Voyager’s Danny Estrin on Eurovision Song Contest – ‘Big Deal For a Little Old Heavy Metal Band’

"It's 162 million people who tune in. That's a lot of people. That's almost three-quarters of the entire population of the United States."

Danny Estrin, frontman for Australian synth metal band Voyager, recently chatted with Chuck Armstrong on Loudwire Nights (July 20) and opened up about the once-in-a-lifetime experience of competing in the international Eurovision Song Contest.

"We were touring, recording albums, doing all this sort of stuff and at some point, you're like, hey, Australia's in Eurovision," Estrin explained. ""We kept trying and we almost got in the Top 10 in Australia...and then we got in the Top 10. We came in second. The public vote was overwhelming, but the jury said no. We kind of thought, do we want to do this again? Do we want to put our hat in the ring again? It had to be the right song and had to be something that we care about deeply and stand behind."

Estrin told Chuck and the Loudwire Nights audience that Voyager wrote the song "Promise" specifically to submit to Eurovision. They went through the competition again and when the broadcaster announced who would be going to the finals, Estrin thought it would be someone like Kylie Minogue.

"It was Voyager. When you get that call and they say you're going to Liverpool to represent Australia, represent your country in the biggest song contest in the world, it just, it's one of those moments that defines you. I think as a human being, this is possibly the biggest thing I'll ever do—and that's great."

From Eurovision to Fearless in Love

Voyager ended up coming in ninth place in the overall international contest this year. Since then, they've released their latest studio album, Fearless in Love, which features "Promise" and 10 other new tracks, including "Ultraviolet," a collaboration with Make Them Suffer's Sean Harmanis.

"As you do tours and meet people, you befriend people and you influence each other," Estrin said about working with other artists. "To have that connection captured in a moment in time on an album is really, really special. Make them Suffer is a band also from Perth and they're doing great things."

READ MORE: The 12 Most Beautiful Breakdowns in Metal

Harmanis' special guest feature isn't the first time Voyager have invited friends into the studio. As Estrin explained, they've worked with Dan Tompkins from TesseracT, D.C. Cooper from Royal Hunt and Einar Solberg from Leprous.

Estrin said working with Harmanis helped Voyager get back to their metal roots.

"Worlds can collide and create something really quite amazing."

What Else Did Voyager's Danny Estring Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• Why Voyager were going to release Fearless in Love earlier, but decided to wait
• Who some of his biggest influences are and what it was like starting out as a metal band in Australia with keyboards
• PODCAST EXCLUSIVE: Why he loves touring North America and when fans can expect to see Voyager live stateside: "Some of my greatest touring memories are touring the states."

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Danny Estrin joined Loudwire Nights on Thursday, July 20; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand. You can listen to Fearless in Love at this location and stay up to date on everything happening with Voyager here.