Bachelor GirlWarm and jovial, Bachelor Girl’s Tania Doko speaks like a woman still in love with the music industry and the career she has built within it – not only for all of the opportunities and the lifestyle it has afforded her, but also for the lessons she was able to alchemise into musical wisdom that would last generations.
The angst and inspiration of Doko’s early 20s alchemised into Waiting For The Day, an album that has since earned a place on the pop mantle and in the hearts of many – from fans to fellow musicians and collaborators.
“We felt that the songs were written about the human condition, and that’s not something that dates,” she explains. “It all comes back to the songwriting, no matter what kind of clothes we might dress it up in for a redux album.”
That redux album refers to the aptly-titled Waiting For The Day: Artist Sessions, which sees Bachelor Girl working with some of the biggest artists in the country, who all share their vocals, talent, and personal connections with the original record.
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“Treat Me Good was written about stepping into your own and commanding respect rather than falling into people-pleasing and desperation,” explains Doko. ”Lucky Me was a piss-take about materialism, and that will always be a thing.
“Of course, Buses And Trains speaks of falling in and out of love – the idea that what goes up must come down, and how we might wish we had the wisdom of age to avoid that pain, but that, really, we’ve all got to figure this stuff out on our own.”
“I’ve realised that more in my own parenting journey – I’ve got to let things go,” she adds. “I've got to let [my son] figure things out. It’s the greatest challenge as a parent to not be a control freak, and I think that's what Buses And Trains inadvertently celebrates as well. Shit happens. That's where the juicy stuff is in life.”
The crowd favourite has also made her mother into something of a parasocial mother figure to countless listeners around the world.
“She loves it; she’s excited about it. You know, she’s still trying to figure out what I'm doing. The underlying truth is that no mum or role model can prepare you for life and whatever rolls your way.”
“We've all got those stories of challenge, adversity, but that is where the growth is. It's not when you have a happy time,” she adds. “It's the pursuit of happiness where I guess all the expansion happens, and eating Tim Tams. That's when expansion happens as well.”
After more than 20 years of writing music together, Doko and her bandmate James Roche have a songwriting relationship that feels closer than a romance in many ways – a dynamic that has enabled them to create art that measured up to every yardstick and secured their creative freedom.
“We haven’t always felt this free,” Doko explains. “We were pretty free with the first album, but after a success, there are a lot more opinions, and with that comes accountability.”
Many years later, the redux album was less about accountability and more about tasteful exploration, honouring timeless pop tunes with an ever-so-slightly refined filter.
“The whole mission is to make it different from the first one but still be respectful of the songs. Those lyrics still feel relevant today, but we can look at them from a lens of understanding.
“The feelings are timeless – everyone goes through those experiences, and everything seems so big and dramatic when you’re young. We still kind of have all of the same feelings when we’re older, but we can look at it with a sense of peace and acceptance rather than pain.”
“Our whole plan was to modernise them, strip them back, speed them up – and then to invite all our friends to recreate them,” she adds. “The list of collaborators could have been much longer, really, but we've only got 15 songs.”
The process of finding the right people to rework some of the songs saw the duo don their art director hats and draw on the connections of projects past.
“Doing this project with people we had worked with before meant that we had a certain level of faith in them, and we gave them a lot of freedom to influence the sound of the tracks.”
“I think this has been an exercise in audacity and asking for what you want. I have completely no shame, and I realised that once you back yourself, you make it work.”
The exercise led to the merging of Doko’s proudest creative work with some of Australia’s most recognisable voices, some recorded on site in Sydney and others sent from around the world.
With a focus on recreating the music in a way that reflected their growth as a band – creating a sound that’s more refined, fresh, upbeat, and ready for live shows and festivals like Savannah In The Round, Doko says she was was often led by the artist they had in mind to join the track, calling it a “bit-by-bit process over two years”.
“We were in Sydney with Delta [Goodrem] to do Buses And Trains and with Jess Mauboy to do Treat Me Good.”
“Obviously the big songs like Buses And Trains were the trickiest because they’ve been slammed on the radio to the point that they’re in our DNA, and they’re also in other people’s DNA, so you’ve got to not screw it up too much, you know?” she explains.
“We treated it like a bit of a game. Once we started in a creative direction, we just went for it. There were no shackles, and we're not accountable to anyone in particular, so that's a beautiful place to be in.”
While the love and respect for every collaborator on the redux album was evident, Doko couldn’t help but gush over the vibe in that Sydney recording room.
“Jess and Delta were so delightful, so upbeat, and so fun.”
Meanwhile, other cameos were coming in from around the world.
“Guy [Sebastian] is well-versed in recording himself, so he sent stellar vocals for Permission To Shine. He just adds so much to every song.
“Darren Hayes, who was in LA, also a great engineer, so he recorded himself. He did his epic Michael Jackson-style ad libs at the end. That was a favourite moment for me on the record,” Doko said.
“Courtney Act – Shane – had us on FaceTime while he was recording in Brighton, UK. He was just doing all the moves and personifying Lucky Me, and with all of the wit and shtick that’s required of that kind of song, especially if you're Courtney Act.
“Later he told me that it couldn't have come at a better time. He was hungry to record and release something new. So he just brought everything to that recording, and it was wonderful to watch him do it.
Asked about her favourite song on the redux album, Doko was quick to name Gotta Let You Go, featuring Jack Jones.
“Jack and James and I go back to the early ‘90s – he actually played all the guitars on the first album – and we’ve developed a very strong friendship over 35 years, so there’s a lot of emotion in that duet.”
“Gotta Let You Go is a heartbreak song, but it's very resigned – this take is more accepting and contained than the original, which probably shows the band’s growth. I'm a married woman now, not a bachelor girl,” Doko laughed.
Sophisticated as ever, Doko is now embracing the modern world of social media – something she narrowly avoided during the first launch of Waiting For The Day in 1998.
“As we’re essentially a record label, we’re involved in all of the promo for the redux songs,” she said.
“I have a love-hate relationship with social media – it’s necessary. I’m not making all the content, but I’m the last gatekeeper, so I’m very involved.”
The process of creating and releasing new music to follow a highly successful album strikes anxiety into the hearts of many artists, but after more than 25 years of collaborative success, Doko and Roche have developed a grounded perspective.
“I think [of records as] a snapshot of what I was doing at that time,” she explains. “If I look back to my previous records, the things that I was worried about in the moment, I didn't worry about six months later. I didn't even care. In fact, I liked that it was a bit imperfect because I can hear the character. I can hear my brokenness, I can hear that I'm a human, and that is a good thing.
“So I have that foresight now – like, "Oh, I'm probably not going to be worrying about this in 10 minutes, or I don't even have capacity, because Mum needs me now. My 80-seven year old mother needs me to take her to the doctor, and I’ve just got to let this go.”
The recreation of the cult classic album is proof that this Bachelor Girl-turned-wife and mother has still got the goods, and the whole of the Australian music industry (as well as her beloved mother) behind her.
Bachelor Girl’s Waiting For The Day (Artist Sessions) is out now, with tickets to their remaining Australian tour dates also on sale.
Bachelor Girl – Waiting For The Day Redux Tour Dates
Saturday, August 8th – Brunswick Ballroom, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday, August 23rd – The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD
Friday, August 28th – The Gov, Adelaide, SA
Friday, September 4th – Cube 37 Frankston Arts Centre, Frankston, VIC
Sunday, October 18th – The Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
