With their new album Colours in the Sun out Friday 1 November, we took the opportunity to have Voyager frontman Danny Estrin give us a rundown of each track included on the record.
Read on to get an insight into what each track is about, and just in case you were unfamilar with the Perth-based masters of prog (shame on you!), or are just getting up to speed with the new record, you can listen along to several of the tracks below. Enjoy!
Colours in the Sun is set for release this Friday via Season of Mist. Get your copy here.
Colours
A true modern 80s style banger with some tasty synths and heavy riffs which absolutely goes off live. It's perfect for driving your 80s Japanese sportscar through the Australian desert.
Lyrically it's all about the concept of purity being a fallacy because everything is intertwined and mixed. We all need to take a step back and realise that everything we do these days is influenced and coloured by something else. That is what makes our world and experiences so wonderful. This is especially true in music - we can't help it - we hear something and it stays there, rubs off on us and flavours what we create.
Funnily enough "Valerie" by Steve Winwood was a huge influence on this song. How good is Steve!
Severomance
Voyager goes dark, super poppy and yet heavy and droany (probably that tour with Uneven Structure we did in 2018 rubbing off).
Severomance is obviously a made up word but it sounds like an interesting concept. Fun fact - the lyrics change between "sever events", "sever immense" and "severomance" without it being that discernable.
Weird jarring rhythmic patterns complement this otherwise smooth poppy opus. It's a real grower!
Brightstar
Brightstar is about the power of rationality, of the importance of science as an art, of facts, of the demise of empirical evidence in favour of blind belief in idols who spit forth a torrent of nonsense and generally about not believing in something or someone because it's shiny and bright and promises a warm blanket of comfort.
Saccharine Dream
One of my personal faves, which goes from Mike Oldfield to modern djentiness and ends up with some Floyd-esque sideaways escapades.
It's a super positive song - the negative outlook of the world is not supported by statistics showing that we've never had it better as a human race. That's not to say we don't have a long way to go, but generally it's looking up. Oh, except for the environment. We really need to do something about that.
Entropy
Serious grooves with serious guest vocals from Leprous' Einar Solberg.
I gave Einar a reference chorus and free reign, which he took very literally as "I won't listen to your reference track and sing whatever I like". Thanks Einar (turned out amazing of course).
Smashing Louis Cole style drum breakdowns and a swirly termination before a lovely 3 vocal lovefest right at the end with Alex joining in in his familiar voice!
Lyrically this is all about the importance of letting go of things that really aren't important because it's all nonsense in the end. Y’follow?
Sign of the Times
Salvaged old samples from my old Korg TRITON around The Meaning of I era. Was going to be an electronica song and then, as happens so often, became a super catchy Voyager song. Is that a blues-lick, Scott? Delicious!
Loosely based on the movie Revolutionary Road. The grass is greener beyond the picket fences, but really, like, is it? Probably not...
Water Over the Bridge
A phenomenally weird through-composed Devin Townsend-esque heavy dark and brooding number with some tasty lydian licks.
A real grower and really "proggy" in the traditional sense, with some delightful Alex Canion crooning about going "deep into the machine" - poor Alex.
Lyrically, well, it's easy to say but difficult to forget. Experience stays deep and changes you as a person. Another classic Danny existential wordjumble!
Reconnected
Lifts off where Disconnected puts down. Machine-gun banger and crazy top/bottom vocal/keys vs rhythm section odd times. Perfect! Oh and of course, some of the most Car-Bomb-y tech-y stuff we've ever done right at the end (lucky I don't have to play that), with some Russian lyrics sprinkled in for extra pulverisation.
Lyrically? Literally "put your mobile phone down and talk to some people. They have eyes and can be quite pleasant to converse with" - I say as I write this on a phone.
Now or Never
Mandatory synthterlude a la Voyager. I love these - such a nice break from all the rumbling guitars *breathes*.
As cheesy as this is, the message is "live in the now, connect with what you can, make the most of it" - he says as he writes this on his phone.
Some German stuff at the end because, y'know, I speak German and like to show off.
Runaway
Oh what an 80s banger. Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Cutting Crew meet Bon Jovi and Tesseract.
Message of the song? Together is better, always. Stop being a twit and running away.
