Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Card King here right come helloup, music fans, music collectors,
and all hobbyists, Welcome to The Car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Catman, Brian katequit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
m e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for news and talk on
the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in this
(00:34):
morning on the program. I welcome. I welcome in a
legendary vocalist and founding member of the iconic eighties music
band Men Without Hats. I welcome in vocalists I Evan
darrishak Ivan.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Great to have you, nice to be here. Thanks a lot, and.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You know I've in like millions of you fans around
the country. I grew up listening to your music, so
this is the truth for me. So great to have you,
my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
First, Ivan, I want to begin with the band's the
newest single called I Love the Eighties. Congratulations on that.
Give us some details on how this project was all
put together and where everyone listening can purchase this new single.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, I wanted to make a tribute to a great
era in musical history. It brings back a lot of
good memories for a lot of people, and so we
came up with I Love the Eighties. The hardest part
was narrowing it down to three minutes and thirty seconds
because we were just having so much fun with all
the eighties references, and we had a great, great time
(01:33):
making it. People can get there's a one stop shopping
for Men Without Hats. It's Safety Dance dot Com. You
can pick up the single, you can pick up merch
our past catalog, a lot of info, tour dates, show tickets,
all kinds, one stop shopping, Safety Dance dot Com.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And I have a little clip that I want to air.
I call this the special comeback tone from Men Without Hats.
Let's play it now great.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I love the eighties. Eight I remember so much fun
back in nineteen eighty one. Ain't no please, I'd rather
(02:32):
be except four nineteen eighty three, and everybody felt line
Back in nineteen eighty five, everything was just.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Like evern.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
It was nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I love the eighties.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
The gay, the baby turning down, Save Bay, gentleman and ladies.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I love the eighties.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Tell you what I'm going to do? Party like It's
eighty two, Dancing.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Say Play Across the Border.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Like Weighted in eighty four, brand You Angered by the
Bag Sounds like nineteen eighty six, Get Your Warmmen Rather Day.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Market, nineteen thirty, Arcade two.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Five, The Days, The Gay, The Bay Babe.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Caminda Down and say.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Bay Kay Crazy Crazy Bay.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
John Side cap.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Rock, Love the Eighties, the.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Turn comment Save the Ladies, I Love the Eighties, Love them.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And you just heard the newest single, I Love the
Eighties Men without Hats we have with us. The vocalist
Ivan Doris shuk Uh great job, Ivan. You know, when
you think back of the eighties, there was no decade
like that in music. Huh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
No, it was great. The great songs, great sing alongs.
There was new technology was happening. Videos just were happening.
Computers were starting to come into our life. Everything was new.
It was great. It was a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah. Now, let's talk a little history of the band.
If you don't mind. Your biggest hit, one of the
most famous I would say pop American pop culture songs
is Safety Dance. When that came out, were you surprised
what a hit it would become?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, I'll tell you the truth. When you were a
young songwriter, you think everything you write is destined for stardom.
You know, you can't understand why people aren't lining up
to throw money at you. But we were actually in
studio recording the follow up record when the Dance Mix
hit number one on Billboard, So we were yanked out
of studio and putting a tour bus and sent off
(06:54):
to promote it for the next couple of years. So
we weren't actually, you know, expecting it. No, we weren't.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And and then in eighty seven, you came out with
another hit. I believe it was your biggest single hit
right in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, Popcor's the World was basically the follow up hit
to Safety Dance, and we had a lot of fun
with that one too. We were blessed that both songs
have been able to embed themselves into popular culture with
so it was like the Simpsons and a show like
TV show like Glee brought our music to a whole
(07:31):
new generation of listeners. So we're lucky for that and
hot Tub, time Machine and all kinds of things biodome
that we've been very lucky.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And you know, just to mention again, you know, what
a hit safety Dance was your creation. I mean you
rapidly went gold, earning Men Without Hats a shopping list
of awards and nominations. I mean, you guys won three
Fleet Felix Awards for the best Selling Single, Group of
the Year and Rock Album of the Year, Grammy nomination
(08:02):
for the Best New Artists I mean, Juno nominations for
Single of the Year. I mean all these accolades. I
mean you must have made your competition very jealous back then.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And when you were a young band, there's a lot
of competition. I like to being on a hockey team.
You kind of travel around the country and you're competing
against other bands for press, for venues, for chart position.
So it's kind of nice to be out on the
road now and there's no competition anymore. We're like a
big eighties, happy eighties family going around the countries and
(08:38):
giving the people the songs that they want to hear.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Right, So, Men Without Hats was really so. From eighty
three till about the late eighties, you guys were on top.
And then the band this I guess the band disbanded
around the nineteen nineties. What happened there?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well, I became a stay at home dad. I had
a son, and I decided to stay at home and
raise him. The nineties weren't that particularly friendly to synthesizer music,
so it was a good time to take some time
off raise my son. And when he was old enough
to get back home from school by himself, I went
back on the road, put the band back together and
(09:16):
hit the road again. And we've been doing that for
the last fifteen years. We've actually played more places now
on this sort of reincarnation of the band than we
did back in the eighties, so it's been great now.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
During that hiatus period in your career, did you have
any other bands that wanted to bring you a board
or were you searching to work for any other bands.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
No, I kind of took just was focusing on my son,
focusing on being a dad, and and I took the
time off. It was a great experience for me. I
wouldn't trade it in for the world, but I must
admit I was itching to get back when when he
got old enough. I was itching to get back on
the road. I love performing, I love touching base with
(10:01):
our old fans. We play shows now and we see
our old fans. They bring their kids, sometimes their grandkids,
so it's a family affair and we're we're having a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, and you know, we can't forget after a ten
year hiatus. I Believe, No Hats Beyond this Point was
released I Believe in two thousand and three, so that
was like a reincarnation of the band.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, we've put out a couple albums since then too.
We put out an album in twenty twelve called Love
in the Age of War. We put out an album
in twenty twenty two without Hats Again, Part one two,
and we have a new album coming out in the
fall called Men Without Hats on the Moon, which is
going to feature I Love the Eighties and a bunch
of other eighties tinged songs that I'm sure people like.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And I've been just from my listening audience. Yea, the
original band, you had original members and then now you
have a new team of you know, a new staff.
Give us a little details about the original band members,
what happened to them and your current band members.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, well, the original band was myself and my two brothers,
Colin and Stephan and Alan McCarthy and Allen passed away
in nineteen ninety five, unfortunately from complications due to AIDS,
and my brother Stephen took he stopped touring a long
(11:29):
time ago. He was an early retiree from the band.
Colin and I kept the band going until very recently
when Colin accepted a job as the head of the
voice department at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where we
live here on Vancouver Island, and his daughter Sahara took
over his place in the band. So she's the next
(11:51):
generation of Men without Hats, and she's been I mean,
she sang background vocals on our records when she was
about five years old, so she's no stranger to the band.
She grew up with us on the road, in studio
and all over the place. And the other two members
are Show Murray on guitar and Adrian White on drums,
(12:14):
and they've been in the band now for over ten years.
So we're a pretty tight unit. We enjoy performing and
we're going to be out this summer. We have a
UK tour, we have a North American tour. We're going
on tour in October with Wang Chung in the States
and it's great. We're ending up our tour this tour
(12:36):
ends up on the beaches of Cancun in Mexico. If
we're Eighties in the Sand event with a whole bunch
of other eighties bands. So we're looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Wow, you know what's amazing. I've been listening to I
love the eighties and you single. I mean, your voice
sounds better than ever before. I mean, how do you
keep it in shape?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, I've sort of changed my lifestyle. I've toned it
down a bit and taken care of myself. And my
mother was a voice teacher. My mother was a music
teacher at McGill University in Montreal where we grew up,
So she taught me a lot of good vocal technique.
And I just I guess it's like like fine wine,
you get better as you age.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Now, you know, speaking about your mom and you know
your very younger years as a child. Is this was
this your dream? You wanted to be a musician?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
No, I kind of came about it by accident. In
the late seventies when punk and New Waves started, it
was kind of a diy era. Everybody was starting bands
and you didn't really have to be a virtuoso. It
was kind of a it's kind of a rebuttal against
(13:49):
the dinosaur rock that was happening in music, and you
didn't you didn't have. All you had to do was
have a good idea and a good hairdoo, and you know,
some point he chose and you were on your way.
But my mother, being a music teacher, she made me
take piano lessons all my life, so I was kind
of ready for it.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I was.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I was prepared. I had the tools I needed, and
growing up in Montreal, listened to a lot of prog
rock music, listen to a lot of disco. So I've
always said that new wave music. For me, eighties music
was a combination of progressive rock music and disco. It
was synthesizer music you could dance too, and that's what
I brought to the table.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, you know, I read an article you did way
back in nineteen eighty four and they asked you a question.
You know, is Men Without Hats a synth band? And
you said yes, but you pride yourself on using it
a different way. I don't know if you remember that
interview was back in eighty four. You try to make
it a little more rock and roll. Do you still
(14:50):
feel that way? In twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, we kind of we've always had, you know, sort
of a punk rock attitude to to things. Back in
the days punk new wave where there was that one
bin in the back of the record store, punk new wave,
they were all lumped together, and there was usually only
about one or two clubs in each city that would
(15:14):
promote that kind of music too, back in the late
seventies early eighties, And so we shared the stage with
a lot of a lot of punk bands and new
wave bands played together, and we had the same kind
of philosophy. We were trying to, you know, sort of
promote a important messages but in a fun way. And
(15:36):
that's what we did. And we're lucky that some of
the messages that we tried to promote back then are
still going today. Like the message for safety dance was basically,
march to your own drummer, march to your own beat,
don't follow the crowd if you don't want to. And
I think today, in today's era of social media, where
there's a lot of peer pressure and a lot of
(15:57):
pressure on people to conform, I think people still still
want to hear that message that you can dance if
you want to, and the same thing with Popko as
the world. It was the beginning of the green movement.
Our message was we have to start treating Mother Earth
a bit better or she's going to blow up. And
people still seem to have that sort of concern on
(16:18):
their minds today with the old climate change you know debacle.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, and you know we we can't forget it, you know,
during Safety Dance. I mean that was also the time
of the you know, MTV and the video and you know,
you guys shot that iconic video with the director Tim Pope.
Can you bring us back a little bit of how
how was working with Tim Pope?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
It was great. He came up with the with the
with the scenario for the for the video, and that
video has served us quite well because I know, you
can look back on eighties video watch eighties videos now
you can kind of chuckle at the hairstyles or the
or the colors and things like that. But watching the
Safety Dance video, it's kind of a timeless video. You
(17:05):
can't really tell when it was filmed. It's kind of
like watching a western. It's hard to date it. And
people were expecting me to be the you know, the
new wave John travolto when they when they were you know,
when the video came out and they were everybody was
really surprised that I was kind of a pied piper
new wave pied Piper. And like I say, the video
(17:26):
is has added to the longevity of the band and
back and back then when MTV. MTV was just at
its beginning and they didn't have too many videos on
their roster, so we got super heavy rotation. We were
we had massive rotation back then, and that really added
to the to the success of the Safety Dance. Definitely,
(17:49):
MTV was a big player in that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, I mean I went to a club a couple
of months ago in New York City. I mean they
were playing the Safety Dance. I mean you're talking about
some that you create. I mean you created a monster.
They still playing it today, which really it will always
stand the test of time.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, it's you know, it was an easy dance to
do too. I think that's what hooked people in a bit.
We have fans that you know, all across the board.
We have people who like jazz music and like they
like safety Dance. They like heavy metal music and they
like safety dance. They like punk rock and they like
safety dance. They like you know, disco music, and they
(18:29):
like safety dance. We sort of appealed right across the
board to a lot of people because there was no
dress code. There was no real dance movement except for
the making a big s with your arms. And the
song is almost bigger than the band. It belongs to
a lot of people, you know, belongs to the people
more than it does to us, actually, and sometimes I
(18:52):
feel like a museum curator going around the world presenting
this musical artifact that brings people a lot of joys.
So we're we're very happy for that.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oh yeah, it's amazing. And I have a couple of
a couple of minutes left. I just want to get
this one in. So the website is safety Dance dot com.
Uh now, so what's down? I know you mentioned you're
going to make a new album. Well, what else is
down the pipeline for men without Hats?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, a lot of touring. We have a lot of
shows coming. Uh we're going right till the end of
the year, and uh, same thing next year, just more records,
more tours, and eighties music seems to be trending upwards.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
So U.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We're very lucky that people are still enjoying our music
and still appreciating our shows. And we're, like I said before,
we're having a lot of fun out there with with
this whole thing, so we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Well, I haven't listening. It is a pleasure. Thank you
so much for your time, and the website is safety
Dance dot com. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Thank you very much. Nice talking to you.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Nice talking to you Ivan Dares shock of Men Without Hats.
But I thank my guests. Ivan dar shock of Men
Without Hats his newest single I Love the Eighties, which
you just heard here we played for you a few
minutes ago. His website is safety Dance dot com. Make
sure you check that out Men without Hats Until next week,
(20:20):
Happy collecting to all
Card King here right come helloup, music fans, music collectors,
and all hobbyists, Welcome to The Car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Catman, Brian katequit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
m e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for news and talk on
the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in this
(00:34):
morning on the program. I welcome. I welcome in a
legendary vocalist and founding member of the iconic eighties music
band Men Without Hats. I welcome in vocalists I Evan
darrishak Ivan.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Great to have you, nice to be here. Thanks a lot, and.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You know I've in like millions of you fans around
the country. I grew up listening to your music, so
this is the truth for me. So great to have you,
my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
First, Ivan, I want to begin with the band's the
newest single called I Love the Eighties. Congratulations on that.
Give us some details on how this project was all
put together and where everyone listening can purchase this new single.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, I wanted to make a tribute to a great
era in musical history. It brings back a lot of
good memories for a lot of people, and so we
came up with I Love the Eighties. The hardest part
was narrowing it down to three minutes and thirty seconds
because we were just having so much fun with all
the eighties references, and we had a great, great time
(01:33):
making it. People can get there's a one stop shopping
for Men Without Hats. It's Safety Dance dot Com. You
can pick up the single, you can pick up merch
our past catalog, a lot of info, tour dates, show tickets,
all kinds, one stop shopping, Safety Dance dot Com.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And I have a little clip that I want to air.
I call this the special comeback tone from Men Without Hats.
Let's play it now great.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I love the eighties. Eight I remember so much fun
back in nineteen eighty one. Ain't no please, I'd rather
(02:32):
be except four nineteen eighty three, and everybody felt line
Back in nineteen eighty five, everything was just.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Like evern.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
It was nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I love the eighties.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
The gay, the baby turning down, Save Bay, gentleman and ladies.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I love the eighties.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Tell you what I'm going to do? Party like It's
eighty two, Dancing.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Say Play Across the Border.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Like Weighted in eighty four, brand You Angered by the
Bag Sounds like nineteen eighty six, Get Your Warmmen Rather Day.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Market, nineteen thirty, Arcade two.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Five, The Days, The Gay, The Bay Babe.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Caminda Down and say.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Bay Kay Crazy Crazy Bay.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
John Side cap.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Rock, Love the Eighties, the.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Turn comment Save the Ladies, I Love the Eighties, Love them.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And you just heard the newest single, I Love the
Eighties Men without Hats we have with us. The vocalist
Ivan Doris shuk Uh great job, Ivan. You know, when
you think back of the eighties, there was no decade
like that in music. Huh.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
No, it was great. The great songs, great sing alongs.
There was new technology was happening. Videos just were happening.
Computers were starting to come into our life. Everything was new.
It was great. It was a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah. Now, let's talk a little history of the band.
If you don't mind. Your biggest hit, one of the
most famous I would say pop American pop culture songs
is Safety Dance. When that came out, were you surprised
what a hit it would become?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, I'll tell you the truth. When you were a
young songwriter, you think everything you write is destined for stardom.
You know, you can't understand why people aren't lining up
to throw money at you. But we were actually in
studio recording the follow up record when the Dance Mix
hit number one on Billboard, So we were yanked out
of studio and putting a tour bus and sent off
(06:54):
to promote it for the next couple of years. So
we weren't actually, you know, expecting it. No, we weren't.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And and then in eighty seven, you came out with
another hit. I believe it was your biggest single hit
right in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, Popcor's the World was basically the follow up hit
to Safety Dance, and we had a lot of fun
with that one too. We were blessed that both songs
have been able to embed themselves into popular culture with
so it was like the Simpsons and a show like
TV show like Glee brought our music to a whole
(07:31):
new generation of listeners. So we're lucky for that and
hot Tub, time Machine and all kinds of things biodome
that we've been very lucky.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
And you know, just to mention again, you know, what
a hit safety Dance was your creation. I mean you
rapidly went gold, earning Men Without Hats a shopping list
of awards and nominations. I mean, you guys won three
Fleet Felix Awards for the best Selling Single, Group of
the Year and Rock Album of the Year, Grammy nomination
(08:02):
for the Best New Artists I mean, Juno nominations for
Single of the Year. I mean all these accolades. I
mean you must have made your competition very jealous back then.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And when you were a young band, there's a lot
of competition. I like to being on a hockey team.
You kind of travel around the country and you're competing
against other bands for press, for venues, for chart position.
So it's kind of nice to be out on the
road now and there's no competition anymore. We're like a
big eighties, happy eighties family going around the countries and
(08:38):
giving the people the songs that they want to hear.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Right, So, Men Without Hats was really so. From eighty
three till about the late eighties, you guys were on top.
And then the band this I guess the band disbanded
around the nineteen nineties. What happened there?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well, I became a stay at home dad. I had
a son, and I decided to stay at home and
raise him. The nineties weren't that particularly friendly to synthesizer music,
so it was a good time to take some time
off raise my son. And when he was old enough
to get back home from school by himself, I went
back on the road, put the band back together and
(09:16):
hit the road again. And we've been doing that for
the last fifteen years. We've actually played more places now
on this sort of reincarnation of the band than we
did back in the eighties, so it's been great now.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
During that hiatus period in your career, did you have
any other bands that wanted to bring you a board
or were you searching to work for any other bands.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
No, I kind of took just was focusing on my son,
focusing on being a dad, and and I took the
time off. It was a great experience for me. I
wouldn't trade it in for the world, but I must
admit I was itching to get back when when he
got old enough. I was itching to get back on
the road. I love performing, I love touching base with
(10:01):
our old fans. We play shows now and we see
our old fans. They bring their kids, sometimes their grandkids,
so it's a family affair and we're we're having a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, and you know, we can't forget after a ten
year hiatus. I Believe, No Hats Beyond this Point was
released I Believe in two thousand and three, so that
was like a reincarnation of the band.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, we've put out a couple albums since then too.
We put out an album in twenty twelve called Love
in the Age of War. We put out an album
in twenty twenty two without Hats Again, Part one two,
and we have a new album coming out in the
fall called Men Without Hats on the Moon, which is
going to feature I Love the Eighties and a bunch
of other eighties tinged songs that I'm sure people like.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And I've been just from my listening audience. Yea, the
original band, you had original members and then now you
have a new team of you know, a new staff.
Give us a little details about the original band members,
what happened to them and your current band members.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, well, the original band was myself and my two brothers,
Colin and Stephan and Alan McCarthy and Allen passed away
in nineteen ninety five, unfortunately from complications due to AIDS,
and my brother Stephen took he stopped touring a long
(11:29):
time ago. He was an early retiree from the band.
Colin and I kept the band going until very recently
when Colin accepted a job as the head of the
voice department at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where we
live here on Vancouver Island, and his daughter Sahara took
over his place in the band. So she's the next
(11:51):
generation of Men without Hats, and she's been I mean,
she sang background vocals on our records when she was
about five years old, so she's no stranger to the band.
She grew up with us on the road, in studio
and all over the place. And the other two members
are Show Murray on guitar and Adrian White on drums,
(12:14):
and they've been in the band now for over ten years.
So we're a pretty tight unit. We enjoy performing and
we're going to be out this summer. We have a
UK tour, we have a North American tour. We're going
on tour in October with Wang Chung in the States
and it's great. We're ending up our tour this tour
(12:36):
ends up on the beaches of Cancun in Mexico. If
we're Eighties in the Sand event with a whole bunch
of other eighties bands. So we're looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Wow, you know what's amazing. I've been listening to I
love the eighties and you single. I mean, your voice
sounds better than ever before. I mean, how do you
keep it in shape?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, I've sort of changed my lifestyle. I've toned it
down a bit and taken care of myself. And my
mother was a voice teacher. My mother was a music
teacher at McGill University in Montreal where we grew up,
So she taught me a lot of good vocal technique.
And I just I guess it's like like fine wine,
you get better as you age.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Now, you know, speaking about your mom and you know
your very younger years as a child. Is this was
this your dream? You wanted to be a musician?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
No, I kind of came about it by accident. In
the late seventies when punk and New Waves started, it
was kind of a diy era. Everybody was starting bands
and you didn't really have to be a virtuoso. It
was kind of a it's kind of a rebuttal against
(13:49):
the dinosaur rock that was happening in music, and you
didn't you didn't have. All you had to do was
have a good idea and a good hairdoo, and you know,
some point he chose and you were on your way.
But my mother, being a music teacher, she made me
take piano lessons all my life, so I was kind
of ready for it.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I was.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I was prepared. I had the tools I needed, and
growing up in Montreal, listened to a lot of prog
rock music, listen to a lot of disco. So I've
always said that new wave music. For me, eighties music
was a combination of progressive rock music and disco. It
was synthesizer music you could dance too, and that's what
I brought to the table.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, you know, I read an article you did way
back in nineteen eighty four and they asked you a question.
You know, is Men Without Hats a synth band? And
you said yes, but you pride yourself on using it
a different way. I don't know if you remember that
interview was back in eighty four. You try to make
it a little more rock and roll. Do you still
(14:50):
feel that way? In twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, we kind of we've always had, you know, sort
of a punk rock attitude to to things. Back in
the days punk new wave where there was that one
bin in the back of the record store, punk new wave,
they were all lumped together, and there was usually only
about one or two clubs in each city that would
(15:14):
promote that kind of music too, back in the late
seventies early eighties, And so we shared the stage with
a lot of a lot of punk bands and new
wave bands played together, and we had the same kind
of philosophy. We were trying to, you know, sort of
promote a important messages but in a fun way. And
(15:36):
that's what we did. And we're lucky that some of
the messages that we tried to promote back then are
still going today. Like the message for safety dance was basically,
march to your own drummer, march to your own beat,
don't follow the crowd if you don't want to. And
I think today, in today's era of social media, where
there's a lot of peer pressure and a lot of
(15:57):
pressure on people to conform, I think people still still
want to hear that message that you can dance if
you want to, and the same thing with Popko as
the world. It was the beginning of the green movement.
Our message was we have to start treating Mother Earth
a bit better or she's going to blow up. And
people still seem to have that sort of concern on
(16:18):
their minds today with the old climate change you know debacle.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, and you know we we can't forget it, you know,
during Safety Dance. I mean that was also the time
of the you know, MTV and the video and you know,
you guys shot that iconic video with the director Tim Pope.
Can you bring us back a little bit of how
how was working with Tim Pope?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
It was great. He came up with the with the
with the scenario for the for the video, and that
video has served us quite well because I know, you
can look back on eighties video watch eighties videos now
you can kind of chuckle at the hairstyles or the
or the colors and things like that. But watching the
Safety Dance video, it's kind of a timeless video. You
(17:05):
can't really tell when it was filmed. It's kind of
like watching a western. It's hard to date it. And
people were expecting me to be the you know, the
new wave John travolto when they when they were you know,
when the video came out and they were everybody was
really surprised that I was kind of a pied piper
new wave pied Piper. And like I say, the video
(17:26):
is has added to the longevity of the band and
back and back then when MTV. MTV was just at
its beginning and they didn't have too many videos on
their roster, so we got super heavy rotation. We were
we had massive rotation back then, and that really added
to the to the success of the Safety Dance. Definitely,
(17:49):
MTV was a big player in that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, I mean I went to a club a couple
of months ago in New York City. I mean they
were playing the Safety Dance. I mean you're talking about
some that you create. I mean you created a monster.
They still playing it today, which really it will always
stand the test of time.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, it's you know, it was an easy dance to
do too. I think that's what hooked people in a bit.
We have fans that you know, all across the board.
We have people who like jazz music and like they
like safety Dance. They like heavy metal music and they
like safety dance. They like punk rock and they like
safety dance. They like you know, disco music, and they
(18:29):
like safety dance. We sort of appealed right across the
board to a lot of people because there was no
dress code. There was no real dance movement except for
the making a big s with your arms. And the
song is almost bigger than the band. It belongs to
a lot of people, you know, belongs to the people
more than it does to us, actually, and sometimes I
(18:52):
feel like a museum curator going around the world presenting
this musical artifact that brings people a lot of joys.
So we're we're very happy for that.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oh yeah, it's amazing. And I have a couple of
a couple of minutes left. I just want to get
this one in. So the website is safety Dance dot com.
Uh now, so what's down? I know you mentioned you're
going to make a new album. Well, what else is
down the pipeline for men without Hats?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, a lot of touring. We have a lot of
shows coming. Uh we're going right till the end of
the year, and uh, same thing next year, just more records,
more tours, and eighties music seems to be trending upwards.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
So U.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We're very lucky that people are still enjoying our music
and still appreciating our shows. And we're, like I said before,
we're having a lot of fun out there with with
this whole thing, so we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Well, I haven't listening. It is a pleasure. Thank you
so much for your time, and the website is safety
Dance dot com. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Thank you very much. Nice talking to you.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Nice talking to you Ivan Dares shock of Men Without Hats.
But I thank my guests. Ivan dar shock of Men
Without Hats his newest single I Love the Eighties, which
you just heard here we played for you a few
minutes ago. His website is safety Dance dot com. Make
sure you check that out Men without Hats Until next week,
(20:20):
Happy collecting to all
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.