It’s not often you see bands from Perth hit the big time but when one of your very own scores a coveted slot at the iconic Download Festival and in your home country, it’s exciting to see. None more are excited about it of course than the band themselves and Perth’s premiere prog giants Voyager are set to open the festival this weekend starting in Sydney. After kicking off the festival week with the first show of their tour with Twelve Foot Ninja last Saturday plus the release of a brand new song and video, we couldn’t think of a better time to chat to one of the band members themselves so we caught up Voyager drummer Ashley Doodkorte to find out what it feels like to be a part of Download Festival plus all the latest with the band and more.
Andrew: How’s it going!
Ashley: Very well! What’s happening over there?
Andrew: Just the usual stuff but getting prepared to head over to the Download Festival this weekend as yourselves are as well!
Ashley: Very, very nice!
Andrew: You obviously did a show with Twelve Foot Ninja on Saturday night, how did it go?
Ashley: It was awesome man! Big crowds, everyone was really into it. Lots of dancing, lots of jumping up and down, Twelve Foot Ninja, it was a great night.
Andrew: Awesome! Have you guys done shows together before or was that the first time?
Ashley: It’s the first time we sort of made a point of it. We did play the same festival in Germany once and that’s when we first met but yeah, this is the first time we sort of planned it.
Andrew: You two seem like the perfect match together so I’m surprised it’s taken this long for you guys to do something together like this.
Ashley: Yes same! We have talked about it a lot but it’s never worked out timing wise I guess. It works out really well now because we’re both working on new albums that are coming out at the same time and looking to tour at the same time so I think the stars have finally aligned on this one.
Andrew: Yeah definitely, well obviously the big news is the Download Festival. You guys must be absolutely stoked about getting a spot on that festival.
Ashley: Oh hell yeah, besides myself [laughs]. I was talking to my soundy yesterday and I was like, ‘Do you realize we’re going to be playing on the same stage as Alice In Chains?’ And we’re both just stoked!
Andrew: You guys have had a lot of successes over the years with the band, how high is this as far as achievements and stuff like that?
Ashley: I think in terms of personally for me, it’s a massive achievement because I’ve always wanted to get on to one of those heavy festivals which are few and far between here in Australia. So I guess in some ways to get there and have that little bit of recognition, for me it’s really awesome. I think as a band as well I guess it’s like a new high for us in terms of having that level of recognition to actually get on to a lineup like that and also to be able to open up the main stage. We’re a pretty niche band and we do a pretty niche thing so the fact that people have heard of us and interested in having us on a slot in that festival is really, really cool.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and I know I’ll be heading down pretty early on the first day in Sydney to catch you guys! It’s one of those things, I’m from Perth as well so obviously it’s great to see a local band on a festival like that so very cool.
Ashley: Yeah it’s going to be awesome [laughs]. Nice and early though, 12 o’clock.
Andrew: Yeah I’m sure many of us will get there as early as we can. Obviously you’ve done festivals before in other places and club shows has been the place that a lot of people have seen you at but with the Download Festival, are you going to be approaching it as far as setlists and performances etc differently or will this be another Voyager show so to speak?
Ashley: I think in terms of our approach, yeah it’s kind of like approaching it as just another Voyager show. Without sounding too pretentious or anything, we kind of put on a kind of festival style performance with every show we do. Always running around and bouncing off each other and a bit of dancing like idiots. It’s actually quite funny, like on the bigger stages that’s a little bit harder to translate. When you’re on those smaller club stages you’re really close to each other and you can kind of feed off of each other and the audience pretty easily because you got that intimacy and that kind of closeness. When you’ve got those big stages and everyone is quite separate, it takes a little bit more work to kind of get to the other person or lock in with the other person because they are so far away from you.
Andrew: Yeah I guess the only really positive thing about it is that you play in front of a bigger crowd which is the benefit to it.
Ashley: Yeah and it’s funny, you do have a bit more separation from the crowd as well because of the distance between the stage and us. I guess if anything we just have to be a bit more fit because we’ll be doing more running, takes a bit more effort [laughs].
Andrew [laughs] Do a bit of cardio ahead of the shows.
Ashley: Tell me about it, that’s my plan this week! Saturday was the first time we played live together since I think about July and two and a half songs in I’m like, ‘Geez I’m knackered man!’ A little bit out of practice!
Andrew: Apart from the Download Festival you have more shows with Twelve Foot Ninja across the country so I guess you’ll really get warmed up on this tour along the way.
Ashley: Yeah I’m gonna have to get on my excercise bike for a couple of days before Download [laughs], just to make sure I’ve still got that stamina!
Andrew: So the Download Festival is obviously a big thing for a lot of people in Australia because the festival thing has kind of been missing for a bit and there’s such a huge cast of big names on there, is there anyone in particular that you personally are keen to see if you get a chance?
Ashley: Well definitely Alice In Chains, I’m keen on that as that kind of harkens back to my grunge boy roots so stoked for that one.
Andrew: Yeah same here!
Ashley: I really want to see Polaris because I haven’t actually seen them yet.
Andrew: Yeah I’ve heard great things about them, they seem to be exploding with sold out shows across the country so I’m curious to see what their live show is like as well.
Ashley: Absolutely. I think they are on directly after us as well, I could be wrong about that but if memory serves me right I think they are on right after us so I’ll be in a good position to actually catch some of them. I always like watching Twelve Foot Ninja so if I can make it there I will but I guess I got a couple of chances afterwards to do that. I want to see Ghost as well, their music has never one hundred percent grabbed me but it’s always been very interesting and last time I saw them was when they played Big Day Out and they were on one of the small stages which was probably 5 or 6 years ago or something, maybe more.
Andrew: Before they got really big.
Ashley: Yeah so it will be cool to see the difference because they obviously have a much bigger stage show now and more road worn I guess.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and it’s a bit disappointing to not see Ozzy there with his last tour and stuff. Are you a fan of Ozzy at all?
Ashley: Not like a huge diehard fan but a fan in as much as everyone is a fan of Ozzy. You definitely go and check it out because you kinda gotta but to be honest I’ve been preparing myself for him not playing almost since he was announced, he’s been a bit touch and go for a while understandably so, so keeping it in mind I guess!
Andrew: Well it’s still going to be a big event and just exciting stuff to see all these bands come together and do a show and to be a part of that, as I said before must be a big thrill for you guys.
Ashley: Absolutely it’s cool to be involved in that whole thing to do an Australian festival and play with those bands. I must say we played on the same lineup as Judas Priest at Bloodstock in the UK last year, so I got to watch their set and it was so good.
Andrew: Yeah I saw them at the last Soundwave a few years ago and I’m not a huge Judas Priest fan but man, they really know how to put on a good show.
Ashley: Yeah same with me. It was like when I watched Iron Maiden once, it was like it’s not my total jam but wow what a show.
Andrew: Yeah exactly. Now the other thing as well is you just released a new video for the track “Brightstar” and I was reading up on the info for the video and where you guys did it and I’m pretty curious where you guys did it because it said it was done at some space satellite sites across Western Australia. Was that the north part of Western Australia?
Ashley: Some of the shots are, yeah there’s a couple of locations in there. The place where we were shooting was – and this might destroy the mystique a little bit – but it wasn’t actually at those satellites because there’s a lot of regulations and issues about going there. Lots of interfering frequencies and some health concerns as well, I think I could be wrong about that and given our very trunkheaded timeframe like to try and sort out all those commissions and things, it was a bit difficult. But it only came about because when the production company Red Empire Media which we’ve been friends with for years and years, they do a lot of work for CSIRO and those sorts of people so they had a lot of that footage which we had seen and we were like, ‘We want something like that’ and it eventually worked out that we could use some of that footage they already had and kind of add our own footage to it. So yeah it really came together quite well.
Andrew: Yeah I was watching the video the other day and it looks epic as hell, it really captures I guess the sort of scenery of W.A. with the wide open landscapes and stuff and I guess the idea of that is connected to the lyrics of the song which I guess is about science and things like that.
Ashley: Yeah absolutely, we wanted to have that connection between I guess and without sounding pretentious, the kind of art that is involved in what we’re doing and also the highly technological component that had people put all this stuff together. And part of the clip as well was to really give it that very Australian without it being the usual cheesy “G’day mate” kind of thing. Especially when you go touring worldwide like going to Europe and the States and everything, everyone is really curious about you and always talk about where you’re from and a lot of the time it’s quite hard to describe what Australia is like. If you’ve lived your whole life just travelling around Europe and used to everything being green and alive and inviting and quite pleasant, to try and talk about a baron, harsh dead landscape, you don’t have that picture in your head. Like when I went to the UK for the first time I had never seen that kind of green before, noone could describe it to me, I had to see it.
Andrew: Yeah it’s amazing how different Australia can be when you step outside the country and look at the rest of the world, it’s quite interesting to see that.
Ashley: Absolutely so we did it full throttle, we waited until the hottest day in February I’m sure. Burnt to a crisp just to really get that point across!
Andrew: [laughs] Great job on the video, it looks fantastic so hope it does well. Are you playing that song at Download Festival.
Ashley: We are indeed. We did it for the first time at the Twelve Foot show and had so much fun.
Andrew: Awesome!
Ashley: Yeah I’m stoked and to be fair that’s the one song we’ve played about 700 times over the last couple of weeks so it’s really well rehearsed!
Andrew: Yeah you must have rehearsed that down to a tea I suppose.
Ashley: Yeah we played it about 70 times in the music video shoot, I had to record the drums for it twice [laughs].
Andrew: Does that kill the buzz on a new song when you rehearse it multiple times like that or do you still get excited about it when you do actually play it live in front of a crowd?
Ashley: It can do, I’ve been in bands where, just because of raising finances and just basic organisation, you don’t end up recording until 2 or 3 years after you have written a song and played it live and everything like that. So by the time you got it down on tape and have to start recording and playing it on that album support cycle, you’re just so done with it. But with the way Voyager works we don’t really play songs live until they are recorded most of the time so we’re not sick of them by the time we play them live, that’s when we are just starting to get into it.
Andrew: That’s good as I suppose when you play and hear a certain song over and over again, at some level it probably does kill a little of the excitement about it I suppose.
Ashley: I think it can do a little bit but I think just the way we work prevents that from happening which is really cool. And I think as well, especially with a band like Voyager there is such a difference between playing in a jam room and playing it live, there’s more room to move and it’s louder so it feels a lot different.
Andrew: I’ve seen you guys numerous times over the years and there’s obviously certain songs that you always play every time you play, is that the kind of stuff you still get excited about or is there a thing like, ‘Oh not this song again’ kind of mentality?
Ashley: We very rarely have that kind of mentality. I mean I can’t speak for everyone…actually everyone is probably the same but we’re just stoked to be playing live. When you’re there you might think beforehand, ‘Ok we gotta play that song again’ but once you’re playing on stage it feels awesome, it’s like that really comfy pair of pants. It feels good to play, you’re all over it and everyone liked it. It’s not really much of an issue for us, we’re just stoked to get out there. I think the only we ever got to that point was that medley we used to do or still do occasionally.
Andrew: Oh is that the one where you threw in like Ghostbusters and stuff like that?
Ashley: Yeah that little mashup. Occasionally we’ve been in the jam room going, ‘Ok we gotta do that medley again’ but that’s usually because it’s the day before we have to fly out and we haven’t picked the songs for it yet [laughs]. It’s not so much we don’t want to do it, it’s just like, ‘Ah shit we didn’t actually organise it’. So quickly find some cool stuff and chuck it together!
Andrew: One of our reviewers that caught your show on Saturday had said you had done some special little medley type thing, did you do something on Saturday as well?
Ashley: We did yeah. The way we’re kind of running it now is kind of sneak one of those tracks into one of the songs so rather than making it a point of doing a separate song, “Lost” has this really cool break in it and because “Lost” has kind of got an electro sort of feel, you can get away with mixing it with any range of wonderful 90’s dance tracks.
Andrew: Nice! I know you are sort of labelled as a prog rock kind of band but it’s interesting that you throw in a lot of pop type stuff as well which is interesting to the whole sound of the band.
Ashley: Yeah for me when people have never heard us before or ask what kind of band Voyager are, I just tell them we’re a pop band. It’s the best way to get started and go, ‘Ok it’s a pop band but it’s actually quite heavy, we don’t do that many growls’. I think that’s how we kind of approach it and that became really apparent when we’re doing this latest album, not so much in what we play but how we play and structure it all together. We often find when we’re writing songs we’re going really far down the sort of prog line of thinking and then we go through a process of pulling it back just because it’s very easy when it’s just us in the jam room and noone is hearing it to kind of get lost in the technicality of it all because it’s so fun and really interesting to experiment with. With “Brightstar” when we originally wrote it, the ending was, and I ended up counting it, it was like a 35 or 32 timing or something stupid like that and we did that for like a week, we tried it and then we were sitting there the next day going, ‘You know, if we just removed 3 of those unnecessary 16th or 32nd notes or whatever it was, it’s in 4/4 so let’s do that, it will feel better’.
Andrew: Yeah whatever works for the song, that’s the whole approach I guess.
Ashley: Exactly, you can make it work and get a cool prog thing but if you want people to rock out and get into it, ‘No, no don’t disappear that far in it’.
Andrew: Yeah and it’s different for every band. Numerous bands I’ve spoken to all have a different process and some people think abut how it will translate live and others don’t. Is that something that’s in your thoughts when you are writing a song, that how this will actually go out on the live stage?
Ashley: We do think about the audience quite a lot, the listener and the audience. It’s all about what feels the best I think and that doesn’t preclude being a proggy bastard about the whole thing, like most of “Brightstar” is in 7 but it’s the way you make that feel that’s important but it doesn’t feel like 7.
Andrew: It sounds great! I’ve listened to it a couple of times and it has that signature Voyager sound which is what you always strive for I suppose.
Ashley: Yeah pretty much, it half happens just because it’s us and half of it happens because we’re actually thinking about it a little bit and try to make it sound like Voyager. I guess that goes back to what you were saying, I suppose one of the reasons we write the way we do is because we want it to make sure it kind of sounds like us.
Andrew: Yeah exactly that trademark sound you guys are known for.
Ashley: We know we can do that sound well, we’ve been doing it for so long!
Andrew: I’ve been reading that you have a new album, or I guess you’ve been busy working on a new album for a release maybe later this year at some point?
Ashley: Yes it will definitely be out this year.
Andrew: And so “Brightstar” is part of that and is the first song from that album?
Ashley: Yep it’s the lead single I would say.
Andrew: OK so how far down are we look at for the album? When do you think we could probably see it?
Ashley: It’s hard to say exactly because now that we’re with Season Of Mist the label, it’s not just entirely up to us anymore. We have to work out what’s best for the label and what’s best for us and make sure there’s a good PR campaign behind it which is really cool, I’m really excited about that. I would say it’s going to be a bit later in the year but an exact date we’re not one hundred percent sure yet, just a rought timeframe.
Andrew: So the writing is all done or it’s just a matter of recording it?
Ashley: Yeah writing is all done. I’m done with drums, guitars I think are almost all done. Alex (Canion, bass) is actually doing the rest of the bass today, vocals are in progress so yeah it’s well along!
Andrew: Nice! And what are Season Of Mist like to work with? I hear good things about them.
Ashley: Yeah they’re great to work with and very easy to communicate with. It’s really good because they’ve been a black metal label for like 20-25 years…
Andrew: Yeah I was going to say, they are more of an extreme sort of metal label.
Ashley: Yes they are but I think they are trying to sort of expand and diversify a little bitand expand their roster so that’s why you see bands like Ne Obliviscaris and Circles who are on the label with us as well. So yeah they are trying to branch out a little bit and that’s been kind of funny, we maybe kind of shocked them a little bit choosing “Brightstar” as our lead single. Probably one of the furtherest away from black metal tracks they’ve released!
Andrew: Hey they want different, there you go!
Ashley: That’s what we said to them. They were humming ho over it a little bit and they were very supportive but like, ‘Oh this is very different for us’, and we’re like, ‘Yeah that’s why you got us right?’
Andrew: Exactly!
Ashley: Trust us, it will be good!
Andrew: Well congratulations on that, it’s fantastic that you’ve been signed to a label like that and hopefully that will open up even more opportunities to tour over in…well I guess they’re Europe based, somewhere in France I think?
Ashley: Yeah they got offices in France and in the US as well so they’ve got some good contacts worldwide and it’s going to be really helplful. Oh man they whip us into shape as well which is probably good [laughs]. We had to deliver the album I think a year after we signed the contract and we had “Brightstar” maybe half written at the point we signed the contract so that was different for us, we normally take our time writing but this time we were very mindful of a deadline.
Andrew: Good motivators.
Ashley: It was actually, it was stressful but we got there and better for it!
Andrew: Definitely! Well we are looking forward to seeing you in Sydney and Melbourne at the Download Festival and I’m sure there will be a lot of punters that have never seen you guys before that will be keen to see you as well. Congratulations on getting that spot, we’re absolutely excited for you guys especially since you’re from Perth as well. Hope it all goes well and enjoy the rest of the tour with the guys in Twelve Foot Ninja!
Ashley: Thanks heaps Andrew, can’t wait for it all. It’s going to be a blast!
AUSTRALIAN TOUR MARCH 2019
+ DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL SHOWS
Friday 8th March 2019 – ANU, Canberra
Saturday 9th March 2019 – Download Festival Sydney: Parramatta Park, Sydney
Monday 11th March 2019 – Download Festival Melbourne: Flemington Racecourse, Flemington
Friday 15th March 2019 – Miami Tavern, Gold Coast
Saturday 16th March 2019 – The Valley Drive in, Brisbane
Saturday 23rd March 2019 – The Gov, Adelaide
