Canadian Classics: “Safety Dance” (1982)

Story by Liisa Ladouceur | Tuesday January 10th, 2017

“You can dance if you want to.” It was a missive from Montréal. A command given by infectious synth riffs, rap-type singing and a mid-tempo beat perfect for clapping along and yes, dancing. Oh, and a medieval-themed music video in which singer Ivan Doroschuk played pied piper to a group of maypole dancers.

Men Without Hats broke out of Canada with this oddball creation at the height of new wave – landing at No. 3 on Billboard and charting in Australia, Germany, the U.K. and beyond. In 2010, “Safety Dance” resurfaced in the smash TV series Glee; Doroschuk seized the renewed interest to record Love in the Age of War (2012) and assemble a new band, which currently tours around the world. SOCAN spoke to him from his home in Victoria, BC.

Take us back to the scene in Montreal where Men Without Hats came to be.
There was a lot of experimentation, not only in music but clothing, and painting and other audio-visuals, and the technology was changing fast. We started with no keyboards at all – an art-school noise band. Then I got the chance to go electronic and it changed the direction. That was a time where punk and new wave were lumped into the same category. We all shared the same stages and same ideals. One thing about Montréal in that period that allowed for such creativity was the fact that all the record company head offices were in Toronto. It gave us a lot more freedom to express ourselves. We didn’t have to be the next Parachute Club or Spoons. There was no chance someone from a label was at the back of the room waiting to sign us to a contract.

How did you discover synths? They were still rare and expensive at that time.
I took piano lessons all my life. My mother was a teacher at McGill and I grew up with classical music, full on. So I was ready for the technical side of it. I also loved progressive rock bands like Genesis and Yes. Where I went to school, I had a lot of very rich friends. When we got investments, that’s something we worked on right away, getting access to that equipment.

Is it true you wrote “Safety Dance” after getting tossed out of clubs for slam dancing?
Pretty much. It was the dying days of disco. Every now and then you’d hear Blondie or maybe a Devo song in the clubs. Then my friends and I, we’d get up and start pogoing – the precursor to slam-dancing. People didn’t know what we were doing. They thought we were picking fights and we’d get tossed out. So that’s basically why I wrote the song.

Your singing style in this track is almost spoken word. Where did that come from?
I credit my vocal styling to people like Bryan Ferry or Lene Lovich. For the 12-inch single though, we had to stretch things out, so I came up with the idea of talking. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I really modeled the whole spelling out the words thing after Grandmaster Flash and the beginning of rapping. We didn’t use it anywhere else, in other songs. It was just a time and place.

What do you think made it catch on?
It’s the message: That you can dance if you want to. That really resonated with people. That, plus the video. It didn’t look new wave at all – no sunglasses or pointy shoes. So anybody could listen to it. Jocks, punks, goths, your mother. Everybody could relate; there was no uniform or hairstyle that went along with it. And with the video being medieval, it was timeless.

You really did create this term “Safety Dance” out of nowhere. How much is playing with language part of the appeal of songwriting for you?
That’s the magic of music. Sometimes it clicks. Musician and magician are close words. The spell can be in the lyrics.

How did this song change your life?
It was life-changing, for sure. MTV didn’t have a lot of videos in those days, so we were on heavy rotation. I remember getting out of a tour bus in upstate New York and went into a store and the cashier pointed at me and started screaming, “It’s him!” and I thought she had mistaken me for someone who robbed the place. She was literally crying. “He’s the guy from the video.” That was the moment I realized things would be different from now on. It was interesting, to say the least. When you’re writing songs, you don’t set out to write a bad song. But when it actually does stand the test of time it’s quite humbling. It’s gotten to a point that the song is so much bigger than me. I’m just the ambassador of the song – I go around the world presenting it. A lot of people don’t even know the name of the song, or the band, or my name.

And that’s fine with you?
More than fine. That’s great. It makes you realize it’s a big world.

What do you think when you see people dancing to a song you wrote about someone trying to stop you from dancing?
I think the message got through. I got my wish.

Photo by Nicolas Boulay

Rachel Therrien: Dialogue First

Story by Claude Côté | Tuesday January 10th, 2017

Rachel TherrienWe reach Rachel Therrien, the 29-year-old trumpet and cornet player, in Brooklyn for this interview while the Rimouski native – who’s part of the Emi R. Roussel and Jérôme Beaulieu generation – was paying her dues in the jazz capital of the world before hooking back up with her Québec quintet in a few weeks.

“There are a lot of people in Brooklyn, but not many tall buildings,” says Therrien. “It’s very cosmopolitan. There are two or three jazz clubs just a stone’s throw from my pad. The Cats, in Manhattan, is my favourite, I just can’t afford the admission fees in places like the Blue Note. I like more relaxed spots where we can jam. Going to live shows is always inspiring, but being part of a community is when it becomes really rewarding.”

The New York community has clearly welcomed her. On New Year’s Eve 2016, she had been invited to play the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington alongside a big band. Quite the way to conclude a year that was rich in projects of all kinds. Chief among them was the release of her third album, Pensamiento: Proyecto Colombia, an immense opus of Afro-Colombian rhythms recorded there with 12 local musicians. Home Inspiration, her previous record, came out in 2014, three years after her debut, On Track.

“What really gets me going is challenges,” says Therrien. “I chose the trumpet, which is far from an easy instrument, it’s very physical. You can’t go a day without playing, otherwise you regret it for a week! Why the trumpet? I started high school late because we moved, so when I got to the music class, everyone had picked their instrument, all that was left was a trumpet and a trombone. I had to look it up in an illustrated dictionary, I had no idea what a trumpet looked like!”

“I think it’s regrettable that the Toronto and Montréal jazz scenes don’t mingle; we barely know each other.”

Unapologetically curious, Therrien has the mind of an explorer. She’s spent a lot of time in Havana and Banff, among other places, where she took part in various workshops alongside about thirty mentors – such as the erudite Dave Douglas, which inspired her in a series dedicated to jazz composers.

“I want to make not just jazz accessible to my generation,” she says, “but everything else that’s in the margins: Latin jazz, African music, Eastern European music… Jazz is the philosophy of conversation. I hope to synthesize all that and turn it into my own music. If I could go back to school, I’d study ethnomusicology!”

In 2013, and for the next three years, Therrien received a SOCAN Foundation grant to support exchanges with other musicians. Held during the Montréal Jazz Fest, a partner in this project, these meetings happen every night at 11:00 p.m. at Bleury Bar à vinyle. Therrien invites American and Canadian musicians from her contact list, most of whom don’t know each other. Each of them plays two of their own compositions., which are are rehearsed before the show. “What matters most is the dialogue between the musicians,” she says.

The winner, alongside her quintet, of the 2015 TD Grand Jazz Award is very optimistic about the next generation of local jazz players: “The new generation is eager and highly creative,” she says. “I look at the younger musicians coming out of university and their level is impressive, but I think it’s regrettable that the Toronto and Montréal jazz scenes don’t mingle; we barely know each other.”

Her favourite trumpet players? “Chet Baker, Ambrose Akinmusire, Miles Davis, depending on the period, Douglas and Blue Mitchell, whom I’ve stolen many a solo from,” says Therrien. “They all have a signature sound. But maybe it’s a paradox, I’ve always preferred being told I play well than being told I sound good. I think I have good ears, so I prefer doing my own research and create my own music.”

Therrien will soon export her talent to Spain, next spring, where she self-booked a mini-tour of jazz clubs on her own. Networking. Contacts. Full speed ahead.

Top 10 for 2017

Story by Howard Druckman/Eric Parazelli | Friday January 6th, 2017

Welcome to SOCAN’s Top 10 for 2017 – ten of the many SOCAN-member artists that we, and especially our A&R Department, believe will be among the ones to watch as they strongly emerge, or even break through, this year. In alphabetical order…

 

Banx & Ranx

Duo Banx & Ranx – Montrealers Soké and KNY Factory – has been releasing an eclectic blend of various Caribbean, electronic, urban and pop offerings all over the borderless internet since 2014. The duo was Initially focused on their composition and production work for other artists, and their remixing skills, and armed with an impressive viral factor – their remix of Bob Marley’s “Jammin’” has over 2 million views on YouTube! They were offered a record contract by the British label Parlophone, home of (Coldplay, Gorillaz, and David Guetta), and their first hybrid nuggets will be released throughout 2017 as singles. Banx & Ranx’s list of collaborators includes music-makers from the U.K., Jamaica and Montréal, and they intend to capitalize on Québec’s expertise in visual creativity, a crucial element in their colourful musical fusion. Top this off with their sustained production, songwriting and collaborations with some of the biggest international talent, and you have a recipe for a bright and sunny 2017, both for them, and for listeners like us.

 

Pierre-Philippe Côté

Pierre-Philippe Côté (a. k. a. Pilou) first hit the limelight as a singer, player and producer: a singer for Champion; a multi-instrumentalist for Ariane Moffatt, Jorane, Elisapie Isaac, and many others; a producer of albums for Marie-Jo Thério, Philippe Brach, David Giguère, and Sébastien Lacombe, to name but a few. He also released an album, The Origin, as an Anglophone singer-songwriter under his pseudonym, Peter Henry Phillips. That doesn’t mean he’ll neglect his own repertoire in 2017 – a new album is coming soon – but, increasingly, it’s TV and movie producers, and directors, who’ve become very interested in his scoring skills. American director, actor and screenwriter Quinn Shephard has tapped him to score her first feature-length movie (Blame, 2017), and we’ll also hear his work in Robin Aubert’s Les Affamés and Arnaud Brisebois’ short, Anime, which is set to tour the worldwide film festival circuit. On TV, he’ll be featured in the credits of the second season of Real Detective on Investigation Discovery, as well as in the third season of TV5’s Switch & Bitch. To top it all off, The Origin will be released by Universal, in France, in a deluxe edition.

J Gramm

This Grammy-nominated hip-hop producer contributed behind the scenes to D.R.A.M.’s huge viral hit “Broccoli” – now at more than 103 million YouTube views, and counting – as well as Wiz Khalifa’s “Incense,” Travis Scott’s “Upper Echelon” and many more, by the likes of Lil Yachty, Pusha T, 2 Chainz, and others. He also did the official re-mix for Lorde’s “Team.” A 22-year-old born and raised in Ottawa and now living in L.A., J. Gramm was signed in 2016 to a management deal with Scooter Braun (best known for managing Justin Bieber) and a publishing contract with BMG Rights Management in the U.S. He’s a beat-maker who’s definitely on the way up.

 

 

 

 

Kai

Electronic/pop singer-songwriter Kai’s song “I Choose Me” was licensed in a national campaign for First Choice Haircutters in 2011. She wrote “Sweet Talker” for Jessie J, and was featured on Adventure Club’s “Need Your Heart”, the Jack Ü (Diplo and Skrillex) project song “Mind” and rapper Childish Gambino’s “Crawl.” Kai – along with Australian producer Flume – was also featured on the song “Never Be Like You,” which hit No. 1 in Australia and went Top 20 in the U.S. It also topped the iTunes Electronic charts. Kai’s debut solo full-length album is expected in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

Lydia Képinski

A familiar voice, a singular viewpoint, a nonchalant attitude, a friendly face. With such a combination of qualities, you’ve got to take heed, or risk missing something precious. That’s exactly what Lydia Képinski is. The singer-songwriter left the 2016 edition of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby with nine awards, including the SOCAN Best Song Award for her bittersweet earworm, “Apprendre à mentir” (“Learning to Lie”), and she’s commanded everyone’s attention ever since – most notably Bonsound, who’ve signed on to book her live concerts. Her first four-song EP, released last November on the Shivi Shivi imprint, was produced by ex-Hôtel Morphée member Blaise B. Léonard, and offers definitive proof that this musician (who also delves in visual arts) has a lot to offer. We’re addicted, and her first full-length album is slated for the fall of 2017.

 

 

Murda Beatz

Murda Beatz started making beats when he was 17, and achieved his first placement in only three months, Soulja Boy. By 22 years old, he had deftly networked his beats on social media, hustling his way into the eardrums of many respected hip-hop crews. The fast-rising, behind-the-scenes Beatz has contributed to Migos’ “Pipe It Up”, PARTYNEXTDOOR’s “Like That,” French Montana’s “No Shopping,” and Drake’s “With You.” With longtime expert hip-hop producer Boi1da as a mentor, Beatz is well on the way to becoming an irreplaceable contributor to some major hit songs. And he can craft a beat in less than 20 minutes, as he proved during SOCAN’s “Cooking Beats” showcase at the IMSTA FESTA tech conference in Toronto in 2016.

 

 

 


Jessie Reyez

Singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez initially dove into music when she was undergoing major heartbreak after the sudden end of a relationship. She was part of the Remix Project in Toronto, an arts academy that helps youth from low-income households. Daniel Daly, from DVSN, was a key early mentor, and before too long Reyez was featured on King Louie’s song “Living in the Sky.” Her video for the heartfelt, pain-exorcising, guitar-and-vocal song “Figures” has independently now reached more than 700,000 views on YouTube. She’s featured in SOCAN’s “Members to Millions” video, and her upcoming album, The Archives, will be a collection of music that draws inspiration from her entire life.

 

 

 

 

Sophie Rose

Sophie Rose is self-described as edgy pop with a touch of princess. At 16 years old, Sophie has written more than 300 songs, collaborated with some of the top writers and producers in pop music, and is currently signed to a publishing joint venture between hit songwriter Ester Dean and Dr. Luke’s Prescription Songs. She began writing songs at age 9, deeply inspired by Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry. Sophie’s song “Friends Forever” was licensed by MasterCard for their Stand Up to Cancer campaign that aired during the 2015 and 2016 Major League Baseball season on ESPN. Her song “Attention” is the theme song for the AwesomenessTV original series Guidance, airing on go90. “Aces High,” a song co-written by Sophie, aired on Fox’s Empire this fall. Sophie uses her talents to help others by supporting charitable causes including ACT Today! Autism Care and Treatment and the American Red Cross.

 

 

SAFE

In nine months, rapper SAFE (a.k.a. Saif Musaad) went from uploading his first track on Soundcloud to selling out Toronto’s Mod Club. It’s an impressive feat for anyone, but especially for an artist who’s just 18 years old, and the rapper has already caught the biggest eyes and ears of the city. SAFE was invited to work in the OVO pop-up shop by Drake’s right-hand-man Oliver El-Khatib, which eventually led to “Don’t Worry” being featured on OVO Sound. In the fall of 2016, he released a single and a dark, gritty video, “Eternity,” that was “dedicated to the youth of Toronto that have been lost to incarceration and gang violence; and all others that have fallen victim to unruly environments.”

 

 

 

 

Gabrielle Shonk

We’ve already told you how much we love Gabrielle Shonk in the August 2016 issue of Paroles & Musique. She’s also received more than enthusiastic reaction to her first single, “Habit,” from such influential music publications as Noisey and Buzzfeed. This grandiose, soulful yet venomous ballad – addressed to a guy with decidedly bad habits – landed her numerous offers from local, national and international labels. So much so that her first self-produced album, that’s been ready to release for months now, will finally come out before summer 2017, if all goes according to plan. It’s an introspective, authentic, soul- and folk-tinged album written mostly in English, but with a few French songs sprinkled in. Shonk staunchly insisted on it, as a reflection of her reality, since this 28-year-old bilingual singer was born in the U.S. Get ready to be deeply moved.