By Jim Barber
‘Iconic’ is a time period tossed round hither and yon when describing virtually something in well-liked tradition at present that reaches a sure stage of virality. However is the epithet actually and actually justified or correct for a lot of of those examples? To your humble correspondent (me) ‘iconic’ means one thing that’s immediately memorable, evocative of a time, place and feeling that may’t be repeated. It’s emblematic of an individual, place or factor the place the popularity issue is fast the response is powerfully visceral and deeply emotional. It’s one thing that pulls out highly effective reminiscences, enlivening the spirit and the soul.
Visible artwork is able to such wonders, however there’s a explicit sensory, emotional and even non secular expertise when one hears a track that’s actually iconic. The opening notes can elevate coronary heart charges, make one cry out in pleasure, prompting one to lift their fingers into the air and wave ‘em like they only don’t care.
Iconic songs can characterize a complete period of music and well-liked tradition, they’ll provoke a selected feeling, vibe and elegance. They’re cultural touchstones elevated far above mere gross sales numbers and chart positions. They permeate different arts and cultural media, including a cache of cool viability to TV exhibits, motion pictures, pop artwork, video video games and promoting.
Most of all, the resonance of those songs transcends time and house, even the place in historical past from which they originate. Their that means and influence can traverse many years, cross continents and oceans, using radio and satellite tv for pc waves to imbed themselves into the hearts and minds of parents who’ve markedly totally different languages and cultures.
Such a track, within the opinion of many, together with the writer of this piece, is ‘Security Dance’ launched in 1982 by Canada’s Males With out Hats. It’s been featured on TV exhibits corresponding to Household Man and The Simpsons, acquired the official popular culture kudos when it was parodied by Bizarre Al Yankovic [aka ‘The Brady Bunch’] has been coated by artists corresponding to fellow Canadians, The Field in addition to the forged of Glee and most not too long ago featured in a video/TV advert marketing campaign by Molson Breweries (one other legitimately iconic Canadian model) through the NHL playoffs. It’s the greatest, most acquainted and most culturally resilient track in a powerful repertoire of hits that additionally contains ‘Pop Goes the World,’ ‘Sideways,’ ‘Antarctica,’ and ‘I Like,’ and is the muse of a now 45-year profession for band founder, frontman and songwriter Ivan Doroschuk.
However this isn’t a profession based solely on nostalgia and celebrating previous honours. It’s also a legacy based mostly on continuous creativity shifting ahead properly into the third decade of the 21st century, as Males With out Hats not too long ago launched a brand new single, ‘I Love the 80s’ in anticipation of a brand new album Males With out Hats on the Moon set to be issued in mid-October.
‘I Love the 80s’ is joyously reflective and boundlessly celebratory, with the composition and musical performances hearkening again to the types of sounds and sonic landscapes created by, primarily, the synth-pop bands of the Nineteen Eighties, of which Males With out Hats was on the forefront, particularly in Canada. It’s also a track with an power cultivated from Doroschuk’s apparent pleasure and sense of positivity that he believes was an indicator of that total decade. But, it’s a track that’s trendy in its method and supply, and comes from the viewpoint from somebody wistfully looking for to reclaim that which was good from the previous, and bringing it ahead into what’s at instances a darkish, divisive and foreboding current day.
“I discover that Nineteen Eighties music has been trending for the final 10 years. It’s simply getting stronger. All over the place you look there are Nineteen Eighties references. Pop music at present is totally reliant on Nineteen Eighties sounds – large drum sounds, synthesizers, robotic voices, all the pieces. The kinds are coming again, the eagerness’s coming again and persons are simply actually, actually into it. I’ve performed extra exhibits this trip with this incarnation of the band than I did within the Nineteen Eighties. There’s simply this big, big demand for Nineteen Eighties music which is nice. We’re tremendous busy. We’re touring on a regular basis. We’re heading again to Europe this summer season to do a five-week tour of Europe and Scandinavia and bits of the U.Ok. and have extra exhibits coming,” stated Doroschuk who has lived in Victoria on Vancouver Island for greater than 20 years, after launching the band in Montreal.
“And there are a number of different songs on the brand new album which might be like ‘I Love the 80s’, by way of the that means, nevertheless it’s extra in regards to the total sound. We’ve simply gone again to our previous sound. We type of drifted away from it, with Sideways [released in 1991] doing a full guitar album and stuff like that. However we determined we don’t wish to reinvent the wheel anymore. We’re pleased going again to our previous sound. I believe it’s the sound that folks get pleasure from essentially the most – that Nineteen Eighties sound.”
It was in response to fan demand and a profound sense of appreciation for the tradition of the Nineteen Eighties that led Doroschuk to compose the infectious and splendidly upbeat new single, in addition to your complete album.
“We’ve been very lucky that we’ve had songs which have embedded themselves into well-liked tradition. There’s The Simpsons and Household Man and all these exhibits. However even Glee introduced us an entire new era of listeners. So after we play exhibits now, we are able to see our authentic followers are there and we join with our authentic followers who come out and see us, however they bring about their children after which generally they even convey their grandkids so it’s a multi-generational factor,” he stated.
“If the Nineteen Eighties was your teenage years, it was a decade that was actually targeted on that demographic, perhaps much more so than the Nineteen Fifties when the thought of {the teenager} was type of invented. You had the flicks with The Brat Pack, and there have been vibrant colors and the hair was large and there was new applied sciences coming in; the private laptop grew to become an enormous factor. There was an entire shift within the arts and on the whole with all the pieces having this breath of contemporary air. Issues had type of bought slowed down within the Nineteen Seventies, however the Nineteen Eighties actually took over and promoted the youth and what they favored. And consider what occurred with the Walkman, and the way children might now take their music all over the place with them. It’s widespread for everybody to have ear buds at present and listening off their telephones, however again then this was an enormous deal [to have a portable cassette player.]”
With ‘I Love the 80s’ Doroschuk and Males With out Hats will not be merely whistling into the wind, holding aloft the banner of the Nineteen Eighties on a lonely island. Certainly there’s a marked resurgence within the attract and appreciation for all the pieces Nineteen Eighties amongst the demographic who grew up throughout these heady days of Thriller, Again to the Future, Rambo, Cyndi Lauper and Cabbage Patch Dolls, but additionally by youthful generations. Doroschuk believes there’s good purpose for individuals to be nostalgic and needed to convey again the extra progressive and life affirming components of that period.
“The Nineteen Eighties had that sound. I used to be an adolescent within the Nineteen Seventies so I grew up on lots of progressive rock music, and lots of keyboards, I used to be a keyboard participant and I targeted on lots of keyboard bands like Sure and Genesis and Pink Floyd and stuff like that. And I used to be additionally entrance and centre within the disco motion, and I’ve at all times stated that Nineteen Eighties music was progressive rock music blended with disco; it was synthesizer music you would dance to and that’s what I dropped at the desk. Nineteen Eighties music has lots of sing-alongs, there’re lots of good melodies and I believe individuals simply wish to get pleasure from a superb, good melody and a superb stable beat. Disco had bought a foul fame; nothing was being stated in disco any extra, however Nineteen Eighties New Wave form of took over. It took the torch and stored operating with it. It was additionally dance music that had an enormous social commentary element to it. It was the Reagan/Thatcher years [Republican U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Conservative U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher] so there was lots of social commentary,” Doroschuk defined.
“And we did that in our music. With ‘Security Dance,’ somebody remarked in some unspecified time in the future that it was the one track they’d heard with the phrase ‘imbecile’ in it. We had this type of goofiness about us too, however the message was severe, however we delivered it in a extremely enjoyable method. We needed individuals to know they may dance in the event that they needed to, which is in regards to the freedom to be who you might be. And it was the identical with ‘Pop Goes the World.’ The message there was we’ve bought to start out treating Mom Earth higher or she’s going to explode. And this was the Nineteen Eighties and the ‘Inexperienced’ motion was type of model new, the entire ecology motion was simply beginning to get going, nevertheless it’s a message that folks at present are clearly nonetheless involved about – it nonetheless resonates at present. So, we had been fortunate that we had been capable of type of broach a few of these grander themes in our songs, they usually’ve stayed with us and stayed present and related.”
However why is the last decade, which had no web, social media, and other people needed to go to locations referred to as ‘file shops’ to purchase their music, and stand in precise lineups beside and between different people to get their live performance tickets seemingly so fascinating and fascinating for the younger people?
“A part of what I take into consideration after I consider the Nineteen Eighties, particularly after I consider [TV cop show] Miami Vice, I consider their garments with the pink shirts and child blue pants and whereas fits. That look was all over the place and it was infused within the music and the music movies. Lots of the youthful individuals who come to our exhibits all say the identical factor. They are saying ‘my mother and father had been actually into Nineteen Eighties music and all the pieces in regards to the Nineteen Eighties. They had been at all times enjoying Nineteen Eighties music round the home. I grew up with Nineteen Eighties music,” he stated.
“And I do know there are some who’ve discovered it on their very own, however what they’ve in widespread is that there have been lots of nice melodies in Nineteen Eighties songs. So many nice songs, with nice choruses and singalong components. And also you go to see somebody like Howard Jones and everyone seems to be singing the songs – each particular person is aware of each phrase to just about each track. It’s superior. And as I used to be saying earlier than, lots of pop music at present is borrowing from the Nineteen Eighties. They’re dipping into the sound banks of the Nineteen Eighties music and making it their very own. They’re clearly doing their very own factor, nevertheless it’s nonetheless influenced by the Nineteen Eighties. And so many younger persons are entering into the tradition and the flicks. So many pubs and locations have Nineteen Eighties Nights – they’ve type of taken over. And it’s not simply the older individuals going. Again within the day golf equipment would have Disco Nights, however now in each metropolis, all people’s bought 80s Nights.
“I additionally suppose a part of the explanation why the music of the Nineteen Eighties, particularly within the early a part of the New Wave sound was well-liked then and is interesting to younger individuals now’s that it was such a breath of contemporary air. The entire Nineteen Eighties was about good instances, and there was additionally lots of innovation, lots of exploration in music and artwork and trend – there have been a number of individuals prepared to check out new issues. And due to know-how it began to turn into accessible to everybody. There was an enormous DIY element to music that truly began with Punk however continued into New Wave. You didn’t need to be a virtuoso in your instrument. All you needed to do was have a good suggestion and you would run with it.”
It’s been 43 years because the launch of ‘Security Dance’ and it’s foolish to consider that Doroschuk thinks and writes precisely the identical as he did again then. However there’s a sense of widespread function and methodology between the writing course of for Males With out Hats on the Moon and people halcyon days.
“It’s not that a lot totally different. I type of grew up actually modelling my songs after The Beatles. They had been my function fashions, actually, so far as songwriting goes. So the construction of the songs hasn’t actually modified that a lot. The best way I write songs is form of like woodshedding. I type of sit round noodling and in the future I’ll rise up and I’ll write 10 songs in per week. That’s normally the way it occurs, they only form of explode out of me. I do know it’s a craft and lots of people method it in another way; lots of people rise up day by day and spend two hours at their instrument and work on issues. I method it in another way. I simply hang around and when the factor involves me, it comes,” he stated.
“Often I’m sitting at a keyboard and generally it’s a phrase that involves me first, generally there’s a much bigger idea. Typically it’s a melody, so it varies. However I normally write on the keyboard and the largest distinction from the Nineteen Eighties is that know-how has actually helped out at that finish of it. As a result of the pc has made issues quite a bit simpler. It’s put the flexibility to make music into much more individuals’s fingers. Making a file again within the Nineteen Eighties was an enormous manufacturing. So it took some huge cash. It took an enormous studio and it took lots of people and lots of effort. Now it’s a special story. You are able to do a superb job principally by yourself. It’s turn into extra democratic that method, which is an effective factor. I do know some individuals complain that high quality management has gone down, however I nonetheless suppose the cream rises to the highest. And it simply permits lots of people to have extra enjoyable with music. Music shouldn’t be within the management of a choose few. It ought to be accessible to lots of people.”
After returning in 2010, Males With out Hats wrote, recorded and launched their first new album since a short-lived reunion in 2004 produced No Hats Past This Level. Love within the Age of Conflict got here out in 2012, adopted by the two-parter Once more (Components 1 and a couple of) which got here our through the tail finish of the COVID pandemic.
Not each band with a legacy stretching again practically 5 many years feels it’s essential to file new music, citing the altering methods music is consumed. However for Doroschuk, there’s a facet of non-public ambition to maintain creating, in addition to the will of followers to listen to what their favorite band is as much as creatively.
“The followers are at all times asking for brand spanking new music. They wish to hear some new stuff. They love our previous songs however they’ve been listening to them for 40 years. We’re already getting an important response from “I Love the 80s,’ persons are saying good issues about it and are actually, actually pleased that we put this new factor out, and that there’s extra coming. So it’s a mixture of issues. It’s my inventive impulse and it’s the demand from the followers and so it’s occurring. But additionally, that is what we do, you understand. That is what I do. I’m a musician and I write songs. With new music, you’ve bought your core group of people that need it, however with each new launch there’s the opportunity of reaching new individuals and I like that concept. Additionally, that is simply what we do. If all this inventive power would keep bottled up inside, I don’t know the way it will come out in any other case. Most likely not in one of the simplest ways.”
The brand new album was produced by Brian Howes, who’s greatest identified for his work within the rock and arduous rock area (Hinder, Skillet, Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, Easy Plan) however who related with Males With out Hats’ vibe immediately. Doroschuk stated he very a lot loved the collaborative spirit of Howes and thought they labored properly collectively.
“The entire course of for this album was fairly natural. Initially, I bought along with Brian, who’s on Vancouver Island right here too, so we related and recorded a few songs collectively and had a good time doing it. It was superior, and we really did a few co-writes collectively too, which was the primary time I’ve performed that, and it labored out nice. These songs are going to be on the album. He was unbelievable to work with. He introduced a lot to the desk, so for me it was like going to highschool once more,” he stated.
Returning to ‘Security Dance.’ Doroschuk believes a part of the explanation why the track, and the accompanying video, has stood the check of time, is that the video doesn’t look or really feel dated. It’s not a hair metallic vibe, it’s not poofy hair and the aforementioned vibrant pastel colors of Miami Vice, or closely androgynous look of Duran Duran, Japan, Tradition Membership and Spandau Ballet. Set in a European fashion medieval village throughout a Could Day-type celebration, there aren’t any up to date visible references to offer views a clue as to when the story is ready, or when the video was shot.
“That was a recreation changer for us, completely. The video for ‘Security Dance’ was as instrumental because the 12-inch remix for our profession – much more so, even at present. We’re nonetheless being served by that video. And we had been fortunate as a result of whenever you have a look at it and evaluate it to many of the different Nineteen Eighties movies, you form of chuckle and the hairstyles and garments. However our video is form of timeless. It’s a medieval theme. It’s like watching a Western; you don’t actually know when it was filmed. It might have been shot final week. And it wasn’t like we had been making an attempt to look totally different from all people else. It’s simply the thought we got here up with on the time,” he stated.
“And in addition timing was in our favour. When ‘Security Dance’ first broke, MTV was new, and MuchMusic wasn’t even round but, however even when it began, they didn’t have that many official movies of their catalogue so we had been getting performed on huge rotation. And it completely modified my life. I went from being a no one to not with the ability to stroll down the road.”
Males With out Hats took a hiatus for numerous years. After breaking apart in 1993 Doroschuk took till 2010 to revive the band (the tremendous brief reunion in 2003-04 probably not counting within the higher scheme of issues), understanding that there was that aforementioned rising demand to see and listen to Nineteen Eighties music once more amongst the overall populace, not solely of Canada, however all through North America and particularly over in Europe and the UK. Just a few people have come and gone from the band’s lineup, however over the previous couple of years it has been steady, and the onstage synergy between them makes for a joyfully enthusiastic present night time after night time.
In reality they’re going over to play numerous exhibits and festivals this summer season, earlier than returning dwelling for a run throughout Canada when the album comes out within the fall, together with a primary ever present at Base 31 in Picton, Ontario alongside The Spoons on Oct. 5.
“Followers are just about the identical wherever we go. The European followers are a bit extra excited as a result of we don’t recover from there that a lot. However they’re principally all the identical. They’re all nice. It’s all good. In some locations they’ve totally different favorite songs. Like, in Germany, there’s a few our songs which might be type of underground classics and all these German followers are saying, ‘I hope you’re enjoying that one.’ One is a track referred to as ‘Safety’ which was on our first EP [Folk of the 80’s, in 1980.] So each time we play sure locations in Germany I get a deluge of followers asking us to play ‘Safety.’ And it makes us really feel good as a result of we’re so used to individuals asking for ‘Security Dance’ and ‘Pop Goes the World,’ that at any time when they ask for one thing totally different, it’s a extremely cool feeling,” he stated.
Doroschuk was born 67 years in the past in Champaign, Illinois alongside along with his youthful brothers Stefan and Colin. Their mother and father had been Canadians of Ukrainian extraction who had been dwelling within the U.S. whereas Eugene Doroschuk was engaged on his PhD. The household moved again to Canada when Ivan was 5 when Eugene bought a educating place on the College of Montreal, whereas mother Betty joined the music school at McGill College educating classical voice. The Doroschuk household was immersed in music 24/7 so it’s not stunning that it has dominated Ivan’s life.
Whether or not it’s due to the timelessness of the music he’s created and the sheer pleasure he places into all his compositions and the positivity he exudes out into the world, Doroschuk onstage is equally timeless and ageless, bouncing with an power, and singing with an enthusiasm that may put many entrance individuals half his age to disgrace.
“I really like being onstage. It simply like it. It’s one thing the place I type of get right into a zone and the opposite members of the band have a tough time speaking with me generally as a result of I’m so targeted in my zone. However I’ve additionally needed to deal with myself too. I imply, I needed to. I had to surrender all of the partying, the loopy life-style. I gave that up fairly some time in the past,” he stated with a chuckle.
Turning to the topic of his band. It’s at all times been a household affair for Males With out Hats because the beforehand talked about Colin and Stefan Doroschuk have each had prolonged tenures within the band. Stefan was there from 1979 by 1993 and once more through the temporary revival of the band within the early 2000s. Colin was within the band from 1979 to 1986, then again once more from 1990 to 1993, returning once more in 2020 (though at present on hiatus after accepting a educating place, additionally in Victoria). Alongside him, is his daughter, and Ivan’s niece, Sahara Sloan, who performs keyboards and supplies background vocals. Drummer Adrian White has been with the band since 2018, whereas Sho Murray, the band’s guitarist and onstage band chief, joined in 2016.
“Colin was within the band with me till a few years in the past. He bought a place as the pinnacle of the voice division on the Royal Conservatory right here on the town [Victoria]. So he determined to take a break from the band, so his daughter stepped in to take his place. And he or she’s a classically skilled opera singer too. So it’s fairly superior. Once I introduce her onstage I inform the group I used to hold this little lady round in a pouch on my again, and now she’s onstage with me. It’s an important feeling to be enjoying with household and to have one other era of musician up there with me,” he stated.
“Sho Murray was in a band referred to as ShoCore, which was a Canadian band out of the west coast right here for some time. They’d a number of hits and he’s been my major collaborator within the band for some time now. And the drummer, Adrian, performed with bands like Frontline Meeting and SNFU, so he’s our resident punk rocket. Strapping younger lads each.”
For extra info on Males With out Hats, upcoming tour dates and the brand new album, go to https://www.safetydance.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and writer based mostly in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for greater than 30 years. Apart from his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and advertising and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his neighborhood. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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