Ivan Doroschuk, a music vid pioneer, admits that MuchMusic’s days are over.
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Those who witnessed the advent of the music video will recall a time when there weren’t enough three-and-a-half minute clips to give rise to a television channel solely supporting the medium. Back in the mid-1980s there were only a handful of groups being promoted by their record companies through video, but those that were hoped the images they presented would, in turn, entice their audience to seek out their sounds, as well. Two of the most iconic — and heavily rotated — of those early AV montages were the videos for Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon” and, of course, “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. Never mind the arbitrary medieval setting, complete with mandolin-strumming dwarf, or the fact that lead singer Ivan Doroschuk conveniently exits the frame whenever it’s time to actually dance. The mini-movie captured the esprit of an era teetering on the cusp of the digital revolution and made us all proud to be Canadian.
“Every few decades a band emerges from Canada that captures the imagination and takes over the arena of play. Just look at the success of Arcade Fire,” Doroschuk explains. “Coming from Montreal, we were already a part of a larger scene that produced amazing artists like Celine Dion and Corey Hart. There were so many great bands between Toronto and Western Canada, it was a lot of fun touring around and seeing who would come out to the shows every night. I consider myself very lucky.”
“I’ve always said that I was in the right place at the right time,” he continues. “When ‘Safety Dance’ came out, our record label really wanted us to make a video. MTV was starting out and probably only had three or four videos in rotation at the time. It was all so new, but it got us the recognition we wanted right away.... The new wave sound that we were championing was the perfect marriage between synth and prog. Looking back, it was the way we were all going to escape the disco scene.”
Bidding a fond farewell to tripping the light fandango in white bell bottoms, Men Without Hats rose to the top of the Billboard, ultimately claiming second spot on the charts for their Scarborough Faire-themed single. Its next lively electro-pop hit, “Pop Goes the World,” arrived in 1997 and once again toyed with contrasting Ivan’s deep baritone vocals — delivered in an unadorned yet authoritarian manner — with the band’s playfully innocent melodies.
By then, somewhat disenchanted with the band’s popularity and exposure, Ivan stepped away from Men Without Hats later that year and focused on completing his debut solo effort, The Spell. Hanging up his toque for what seemed like the last time, Ivan teamed up with brother Stefan MacKenzie to lay down the band’s final release together, No Hats Beyond This Point, in 2003. A fitting epilogue, considering that the original sentiment behind the group’s name refers to Ivan and his brother’s refusal to wear warm headgear amidst Quebec’s brutal winters.
“When people ask me if I make my 10-year-old son, John, wear a hat, I tell them that’s why I moved to Victoria. My brother Colin moved [there] first, so you could say he blazed the trail for me to move out to the West Coast,” Doroschuk says of his balmy new locale. “I couldn’t be happier than to be walking around in shorts and enjoying the cherry blossoms so early in the spring.... But coming back now, there’s no pressure to succeed. I’m at a point in my life where I can comfortably play all the old songs again. I completely understand the drive that new artists have to develop new things, but right now I’m all about giving it back.”
Gratified to reconnect with Men Without Hats’ multi-generational fanbase, Doroschuk appeared at the Rifflandia Music Festival in Victoria last September, performing 10 songs from his band’s back catalogue to rave reviews. Emboldened by this experience, he has assembled a gang of “hired guns” to accompany him on his fledgling Dance If You Want Tour 2011, which launched at South by Southwest in Austin this past March. He says he has big plans for the summer, including hitting Toronto’s NXNE fest in June, where Men Without Hats will strut their stuff alongside fellow ’80s rock revivalists Devo. He says the tour will wind up at Montreal’s jazz fest, where he’ll be inviting a few special guests to perform.
“The band has had some 30 people in it over the years, but it’s always been my project. I write everything,” he says. “This time it’s a whole new team.”
And his new team also has a new audience. “Glee introduced our music to a whole new crowd and thanks to Facebook we’ve connected with audiences from a wide spread of ages — parent-and-kid teams seem to be the trend. I guess it’s the second generation of fans, the ones who are discovering us from the ‘Crazy Frog’ video and such. The day after that came out on Disney Channel, my son was totally mobbed by his friends at school. Music videos may not be a thing of the past exactly, but... I believe Twitter and Facebook are the future. Forget MuchMusic, but you’d better have a ringtone.”
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