Following a short chinwag with Paige from Outright Resistance, I was ushered quickly into the company of all five of Dorja for a brief period. Here’s what surfaced.
What are you all thinking of Amplified so far?
It’s been really exciting to be part of a new festival in its very first year and we’re opening a stage as well. It’s something that we’d love to see grow.
Are you sticking around over the weekend to see any other bands?
Yeah, we’re all here ’til this evening so we’ll get to see The Amorettes and Puddle Of Mudd and Acid Reign. A few of us are staying for the whole weekend to see as many people as we can!
Did you all travel up together?
Well this is the last date of our tour so we’ve actually been travelling for nine days.
What were you guys listening to on the way up here?
So there were several groups of us in different cars. One had Guns N’ Roses on which was a pretty good choice! There was some Cream in another car and some Radio 1 and Dio in the other one! We also had some Rainbow and some ABBA thrown in for good mix!
Where do you want to see Dorja go in the next couple of years?
Well, we’re recording an album towards the end of this year and then a European tour to that when we release it. It would be cool to get to the US and Asia in the next few years as well as Russia and maybe Wembley too! We’re happy as long as we stay on the road going places really.
For people who don’t know you, where from your own discography would you direct them to understand Dorja?
Well so far we’ve got the one EP out called Target Practice which is on all the streaming services and there’s a few videos up on YouTube that we’ve done. If you just want a taste of what we’re about though, some people have described us as “If Lzzy Hale fronted Guns N’ Roses”, so it’s largely old school hard rock but there’s a contemporary vibe in there too I think, like Royal Blood. It’s just heavy rock really!
What’s the key message you want to get across in the live shows and the music?
Ooh I don’t know, I suppose we just really want people to have a good time. A lot of our lyrics are quite empowering, quite fun but overall positive. We do have some songs like “Far Gone” which has a darker tone to it but empowering is the general message I think. In the shows we’re quite high energy so we hope people can feed off that.
And lastly, with Rolling Stone‘s “Top Metal Albums” list going around, what are a few records that Dorja would put together as your “Top Metal Albums” list?
Ah, shall we do a t list? I’d say WASP’s Crimson Idol, Strapping Young Lad’s Alien and Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath to start with. The first Rage Against The Machine record would be in there as well as Back In Black. I quite like Abbey Road, I think it’s quite fun and I also quite like musicals so I’m gonna say a Moulin Rouge compilation! Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous would make it too because there’s so much energy to feed off if you’re into fast-paced rock music and lastly I’m gonna add Appetite For Destruction and Aerosmith’s Get A Grip!
Dorja: official | facebook | youtube
Amplified Open Air Festival: official | facebook | twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgappmewnYs
