The ABBA Voyage live performance expertise brings to life once more the timeless music of one of many 70s’ greatest pop teams, ABBA. The Swedish foursome referred to as it a day again in 1982, although in 2021 they did reunite on report for one final hurrah which culminated within the album Voyage.

Then the next 12 months, the group was again on the live performance stage albeit in digital kind or as they’ve now grow to be often known as, ABBA-tars. And to explain the ABBA-tars as holograms is inaccurate; they’re digital variations of ABBA created via leading edge movement seize efficiency strategies by video results firm, Industrial Gentle & Magic – the corporate behind a number of the most unimaginable Hollywood particular results of the final 5 many years.

The Voyage live performance is held within the purposely constructed ABBA Area in London and encompasses a 10-piece stay band, with the dual guitar staff of Fernando Sanchez and Christian Mendoza tasked with replicating stay all of the intricacies of the guitar elements on the unique ABBA recordings.

However ABBA Voyage is not any strange present. It’s a live performance the place the technicalities concerned are multi-levelled, particularly with regards to the stay band who, every evening, face the problem of bringing ABBA’s memorable music to life for twenty first century audiences.

“We attempt to stick as a lot as we will to the unique half and to the preparations that we’ve been instructed to play,” explains Sanchez who first auditioned for the gig in June 2025 and made his stay debut with the Voyage band in December, 2025. “Nevertheless, as a result of we’re taking part in each evening and doing numerous reveals, you’re on this little bubble and so, you begin including just a little be aware right here, and including on one thing there. However once I do this personally, the subsequent day I attempt to return to the unique so I don’t lose monitor of what I’m purported to be taking part in. We all know as musicians we will do different issues and possibly embellish it or do one thing, however I at all times attempt to return to the unique the subsequent day.”

“I might say that this isn’t a job for me to place a lot of a stamp on what I need or what I might suppose could be wanted,” provides Mendoza, who’s now in his third season with the Voyage troupe after having first auditioned again in December 2023, and made his stay debut in April, 2024. “These are timeless classics and to go and alter like a lead half as a result of I need to do one thing, will not be on. I feel the aim of us is to recreate this music and have individuals hear these traces and be excited that they’re listening to the stuff that they had been enthusiastic about once they had been younger or first heard it.”

Reconstruction Staff

From day one the modus operandi for all of the musicians concerned with the live performance was to reconstruct the sonic facets to the unique recordings in minute element. To be able to assist the musicians alongside within the technique of studying the fabric, charts had been additionally provided up.

“It’s not essentially a gig the place you need to learn music, however it’s clearly an enormous plus if you happen to do,” explains Sanchez. “I do learn music. So, in my case, I acquired despatched the charts and I needed to study the songs earlier than we went into rehearsals. After which in rehearsals we have now our MD who’s guiding us via it, so if we’re taking part in an element that isn’t being performed accurately, he’ll come and allow you to know what we’re purported to be principally doing.”

And early on within the course of, the musicians acquired some steerage from ABBA’s piano taking part in maestro Benny Andersson.

“After I joined, Benny was at a number of the rehearsals and there have been just a few issues like if he heard one thing that he possibly wished extra nearer to on the report, he would point out it,” remembers Mendoza.

“Like with the lead line in Figuring out Me, Figuring out You. It was humorous as a result of he mentioned, ‘I don’t know what’s on the paper because it doesn’t matter, as a result of what’s on the report is that this’. And he then sang the road to us. So, he is aware of that generally liberties possibly get taken in the way in which that stuff will get written, however that was an instance of one thing the place he felt strongly, ‘Let’s do it like the way in which it was’.

“However he was very gracious. I consider that at that time had we been taking part in one thing very in a different way, I really feel like that wouldn’t have occurred as a result of they might’ve made certain that earlier than Benny got here to the rehearsals, we had been taking part in the music the way in which it’s meant.”

In The Pocket

One of many difficulties each guitarists and the band face every evening are the occasional alternating tempos of the unique recordings which had been recorded within the pre-digital age the place click on tracks weren’t a standard apply within the studio as they’re right now.

“A number of the tracks usually are not precisely to the grid,” says Sanchez. “Folks report to a click on monitor right now, however a number of the avatar’s devices are to not a click on so, we have now to concentrate. For instance, in Chiquitita, there’s an element the place Christian and I are taking part in the very same factor and we have to take heed to the monitor intently as a result of it type of strikes across the click on. And if we aren’t taking part in precisely to that half, it’ll simply sound a bit messy.”

“There’s a click on in our tracks, however they [ABBA] didn’t put the music to a grid, so it’s going to maneuver,” provides Mendoza. “In Chiquitita, as a result of the whole lot goes quiet at one level, the clicking clearly is louder in our ears than usually, however as a result of the piano half is slower, we type of should ignore the clicking in that half initially and simply play to the piano, despite the fact that the clicking remains to be there.

“We now have to play collectively to this piano half and ignore the clicking to type of know when to return in. It’s just for a few bars, however these are little challenges we face. Generally intros too like on Thank You for the Music the clicking is simply given to us within the intro after which we don’t have a click on. So, the drummer has to play to the vocals and we have now to match his beats to the vocals. However that’s rather a lot simpler to really feel, as you’re taking part in in time following the drums.”

Figuring out Me, Figuring out Tubes

Maybe surprisingly given the technological nature of the present, each guitarists are working actual tube amps for the present. Each make use of Mesa/Boogie California Tweed amps, with Mendoza primarily utilizing a Fender Telecaster for almost all of the live performance, and a Fender Strat for just a few choose numbers, whereas Sanchez makes use of a Fender Stratocaster for the whole efficiency. Simply as necessary is the number of tones for the guitars, which too, needs to be matched to the tones on the recordings.

“I constructed my pedalboard to what I knew and in addition after listening to the music, sure overdrives as a result of the gig doesn’t actually essentially want a lot distortion,” explains Mendoza. “I attempt to get near it with simply an overdrive tone, not a lot 80s distortion or no matter. I acquired a Part 90 too due to the funky elements and all that type of stuff. I bear in mind once I auditioned, there was any person who got here in with a form of extra of a heavy steel tone they usually had been taking part in proper, however I bear in mind they had been requested, ‘You suppose you might put much less drive in your sound because it’s not fairly in context with the type.’

“I acquired given the pedalboard that the earlier guitarist had chosen for the gig,” interjects Sanchez. “So, for me, the problem was to rearrange the way in which I wished to make use of the pedal board, as a result of clearly the opposite guitarist was utilizing it another way. So that may have affected the tone. I needed to attempt to change just a few issues, however it was a dialog that we needed to have with the blokes, in order that I didn’t change the tone a lot as a result of it’s a really particular factor for the present.”

With a number of performances per week, generally with two in a day, how do the pair deal with the stress to ship the products evening after evening.

“As a result of it’s a stay band and we’re on stage on a regular basis, for me that will get me buzzing with the viewers,” affirms Sanchez. “It’s not like different stage reveals the place you’re sat in a pit and it’s very small. I get excited if I’m occurring stage to play to three,000 individuals each evening and despite the fact that we’re taking part in the identical factor, there are unbelievable preparations, and the band that we’re taking part in with is wonderful. And we have now sure freedom to work together with one another on stage, too, which makes it extra attention-grabbing.”

“I’m what they name a highway canine,” concurs Mendoza. “So, I’m more than pleased for me as a musician personally. A day performed, is healthier than a day you haven’t performed. And I began out with my first paid gig, once I was 15 years outdated taking part in weddings with my mother and father. My mother and father are musicians and I performed golf equipment 5 days per week and three one-hour units again in my house nation of Mexico. So, I’m used to very late nights and taking part in and that’s simply what I stay for.”