Tell Us about:

Your latest single you have released:

Our most recent release is our progressive rock epic “Artemis”, from our most recent album, “A Voyage / A Destination, Part 2”.  The album was originally released in October 2024 and has been re-issued this year as a special edition with Part 1, and a third album of additional material, as “A Voyage / A Destination, Special Round Trip Edition”.

Artemis has been released with a fully-animated, 20-minute long music video produced with Vancouver-based artist Amy Winter, in the style of classic early 90s point-and-click adventure games by game studios like Sierra and LucasArts.  The song features guest performances from progressive rock musicians Michael Trew (Moon Letters, on lead vocals), Sam Vallen (Caligula’s Horse, lead & rhythm guitars), and Kelly Nordstrom (Sound of Contact/eMolecule on bass guitar).

Your favourite lyric in this song: 

“A brain folding in on itself is such a tragic affair”

Your favourite song that you have created that is an album track:

Off the most recent albums, Lake of Dreams maybe.  It crams a lot of ideas into under 3 minutes, and has great performances from our friends Kayleigh Harrison (soprano vocals) and Aaron Grimshaw (bass).

Your favourite song to play live:

The longer epic songs are a huge undertaking and challenge but when they go well, there’s nothing quite like it – Pool of the Naiads and Artemis are both a blast to play live.

The song that was the longest to write and why?

Voyage, from our 2022 album “A Voyage / A Destination” took 12 years to write.  We had several of the key elements of the song kicking around for years and I had ideas for how I wanted it to sound but it took a long time to figure out how to fit those elements together in a way that made sense and find lyrics that matched the sound of the music.

One of your previous tracks you would recommend for first time listeners of your music and why? 

I think our song “Flew the Coop” is a good introduction to what Versa is all about, blending mellow indie folk with a big post-rock build and throwing in some prog rock rhythms.  

Dream collaboration:

We’ve collaborated with a bunch of amazing musicians over the past few years – Ross Jennings of Haken, Jim and Sam from Caligula’s Horse, Marjana Semkina from iamthemorning, Michael Trew of Moon Letters, Nick D’Virgilio of Big Big Train and Spock’s Beard, Lars Froislie from Wobbler… it’s been amazing to work with such incredible people.

Two musicians who would be true dreams to collaborate with would be Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, and Steven Page, formerly of the Barenaked Ladies.  Barenaked Ladies were the first rock band I really fell in love with, and Jethro Tull have been my favourite band since I was 18.

Describe the feeling you get when you walk on stage to do a show:

Terror and exhilaration.  You never know how it’s going to go, and it could go very badly, but usually it’s tonnes of fun!

Describe your fans in three words:

Generous, supportive, massive music nerds.

A song released in the last few years by an artist or band you wish you had written:

Recently I’ve totally fallen in love with the band Shagohod and their album “The Curse that Hides the Door”.  There are some really amazing songs on that album but the final track, “The Book of the Living”, is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard.

What we can look forward to from your band this year: 

It’s the 20^th anniversary of Versa and we have lots planned – We’re released a covers album this summer, a remaster of our second album, “The Decline & Fall Of” along with a music video for our song “We Are Not What We Say We Are” this summer as well, and we’re performing a 20^th anniversary concert in the fall that will be recorded and hopefully released by the end of the year.  We’re also starting to work on new music to record and release in 2027.

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