Men Without Hats – The Dance is Still Going Strong

When Men Without Hats released “The Safety Dance” in 1982 no one could’ve predicted it would go on to become an era defining song, but 43 years later the dance is still going strong.

The band continues to be led by the baritone vocals of Ivan Doroschuk, who has the on-stage energy of a teenager experiencing his first Red Bull, and while the rest of their lineup has changed over the years, the vibe remains the same – they’re all about a good time.

That good time will be hitting the road again this summer for year two of the Totally Tubular Festival, as the band co-headlines the tour for the second straight year, this time sharing the top of the bill with Right Said Fred. Other acts include Animotion, The Escape Club, The Tubes, Musical Youth, The Motels, and Haircut 100.

The tour kicks off June 27th in San Jose, CA, and concludes its 18-date run in Indianapolis, IN on July 24th.

I caught up with Ivan over Zoom to find out more about the tour, as well as the enduring qualities of ‘80s music, and what it was like being parodied by Weird Al.

You’re back for year two of the Totally Tubular Festival. What about your experiences from last year’s tour made you all in to return for year two? 

It was just a blast. We had a great time. The venues were great. The crowds were great. Time of year was great. It was all fun, so it was a no brainer coming back.

When you look at the bands in this year’s lineup, which of them are you most excited to either reconnect with, or connect with for the first time? 

Well, The Tubes are the only other band that were on the bill last year, but I’m a huge Tubes fan, so I was completely stoked last year to be on the same bill as them, and it’s the same thing this year. We’ll be glad to connect with them again.

The Motels we’ve played with, we’ve toured with them before, and they’re great people too, so we really enjoy their company.

I’m just looking forward to meeting everybody else. It’s going to be great.

Is there a lot of mutual appreciation in the backstage area? 

Oh yeah.

Back in the day, back in the ‘80s, I likened it to being on a sports team. You’d travel around the country, and there was a lot of competition. You’d be competing for space on the Top 40 charts, room in the newspapers, places to play.

There was a lot of tension, too. You’re usually promoting a new album, and competing against other bands who were doing the same thing.

Now it’s like one big happy ‘80s family, where the pressure’s off, everybody’s done their work, nobody’s out there to pay the rent.

Anybody who’s out there now is out there to have fun, and that makes it a lot more enjoyable.

When you look at the crowds that attended year one, the age range was huge. Why do you think the appreciation for ‘80s pop spans so many generations, including people who weren’t even alive at the time the music was out? 

It’s cross-generational.

We’ve been blessed to have embedded ourselves in popular culture. A lot of TV shows, like Glee, for example, brought us to a whole new generation of music listeners, and a whole new audience. Shows like The Simpsons, and Family Guy have also kept us in the public psyche.

I also think it’s the tunes. The ‘80s had a lot of good songs. There were a lot of sing-alongs. I’m a big fan of rap music, but I wonder how many Eminem songs we’re going to be singing around the campfire in 20 years, whereas the ‘80s had one sing-along after another.

The Totally Tubular tour is a good example of that. There’s a lot of crowd participation with all the bands.

Absolutely. If any band ever forgets a lyric, it isn’t going to matter, because the whole crowd will know it. 

Exactly.

The fun part about these tours is that you get to hear the songs that you want to hear. Back in the day, myself included, bands were out there promoting new records, so the audience was subjected to a lot of material they hadn’t heard yet. That’s gone by the wayside. We know what songs people want to hear, and we’re out there to deliver it.

There’s no new album to be promoted. It’s all a greatest hits package, and from each band. It makes it a lot of fun.

I remember talking to some of the bands that were doing ‘90s nostalgia tours, and they were like – the last thing this audience wants to hear is, “and here’s something off our new record,” just kick out the hits. 

Exactly.

I remember back in the day when we’d be pushing our new stuff, and people were screaming for old songs, I felt like diving into the crowd, and getting at them, like – listen to our new stuff! It’s so much better! Blah, blah, blah.

Now we’ve learned, we’re a lot older, a lot wiser, and we know what the crowds are there for.

But you can still dive into that crowd, because anyone who’s seen you perform knows your energy level is incredible on stage. Where does that come from, and can you bottle it? I would buy a Men Without Hats energy drink. 

Oh, I tell you, it’s the crowd that keeps us going.

People ask me, “Do you ever get tired of playing ‘The Safety Dance?” and I say, absolutely not.

The smile that it brings on people’s faces every time we play any one of our songs is the fuel that keeps us going, and in the case of “The Safety Dance,” the song is is a lot bigger than the band. Sometimes I feel it doesn’t even belong to us anymore, it belongs to everybody out there. So I feel like a musical museum curator going around promoting this musical artifact that brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. So we’re blessed.

When was the last time you watched the video? 

Oh, I watch it often. It’s delivered by some form or another to my computer screen pretty regularly.

A lot of ‘80s videos, you can watch them, and you kind of chuckle a bit. The hair, or the clothing, or the setting, you can tell it’s an ‘80s video. But one good thing about “The Safety Dance” video is it’s kind of timeless. The whole Pied Piper routine, the whole medieval setting, and everything like that, makes it like a Western, you can't really tell when it was done, so that makes it fresh every time I watch it. It’s great.

I’ve heard you are a huge fan of Weird Al’s parody of the song. 

Yeah.

Did you have any idea it was going to become a song about The Brady Bunch? 

No, we had no idea whatsoever.

He contacted our publisher, who didn’t really tell us, and kind of sprung it on us when his album was already out.

There’s a meme out there that says, “The biggest honor is a Grammy,” and then the guy says, “No, the biggest honor is being parodied by by Weird Al.”

It was great.

In the ‘80s we had no social media, or cell phones, but a heck of a lot of vices readily available. How many of your peers from that time do you think would’ve been able to survive in the current technological climate? 

It’s a good question. Back then there was new technology. That’s one of the things about the ‘80s, the (music) video was brand new, and the video was something that that changed my life. I sometimes wonder where we would have been without the video.

CD was a new format which brought a lot of music to a lot of people.

The MIDI function in music creation, and computers were starting to come in.

So back then we thought we were riding on a crest on a new wave of technology, but the industry is kind of circular, as are a lot of other things. For example, The Beatles were the big thing when I was a kid growing up, and The Beatles were a singles band. They would put out single after single after single, and when they had 12 singles they put out an album. That’s kind of how it is now. You don’t have to put out an album. You can put out a single. You can put out another single. You can test the waters, pull it back and remix it, and put it back out again.

The way people get their music is a lot different than it was.

The pressures are different, especially for the ‘80s bands, or vintage bands, or legacy bands, or whatever they call us. Our main fan base is not your TikTok user, so it takes some adapting. You have to get used to it.

But it was the same thing for bands from the ‘60s when when the ‘80s came around. They didn’t have videos, they didn't have CDs. So it’s the same type of thing.

Your niece, Sahara Sloan, joined the band a few years ago. What’s it been like having that injection of youth in the band? 

It’s been great. She has a great talent. She’s a classically trained singer, and pianist, and she really connects with the younger generation.

She also brings another outlook on the band. She’s got another generation’s view of what we do, and she can give us another take on what people might want, or expect, or things like that, and it’s great.

I think it’s a great story. Her dad was a founding member (of the band), my brother, Colin. It’s a great story to tell, and it’s great having her around. I love family.

She brings her daughter on tour with us a lot, so we have multi-generational fun.

In addition to pop, I know you have a history in punk rock, so how big is your record collection, and are you still adding to it? 

Oh, I’ve slowed down quite a bit. I was a big, big collector when I was younger, but the advent of streaming, and digital has slowed me down as far as record buying goes.

I was a big punk rock, and new wave fan. The thing about punk, and new wave, it was kind of collected together in one bin at the back of the record store when it all started, and we used to play at the same venues because there weren’t too many clubs in each town that let new wave, or punk bands perform, so we invariably ended up on the same stage.

We shared the same basic philosophy of a DIY approach, and, I wouldn’t say non-musical, but just like anybody could it. You didn’t have to be a virtuoso on your instrument to be able to do this thing.

Rhythm machines, and synthesizers made things a lot easier for a lot of musicians, or people who wanted to be musicians. The whole punk/new wave ethos was kind of what kept us going.

Are there any musical rabbit holes you’re currently going down? Which bands, or genres have your attention right now? 

I’m still a pretty big fan of what I grew up on in the ‘70s, and ‘80s music. I’m still a big jazz fusion fan, and a big progressive rock fan, too. I grew up on bands like Genesis, and Pink Floyd, and King Crimson.

I’ve always said that new wave music, the ‘80s that we brought to the table, was a was a mixture of progressive rock music, progressive keyboard music, and disco. It was synthesizer music that you can dance to.

So I’m still pretty partial to what I grew up on. The ‘70s was a great era to be a music loving teenager. There was the birth of so many root genres that I don’t think any decade has equaled. It was a really fun time.

For more Men Without Hats check out safetydance.com.

Note: After publication, the Totally Tubular Festival was canceled, but Men Without Hats still plan on touring this summer. Check their website for all future tour dates.