The greatest music goes beyond merely entertaining us; instead, it conjures deep and varied emotions by evoking the universal hopes, fears, and experiences of humanity. Few modern artists embody that sentiment as wonderfully as Canadian progressive/post-rock troupe Versa. Founded in 2007, the group has spent over 15 years perfecting their superb chemistry of serene vocals; eloquent songwriting; and majestically ornate, diverse, and engrossing instrumentation across their first four collections (2007’s Versa, 2010’s The Decline & Fall of…, 2012’s Common Things EP, and 2022’s A Voyage / A Destination).

Regarding the decision to split A Voyage / A Destination into two parts (and two releases), the first came in April 2022. Although “the bulk of the material was recorded at the same time,” bandleader Matthew Dolmage confesses, “ultimately, we knew that it’d take a while to finish the remaining songs. As difficult as it was, we knew that delaying the second part would prove to be the right choice for us and our listeners.”

Indeed, A Voyage / A Destination Part 2 is truly a tour-de-force of everything Versa has achieved thus far. From the Big Big Train-like symphonic warmth of “Breaking and Entering” and dramatic complexity of “The Seething Bay,” to the Devin Townsend and The Decemberists-esque acoustic contemplation of “Bury Me at Sea” (inspired by the 1992 burial of Dolmage‘s grandfather), the sequence is breathtakingly exploratory, touching, ambitious, and impactful. That it ends with both a robust prog rock epic (“Artemis,” which Dolmage sees as “Jethro Tull meets Moon Safari… in space!”) and a stirring “medley/summary of everything Versa has been thus far” (closer “Destination”) is only further proof of why A Voyage / A Destination, Part 2 is a musically, thematically, and spiritually rich journey listeners will never forget.

Highlighted single, “Flew the Coop,” features Haken vocalist Ross Jennings and is written by Dolmage who aimed to invoke a nostalgic feeling that mixes elements of indie folk, progressive rock, and post-rock.

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? 

We felt that Flew the Coop was the best song on the album to introduce new listeners to who we are and what we do.  Our music combines elements of progressive rock, post rock, and indie rock, and on Flew the Coop we’ve blended all of those elements in a single five-minute song.  We also have the amazing Ross Jennings of Haken singing lead vocals, which we want to showcase front and centre!  

2.What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)? 

I make most of our videos myself (though we did have a couple of wonderful animated videos in support of our last album, “A Voyage / A Destination”) and they often start at a similar place, namely “What kind of story can I tell that’s within our very limited budget and my limited abilities as a filmmaker?”.  

“Flew the Coop” is a song about nostalgia, about remembering being a child in summertime, playing in the woods, swimming in the lake, and how that feeling of nostalgia can sometimes be a positive thing, but also can be problematic, trapping you in an impossible desire to revisit moments and memories that can never be recreated.  The video is pretty directly that – our protagonist goes for a hike and a swim in the mountains and is literally captured by those darker elements which try to drive her mad.

3.What was the process of making this video?

The video was filmed in a couple of parts over an extended period.  In early September, 2022, I drove out to Squamish, BC, a smaller community about an hour north of Vancouver, and met up with Lindsay McDonald, the star of the video.  She lives in Squamish and is an avid hiker and I’d asked her to do some location scouting. We filmed at her home, and then drove about 20 minutes out of town to a lake up in the mountains and filmed the rest of her scenes there.  In May of 2023, Haken were touring and playing Vancouver, and I picked Ross Jennings up at the Rickshaw, the venue Haken was performing at, around lunch time, drove him out to my parents’ place in North Van, and we filmed his scenes in my parents’ basement, which was incredibly cool and generous of Ross.  I did something similar a year later with Steph Boutet, the pianist on the song, and then I filmed the rest of the band’s shots in August at my home, and edited it all together.  Rob Birnholz, a video editor and SFX guy in Florida, did the transition shots between the “real” world and the “psychedelic” world, and I did the rest of the visual effects using Runway, an online AI-driven video editor.