It came from the '80s ... again

November 15, 2012|By Allison Stewart, Special to the Tribune

How far will a hit take you? If it's a behemoth, world-changing, woolly mammoth of a hit, like, say, Men Without Hats' 1983 classic "The Safety Dance," you can go forever, playing decent-sized venues for years after other bands with more plentiful but less iconic hits have come and gone.

The Quebec-born band dissolved in an acid mix of acrimony and lawsuits less than a decade after their biggest hit. There were solo albums and halfhearted reunions, but lead singer Ivan Doroschuk mostly avoided the lucrative oldies circuit, taking 10 years off to be a stay-at-home dad.

He re-formed Men Without Hats (not reunited, though; he's the only original member) in 2010, returning to a landscape in which '80s music ruled once again. In June the band released "Love in the Age of War," its first new album in almost a decade. Doroschuk got on the phone from his home in British Columbia to give a rundown. This is an edited transcript of that conversation.

Q: How important was it to you to put out something new?

A: When we started out two years ago, there was no prospect of a new record. I was on tour last summer with the Human League, and I just started putting out ideas on the back of the bus on GarageBand with my iPad. We first decided to put out an EP, but when we got in the studio, things were going so well we decided to put out a full record.

Q: Do you find there's a division between the nostalgia act your fans might want you to be, and the forward-looking band you want to be?

A: Our new material fits in pretty seamlessly with the rest of the stuff, but we're happy doing a lot of our hits. I was very happy doing a "greatest Hats" show. We'd never done that ... we were always pumping a new record, or doing what the record company wanted us to do. We never got a chance to do the classics back-to-back.

Q: A lot of artists seem to have a complicated, love-hate relationship with their big songs. Are you like that with "The Safety Dance"?

A: When you're a young artist, you always want to play the new stuff. Everybody's like that, kind of. Being told you might be remembered for only one song is kind of scary for a young artist starting off, but now that I've had a chance to step back, I'm a lot wiser, hopefully. ... So many people put (out) their hearts and souls and their fortunes and their families and sacrifice their whole lives and never get heard. I'm many times blessed.

Q: What is it about that song?

A: I think it's because people still need to hear that they can dance if they want to. Do your own thing, don't worry about peer pressure. That's something people will always need to hear. ... I got a video the other day from a Hasidic wedding — they were playing "Safety Dance" and carrying the bride and groom around on chairs. I'm sometimes blown away by how wide-reaching it is. Just hearing it in pop culture — my son discovered us through (videos on) the Disney Channel. From there to "Glee" to "The Simpsons," though my favorite is still (the time it was on) "Beavis and Butt-head."

Q: Do you ever think, "I wish I could remember how I wrote a hit back then"?

A: I don't think anybody writes a song without thinking it's a hit. Everyone thinks that they're gonna write the song that changes the world. That's just part of the artist's makeup.

Q: What was it like, your first show back after all those years?

A: I got back and it was as if no time had passed. ... I'd been a stay-at-home dad for 10 years, and I was itching to get back on the road. The reaction was heartwarming. There were people who had been waiting 20-25 years to see us play. It made it feel like it was almost my duty to go out and perform the songs.

Q: It seems as if there were a lot of tensions in the band back in the day.

A: There's always tensions in bands. It starts off with four friends, then it turns into a company, and it ends up being four enemies. That's the story of rock 'n' roll. But the one constant in this band has been me. We did a family tree, and there's been 30 people in this band, but it's kind of a vehicle for me.

Q: Huey Lewis once told me he wouldn't go back to the time when he was most famous for anything. Do you agree?

A: Oh, no. I'm totally into time travel. I'd like to go back anywhere.
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Bow Wow Wow and Men Without Hats
: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Mayne Stage, 1328 W. Morse Ave.
Price: $32 (18+); 773-381-4554 or