Straight Outta Eurovision: Release of Voyager’s new album
Ruby McNaughton sat down with Alex Canion, bassist of Voyager, Australia’s 2023 Eurovision act.
The Eurovision Experience
‘It’s really quite hard to sum up and I’m not really sure I’ll ever be able to,’ Voyager bassist Alex Canion reminisced. After eight years of campaigning and being runners up in ‘Australia Decides 2022’, Voyager received the call saying they’re headed to Liverpool. Not only that, but they did Australia proud coming in eighth place with their rendition of Promise.
‘Oh, man. It was incredible. It’s kind of the dream gig that every musician has in the back of their mind,’ he said of the experience. He described it as validating. ‘To have that dream realized was, really quite special. It was a fantastic experience and one that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. To have the Eurovision experience with my four best friends is the kind of stuff dreams are made of. I didn’t really anticipate that Eurovision would be a part of my career or now a part of my life. But here we are,’ he said
Wasn’t always a Eurovision fan
Canion wasn’t exposed to Eurovision growing up. ‘I knew Abba had won it back in the seventies. That’s the extent of it really,’ he said. Then in 2015, Guy Sebastian performed as the inaugural Aussie Eurovision act, and Canion was then ‘canon blasted into the world of Eurovision.’ He leaned on lead singer, Danny and drummer, Ash who were the bands Eurovision aficionados, with the band’s new dream.
Canion now understands the Eurovision hype, and is excited for next year. ‘I finally get it. Maybe took me participating in it to finally understand, but it’s so amazing. There’s nothing quite like it out there.’
“I finally get it. Maybe took me participating in it to finally understand, but it’s so amazing. There’s nothing quite like it out there.”
Voyager’s new album: Fearless in Love
Today, Voyager released their Fearless in Love album. The album includes their Eurovision hit Promise, alongside ten other hits fans may already be familiar with.
‘The sound of the recording is different for us because we recorded 90% of it in the same room with each other, which is a little more old school way to record an album. We leaned on the fact that we’re a tight live band. Our producer, Matthew Templeman really encouraged us to move forward with that direction. And I think what we’ve got is a very special organic sounding Voyager.
The sounds of Promise and Dreamer, Voyagers 2022 entry, are very dynamic. ‘You can hear that we wrote Promise for the Eurovision stage, but it’s still symbiotic with the other songs. It doesn’t sound out of place. I’m looking forward to hearing what the Eurovision contingent think of the album. Because our fans will know what’s up, they’ll realize that Fearless and Love, this album, is very much a Voyager album. But the Eurovision crowd coming from Dreamer and Promise may be new to this kind of music.’
The making of ‘Fearless in Love’
Canion labels the band as a well oiled machine ‘We’ve got our methods down pat pretty much. There’s no real controversies surrounding anything. There’s no real juicy gossip, no arguments broke out. It might be a bit boring, but it all went smoothly.’
‘Danny’s in charge of the lyrics. He writes a lot of the skeletal structure of the song because his keyboards and synth work features so prominently in the compositions. So he’ll have an idea about what he wants with the chorus. He’ll present it to the band and then we write the music around it.’
The Eurovision experience has sharpened their songwriting skills, enabling them to become good at communicating a message through a line. ‘We agonized over every last little detail’ Canion expressed. ‘Moving forward now as well, we’ll adopt that approach to each one of our songs. Nothing will be in there that doesn’t need to be in there. ‘
Canion’s current favourites on the album are the first song ‘Best Intentions’ and the closing song ‘Gren (Fearless in Love)’. He describes ‘Gren’ as a heavy hitting powerful slow song. It’s like the crushing moment at the end of the film’
You can listen to ‘Best Intentions’ and ‘Gren (Fearless in Love)’ on Voyagers new album ‘Fearless in Love’ out now.
European tour
Voyager has recently concluded their sold out Australian tour. They are starting the European leg at the Euroblast Festival in Cologne, Germany on October 1st. Some shows have already sold out.
The European crowds will be able to see a full length Voyager concert. Being on a headline run, the band is able to add more songs to the setlist, hoping to satisfy both the old school and the newer fans. They are looking at getting some VIP meet and greet packages ‘We want to take people on a voyage, pardon the pun, the voyage through our music.’
“We want to take people on a voyage, pardon the pun, the voyage through our music.”
Eurovision Grand Final 2023
Eurovision Tidbits
A reminder of the finale was the glitter in Canion’s beard. ‘One thing with glitter is that you can’t just have one experience with it. It continues days later. I even noticed some on my newborn’s head’.
I was curious to know which was the friendliest team.
‘Oh I think probably Czechia,’ he said. ‘They were really friendly. Käärijä from Finland was also very lovely. His whole team was great. He’s a genuine article. And Austria as well, Tay and Selena. Andrew Lambrou of course. Most people were lovely.’
Voyager aren’t going to elect for Eurovision again, as they want to keep this year special. They made Australia proud. We will be sad not to see them on the Eurovision stage again, but happy of the success they have garnered from the experience. Make sure to keep supporting them, and their new album ‘Fearless in Love’
