Voodoo Six release their new studio album “Simulation Game” on Friday October 16. The critical consensus is that they’ve raised themselves to another level with this release. And this time the critics are right. We caught up with Matt Pearce to talk line-ups, lock-downs and live music.
Mark: Hi Matt how’s things?
Matt: I’m good thank you. What time is it there? Where are you?
Mark: Here in the wonderful West of Australia it’s just hit 6PM
Matt: We’re 11 O’clock in the morning here in London. I’ve just had me breakfast literally – it was like ‘Fuck! Better get it down I’ve got an interview!’
Mark: I must admit I came in quite late to Voodoo Six, I think the first album I heard was ‘Songs to Invade Countries To’ which was great.
Matt: That was back in 2013 or something.
Mark: Then when I heard ‘Make Way For the King’ which I think was the first album I reviewed it really made me backtrack and fill in the gaps. But I’m sure I caught you at Download one year – maybe 2011 or 2012?
Matt: We did it a few times – we definitely did it in 2013, and we did Sonisphere a few times too, that was an excellent Festival remember that? I remember the Maiden Tour we came back in the middle of that and did Download, yeah but now you say it I’m sure we did it in ’11 as well.
Mark: That would be the one, it was like an old Festival with mud and stuff!
Matt: Yeah it as muddy and bands couldn’t get in! That was the year and they were having to cancel.
Mark: Now normally I don’t read reviews before I write my own but with the new album ‘Simulation Game’ I read a few and they were all pretty glowing except this one that as pretty scathing I had to email him to see if he’d been listening to the same album!
Matt: I’ve not seen that maybe you can send me the link!
Mark: I will, though I must say he did really enjoy the drums.
Matt: (laughs)
Mark: To these ears at least it’s a triumph. Ten tracks all of which are worthy of inclusion. Is it an album that’s been delayed by the pandemic, I ask because one of those I reviews I read was from back in February this year?
Matt: Well there was a release date originally back in March, I think it actually went up on Spotify for about two minutes before they took it down, there was a bit of confusion as to whether it was coming out or not coming out! (laughs) It almost came out then but it got changed at the last minute. When the wheels are in motion it’s quite hard to say “We’re not doing it now”
Mark: (laughs)
Matt: Then it was scheduled for June and then July – it kind of kept getting put back more and more. There was just confusion all around, we all knew things were going to be crazy but we didn’t know how crazy. I was arranging things back in March for now which are now being rearranged for next year. The way this thing’s going on and on it’s quite a crazy situation.
Mark: It is and its ongoing and so different in different parts of the world.
Matt: Yes we’re not doing too great at the moment.
Mark: And over here in the West of Australia it may as well not exist. Our lives are completely normal except that no one is coming to see us, actually that’s pretty normal too, so you still get the isolation but you’re not even sure why you’re hiding!
Matt: I’d take that (laughs)
Mark: Before we get to the new album I must say that I loved your solo record Matt Pearce and The Mutiny – a real nice Soulful, Funky, Bluesy side-project.
Matt: Thank you, I seem to remember a really nice review from your site, was that actually you? Thank you so much, it’s been lovely to see the response to that. And you can’t get far from Voodoo Six even with that – Tony mixed it, John’s on it, there’s that nice connection with the people you work with. And that’s always nice, you want to do something different but you don’t want to go too far from the people you know.
Mark: I hear a progression in Voodoo Six over the years that has got us to this point where ‘Simulation Game’ is a bit harder and heavier with some nice Progressive touches and a modern edge. Does the same thing drive you and Tony, being the original members as did when you started this band? Or has the mission changed?
Matt: What I feel with this one is that it feels almost like that first release when I joined – the one that Ritchie Faulkner was involved in. On this one Tony was again very focused on what he wanted to do. Over the years on all of the other albums all the different influences came in with each of us, he brought in his more melodic song-writing, I’d be chucking in, well you can tell the sort of stuff I’m into from my album. But this album has almost gone back to that core mission of what Voodoo Six is – very direct kinda of Rock, quite Heavy stuff. Maybe it as that I was doing my stuff that I wasn’t trying to crowbar in my influences into the Voodoo Six world? Do you know what I mean? And as a result Voodoo Sic is back to what it always was – this great hard-hitting Rock band. I think it’s the band getting back to what it does best, but there is a bit of variety on there.
Mark: You’re right and it’s nice that some of those odd timings creep in on there, it gives some nice accents without being overpowering.
Matt: You’re right we are mixing it up a little bit, on ‘Make Way For the King’ songs like ‘Amen’ or ‘Riot’ there was definitely a few little weird ‘Proggy’ timings and sections going on there that worked quite nicely.
Mark: Like ‘Last to Know’ off the new album.
Matt: Yeah.
Mark: To me the sign of a good album is when you can’t pick favourites, and I found it difficult here, but the ones that grabbed me initially were ‘Liar and a Thief’ and ‘Inherit My Shadow’ but ‘Lost’ was a real grower too. All very different but all great. And the ballad too, or the ‘almost ballad’ – I’m not really a big ballad fan but that is a great song.
Matt: Yeah it’s a weird one that for me because it’s kind of ballady, but it’s not ballady!
Mark: (laughs) I do know exactly what you mean!
Matt: To me it’s not a ‘lighter held aloft’ song, it’s got a kind of dark edge to it somehow. That’s the little twist for me. The one I really loved from the first moment was ‘The Traveller’ – that epic starting track. We did one gig with some new stuff last year at HRH and we started the set with that and that was just a really nice epic way to start, but also kind of weird as we’d opened the set with ‘Falling Knives’ for ever! (laughs) Because as long as we’ve had that riff (Sings the riff to the start if Falling Knives’) that’s been the start of the set! So that was an interesting little shake-up for us.
Mark: I’m tempted to say I think it’s your best album to date which is pretty unfair of you for getting better with each release and I think there are plenty of reviewers out there who are sharing that thought.
Matt: I think when you’re in a band there’s always a temptation to like the new stuff – the newest you’ve done, but it’s also nice now to look back and see that repertoire, and it’s nice to go back and find things you haven’t played for a long time, like off ‘Fluke’ maybe. And that’s what I think is nice now, that we have that body of work to pick from.
Mark: But what a shitty time to release a great album!
Matt: (laughs) Oh it’s the worst! But I guess putting it out now as opposed to last month or March, or next February or March I guess there’s no good time, because if we can’t get out and tout it, it’s like all we can do is put it out and hope people like it. It’s a funny time for music anyhow because as we all know in the last few years it’s all become about playing and getting out there with records not really being big sellers. But now we’ve had all that stripped away! (laughs)
Mark: It is crazy. We have local music back playing to limited capacity venues but n overseas bands can come and see us. That means that local bands that could never have half-filled a room are selling out and that’s actually leading to people buying tickets in advance one of our biggest issues in the past. The other side of the coin is that anyone who can stand upright is putting together another cover band show.
Matt: Isn’t that really the history of tribute anyway, just the fact that none of the big bands could be arsed to come to Australia so local musicians decided they were going to be The Doors or Led Zeppelin. And that was the birth of tribute bands.
Mark: You’re absolutely right some of the best Doors covers bands are Australian and I don’t think anyone can match the Australian Pink Floyd Show.
Matt: Yeah the Australian Pink Floyd show is ridiculously good.
Mark: It’s almost like a mini0indusrty now though and almost as if people are looking at who was coming over to put on a covers show. It’s got to the point where there’ probably be a Voodoo Six tribute act next week if you pencilled some dates in for early next year!
Matt: (laughs) as long as they sell a bit of merch and send us a bit of money!
Mark: (laughs) I did see some limited dates coming back in the UK though, I was talking to Cormac from The Answer and he had a few car park shows coming up in Belfast.
Matt: Yeah it’s good that everybody’s trying to evolve rather than just think OK we did have gigs now we don’t have gigs! People are thinking that we have to figure something out. So there’s socially distanced things, there’s streaming gigs and we were talking about doing a combination of those two – a gig that’s social distanced at lower capacity and also streaming it live for those that can’t get in. Just as a way to get through it until we can do it properly again. It will come back obviously, this shit can’t last forever! (laughs)
Mark: I’m just hoping everyone comes back a lot hungrier and realises what they’ve missed.
Matt: Without getting all deep on it, you lose so much in a situation like this that you have to gain something from it and I think one of the gains is that everyone I know in music is saying you just don’t take anything for granted now. Before you had gigs, you recorded and put out records and just started thinking it was kinda normal that you could do this with your life and then suddenly when you can’t do it you realise that no making music is not normal, it’s a massive privilege that you can do this: to be able to go out and make music and play music. And most people are having much worse times during this thing so everything is relative. When the thing that you spend your life doing is taken away when it comes back we’re going to be absolutely bang on it you know.
Mark: That’s beautifully put Matt.
Matt: We now have this American record label and the whole idea was “Great we’re gonna get to the States” and of course right now that seems more impossible than ever but one day, you know, one day we’ll get out there.
Mark: The new Voodoo Six is fantastic but if you had the chance to be a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great Rock album just to witness how it went down in the studio – what would you have liked to have been there to see?
Matt: I think for me something like ’Physical Graffiti’ or something – to see Zeppelin at work, to see John Bonham doing his stuff, Jimmy Page when he was still at the top of his game, out in Headley Grange, a fly on the all out in the country – perfect.
Mark: And I think my favourite Zeppelin album. The question we always end with then we speak to people for the first time is nice and easy – “what is the meaning of life?”
Matt: (laughs) Um, well you know what, I think after the last few months the meaning of life is to not take anything good for granted at all. Don’t take your friends or your family or what you love doing, or even freedom in a wider sense – don’t take any of that for granted. I think that’s got to be the meaning of life and then I guess what you take from that is that in happy times make sure that you really appreciate it.
Mark: Great answer Matt, and just one final question I have to get in. When’s the next solo album due?
Matt: Well I have been working on it. I did a few songs last year just to try and get a head of the game a little bit just so that I wasn’t paying massively catch up, and then there was just this big 18 month gap when I was just busy. But with everything Voodoo Six delayed in the lockdown I just got back to writing bits of it and I just started going back into the studio. I’ve done some drums with Joe, I’ll get a bass player down in a few weeks, but it will just be piecemeal like the last one was, I just do things when I have time or money, and there’s not a lot of money around at the minute (laughs). So it’ll happen it’s in the pipeline – it’s just a very long pipeline!
Mark: Thanks for your time today Matt, stay safe and good luck with the record when you finally get to launch it live.
Matt: Thank you. Let us know when you’re over this way and drop in and say hi.
Mark: Will do mate, take care of yourself and stay safe.
Matt: You too.
