Daniel Estrin – Voyager

Voyager are just one of those bands you can’t help but love. The Perth Prog powerhouse have over the years taken Australia and the world by storm, on a ‘voyage of awesomeness’ if I may, and captivated people with their unique style. Having been around for quite some time now with five great albums and a lot of touring experience both nationally and worldwide, their most recent success is the release of their fifth record ‘V’, one which is yet another ode to the wonders of crowdfunding and the band’s musical ingenuity. Metal Obsession caught up with charming frontman and keytarist Danny Estrin about all things Voyager, the band’s epic journey so far and how they stand out.

The lads and lass are still recovering from what was an amazing show opening for Swedish lords Opeth on their recent Australian tour. ” Everything is great and that really was such an amazing experience. It was a packed room and it was good that we were able to reach so many people who possibly have never seen or heard us before. There are a lot of people who don’t really come out to the local shows but I think we turned a lot of people and also had a few surprised when they knew Voyager is from Perth! But I know for a fact that  for Alex, Scott and Simone it was a dream come true playing alongside their idols. I can’t even imagine how they were feeling especially Scott who can now tick two idols off his bucketlist – Devin Townsend and Opeth.”

The band has a had a great year so far and things just keep getting better as they are all set to tour the country along with their French guests Klone as well as embark on a a North American tour with Evergrey later on in the year. ” We are definitely lucky. After the success of the last album,  we toured around Australia – did some great shows and then went over to Europe and did a few shows including headlining the Prog Power festival in the Netherlands. It  all just kind of came together because once you get a bit of momentum people start to approach you. That’s how our shows with Dead Letter Circus came about which was really good too, a different sort of crowd for us. But yeah we can’t wait to tour with these bands, they’re really good so it is exciting and  definitely keeping us busy. There’s going to be a mixed bag of some old and new Voyager tracks so it’ll be fun.”

Voyager’s music has always appealed to me in a way that it is extremely accessible and in a way addictive in that once you start listening to their music, you can’t really get yourself to press the pause/stop button. “Firstly thank you that is very flattering to hear! I guess the most important thing about our music is that its melodic and catchy so while we’re sort of classified as metal a lot of people who haven’t heard metal and think metal is just Slayer or Obituary, and think that it really isn’t metal but it’s still cool. I like to think of Voyager as a bit of pop on top and a little bit of prog underneath –  there are people who recognize a lot of underlying intricacies in our music and  I like to think that people who are open and into the catchy, poppy straightforward metal stuff can enjoy it. So yes that way it is definitely accessible!”

The recent and continued success of their fourth release ‘V’ has definitely pushed the band forward and given them the attention and exposure they rightly deserve and Danny talked about how the band goes about creating the kind of music that they do. ” The response we got was unexpected to be honest.  the ‘Meaning of I’ was a very popular album and to follow that up with something so successful that made it to  the top of so many people’s best of 2014 lists was amazing. The process was very much a collaborative effort which i think came very naturally where everyone contributed to the songs as compared to the first album where it was mainly me writing the main ideas and the band making a human being out of a skeleton. Whereas nowadays it is more of a collaborative effort and I’m responsible for the catchy melodies and stuff its great to have members like Scott who really add a dimension of remix of modern guitar in there which we didn’t really have in the albums before. We sort of combined the more modern edge of progressive music that we’re seeing more of now with some of the older poppy melodies and I think it makes for a really good combination.”

The success of  ‘V’ owes in part, a lot to the fact that the band crowdfunded the album, the campaign’s target reached in just 3 days of it’s launch date. ” It was great to see that we had so much support for what we do because to be honest I was sick of labels, sick of being ripped off and a lot of that stuff, we still have labels owing us money from 10 years ago. We thought we’d give it a try and I think it worked really well for us. There are quite a few bands that have also done it after us, I mean Ne Obliviscaris smashed their target with a ridiculous amount, it was incredible. So i think it is definitely a good things for early-career, mid-career bands to do.”

They’re also one of the most original bands I’ve come across and I’ve always found it hard to compare them to anyone else especially when attempting to describe their music. ” I think it’s very true what you say – we don’t sound like anyone else which at times can be a bit of a problem when someone asks what we sound like and we’re sort of just stuck for words. That’s probably one of the things we’ve been struggling with over the years but I mean at the end of the day we do have fans that really get where we come from and what we do. It’s amazing every time we go on tour whether it be Australia or overseas you see people loving it, having a great time and singing along.”

Danny also mentioned the kind of ideas that run through his mind when writing lyrics. ” If you take the meaning of I, it’s very introspective, in search of meaning type of thing whereas V was a bit more positive with the underlying theme being just a sense of wonder at the world and why we do the things we do. For example, the kind of things that plague my mind are, if aliens were looking down on us and they saw us clapping after a concert why do people do this. so someone plays and everyone puts their hands together and clap. Why do we do these things why do we do the things we do , why is the human condition the way it is.”

Speaking more about Voyager’s electrifying live performances, one of the standout parts of their shows would be the crazy medleys that they erupt into without warning! ” It’s great every time we do that, it gets the crowd going – we can’t really do a show without it. There’s just some of the classics we have to pull out. Generally when we’re hanging out as a band and something comes up on the radio – that’s when it hits that that might be something awesome to do on stage – the sort of cheesy, 80’s theme tunes;  those are great, and this time we’re going to do a medley of course.  It is risky and sometimes you have people that tell us to do more of our original stuff which is nice but it’s always one of the fun things we love doing.”

Danny had one last message to the fans before Voyager kick off their national tour. ” Well without you guys, we’d be nothing. We’d just be a bunch of dudes and a girl who are just playing some songs. The fact that we get to do what we love and that you love what we love to do is an absolute bonus and I can’t wait to see everyone at our upcoming shows!”

Voyager’s tour with the mighty Klone kicks off in Adelaide at Jive today. Don’t miss out!

TOUR DATES:
Thursday, May 21: Adelaide @ Jive

Friday, May 22: Canberra @ The Basement

Saturday, May 23: Sydney @ The Factory Floor

Friday, May 29: Melbourne @Evelyn Hotel

Saturday, May 30: Brisbane @ The Brightside

Friday, June 5: Perth @Amplifier Capitol

Saturday, June 6: Bunbury @ Prince of Wales Hotel Bunbury

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