PREMIERE: Prog-Rockers Voice Among The Many Unveil Moving New Song 'Matter'

There's quite a bit of a focus on prog at the moment - our Educate Ebony podcast is focusing on the one prog album we should have all heard by now for season two, Karnivool are tearing up the East Coast for the Monolith Festival and it's proving the genre expands outside of what we know and think about it - it can be heavy, anthem-like, djent-filled or straight up stadium rock like the new single for Melbourne/Naarm band Voice Among The Many - who are premiering their latest release with us today!

Following on from the band's 2021 EP Collide, we get our first taste of new music in the form of 'Matter' (out tomorrow) which combines frontman Mark Tronson's alluring vocal performance alongside some pleasing instrumentals from Jen Fletcher (bass), James Summersby (drums) and Mark's brother Michael (guitars). Upon first listen, the four-piece took me back to a time when 30 Seconds to Mars weren't so up themselves and were releasing radio rock bangers left right and centre from the 2009 album This Is War. Combine that sound with a hint of emo, and atmospheric bands such as Dead Letter Circus and Deftones and you're not too far removed from what this track sounds like.

Keen to learn more about the song, and the band's future, we grabbed Michael for a chat and you can read that below.....

Greetings Michael, welcome to Wall of Sound and for letting us share your new single 'Matter' with the world. For those finding out about the band for the first time, tell us how Voice Among The Many came to be!

Voice Among The Many is something that my brother Mark and I had been trying to launch properly for a few years now. I started writing music back in 2014 and Mark pushed me to make it a real band with him as the singer, we didn’t even live in the same country at that time so it was a bit of a long shot.

Now in 2022 we have the first full lineup of the band: Myself, Mark, Jen Fletcher on bass and James Summersby on drums. Jen and Mark had been playing music together so there was already chemistry, when I heard she liked the material it was a no brainer to get her involved. James kind of fell out of the sky and answered all my prayers as far as drummers go. I really needed a heavy hitter with similar influences to me and it seemed like all the best drummers in Melbourne were taken by other bands but I guess they missed one…

And you're here to showcase your single 'Matter' which is an anthemic stadium rock jam akin to that of 30 Seconds to Mars (the good years though), combined with catchy hooks like Yellowcard, Taking Back Sunday and Dead Letter Circus. What's the story behind this song and where do you draw your own musical inspiration from?

This song is a pretty honest look into all of my influences, I always appreciated the pop punk elements that Underoath stole and combined with harmonic dissonance as well as more experimental structures from bands like Karnivool. Ultimately the challenge with this song was to not compromise and try to make it all work. The end result being this somewhat bipolar arrangement where fans of punk and prog can all hang out and hopefully get along!

I'm intrigued to hear how the song was constructed because the layering with the chorus showcases the talent within the band. Was it the music first and the lyrics after or how did it all come together?

Music always comes first, we are really big on making sure that the lyrics reflect the tone of the song, that’s something I see a lot of younger bands mess up these days. We knew this song had two very distinct sounds and so playing on lyrical themes of anxiety and existentialism vs the healing confession of the outro section. There’s a lot of dichotomy there, black/white, sadness/hope. We went out of our way to make sure those themes carried in the music but also the video as well. We really care about the details and you should too.

In a world full of heavy music it's great to hear a refreshing take on uptempo rock, which you deliver so well with this song. What are you doing as a band to make sure you stand out from the pack?

It’s pretty simple really - Dynamics. Too many albums I listen to these days have the same song repeated 10 times. Too many live shows with heavy bands where you stand in the crowd for 3 hours only to get your head cut off the entire time. Like where are the slow songs? Where are the quiet moments? When was the last time you saw a band leave the stage and someone walked out with an acoustic guitar? Everyone is trying to ‘out-heavy’ each other and we just don’t want any part of that.

And how will you translate this sound in a live setting - have you got shows coming up that we can head along to, to suss you out in person?

Live shows are definitely coming, we are hoping to debut officially this year as the restrictions have eased. We’ve been sitting on all this new music during lockdown waiting for the right time. We didn’t want to release it all prematurely without being able to play a proper show!

This is the first taste of music we're hearing from the band, what have you got coming up over the horizon you can shed some light on?

We are looking forward to finally releasing our debut album White Palace in October! Anyone following us will know that it’s been a long time coming. I feel like we created a really different progressive rock record. I was always a huge fan of the Smashing Pumpkins and their ability to lean on grunge music but also use pop, acoustic, heavy metal and ambient music to showcase a full spectrum of rock. We want to be that voice for prog music. Bands like to say they are ‘progressive’ but they aren’t really changing things up as much as they claim. When I say we are a prog band I mean it. White Palace comes out October 14th 2022.

Fun One: Talking about your band name, what's a musical statement that may not be spoken about much, but you could be the voice of the many by revealing?

The band name itself is a little bit tongue in cheek. It’s a very honest statement about the current musical landscape. With so many artists and musicians, so much music and the ocean of streaming services getting larger by the second. It is truly intimidating to be a new artist these days. The way streaming currently works is geared towards keeping already popular artists on top while independents literally make cents every month. We really need a better solution.

Legacy artists are also reclaiming the charts because of Netflix & TikTok and I just wish the system was built to support new talent rather than making millionaires even more money. It’s amazing that young people can discover a song like ‘Master Of Puppets’ 36 years after its original release because it is a great song, but I feel for the up and coming artist that would have been bumped off the Billboard charts because of it.

Some great food for thought there. We'll out attention is piqued and we're looking forward to what's next!

Find Voice Among The Many on Facebook | Instagram | Linktree

'Matter' is out tomorrow. Pre-save here