Interview: Getting to Know Versa

Versa, the progressive/post rock band, have been very busy over the past few years, and most recently released ‘A Voyage / A Destination, Round Trip Edition’. In this interview, we get to know them a little better.

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

We are Versa, a progressive rock & post-rock band based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Matthew Dolmage, the band’s principal songwriter and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist, is answering this questionnaire.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

We play a mix of 70s symphonic prog with 2000s post rock and indie rock music.

3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?

We released our “A Voyage / A Destination” albums, part 1 in 2022 and part 2 in 2024, and recently (March 6 2026) released a special edition, “A Voyage / A Destination, Round Trip Edition” presenting those albums as a single double-album, as we’d originally intended, with an additional digital downloadable album of alternate takes, b-sides, and additional material.

We’ve released a music video for our progressive epic “Artemis” to accompany the new release, and we’re currently finishing a covers album that will be out later this Spring.

4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?

It’s the 20th anniversary of the band, and we’re busier than we’ve ever been, with new studio recordings, live material, performances, and music videos all coming out in 2026.

5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.

It’s literally been six years of work to get to this point, recording those albums, compiling the additional material, and working with artist Amy Winter on the “Artemis” music video, involving over 20 musicians, so it’s been a huge undertaking!

6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?

I think the best thing about making music from the perspective of wellbeing is building solid habits, committing to practicing and learning and improving. Building up those kinds of routines and making incremental improvement and sticking with it is very important, and those skills can then be applied to other areas of life.

7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?

It’s the 20th anniversary of the band and we’re all between our late 30s and mid-40s now, so there are lots of other life commitments, work and family, that can get in the way. Co-ordinating with the band and finding time that works for everyone to get together and rehearse and play is probably the biggest challenge for the band these days. That and trying to stand out and get noticed when so many people are uploading music – some of it terrible, some of it incredible, all of it vying for listeners attention – is a big challenge as well.

8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?

Recently I’ve started uploading regular videos to our YouTube page talking about music I love, and other music-related topics like audio tech, controversies in the business side of the world with streaming, and things like that. Again, trying to make a regular consistent thing of it is a good habit and those videos seem to be connecting with some of our fans and making it easier to keep “feeding the machine”, so it’s been a positive experiment.

9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?

I really struggled with the social media/online aspect for a long time, but figuring out what kinds of content I find interesting to make and feels like it’s contributing something valuable, and isn’t just noise, and then building a schedule and sticking to it for regular uploads, has made it much more enjoyable.

10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?

Just listen to the music! The best thing you can do to support any artist is buy a physical copy (or a digital download) of their album rather than just streaming it (though streaming helps too).

11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?

I’m a big fan of retro video games, I build electric guitars and furniture, and I spend time with my wife and my parrots Eddie and Bernadette.

12. Where can people find you?

Www.versa-music.com for a linktree to all our social media nd music streaming on all the major streaming services.