This Friday, 29th September is a date that is emblazoned in Tania Doko’s diary. She can finally release her much-anticipated solo EP ‘The Beauty’s In The Broken’. Having already launched two successful solo singles in ‘Harder Now’ and ‘Where Do We Go Now?’, Doko is ready to embark on two solo shows in Melbourne and Sydney.
The Bachelor Girl vocalist has spent over thirty years standing front and centre with her musical cohort James Roche, but now it’s time for her to shine in her own right. Even when Tania wasn’t gracing the festival stages with Roche, music flowed through her veins as she created and wrote for others. But these are her songs and the stage is set for Tania Doko to stand proud.
We caught up with Tania on the eve of the release of her singles to find out if there were any last minute nerves, her friendship with Tina Arena and what song would she wish she could have written…
Sean: Hi Tania, it’s Sean from the Rockpit in Perth.
Tania: Hi Sean, how are you?
Sean: I’m really well thank you. How are you doing?
Tania: So good to speak with you. Thank you for your beautiful article.
Sean: Oh no worries, thank you for the beautiful song.
Tania: You were the first cab off the rank writing something and I thought wow where did you whip that one off out of nowhere so quickly, it was wonderful.
Sean: Oh you’re welcome. Congratulations on the single, it’s fantastic.
Tania: Oh thank you Sean it means a lot, yeah it’s been a lovely reception. You know you never know with these things. It could be, you know, tumbleweeds or how people are going to respond. You know, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it for, it’s always that little kid inside going, “Will anyone even care?” You know, but there we go, a few people care so that’s wonderful.
Sean: Well it’s had great reception today, I’ve been looking across social media, some of the comments have been wonderful, so yeah, congratulations for all of it because this must be a new exciting chapter for you.
Tania: Look it is exciting, It’s familiar of course, but new because I’m normally, well I’ve always been in a band and I’ve always been able to lean into that and lean on it too, but I’m certainly very much in a team still. This doesn’t happen by myself by any means, but what it is, is the buck stops with me in the sense that, you know, there’s a few opinions around me, but in the end I really have to choose what’s what, from photos to videos, to how I want to present things, to sonically what I want to say lyrically, you know, it’s all of it and it’s almost like I’m a bit of a commitment-phobe, but I finally committed and here we are.
Sean: Did it feel a bit more daunting in the lead up being a solo single? I know you said you’ve got a team around you but you know at the end of the day it’s your name on that single and did it give you a bit more of a nervous feel?
Tania: Absolutely, it’s a bit of a cliché and I don’t know maybe, because I often read about artists being nervous after not having released anything for a while. And because I’d couched it as a songwriter in Sweden, I was thinking in my head, now I think back to it, it’s not that bad, surely. I mean, you’re an artist, you’re supposed to release things, that’s what you’re made to do. But sure enough, that’s exactly what I felt too. And I don’t know what that is about, in that maybe we’re like, we need to express ourselves, and then most of us do it as humans, but artists particularly so, you know, we wanna release art into the world. But when we have to come and get to the point where we need to actually release it, there is this kind of, am I really done here? Is this the best that I can do? And it’s just that it is absolutely like, you know, scrambled eggs in your brain. You kind of, but at some point you need to let go and you need to go, well this is the best work I could do right now. And that’s in the moment, it’s a snapshot of this year or you know, these few months or these couple of years. Does it define your whole life? Probably not. There’s things that you look back on and go, oh I hope that worked at the time or that was what I wanted to say then. And I think when I think about it like that, then it’s a beautiful thing. Then I can let go. Because we’re always changing and evolving and that’s okay. So I take the pressure off it being career defining.
Sean: Yeah definitely. So of course those nerves have jittered away now and that must make you feel a lot more relaxed with the the forthcoming EP.
Tania: How do you know Sean? That’s exactly how I feel. It’s almost like you’re pregnant for like 90 weeks or something and then you finally have the baby and there is a kind of a release and then of course it’s a new chapter and I know what it’s like to release something and obviously I’ve been doing this for what, basically 30 years now it’s mental in a way, but then there’s that thing of the what next and so you know, you’ve got to walk that line of being great with what you’ve done and smell the roses, but most of us artists don’t want to really rest on our laurels. It was really nice to do the YouTube premiere last night because I got to appreciate the video with the people that were online with me watching it for the first time and their comments, it was a little like a small party. You know, just a small group of us, but really beautiful and I thought, oh, this is so important to just stop and go, this is awesome, you know. And of course, there’s always the next, but if you’re always looking at the next, you’re never in the now, on any level. You know what Sean? My mother actually recently sold her house and I’ve just been helping her pack a little bit, she’s got three months and that was nice too to just be like get my mind off the record release and do mundane packing things you know and there’s a sense of closure with that too and sort of new beginnings again so it’s all very philosophical right now.
Sean: Did you have to tell mum not to keep pressing repeat on the single – “we’ve heard it ten times mum!”
Tania: That’s actually Tammy, playing it over and over trying to get the Spotify streams up [laughs]
Sean: [laughs] Oh brilliant, well I’ll be doing the same tonight. So with your song writing obviously, you’ve you’ve been quite busy and active with Bachelor Girl with the Red Hot Summer Tours last year, which was fantastic. We got to see you here in Perth on a beautiful summer’s day performing your set. It was wonderful – the first time I’d seen you and I managed to grab a copy of the vinyl of the album which was great. So with you being busy with that, has that kept you in that frame of mind to write for your solo stuff or has this been sitting on the back burner for a while?
Tania: That’s a good question. It has been sitting on the back burner for a while. As for the actual songs, I probably committed to them last year. But yeah, Sean, I’ve been in the band, or I had the hiatus obviously with James for a while, but we were always good mates. We put the band back together sort of 2016, 2017. I was in Sweden writing for other artists. And really, I genuinely, genuinely loved doing that. In fact, if I didn’t do that, I don’t think I would have the stamina to be an artist now. I really did need to couch being an artist for a while because the self, I mean, they’re not all lovely interviews like this, like you do, Sean, but the self-promotional sort of absorption of being an artist can be not really what the art is, but not what it’s about for me, you know? There needs to be some kind of balance. So having written for 10 years for other artists allowed me to get back to the why and just write with so many different briefs, whether it was rock, R&B, soul, electronic, K-pop. I just so loved it. You know, what’s today’s brief? Okay, yeah, great. Let’s dive into that. What’s tomorrow’s brief? That’s with different, you know, teams and certain artists would be in the room or they wouldn’t be in the room and coming from Australia, all over Europe, and oh wow, it was so nice to not be thinking about me, the artist, anymore. And honestly, I genuinely mean that. And also to have a child took the focus off me, pushing me, and I was so happy to not think about me for a few years. you know, i really needed that break, which means i feel reinvigorated because it wasn’t about me for so long. And then I put the band back together and leaned into that again, and we’ve released some Bachelor Girl material and also did touring with Darren Hayes this year.
Sean: Of course, yeah. That tour looked wonderful.
Tania: It was incredible and it all leads in to sort of this moment, where, okay, now it’s really time to shit, you know, shit or get off the pot, you know, that’s really the truth of it. I couldn’t avoid it anymore. It was the record I just had to release, you know, and it’s some sort of homecoming, some sort of representing, you know, represents my time in between Stockholm & Melbourne in a way. Because it was recorded, the vocals where recorded in between Melbourne lockdowns, but I didn’t release it till now because last year really still wasn’t a good time to release music. So you notice that a lot of artists are releasing now. They’re releasing now, the work that they did in the last couple of years really, and that’s why we’re flooded with new stuff because we all got really like hamsters you know and you know like you know underneath the water just going nuts and now we can actually set them free.
Sean: Yeah definitely, well it’s a lovely segue way that you talked about writing for other people because it’s been something you’ve done for a while and for those that are observant on ‘Harder’ now they might recognize a certain vocal in there alongside yours as well.
Tania: [laughs] Well she’s not just an vocalist Sean, she actually takes the lead in for some of the song. I actually don’t sing a third of the song, interestingly, but what we decided was that Tina (Arena) would be like a cameo silent feature. And in the sense that it’s symbolic in that we are great friends and this did arrive organically where we have the same producer and we’re all good mates, Mattias Lindblom and he came up with what about if Tina did a little bit of a song but let’s not have it be a traditional duo or duet and it just so happens that when we were singing together it sounded a bit.. a bit contrived so in a way she she takes on this kind of inner voice role. It was just a little bit more symbolic and highly unusual that she would be this other voice that I then dance my tits off to in the video. Then it comes back to me in the end. Yeah, it’s lovely. Again, I sang on her record. A lot of BVs on her record so we sort of you know exchange favours and I can proudly say that today her album is number one on the ARIA charts so it’s all just like a beautiful full circle moment.
Sean: It’s fantastic because I just looked through the credits on ‘Love Saves’ (Tina’s album) and I see you’ve co-written nearly, I think all but one or two.
Tania: All but one actually, yeah. Incredible. So it’s been a beautiful journey, but heart breaking in some ways. There’s been a lot of stuff that Tina was managing and also we were all managing, the whole world was managing really. But we started in October 2020 in Stockholm in between all these lockdowns and we miraculously got together in a church and that’s where ‘Church’ was born, her song, and then it got completed in Melbourne and once again a year later in between Melbourne lockdowns, she also wrote one of my songs, co-wrote on the EP called ‘Away’, that’s coming out in a couple months. Yeah, you know a lot of sitting on a piano in her house and a lot of recording but yeah, it’s sort of funny that we’re talking about it now. This began, this little creative family in October 2020 and here we are nearly three years later and we can sort of release all this music that we were sitting on. But you know, it takes the time it takes, Sean. And we didn’t write songs that were particularly, you know, of the moment. They kind of, well, they were emotionally, but they weren’t like, we weren’t going for anything trendy or, you know, quickly, we’ve got to release this next month. They were deliberately songs, messages that i don’t believe grow old. So they got released, these song babies got released in the time that they needed to be released in.
Sean: That’s so cool. I missed her last time she came here, Tina. Actually never seen her live so I must get to see her next time she’s in Perth.
Tania: Oh Sean, you need to see her, it’s quite a vocal like I’ve not heard live, very rarely. I think that’s where she just takes it to a whole other level.
Sea: She performed at Fremantle Prison, which would have been stunning.
Tania: Yeah, she did the Fremantle Prison, she’s done that too.
Sean: Yeah, she wasn’t an inmate, they let her out the next day [laughs]
Tania: She got a free pass because she sang so bloody good [laughs]
Sean: So, I don’t want to take up all your evening because I know it’s a little bit later for you over there but…
Tania: …that’s all good it’s all good lovely interview.
Sean: Thank you. I know you’ve got the two little intimate ‘Evening with’ shows that have sold out but do you do you think that with these solo songs now you’re going to be able to get out on the road?
Tania: Absolutely, that’s the plan. I’ve got to get to Perth because I have a lot of family there so, you know its’ always a dreamboat when I can get there again. I have two shows shows that have been booked in Melbourne & Sydney on September 29 & October 6th.
Sean: We’ll get the details up.
Tania: One is on September 29th at Brunswick Ballroom Melbourne.
Sean: Lovely.
Tania: Yes, that’s going to be a ripper. The second show is October 6th at the Vanguard in Sydney. So were just starting with two at the moment, because were actually interweaving. [Laughs] I’ve also got a Boom Crash Opera / Bachelor Girl tour we’re playing in September & November.
Sean: We’ve got that up on the site, with the wonderful colourful poster.
Tania: Yeah great – that’s Shannon’s brilliant work. How long have you been here in Aussie land?
Sean: Twelve years but I was coming here since I was a kind, since I was 11. I was coming here in the late 80’s early 90’s. So I managed to catch a couple of Bindoon Rock festivals seeing bands like Rose Tattoo, Billy Thorpe and The Screaming Jets so to get to meet & talk to all these wonderful Australian artists like yourself, it just connects all the dots for me & the musical legacy of this country.
Tania: You are an absolute legend. One of my best friends is Cameron, who plays drums for The Screaming Jets.
Sean: We always catch up with Dave and the guys when they are in Perth.
Tania: Oh that’s brilliant.
Sean: Yeah, I’m also a massive fan of palace of the king with Tim Henwood.
Tania: Are you? Of course Cam is in that band too.
Sean: Yeah they headlined our Rockpit birthday show a couple of years ago in Melbourne, which was fantastic. Yeh I’m friends with Tim.
Tania: My God Sean, let me give you a couple of tickets to my show, whenever we’re in Perth or whenever because Cam is my drummer in the Doko band.
Sean: Fantastic!
Tania: He & I have been writing songs forever. He’s another sort of aspiring song writer mate of mine & we’ve got heaps of songs. I’ve waited for this moment to have him in my band so I’m super pumped!
Sean: Tania, I would love to wind up with a couple of general questions if I may.
Tania: Sure, go for it mate.
Sean: I’m going to invite you to my restaurant & you can invite three musicians, dead or alive, to join you for dinner. Who would you like to have to sit at the table?
Tania: It’s going to have to be Prince. Look I want to say Farnham because there is a lot of history with Farnham signing Bachelor Girl to his label Gotham Records with Ross Fraser. We’ve passed each other at so many events and I’ve always had so much affection for John. Then I saw the movie ‘Finding The Voice’ – have you seen it yet?
Sean: No, I haven’t.
Tania: It is juts so moving. You know he could barely buy McDonalds for his family to eat then ‘The Voice’ happened and completely changed his whole trajectory. So I will say Farnham so I can have a bloody good chat with him – He’s older now and hasn’t been well so you can imagine how wonderful it would be being able to have dinner with him.
Sean: Prince always seemed quite a quiet chap so I don’t think he would really get too involved.
Tania: That’s exactly right! He’s just off for some great pondering of us all in the background [laughs]. Now whose the third one, I’m going have to have a chick. Now who would that be? Who’s my favourite? I’m going to be sad now and say Renée Geyer.
Sean: Australia’s first lady of soul? That’s a fantastic table.
Tania: She’s an absolute idol. I’m such a fan. She’s another one that’s past away & I regret not having seen her again after many many many years. We did have some interactions and loved her dearly but she’s passed now & I can’t quite believe it. A great loss and I just adore her & its just its a soul cleaner, Australia’s Aretha if you like but just brilliant. That would be pretty bloody incredible to get those three there.
Sean: Here we are, sucked into a world of playlists, but what was the last album you listened to?
Tania: You know what, might be a cheeky self promotional thing but I did actually soak up Tina’s album because I co-wrote it all, [laughs] It was lovely, like two days ago on Caberina Beach because it was just lovely to listen to and soak it up one song after another from Spotify. I hadn’t actually done that because I didn’t have the masters. I was a part of all of them but the actual final mixes & final masters I didn’t have. And so to listen to it you know A to Z was just a triumphant, beautiful iconic feeling so that was it, ‘Love Saved’ by Tina Arena.
Sean: If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Tania: Oh God! I want to say a song by my mate Eric Bazilian – ‘What if God was One of Us’. The clever unusualness of it all and the hookiness that marries with it is just so legendary. I love Eric, he’s a mate of mine – he has a Swedish wife and family. We met in Stockholm and I just love the guy and love his brain. He’s a very committed and prolific song writer. He loves to write all the time, where as I am very on and off. I’m always creating but not always constantly writing songs. I go through bouts of it but I just have so much admiration for Eric, so yes ‘One of Us’.
Sean: Tania, a wonderful way to finish. Thank you so much for your time and we wish you well with the solo material, the EP and also the live shows.
Tania: Sean, it’s been a real pleasure. We really appreciate people like you who help spread the word so thank you mate.
