SPILL FEATURE: YOU CAN DANCE IF YOU WANT – A CONVERSATION WITH IVAN DOROSCHUK OF MEN WITHOUT HATS

YOU CAN DANCE IF YOU WANT

A CONVERSATION WITH IVAN DOROSCHUK OF MEN WITHOUT HATS

Beloved Canadian new wave and synth-pop band Men Without Hats are hitting the road again with their upcoming You Can Dance If You Want Tour. The tour celebrates Men Without Hats’ illustrious career, which spans over four decades, and is in support of their 2025 album On The Moon. Ahead of the upcoming tour, I chatted with Men Without Hats frontman Ivan Doroschuk.

“At these shows, we get to touch base with our original fans from the ‘80s, but a lot of times they’re bringing their kids or even their grandkids sometimes,” he shares. “A couple of these songs have embedded themselves into popular culture thanks to shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy, and a show like Glee brought our music to a whole new generation of listeners. It’s been great. It’s what allows us to still be out there playing our music for people… We have a lot of interesting covers that we do and a couple of deep cuts that we pull out too.”

Men Without Hats became a household name with the worldwide hits “The Safety Dance” and “Pop Goes The World.” Both songs got people moving on the dance floor with their anthemic sing-along choruses, joyful, upbeat energy, and earworm synth melodies. Doroschuk points to the timeless messages of “The Safety Dance” and “Pop Goes The World” as a major reason why both songs still connect with people today. “We were fortunate enough to be able to touch on larger themes that sort of carried us over onto the next generation and beyond,” he reflects. “[With ‘The Safety Dance’] people still need to hear and be told that they can dance if they want to, especially in this era of social media where there is a lot of peer pressure to conform… Just follow your heart. Do what you think is right. Don’t be too concerned about what other people are saying or thinking about you. Just do your own thing. It’s the same thing for ‘Pop Goes The World.’ We put that song out back in the ‘80s when our message was, ‘If we don’t start treating Mother Earth with a bit more respect, she’s gonna blow up,’ and that message today is still relevant to people. People are still concerned about the state of the planet and the way we are treating it.

“The Safety Dance” was also incredibly popular because of its fun, simple dance. “All you had to do is make this giant S with your arms, and you’re in the club,” Doroschuk says. “It attracted a wider audience, let’s say, than just the new wave crowd. I have a lot of fans that are total metalheads, and they like metal, but they also like ‘The Safety Dance,’ and some jazz people too who like jazz, but they also like ‘The Safety Dance.’”

Sometimes when a band gets a massive hit song, they grow to hate it. A famous example is Radiohead, who grew to despise their song “Creep” and, for a long time, never played it live. This is not the case for Doroschuk. He loves playing “The Safety Dance,” and despite performing it live thousands of times, it never bores him. “People ask me all the time, ‘Don’t you get tired of singing The Safety Dance, like how many millions of times have you sang it,’ and I tell them, ‘Every time I enjoy it,’” he says. “The smile that it brings on people’s faces is the fuel that drives us. Sometimes I feel that the song is bigger than the band, and it doesn’t even belong to us anymore; it belongs to everybody out there, and I’m kind of this musical museum curator going around the world presenting this artifact that brings people immense joy.”

Men Without Hats get lots of requests from fans to play certain deep cuts. Last year the band learned that “Security (Everybody Feels Better With)” from their first EP, Folk Of The ‘80s, really connects well with fans, especially those from Germany. “[‘Security (Everybody Feels Better With’)] was this big underground cult classic in Germany, so we dusted it off and played it for them,” Doroschuk explains. “The fans here [in Canada] like it too.”

At these upcoming shows, Men Without Hats plan to do some covers. One cover that Doroschuk really enjoys playing live is The Tragically Hip’s “Blow At High Dough.” Men Without Hats covered the song on their 2021 EP Again, Pt. 1. “I think that [The Tragically Hip] are the quintessential Canadian band,” he says. “I saw them on their first tour. I went to see them because of that song ‘Blow At High Dough’ and didn’t really know too much about them, and went and met the guys, and I’ve been a fan ever since.”

Men Without Hats will also play songs from their newest album, On The Moon. Award-winning producer Brian Howes produced the album. Howes is known for his production work in rock music, including Nickelback’s Here And Now, Puddle Of Mudd’s Famous and Volume 4: Songs In The Key Of Love & Hate, and Hinder’s Extreme Behavior and Take It To The Limit. “Our record Sideways was a total keyboardless record with the drummer [Michael Langevin] from Voivod, so I’ve always had this affinity for hard rock music,” Doroschuk states. “It was a really, really fun experience. It’s one of the first times that I’ve actually done a co-write with somebody that I’ve actually sat down and wrote a song from scratch just with another person… We’re hoping to recreate that pretty soon.”

The ultra-catchy “I The ‘80s” from the album On The Moon has already struck a chord with many fans. At Men Without Hats’ show in Calgary earlier this year, tons of people were excited to hear it live and happily sang along. Plus, the song’s music video has amassed over one million views on YouTube. “We know what people appreciate from the band, and we’ve been doing it for quite a while now, so we’re getting good at it, so we just try and deliver what people want,” Doroschuk states. “The hardest thing about that song was narrowing it down to three minutes and thirty seconds for radio because there were so many references that we wanted to stick in there. I guess we’re gonna have to make a 12-inch remix and get them all in.”

Reflecting on what led him to reference the ‘80s for the song, Doroschuk says, “The ‘80s brings back a lot of good memories for people. A lot of great songs came out of that era… If you listen to pop music on the radio now, you hear a lot of ‘80s influences in contemporary pop. I think one of the reasons for that is that this generation now is probably one of the first generations that really grew up with their parents’ music. ‘80s parents really imparted their love of their music to their kids. The kids now listen to a lot of ‘70s hard rock. They listen to a lot of ‘80s new wave music. I don’t remember listening to Frank Sinatra when I was growing up; that’s for sure. It’s really happening now, and you see it all over the place, like in clothing even. People are even dressing in an ‘80s style. What’s old is new again.”

“I Love The ‘80s” also makes great use of the keytar, as do many other Men Without Hats songs. “The keytar is just a fun instrument to play,” Doroschuk says. “That’s my niece Sahara Sloan playing the keytar now. She’s the daughter of my brother Colin [Doroschuk], who was an original founding member of the band. I like to introduce her saying, ‘I used to carry her around on a pouch on my back, and now she’s playing keyboards for us.’ It’s really gone full circle as the next generation is joining in.”

The You Can Dance If You Want Tour kicks off in November and will continue into the new year. The tour features two special guests: Spoons and Carole Pope. Spoons will join Men Without Hats on Western Canadian dates, while Pope will join Men Without Hats on Ontario dates. These shows will definitely be a fun ‘80s throwback! “We’re looking forward to bringing this slice of history back to our fans,” Doroschuk states. Doroschuk is also looking forward to experiencing winter, as he hasn’t seen much snow since moving to Vancouver Island many years ago. He laughs, “Coming from Montréal, I miss the Canadian winter.”

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Background Photo Credit: Andrew Clowater