gold Coast. The video is now available worldwide and can be seen at THIS LOCATION. |
Since their 1999 formation, whatever genre norms, boundaries and regulations thrust upon Perth, Australia’s Voyager have been smashed. They embrace, if not brandish pop; employ a keytar on stage, and, bring forward a positive, if not uplifting feeling to their music, running head-first into the endless parade of heavy bands who see the world in a different light. It’s perhaps why the title of their seventh full-length and first for Season of Mist, Colours in the Sun, is apropos: Voyager simply prefers to see the bright side of things.
“Observations of the malaises of the modern world and the baffling obsession with purity and difference all make me think,” says frontman and founding member Danny Estrin. “We’ve never had it better and we’ve never had it more colorful. To me that’s progress, it’s adaptation, it’s evolution and it’s astounding.”
The follow-up to 2017’s Ghost Mile, Colours in the Sun finds Voyager enmeshed in rich, melodic, song-first tapestries, led by Estrin’s smooth, capable clean vocal delivery. Estrin is self-aware of his vocals, calling them “unique and ‘80s.” But whatever tag Estrin affixes to his voice, they are the propellent throughout Colours in the Sun, serving up a steady diet of soaring, emotive choruses, where melody is paramount and along the way, even getting some help from another distinctive belter, Leprous’s Einar Solberg on “Entropy.”
“Einar and I became good friends on our tours through Europe and Australia,” notes Estrin. “I couldn’t help but ask him to guest on the album. He is a fantastic musician and vocalist. I sent him a reference track which he swiftly ignored and laid his own tracks down. The result is stunning!”
The kaleidoscope of sounds that comprise the album’s ten cuts is the result of Voyager’s far-reaching influences, many of which go beyond the traditional realms of metal and rock. Estrin calls it “catchy at the top, proggy at the bottom, as if Dream Theater and Depeche Mode had a baby.” It’s almost as if the term “progressive” is too limiting for Voyager, particularly when the guitar tandem of Simone Dow and Scott Kay merge for complex rhythms while doing battle against Estrin’s vaudeville-like keyboards (!) on “Reconnected.”
The “proggy at the bottom” notice is served by way of the rhythm section of bassist Alex Canion and drummer Ashley Doodkorte, who stretch their musical tentacles across busy, active cuts such as “Saccharine Dream” and the syncopated “Water Over the Bridge.” “I think we found our ‘voice’ on V (2014) and have been building on that ever since,” says Estrin. “The synthwave prog sound is really something that has naturally developed and has been refined even more on the new album. Every record is progress — that’s what progressive music is all about!”
According to Estrin, the Colours in the Sun album title encompasses a “vibrant multitude of people coming together under the hot Australian sun to create a beautiful and colorful soundscape.” It’s capped off by artwork courtesy of Doodkorte, who made the piece out of photographs near his house in Perth. A closer inspection reveals there are seven suns on the cover, one for each Voyager album, topped off by an updated version of the band’s logo comprised of five strokes, one for each member. No doubt a fitting visual summation of a band whose progress can be the described in the most literal and figurative of terms.
“It’s been a slow steady growth over the years,” concludes Estrin. “Other bands come and go after a year of fame. I really feel like we’ve built up an incredible fanbase, especially over the last decade, and the deal with Season of Mist seemed the logical step to take it to the next level together.”
Style: Electro Progressive Metal
Line-up
Danny Estrin – Vocals
Simone Dow – Guitars
Alex Canion – Bass
Scott Kay – Guitars
Ash Doodkorte – Drums
Recording studio:
Sumo Studios – Drums
Templeman Audio – Guitars and Bass
Producer / sound engineer:
Aidan Barton – Vocal Producer
Mixing studio and engineer:
Matthew Templeman
Fraser Cringle (assistant engineer)
Mastering studio and engineer:
Simon Struthers
Guest musicians:
Einar Solberg from LEPROUS on ‘Entropy’.
Cover artwork artist:
Ashley Doodkorte
Bio:
David E. Gehlke
