Today, Sept. 24, legendary Canadian electro-pop band Men Without Hats releases a five-song EP titled Again (Part 1) – via Curve Music – featuring covers of The Tragically Hip, Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones and David Bowie. It also features No Friends of Mine – a slower, reimagined version of the group’s signature hit The Safety Dance – which came out nearly 40 years ago in 1982 on the band’s debut studio album, Rhythm of Youth. No Friends of Mine was released on Aug. 25.
Again (Part 1) precedes Again (Part 2) – an album of 12 originals coming out next year. Men Without Hats is also known for such songs as Pop Goes the World, Where Do the Boys Go?, Living In China, Antarctica and On Tuesday.
Vocalist Ivan Doroschuk co-founded Men Without Hats back in 1978 while living in Montreal. With several member changes over the years, Men Without Hats currently includes Ivan’s brother Colin Doroschuk (keyboards) and Sho Murray (guitars). Dawn Hamilton recently caught up with Ivan to talk about the band, new music, and more.
Dawn: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with me today. I really appreciate it.
Ivan: No problem.
Dawn: It was in January you announced that you were going to start recording, not knowing a pandemic was about to happen. Do you wish you had waited to make this announcement or was it perfect timing so you could focus on it without distractions?
Ivan: It was kind of perfect timing. We had planned to take seven or eight months off, isolate ourselves completely and do this record. We had turned down a lot of tours for the summer, we said no to a lot of shows at the end of last year so it all worked out perfectly for us. I know it didn’t work out that well for a lot of other people. It kind of fit into our schedule pretty well.
Dawn: How was the recording process? What changes did you have to make due to Covid, if any? 
Ivan: Nothing. We had planned to rent a house in the middle of nowhere and that’s what we did. We found a place on top of the Malahat Mountain on Vancouver Island overlooking the Pacific and we just built our studio in there. We spent eight months just making music, just old-school way of making records.
Dawn: “Again” is labelled as Part 1, can you give us any insight into Part 2?
Ivan: Part one is five cover songs and part two is 12 original songs, original new “Men Without Hats” songs. Some were written while we were in studio, some were written forty years ago and we just resurrected them from the vault and recorded them and some were written in the back of the tour bus while we were on tour for the last 10 years going all over the place. It’s a blend of all kinds of songs but they are all new and they are all “Men Without Hats”.
Dawn: How did you decide what songs to cover and why those particular songs?
Ivan: There are songs that we grew up with, some of them. We do Mott The Hoople‘s” All The Young Dudes and for me, I was a teenager in the 70s so that was my theme song and The Rolling Stones. We do a Rolling Stones song (2000 Light Years from Home). There, again, is another band that I grew up with. It’s all people we grew up with. We do a Tragically Hip song (Blow At High Dough) which I wanted to pay tribute to a great Canadian band and a great Canadian singer, a great singer. We had a lot of fun making this record, too. We recorded a lot of songs. Colin, Sho and myself had a really great time making it. I think it translates into the music and we’re excited to have people listen to it.
Dawn: Do you find it hard to be cooped up recording for so long?
Ivan: Oh no, no. I love it I love being in the studio so, the more the merrier.
Dawn: You recently released “No Friends of Mine.” Was it a bit nostalgic for you and how has the response been?
Ivan: The response has been great. Some guy said it’s great to listen to it, the first time I listened to it I knew all the words. We re-imagined it, the way I tell it is that I go back to the village of West Kington where the original safety dance video was shot and the jester is now mayor and he is married to the crazy blonde girl and I go back 40 years later and visit with them and this is the soundtrack. That’s my story.
Dawn: Do you feel that “No Friends of Mine” relates to what is going on in this world today and if so, how?
Ivan: Kind of. You know, the world is definitely sort of polarized. It’s complicated times for everybody. I like to remind people when people say they’re having a hard time I like to remind them that some generations went through Vietnam and the Second World War. I’m just glad that my 18-year-old son isn’t being sent off to Vietnam to a foreign country to be slaughtered or to slaughter somebody else’s 18-year-old son. We are going through hard times but times have been harder (and) people have gotten through them. I am sure we will get through this one.
Dawn: I totally agree with you. There have been worse times in history and we all need to stick together.
Ivan: Yes, exactly.
Dawn: You have been out and about playing. How have the shows been?
Ivan: They have been great! We just got back from Milwaukee, we played Summerfest in Milwaukee with Bow Wow Wow and Berlin and it was awesome. It was great! People are itching to get back and go see rock shows, I’ll tell you that. We did a drive-in in Calgary about a month or two ago that went very well also. So, slowly but surely things are getting back to where they were and I think there are good times ahead.
Dawn: How was your first show back did you have to shake off some cobwebs?
Ivan: Not really, it’s like riding a bike for me, I enjoy it immensely so I keep in shape, I rehearse all the time so I was ready for it.
Dawn: Thank you so much.
Ivan: It was nice talking to you.
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Men Without Hats – Again (Part 1)
1. Satellite of Love (Lou Reed)
2. All the Young Dudes (written by David Bowie, originally recorded by Mott The Hoople)
3. Blow at High Dough (The Tragically Hip)
4. 2000 Light Years from Home (The Rolling Stones)
5. No Friends of Mine (Originally recorded as “The Safety Dance”)
PAST RELEASES:
Studio albums:
Rhythm of Youth (1982)
Folk of the 80’s (Part III) (1984)
Pop Goes the World (1987)
The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century (1989)
Sideways (1991)
No Hats Beyond This Point (2003)
Love in the Age of War (2012)
Compilation Albums:
Collection (1996)
Greatest Hats (1997)
The Very Best of Men Without Hats (1997)
My Hats Collection (2006)
The Silver Collection (2008)
Extended Plays:
Folk of the 80’s (1980)
Freeways (1985)
