July 16 2014
HARD ROCK INTERVIEWS 2014 - VOYAGER GUITARIST SCOTT KAY
VOYAGER TALKS TO The roCKPIT... LONG A FIXTURE ON THE LOCAL WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ROCK SCENE VOYAGER'S NEW ALBUM 'V' SUGGESTS A BAND READY TO TAKE THAT GRET JUMP FORWARD ... WE CATCH UP WITH GUITARIST SCOTT KAY TO FIND OUT MORE... JULY 2014 |
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Voyager has long been a band not to be missed for Perth's Hard Rock and Metal community and over the years they have delivered a slew of quality albums, but this year's 'V' may just be the album to take the band into the unknown and on to much bigger things... We caught up with guitarist Scott Kay to talk 'V' and the way forward for the appropriately named band... |
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Thank you for taking the time to talk to the Rockpit. As a Perth rock institution I know everyone knows of you locally but for our far flung readers in places like Oklahoma, Nottinghamshire and our growing Eastern European readership can you tell us just enough about the band to make them read on!
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To us we noted that “on ‘V’ Voyager appear to have stumbled upon their own great step forward. ‘V’ is simply all that Voyager was and so much more” were we being over dramatic?
Absolutely. We weren't sure whether we wanted to release that song as the video clip, but after some deliberation with management and amongst ourselves, it was the right choice. It is a bold statement, and I think it's done us well. The song sums up a lot of the changes we've made as a band, in the sense that we're not really a 'power prog' band any more, nor have we really been for some time. Our tastes have changed, and 'Hyperventilating' showcases that perfectly in my opinion, whilst still maintaining a lot of the other distinctively 'Voyager' elements.
The single ‘Breaking Down’ that follows is a nice contrast the perfect counterpoint! Tell us why you chose that song as a single?
Honestly, Breaking Down was a safe bet. It's a catchy song, and it's more like our previous work, so it was a no-brainer to release that as the very first song from the new album in the form of a lyric video. We didn't want to shock our old listeners too much from the get go haha.
‘V; is an immensely rich album and tracks like ‘A Beautiful Mistake’ which features some nice female vocals is all cascading riffs and driving rhythms. We felt an almost New Romantic pop sensibility mixed in with the Progressive Metal bulk… are we going too far?
Haha, I love it! Honestly, when we writing the music, we just plainly ask ourselves whether we like what we hear or not. If we like it, we expand on it, without thinking too much about what it is we're doing. I think this sense of freedom is what allows us to evolve as a band. I'm a sucker for atmospheres and pads, so 'A Beautiful Mistake' was a lot of fun to write for me. Then when I heard Zemyna's vocals on the track for the first time, I had goosebumps. Her voice is absolutely astounding.
We loved the Power-Prog ‘You the Shallow’ and ‘Embrace the Limitless’ which are probably our two favourites here: who brought those to the table?
'You the Shallow' was the result of me and Ashley jamming on a few riffs I had written, and Danny said 'That's awesome!' A lot of the riff work on that song were my conceptions, and then Danny did his magic by writing some seriously catchy vocals. The thunderous and epic middle section of that track I believe was something Danny had written from a while ago.
'Embrace the Limitless' started with the opening synth line that Danny wrote. I laughed aloud when I heard it the first time, because it sounded incredibly similar to the opening arpeggios to the main Final Fantasy theme. I hope Square/Enix are reading this. From recollection, we all worked on the verses in the jam room, and the pre-chorus was an idea Danny and I had written some time before, and discovered worked really well in the song. |
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There’s a huge thrusting groove on ‘The Domination Game’ are we likely to hear that track live?
We've actually been playing it on this Australian tour, and it's been going down a treat! I think it'll be a staple track in our set for the future.
Tell us about the lightest track on the album ‘Summer Always Comes Again’, which isn’t particularly ‘Rock’ (and certainly not ‘Metal’) at all, but very, very good!
I believe this was a ballad that Danny had written some time ago, and in the process of using it for 'V', went through many different versions. There's an electronic version, a full band version, a completely stripped back version with only piano and vocals... We finally decided to go with the piano version, with a little help from the rolling drums at the end for a climax. The lyrical content suited sitting right next to 'Seasons of Age' at the end of the record too, so that worked out quite well!
Aside from that track, which might be too far for some rock fans, ‘Seasons of Age’ that closes smacks of 80s synth-led pop-rock, but manages to meld so much Rock in the mix it’s almost Duran Duran does Prog and of course Daniel’s Simon Le Bon-style vocals just solidify that feeling? Again pull us up if our ears are deceiving us!
I'm personally really proud of 'Seasons of Age'. It's my favourite Voyager song to date, actually. The harmony in this song is very different to the rest of the album, with the chorus descending in whole-tone major chords (this will make sense to some music nerds out there haha). I think it's just got a lot of drive and punchiness from the bass and drums too, giving the song continual forward movement. Danny will forever provide the 80's vibes, because his voice is very reminiscent of that era, as well as his choice of pads and synths.
What are the next steps for Voyager?
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Thinking back to your early memories of music, what was it that first made you decide you needed to be in a Rock and Roll band?
Can music still change the world in 2014?
Scott spoke to Mark Diggins July 2014 |
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