What's New August 18, 2023

Tania Doko: “Living through a pandemic has changed us forever”

Reporter

There was a time when Tania Doko thought she was done with singing.

But things like marriage, kids, a pandemic – and now menopause – tend to give you a new perspective on life.

Years after taking Australian radio by storm as one half of the pop duo Bachelor Girl, Doko’s rich, vibrant voice is back on the airwaves, thanks to the release of her new single Harder Now.

“It’s taken me many, many, many years to have the courage to back myself this way,” Doko tells me on the latest Food Bytes podcast episode, to be released next week.

Doko had been living in Sweden, writing records with The Veronicas, Jessica Mauboy, Taylor Dayne and Delta Goodrem, to name a few.

Harder Now was penned before the world shut down.

“At the time, the person who would become my producer challenged me, saying ‘OK Tania, you’re of a certain age, and you’re writing songs for other people and other artists, but, you know … you might actually be better now as an artist.’”

“And I’m like ‘What are you talking about? I’m a songwriter now. I don’t do that anymore.’”

Doko had chosen a different route after her days as a vocalist alongside James Roche with Bachelor Girl.

The band’s debut single Buses and Trains went gangbusters on Australian radio and charted around the world.

Bachelor Girl 1.0, as Doko refers to it, disbanded towards the end of 2010.

“We’re still great mates and we’re still working together, James and I, but at that time I was really wanting to get into the songwriting game for other artists.”

“I needed to have a break for myself. I wasn’t partnered up. I was very much the Bachelor Girl and I thought ‘You know what? I need to mix this up.’”

Doko had heard about Stockholm being a songwriting hub.

After a European jaunt, Doko found her home away from home in the Swedish capital.

Eighteen months later she met her the man who became her husband.

She remained in Sweden for a decade.

“I went there for the music and ended up staying for love,” she says.

Summoning her self-belief, Doko found the courage to return to singing.

Now, in a world still finding its feet post-pandemic, Harder Now – which features a cameo appearance by Doko’s good mate Tina Arena – has a reassuring ‘You got this’ vibe.

“Perhaps we can be a bit self-deprecating or feel we’re not as good as we used to be in our younger years,” Doko says.

“I see you, I love you harder now is kind of like my hug to the world in song form.”

“But it’s also a note to self in many ways.”

Doko says given what we’ve all been through with the Covid pandemic, the song takes on a deeper meaning.

“I think it’s quite apt that even though we are through it, we are changed forever and maybe, in some ways, because we are more self-aware, and hopefully aware of each other, this is a poignant moment to keep that ball rolling and to keep reminding each other that ‘I see you, I love you harder now.’”

Doko says Bachelor Girl remains a big part of who she is today.

“In so many ways, I still am that person,” she says.

“Buses and Trains was our first song out there. I mean, you couldn’t hope for a better start.”

But getting your music noticed isn’t as simple as it used to be.

“Being an artist in this landscape now – past the time of the world shutting down – it’s pretty tough,” Doko says.

“You’re asking people to consume your records. You’re asking them to come to your shows, and there are 80,000 songs uploaded to Spotify a day with a little thing called the internet.”

“You can’t get the same attention. You’ve got to work at least ten times harder.”

“We went on Hey Hey It’s Saturday when Buses And Trains came out. No-one knew what we looked like.”

“Three million people saw us, and it became a hit.”

Doko says she can’t think of a TV show that has that kind of impact anymore.

“Not many people watch things live now. It’s sort of fragmented.”

Doko says she will always be grateful for the success of Bachelor Girl.

“I don’t take that for granted. Not for one day.”

As for her voice – Tania says it’s holding up OK.

“It’s still going. It’s older now. There are a lot more battle scars.”

Doko says at one stage, she underwent surgery after her voice actually ‘broke’ in the dry air of hotel quarantine.

“We embraced the brokenness.”

Fittingly, the name of Doko’s EP is The Beauty’s in the Broken.

“It all ties together in a mad kind of way. I guess I’ve got to a point where I can’t apologise for the brokenness. It’s just there.”

“I’ve become friends with it, whether it’s a broken voice or broken bits of one’s personality. It’s just accepting who you are and all your foibles.”

Doko says it’s OK to show our vulnerable side. And she’s managed to embrace the changes that come with the minefield that is menopause.

“I’m just trying to accept what goes. I’m so over fighting that.”

“Also, I’ve got to practise what I preach. If I see myself and love myself harder now, well OK … maybe we are better now that we’re older.”

“I would say I’ve got more brains and more understanding of people – even if I’m going through menopause – than I did at 24.”

And that’s represented in the songs she is writing.

“One of the songs on the EP is called Before I Break. It’s quite a dark song but the lyric is – in a sense – kind of the inspiration to the self. Then there’s a song called No Sleep.”

“The more I think about it, it’s a menopause record!” she laughs.

Regardless, life is there to be lived, no matter what stage of it we’re at.

Doko loves her coffee, loves cooking Italian cuisine … and ice cream is her go-to comfort food.

“If I’ve had a bad gig, I’ll throw myself into a bucket of Ben and Jerry’s,” she says.

Booze is a different story.

“Because I’m so small – I’m barely five foot tall – one drink and I want to have a lie down!” she laughs.

Gold 104.3 announcer Toni Tenaglia – who hosted Doko’s recent solo EP launch in Melbourne – is another close friend.

Tenaglia tells Radio Today “We meet a lot of people in the radio industry but it’s very rare we build a longtime friendship with them.”

“I feel so blessed to be able to call Tania a personal friend, someone I have known since Buses and Trains hit the charts.”

“She is one of the most genuine, caring people I know.”

“I love that when we hang out, it’s like being with family.”

“It probably helps that we’re a couple of Italian chicks with a strong connection … food! Oh, and music. Haha.”