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we started off it was actually started off as a punk rock band, guitars and we were doing,
you know, crisp bedding covers and cont and we played everything by hand.

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And so all the all the pulse bass was all done by hand, all the arpeggiated stuff was all
done by hand.

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oh Hello, welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles, a podcast for keyboard players.

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I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm pleased as always to be here with you alongside my
brother in arms, Mr.

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Paul Bindig.

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How are you, sir?

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I am equally pleased to be here, David.

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Excited, in fact.

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Excited in fact.

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It's been a real pleasure.

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We've just done an interview with Mr.

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Ivan Dorishuk.

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A lot of people are absolutely aware of men without hats.

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Even more people are aware of the iconic song Safety Dance of which that is one of many
songs Ivan and his band have written.

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We spend what, Paul, about forty five minutes talking with Ivan on an amazing career in
his lead up to touring Australia.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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He Hey, like all our guests, David, he was he was really cool to talk to and and so
generous with his thoughts and with his time.

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But you know, he he's a a serious player when it comes to synth composition, um, you know,
and i it's it's easy to go, Okay, safety dance, but I don't know any of the other work.

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Well, to be honest, Men Without Hats have a massive, massive catalogue of music and Ivan

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is the absolute driving force and compositional brain behind that.

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He what he can do with synths is amazing.

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He crafts beautiful sounds and is still doing that now, actively touring.

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And as he says in the interview, David, he he's actually busier now than he was in the
eighties when when uh when they first broke into the charts.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, no exactly.

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So we'll let you jump in and listen to Ivan or watch Ivan and we'll speak to you at the
end of the show.

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Ivan, it's an absolute honour and pleasure to have you on the show.

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Sir, how you doing this late summer in Canada, I'm assuming.

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Doing quite well.

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How are you guys?

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Excuse

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Absolute pleasure to speak with you.

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So I thought we'd kick off Ivan with just a little bit of a discussion on you've had an
incredibly busy twelve months.

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I know you've been touring regularly uh and we're very excited about what's where you're
touring next.

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Just tell us a little bit about what, you know, the last year's been like for you.

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Been pretty busy actually, like you said, been touring.

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We've been we've done everything from eighties festivals in the sand in Cancun, Mexico to
uh eighties cruises in the Bahamas to touring with the Thomas Dolby and and a bunch of

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other bands on the Totally Tubular Festival.

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Touring with Big Country.

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We just got off a tour with Big Country and

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A whole bunch of other people on the Lost Eighties tour in the States.

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So yeah, it's been busy.

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We were in Europe, we were in Scandinavia, we were in the UK, across Canada, all over the
States.

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Yeah, it's been very, very busy year.

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Yeah, and you've you've still got a a range of shows to get through, I think with the
United States tour and then and then back to Canada, is that right?

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That's still you're still in the midst of that?

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Is that right, Ivan?

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Yeah.

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Yeah, we have we have an East Coast tour in the States coming up starting in in about a
month and a cross Canada tour.

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And yeah.

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Wonderful.

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Having more more tours now than we did in the eighties.

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We

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Well, I think it's a reflection on how timeless and wonderful this this sort of music is.

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Uh and we'll we'll we'll talk about that as as we go through today because um we're we're
pretty excited about the newer stuff that that that you guys have done.

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I mean, of of course Men With Our Hats was a was a massive band in the eighties but but
the the music now is still still really wonderful.

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But we have to we have to just be a bit indulgent here, Ivan, because David and I are from
Australia.

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Now this podcast has listeners and viewers all over the world.

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The United States, Canada, England and Australia being the four

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most most listened to countries.

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But there's a I believe the first one the men without hats have been to Australia is
coming up this this May or twenty twenty seven, is that right?

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Yeah, well as a full band, yes.

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I did a sort of an eighties tour by myself with with a bunch of other people with Lamal
and Berlin and everything, but we were we were just solo artists back then.

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That was about ten years ago actually.

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So this is the first time the full band is is is going over and we're we're really
excited.

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We're really stoked to I loved Australia when I was there last time.

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I thought it was a great place.

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One of the first places I've actually been to that I've said to myself, I could live here,
you know, this is Yeah.

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This is a great place to be.

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The people were super friendly.

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Everybody was in a good mood.

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It was it was awesome.

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Yeah, I I I have a few Canadian friends and and I often think there there's a bit of
similarity between Canada and Australia and the people in in some ways, although we live

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on opposite sides of the globe.

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I think we have a similar attitude to life a lot of the time.

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So see we're excited to have you here and I'm I'm thrilled that the that the band's
looking forward to coming down.

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It's gonna be a great tour.

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And remember that hats were huge in Australia, so I'm sure you'll do very, very well.

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Yeah, so excited for that.

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Ivan, I thought then we'll jump back to your musical upbringing.

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So you know, only a a decade or three ago, Ivan, where your sort of childhood and teenage
years, what got you into music in the first place and probably most importantly, you know,

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into synthesizers and and some of the great work you started to do?

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My mother was music teacher.

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She was a voice teacher at McGill University in Montreal.

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And so we grew up surrounded by music.

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My dad was also a an amateur musician who played in a band with his father.

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And so we grew up with piano lessons and violin lessons and choir and all that that sort
of stuff.

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And as I was uh getting into my late teens I was still taking piano lessons, but I wasn't
really crazy about it and my

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So my parents said to me, they said, Listen, you know, when you when you get to the piano,
when you practice every day, we don't really care if you s practice scales or, you know,

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learn piece classical pieces.

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Just as long as you spend an hour a day at the piano, we're happy.

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And that's when I started writing, composing and figuring out, you know, cover songs and
figuring out Beatles songs and, you know, Roxy music songs and stuff like that.

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And

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And the synthesizer came from the fact that I was always into progressive rock music.

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You know, I was into bands like Genesis and Pink Floyd and Yes, which were really big in
Canada in the in the seventies when I was growing up as a teenager.

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And so I listened I listened to a lot of synth music.

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I was also front and center in the disco movement.

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And I've always said that for me anyway, new wave music, eighties music, was a combination
of those two things, a combination of

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progressive rock music and disco.

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It was synthesizer music you could dance to.

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And that's what I brought to the table.

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And early eighties, synthesizers started to become affordable.

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You know, they weren't previous to that, they were sort of out of everybody's reach.

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They were, you know, Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman were the only people who could afford
them.

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But uh late seventies, beginning of the eighties, they they s they started becoming
affordable and everybody started, you know,

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lot of people were acquiring them and and I was one of those one of those guys who just
gravitated towards the the synthesizer and never looked back.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And I'm I'm really interested, Ivan, about those early days and the formation of Men
Without Hats, which if I'm if I'm correct, sort of actually started out in the Montreal

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scene and more of a punk scene even, I'd argue.

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Just tell us about some of those early experiences of pulling together what became Men
Without Hats and and sort of getting into an actual career in music.

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Yeah, well it was you know, it was the late seventies, it was the sort of the beginning of
the punk rock movement, and it was a real DIY sort of atmosphere was everywhere.

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There was, you know, you didn't have to be a mega virtuoso on your instrument to to start
a band.

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Everybody was starting a band.

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There was experimentation and everything.

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There was a lot of lot of new things happening and, you know, video was starting to come
in and so all across the art world there was all this this sort of

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DIY quite you know, a new movement happening and they were all kind of connected together.

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People who were doing video were hanging out with people who were doing music, were
hanging out with people who were making clothes and hanging out with painters and poets

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and everybody was kind of it was all a big sort of mix of all the of all the arts and so
it was kind of like a fresh start.

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The seventies kind of ended up in a big dinosaur kind of atmosphere.

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And wasn't really going anywhere.

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So the the the eighties was a breath of fresh air.

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And so yeah, we s but we started off, it was actually started off as a punk rock band,
guitars and we were doing, you know, crisp bedding covers and contortions covers and stuff

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like that.

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And at one point I just decided that I wanted to reach more people.

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I mean, punk rock was cool, but it was kind of a niche market and wasn't getting too much
radio airplay.

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And since I had this sort of the classical piano background and, you know, my love for
synthesizers, I just decided, I made a a decision that I wanted to to you know, to to

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reach more people, to get on the radio, to to make pop music.

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And I joined a band for a while, a band called Heaven Seventeen, which was not the not the
English Heaven Seventeen, it was the the Montreal version.

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We got the name from a Clockwork Orange, so

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A lot of people probably knew where it came from.

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And it was on stage with them one night we were opening up for XTC at in Montreal.

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And I just remember looking out over the crowd and and just saying to myself, I could do
this.

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I this I could this could be a this could be a my next job, you know.

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And that's what happened.

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I mean, I just I just stuck stuck with it and and just kept going and eventually formed,
you know,

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I reformed Men Without Hats and as a synthesizer band and found a manager and the rest is
history.

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Yeah, absolutely and is it fair to say that the scene there at the time there was a rich
history of sort of electronic music and gear, and I mean you just mentioned supporting

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XTC.

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So did the local scene help get you set up for that change from a a sort of guitar driven
punk rock band to what became uh, you know, the the men without hats as we all know it?

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Yeah.

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Well Montreal was always very friendly to to to progressive rock music and to synth bands
to start with and you know, bands like craft work, there was a whole you know, the German

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sort of electronic scene was really appreciated in Montreal and and bands like, you know,
I saw Genesis, I saw the Selling England by the Pound Tour and you know, they would come

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to Montreal and play in big, you know, huge arenas and then go down and play in New York
in front of three hundred people.

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So we were kind of

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Montreal was a bit ahead of its time as far as embracing, you know, progressive rock music
and stuff like that.

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So uh yeah, it was a lot of people were into synthesizers and Montreal was it was Montreal
was a very kind of unique place in Canada because it was it's French, first of all.

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We grew I grew up in French.

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I went to school in French all my life and it's a bit of a slice of Europe in the mi in
the middle of Canada, you know.

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It's it's it's it's very unique.

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And it also it's very close to New York too.

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And it's it resembles New York in the way that like I lived in New York and when you go to
New York, you don't meet any native New Yorkers.

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Everybody you meet is from somewhere else.

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And they go to New York to to m meet other people and to to sort of make it and and
Montreal had the same kind of scene happening in the music scene.

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It was uh a place where everybody in Canada sort of w you know, went to Montreal and the
rents were cheaper, the liquor laws were a lot more

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sort of loose than in the rest of Canada.

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And so it was it was a kind of place where a lot of other, you know, a lot of people from
the rest of Canada would would move to and just to to be able to to to make music, make

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art and just all kinds of stuff.

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And so it was like New York in that way too.

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It was really it was close.

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The disco movement was really big and Montreal were very you know, it was very connected
to New York too and and

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It was one of the first places, you know, in in Canada that were where black musicians
could come and play and and you know, headline in Montreal and you know, they'd they'd go

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back home and they they wouldn't be able to get a gig in their in their own cities and it
was it w it was very, very relaxed, very, very open kind of society in Montreal.

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So it was a lot different for the rest of rest of the continent.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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No, that makes sense.

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And I mean, Ivan, those first couple of albums I'm really interested, obviously, as a a
podcast for keyboard players, you know, when you recorded Rhythm of Youth and folk of the

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eighties and and so on, um, and analogue poly synths were still, you know, i i very much
to the force, sort of your Prophet Fives and Roland Jupiters.

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What were your sort of those first couple of albums a and singles and so on?

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What what do you recall of the recording process and how you actually pulled all that
together to develop what ended up becoming your

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Really distinctive sound.

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Well it was just a lot of trial and error.

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You know, there was just you know, the everything was kind of new to us, studio was new to
us and but one of the things I think that gave us a bit of uh a distinctive sound was the

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fact that we didn't use sequencers and we played everything by hand.

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And so all the all the pulse base was all done by hand, all the all the arpeggiated stuff
was all done by hand.

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And so it had a kind of a loose human feel to it.

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It wasn't sort of synced, you know, to the beat.

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It wasn't being driven by the drum drum machine.

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And I that's what gave our first couple of couple of records that, you know, sort of a a
more sort of organic feel to it.

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It wasn't very it wasn't as robotic as a lot of the other synth music that was coming out.

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It was a it had this sort of like I say, a bit of a human swing to it, you know, just
because it was all done by hand.

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Yeah, amazing.

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What what was the first synthesizer you ever had, Ivan?

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What what what what did you start off on when you first started getting into programming
synths?

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Corrigham S twenty was my was my first uh synth.

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And I I had one up a tool a little while ago.

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I don't have one anymore, but that that was it was a great synth.

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It was Yeah.

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But right behind me is is one of the original Profit Fives that we used on the session
too.

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And one of the only one that's sort of survived all this time.

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And uh on the bottom there there's a Prophet Six, which I've I've sort of

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I try to compare them and try to, you know, get the the Prophet Five sounds on the six,
but it's it's not happening.

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It's the the the Prophet Fives the Prophet Fives are you know, you can't beat a real a
real oscillator, you know.

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You c the the digital I mean the the the Prophet Sixes are great too.

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They do a whole bunch of other things that the Prophet Five didn't do, but it's it's a
completely different instrument and uh I think that's just due to the oscillators, you

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know.

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It's like

197
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analog oscillators have this sort of just a unique sound to them.

198
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They just they you can't sort of replicate it with digital.

199
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So that's about it.

200
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Yeah, so true, so true.

201
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All right, let's let's talk about the safety dance.

202
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It's got one of the most recognizable uh synth riffs of all time.

203
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Are you able to tell us how you came up with that?

204
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What w what was the the process, the patch you used, how did how how were you inspired to
come up with this song?

205
00:16:27,362 --> 00:16:37,669
The origin story of the song was was the fact that I I wrote the song after being kicked
out of clubs for pogo dancing to punk music when the the DJ would uh it was the, you know,

206
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dying days of disco and they would slip in the odd Londie's Heart of Glass or B fifty
two's rock lobster into the mix and we'd get up and start t bouncing off each side of his

207
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chest.

208
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The bouncers thought we were you know, security thought we were trying to start a fight or
cause trouble, so we'd get kicked out and I got kicked out quite a few times.

209
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So I just went home and

210
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And that's you know, truly how this song was the origin story of of the safety dance.

211
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As far as the recording process, I mean the the instruments I used on it for the main sort
of the main keyboard riff is a Yamaha C S fifty, which was my main keyboard for a long

212
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time.

213
00:17:16,378 --> 00:17:25,646
It was a four oscillator, also analog oscillator Yamaha, which had a real sort of
distinctive piano electric

214
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piano kind of sound that I used quite a bit.

215
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For the dance remix, we put on those octave bleeps that are, you know, sort of the call to
arms sort of of the song when it's in the discotheque.

216
00:17:42,861 --> 00:17:47,204
And that was actually done on a Honor Honer Clavinet.

217
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That was it wasn't it wasn't a sensitizer, it was uh it was a owner clavinet.

218
00:17:54,470 --> 00:18:03,816
And the bass was from what I remember, the bass was uh a Roland SH two being played
manually.

219
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The drum was a a Lin the the Lin drum, the Lin one, the first one, and that was about it.

220
00:18:13,103 --> 00:18:22,019
It was just a combination of those there was a bit of a bit of polymoog in there 'cause we
had a fellow who had just joined the band who brought along a polymoog.

221
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And so we used a bit of the polymoog.

222
00:18:25,528 --> 00:18:35,508
sort of stacked it on top of the C S fifty for the sound and though that's about the that
was about the the the instrumentation of uh of the song.

223
00:18:35,512 --> 00:18:36,172
Yeah, fantastic.

224
00:18:36,172 --> 00:18:36,903
Thank you.

225
00:18:36,903 --> 00:18:37,763
Thank you for sharing.

226
00:18:37,763 --> 00:18:46,538
So uh when we listen to your music, a and I'm talking about it yes, the the stuff from the
eighties, but e even the the the modern the modern stuff that Men With Out is putting out,

227
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we've got some really catchy lead melodies, riffs, very riff driven, bright synthie stuff.

228
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:56,664
But then there's often some fairly complex synthesizer and keyboard work that sits
underneath as well.

229
00:18:56,664 --> 00:19:04,650
When I I'm interested in your philosophy on how do you achieve that really nice balance so
it doesn't become just a a mess of sound, but y you're able to

230
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Might also sort of work together.

231
00:19:06,380 --> 00:19:10,071
You know, I sort of I have a template that I that I use, you know.

232
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It it usually starts off with the you know, with the we just start off with the bass,
start from the bottom, you know, get a good foundation and build up just like a house, you

233
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know.

234
00:19:18,043 --> 00:19:21,034
It's it's it's for me recording a song is about the same thing.

235
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And so it's all about just listening and and and you know, once you've got the bass, the
drums, the the there's usually a main keyboard line in there somewhere.

236
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Uh

237
00:19:33,856 --> 00:19:43,439
I I've been using a lot of arpeggiated stuff too now because of the Prophet Six has this
awesome little arpeggiator that that makes it very easy.

238
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And and that's it, you know, that that that's basically it.

239
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Just, you know, don't cover up the melodies, don't cover up the you know, the riffs.

240
00:19:52,341 --> 00:19:59,059
It's it's we tried to w what we've been trying to do also is not put too much on there.

241
00:19:59,059 --> 00:20:03,054
I mean it's it's it's easy to get carried away these days because

242
00:20:03,778 --> 00:20:09,611
you know the the number of tracks you can put on a song are are are it's it's limitless.

243
00:20:09,611 --> 00:20:12,822
You know, there's there's no limit to how many tracks.

244
00:20:12,982 --> 00:20:21,646
So what we've been doing is actually trying to pretend that we're in a twenty four track
studio and like we were back then and and and limit ourselves to a certain amount of

245
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tracks and just like don't go over that.

246
00:20:24,347 --> 00:20:30,720
You know, we we we sort of just try to keep ourselves to, you know

247
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Under thirty tracks, you know, like basically and and and and just like I say, try to
pretend we're in a twenty four track studio and and we take it from there.

248
00:20:40,204 --> 00:20:42,912
It's it's usually pretty straightforward.

249
00:20:42,912 --> 00:20:49,947
Yeah, well the well the result is uh and I really encourage our listeners and viewers to
to check out um the you know, the whole catalogue of Men Without Hats.

250
00:20:49,947 --> 00:20:57,133
But the result is really it's light, it's airy, but it's it it drives along too really
well and and nothing's getting in the way of anything else.

251
00:20:57,133 --> 00:20:59,495
and it just it just sounds just sounds really great.

252
00:20:59,495 --> 00:21:01,917
A keyboard player's dream, actually listening to it.

253
00:21:01,917 --> 00:21:09,602
Another question on the the way you you compose and you you talked about your process,
they're building things up from the base and and adding things and

254
00:21:09,602 --> 00:21:11,725
giving yourself some discipline around not going overboard.

255
00:21:11,725 --> 00:21:16,082
When you have an idea for a song, are you are you knocking out chords on a piano to start
with or anything like that?

256
00:21:16,082 --> 00:21:20,338
Or is it is it really just straight to the synths to start building the sounds and the
patches from there?

257
00:21:21,420 --> 00:21:24,191
I usually uh start with the piano.

258
00:21:24,191 --> 00:21:32,995
You know, I usually either piano or guitar even sometimes very you know n not so much on
guitar but but it does happen, but it's usually on piano.

259
00:21:32,995 --> 00:21:39,958
I mean I I usually just work out the song on piano and and then start putting down the you
know, start start building it.

260
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We just you know, just just uh doing like I say, just starting with the drum we know,
rhythm track and the b the the the bass, the drums and

261
00:21:49,974 --> 00:21:56,818
Main keyboard line and vocal line will go on top then and then just add, you know, the top
end.

262
00:21:56,818 --> 00:22:01,261
Just add add little things here and there just to to to make it complete.

263
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We do it all in Pro Tools and and which is, you know, great.

264
00:22:05,093 --> 00:22:10,016
I I used to use Cubase, but I I switched over to Pro Tools.

265
00:22:10,156 --> 00:22:17,780
Like I said, the synth lines come out really strongly as drivers of the songs and it sort
of makes me curious, Ivan, uh when you were emerging in the in the late seventies and

266
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early eighties as a keyboard player, who who were some of your key influences on that that
electronic style music?

267
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What what inspired you to compose?

268
00:22:28,204 --> 00:22:33,027
Well, one of my one of my heroes was Brian Eno when he was in Roxy Music.

269
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That was one of the people that I I I really I appreciated his use of the synthesizer as a
you know, just as a sound device.

270
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It wasn't he wasn't necessarily playing riffs.

271
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He was just making these crazy sounds and filling out the you know, filling out the song
just with just with sound.

272
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It was it was just pretty amazing.

273
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And, you know, another

274
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on the on the sort of you know, sort of keyboard of you know, sort of tech technical side
of it was was Tony Banks from from from Genesis, which I was a big Genesis fan growing up.

275
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He he he was, you know, sort of obviously classically trained too, and so he had all these
counterpoint, you know, riffs merging with other riffs and all over the place.

276
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So kinda got it from there and then another band was craft work.

277
00:23:26,363 --> 00:23:28,724
Craft work, their use of sort of

278
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Making it simple, you know, like really delivering a a great melody but just not
cluttering it up with anything.

279
00:23:36,403 --> 00:23:44,680
Just just it's you know, it's so simple what they what they do, but it's just so, you
know, so effective.

280
00:23:44,961 --> 00:23:51,016
And so those are those are those are some of the people that I that I listen to a lot.

281
00:23:51,330 --> 00:23:52,252
Yeah, amazing.

282
00:23:52,252 --> 00:23:58,135
and c can I ask then Ivan, on on your recent album On the Moon, there's a great cover of
Jealous Guy.

283
00:23:58,135 --> 00:24:00,961
Is that a bit of a tip of the hat to to Brian Eno?

284
00:24:00,961 --> 00:24:02,658
Is that what inspired you to do that?

285
00:24:02,658 --> 00:24:07,022
Yeah, it was to Brian Ferry to to I'm a big John Lennon fan also.

286
00:24:07,022 --> 00:24:18,171
I'm I was I I share a birthday with John Lennon, so we're both born on the ninth of
October and uh so I've always been a been a big fan.

287
00:24:18,171 --> 00:24:22,284
It's a hard act to follow, but I tried my best

288
00:24:22,318 --> 00:24:23,072
It's it's excellent.

289
00:24:23,072 --> 00:24:23,644
Absolutely.

290
00:24:23,644 --> 00:24:24,678
I encourage everyone to check it out.

291
00:24:24,678 --> 00:24:25,262
It's very good.

292
00:24:25,262 --> 00:24:26,096
It's a very good cover.

293
00:24:26,096 --> 00:24:26,830
Yeah.

294
00:24:26,830 --> 00:24:27,611
Amazing.

295
00:24:27,611 --> 00:24:29,953
And I I don't want to let you get away either.

296
00:24:29,953 --> 00:24:33,027
I'm talking about your solo album you released in 1907, The Spell.

297
00:24:33,027 --> 00:24:42,177
I'm just interested because you developed such a distinctive sound with with Men Without
Hats, that did what sort of approach did you force yourself to take a little bit of a

298
00:24:42,177 --> 00:24:49,374
different approach with that when it was just you, or just interested what itch that that
scratched for you creatively probably is what I'm after there.

299
00:24:49,422 --> 00:24:57,006
Well, yeah, I did that one all by myself and what I didn't use on that record was guitars.

300
00:24:57,887 --> 00:24:59,428
It's it's all keyboards.

301
00:24:59,428 --> 00:25:01,860
There's not a single guitar track on that record.

302
00:25:01,860 --> 00:25:07,854
And that's that's how I thought I would make it sound a bit different from Men Without
Hats.

303
00:25:07,854 --> 00:25:13,937
Yeah, I mean I'm sure, you know, if you put some guitar on there it's gonna sound exactly
like Men Without Hats, but it doesn't.

304
00:25:13,937 --> 00:25:15,078
So that's

305
00:25:15,882 --> 00:25:22,625
It was kind of, you know, there was the rave movement was going on then too and I was I
was I was just just trying out new things.

306
00:25:22,625 --> 00:25:34,970
It was technology had taken another kind of leap and in the mid in the mid nineties, so
the, you know, the recording process was was you know, it was another challenge.

307
00:25:34,970 --> 00:25:40,657
It was it was it was a whole different different ball game from what I was used to.

308
00:25:40,657 --> 00:25:41,783
So it was it was good.

309
00:25:41,783 --> 00:25:45,024
It was it was a good experience.

310
00:25:45,902 --> 00:25:46,682
Yeah, absolutely.

311
00:25:46,682 --> 00:25:55,635
And like a lot of us, Ivan, you've sort of been witness to the evolution of analog synths
through to the early digital workstations, like, you know, the Deke Seven or even the

312
00:25:55,635 --> 00:26:00,207
Fairlight through now to SoftSynths and and digital audio workstations.

313
00:26:00,207 --> 00:26:04,259
How's your own studio setup changed over the decades just broadly?

314
00:26:04,259 --> 00:26:08,790
I mean, you've mentioned Pro Tools, so you're obviously not averse to some software based
stuff.

315
00:26:09,442 --> 00:26:09,922
Yeah.

316
00:26:09,922 --> 00:26:12,203
Well that's you know, it's it's made it a lot easier.

317
00:26:12,203 --> 00:26:23,280
I mean, you know, s like I think the thing that I appreciate the most is is when you're
making a demo now, you can actually keep the demo track and bring it into studio.

318
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:29,183
And a lot of my recent recordings are they're they're the the demo tracks are on them.

319
00:26:29,183 --> 00:26:36,357
You know, they're they're and what that was always the problem back in the days was like I
wish it's you know, the I wish it could sound like the demo, you know, and there was that

320
00:26:36,357 --> 00:26:39,150
was the whole the the complaint back then, like

321
00:26:39,150 --> 00:26:41,933
Trying to make it sound like the demo, trying to get that vibe back.

322
00:26:41,933 --> 00:26:42,994
Well, now you can do that.

323
00:26:42,994 --> 00:26:50,871
You just you you have the track digitally, you just take it and put it on put it in, you
know, on the on the finished on the final mix, you know.

324
00:26:50,871 --> 00:26:54,394
So that's that's one thing that relieves a lot of pressure too.

325
00:26:54,394 --> 00:26:59,249
Like you know, you never have to worry about recapturing the the the thing.

326
00:26:59,249 --> 00:27:05,122
I mean there's vocal tracks that I I've even used like lead vocal tracks that I've done on
the demo and

327
00:27:05,122 --> 00:27:07,564
And kept them and they've ended up on the final mix too.

328
00:27:07,564 --> 00:27:11,177
So it's it's not just synths, it's it's everything, you know.

329
00:27:11,177 --> 00:27:16,721
So that's that's one of the the the things I like about about about the digital process.

330
00:27:16,721 --> 00:27:27,299
And there is a lot of things that, you know, like being able to keep every single tape
that take that you do, you know, is is is also it really, you know, it takes a lot of the

331
00:27:27,299 --> 00:27:32,242
pressure off, you know, like it's there's no more like, I like that.

332
00:27:32,472 --> 00:27:34,103
take I did like five takes ago.

333
00:27:34,103 --> 00:27:40,708
I wish we had that one still, you know, it's like you've got it, you know, so it's there's
a l a lot less pressure now recording.

334
00:27:40,708 --> 00:27:46,552
It's it's and the fact that you you don't really, you know, like I didn't I I made records
here.

335
00:27:46,552 --> 00:27:58,370
I mean, you know, I've made tapes right here in my in my in my my own studio that that,
you know, you don't need to go to the hit factory in New York City to to make a record

336
00:27:58,370 --> 00:27:59,010
these days.

337
00:27:59,010 --> 00:28:02,282
You know, you can make it wherever you have

338
00:28:02,614 --> 00:28:11,214
a good song and and you know, some some good people that'll sort of help you along with
the engineering and what and whatnot.

339
00:28:11,214 --> 00:28:15,890
You know, you don't need to go and spend a million dollars to make a record these days.

340
00:28:15,890 --> 00:28:19,784
It's that's one thing that's also takes a lot of the pressure off

341
00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:28,554
Yeah, I mean technology has just changed so much about the the way music is is done and l
let's talk about live performance.

342
00:28:28,554 --> 00:28:38,368
Ivan, we're if we're fascinated in I I was looking at some some old clips of of you guys
playing with the hats and I'm seeing a lot of keyboards on stage and I'm I'm really

343
00:28:38,368 --> 00:28:45,611
interested in in what your your rig was like, what gear you were taking with you to play
live back in the eighties, but then I'm I'm also interested in in what your keyboard rig

344
00:28:45,611 --> 00:28:49,326
is looking like now and how has that evolved and contrasted with the

345
00:28:49,326 --> 00:28:50,806
Are with the improvement tech?

346
00:28:51,694 --> 00:28:59,860
Yeah, well back in the eighties it was like at one point we had like we had a like a real
massive keyboard setup.

347
00:28:59,860 --> 00:29:03,028
I think I think the only guy who had a bigger setup than us was Michael Jackson.

348
00:29:03,028 --> 00:29:06,226
It was it we had a pretty pretty pretty wild setup.

349
00:29:06,226 --> 00:29:14,062
We were we had multiple like you know, like a lot of key I forget how many keyboards we
had on stage.

350
00:29:14,062 --> 00:29:17,024
It was like, you know, at least a dozen.

351
00:29:17,256 --> 00:29:25,193
And it was all being run by the Yamaha QX one s sequencer and we we we had two of them
running in tandem in case one broke down.

352
00:29:25,193 --> 00:29:34,350
And they were those things were like amazing for like this was the late eighties and like
I tell you that we never had one single hitch with them.

353
00:29:34,350 --> 00:29:46,090
We did tours, you know, like sixty shows in a row and the thing would just just like the
energizer bunny rabbit, it would just kept on kept on working.

354
00:29:46,250 --> 00:29:56,674
And it would change not only change the the the songs like through the set list, it would
change everybody's program on their keyboards back and forth.

355
00:29:56,674 --> 00:30:06,579
Even if if the person was the keyboard player, we had three keyboard players plus a bass
player who was playing some synth on uh some bass parts on synth, so there was like four

356
00:30:06,579 --> 00:30:13,581
four keyboard players plus myself and the QX one was changing everybody's preset.

357
00:30:13,581 --> 00:30:15,222
Like I say, back and forth.

358
00:30:15,222 --> 00:30:17,125
it multiple times during the song.

359
00:30:17,125 --> 00:30:19,849
And it was that's I mean, that's incredible.

360
00:30:19,849 --> 00:30:21,647
I mean that that's like the late eighties.

361
00:30:21,647 --> 00:30:22,804
That's like fifty years ago.

362
00:30:22,804 --> 00:30:25,108
You know, that's like forty years ago.

363
00:30:25,108 --> 00:30:28,042
It's it was it was happening, a happening little machine.

364
00:30:28,664 --> 00:30:29,756
Did that ever stress you out?

365
00:30:29,756 --> 00:30:36,388
Did did d did you ever get did you ever get like, my god, like you know, is this is this
all gonna work and it like d uh

366
00:30:36,388 --> 00:30:37,850
you know, it it it just did.

367
00:30:37,850 --> 00:30:46,617
It just i i I was after a few like I when the person the the the drummer was the fur guy
who was running the whole thing and he's the guy who suggested it because like listen,

368
00:30:46,617 --> 00:30:52,953
these new these new this is a new thing called, you know, Q X one and it's just come out
and I think it could do this job, you know?

369
00:30:52,953 --> 00:31:02,221
And I was kinda like, okay, okay, let's try it out and like I said, we had two of them
running, so if one, you know, and it was d discettes, you had to feed a diskette into it

370
00:31:02,221 --> 00:31:02,822
all the time.

371
00:31:02,822 --> 00:31:03,592
But

372
00:31:03,916 --> 00:31:05,827
Like I say, we never had a single problem with it.

373
00:31:05,827 --> 00:31:07,117
It was it was just amazing.

374
00:31:07,117 --> 00:31:08,108
It was great.

375
00:31:08,108 --> 00:31:12,190
These days, I mean, you know, I must admit we u we do use tracks.

376
00:31:12,190 --> 00:31:15,081
We we use some tracks and like everybody else.

377
00:31:15,081 --> 00:31:20,783
And we use two profit sixes and a keytar or as our as our main rig.

378
00:31:20,783 --> 00:31:31,896
And we keep a lot of things like we we keep the bass, for example, on a tracks and stuff
like that, so we can, you know, sort of have a steady sort of

379
00:31:31,896 --> 00:31:38,168
bass sound and and s sort of so the acoustics are always quite, you know, always the same.

380
00:31:38,228 --> 00:31:41,949
We use in ears now, which we didn't use back then for monitoring.

381
00:31:42,249 --> 00:31:48,270
It's it's a lot of it's the same, you know, it's it's the show is hasn't changed that
much.

382
00:31:48,270 --> 00:31:59,183
The thing that's changed the mu the most out of touring is is now that the hotel keys are
cards and they don't have the room number printed on them, so I sometimes have to go back

383
00:31:59,183 --> 00:32:01,694
down to the front desk to figure out what room I'm in.

384
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,502
But that's about the biggest change there's been in touring.

385
00:32:04,502 --> 00:32:09,077
The tour buses are the same, the flights are the same, everything.

386
00:32:09,077 --> 00:32:20,067
The crowds are the gr you know, the crowds are the greatest part of it all, and that's
that's one thing that we're blessed with is see we get to see our original fans now and a

387
00:32:20,067 --> 00:32:27,464
lot of times they bring their kids, sometimes even their grandkids, but quite amazing to
see these people who've been following us for so long and

388
00:32:27,848 --> 00:32:33,889
And and they're still enjoying themselves and still putting smiles on their faces and
that's that's the fuel that keeps us going.

389
00:32:33,889 --> 00:32:35,290
That's what drives us.

390
00:32:35,652 --> 00:32:37,224
Like I say, we're blessed.

391
00:32:37,826 --> 00:32:44,001
Lo I've no doubt that that would that would be so motivational and as I said at the outset
I think the the the music is timeless, right?

392
00:32:44,001 --> 00:32:53,198
So it it's just great music and as again a note for our for our listeners and for our
viewers, check out some of the newer stuff if you haven't, because it's just as cool.

393
00:32:53,198 --> 00:32:56,100
It's just as cool and and y and you're gonna hear those sounds that you love.

394
00:32:56,100 --> 00:33:04,032
Now you mentioned Ivan that you didn't have any problems with your your complex setup, but
I have to ask you, we ask all our guests this question have you ever had a

395
00:33:04,032 --> 00:33:05,559
a massive train wreck on stage.

396
00:33:05,559 --> 00:33:09,172
Have you ever had anything go just really wrong while you've been performing live?

397
00:33:09,420 --> 00:33:17,044
Yeah, well the one that st stands out in my mind is we were opening up for Roxy Music in
Montreal, our hometown crowd.

398
00:33:17,044 --> 00:33:21,036
It was our biggest sort of crowd to you know, to date.

399
00:33:21,036 --> 00:33:22,397
It was back in the eighties.

400
00:33:22,397 --> 00:33:27,780
We had modern English opening up for us and we were opening up for Roxy Music.

401
00:33:27,780 --> 00:33:34,314
And our keyboard player had kind of built uh his own version of MIDI.

402
00:33:34,314 --> 00:33:39,176
It was before MIDI actually came out, and he had managed to sync up

403
00:33:39,362 --> 00:33:47,764
the drum machine and the bass line the bass line together and it decided not to work at
that show.

404
00:33:47,764 --> 00:33:53,786
So we we we we started playing safety dance and the whole thing just fell apart.

405
00:33:53,786 --> 00:34:01,709
And so we had to stand there for about ten minutes in front of our hometown crowd who were
very they were very accepting of us.

406
00:34:01,709 --> 00:34:06,740
They I'm sure if it was somewhere else it would have happened and we would have got booed
off the stage but

407
00:34:07,372 --> 00:34:12,326
It took us about ten, fifteen minutes actually to repair it and we still didn't get the
bass happening.

408
00:34:12,446 --> 00:34:22,814
And so the keyboard player had to play the bass bass line with w with his left hand and
play the the pattern with his with his right hand and they're two conflicting patterns.

409
00:34:22,814 --> 00:34:28,759
I don't know how he did it, but he was probably just scared so shitless that he it just
came through.

410
00:34:28,759 --> 00:34:34,734
And we we we remember that one 'cause they even mentioned it in the in the newspaper the
next morning.

411
00:34:34,734 --> 00:34:37,536
They sort of made the headlines, so

412
00:34:38,240 --> 00:34:42,110
Unfortunate, but it's the price you pay for technology.

413
00:34:42,464 --> 00:34:43,365
Exactly right.

414
00:34:43,365 --> 00:34:45,997
Yeah, I'm sure you haven't ever forgotten that one.

415
00:34:45,997 --> 00:34:46,828
No, thanks, Ivan.

416
00:34:46,828 --> 00:34:52,522
And our our last question that we always inflict on all our amazing guests is a Desert
Island disc question.

417
00:34:52,522 --> 00:34:57,676
So if you had to choose five albums that have had a big impact on your life, what would
they be?

418
00:34:57,848 --> 00:34:58,788
Well there are five albums.

419
00:34:58,788 --> 00:35:05,960
The five albums that I chose are the first album would be Fox Tra Foxtrot by Genesis.

420
00:35:06,841 --> 00:35:20,674
Like I say, I was always a big big Genesis fan and and that record really kinda changed my
changed my life, I tell you it was I first found out about Genesis in Cream magazine,

421
00:35:20,674 --> 00:35:27,166
which was an American sort of rock magazine, and uh I saw a picture of Peter Gabriel with
bat wings on his head.

422
00:35:28,014 --> 00:35:34,579
And that really piqued my curiosity and and it took me about a a year before I actually
heard the music.

423
00:35:34,879 --> 00:35:38,492
It was, you know, obviously free internet and free pre all that stuff.

424
00:35:38,492 --> 00:35:43,536
And and so a friend of mine actually brought the album back from the UK.

425
00:35:43,536 --> 00:35:47,269
He went there one summer on on holiday and and brought the album back.

426
00:35:47,269 --> 00:35:54,334
And so between seeing the picture of him with his bat wings and just try just imagining
what the music was like.

427
00:35:54,766 --> 00:36:03,154
Well, I when I listened to it it it it exceeded my expectations, so it was that's
definitely an album that I would I would take with me.

428
00:36:04,136 --> 00:36:09,041
The the second one is Tubular Bells by Mike Oatville.

429
00:36:09,041 --> 00:36:10,202
Yeah.

430
00:36:10,882 --> 00:36:14,206
And that also was an album that

431
00:36:16,022 --> 00:36:24,400
when we first heard heard it, we heard it at our the the sort of loc local disco that we
used to hang out where they would play a lot of progressive rock music.

432
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,112
People used to dance to the progressive stuff.

433
00:36:27,112 --> 00:36:37,552
It was it was like pre disco and it was sort of hippie dancing and swirling around and and
he wouldn't tell us what it w we kept going up to him and asking him what it was and he

434
00:36:37,552 --> 00:36:39,284
would he wouldn't tell us what it was.

435
00:36:39,284 --> 00:36:42,366
He ke wanted to keep his sort of secret.

436
00:36:42,732 --> 00:36:54,695
We eventually found out what it was and I I actually skipped school one morning and went
to went to buy Tubular Bells one on the release date at our favorite record shop downtown

437
00:36:54,695 --> 00:36:55,885
Montreal.

438
00:36:56,186 --> 00:36:59,106
And so that one was that was a big one for me.

439
00:36:59,106 --> 00:37:01,847
The third one's gotta be a Pink Floyd record.

440
00:37:01,947 --> 00:37:12,470
The one I I I probably meant my favorite Pink Floyd record is the the Obscured by Clouds,
the soundtrack to the movie Obscured by Clouds.

441
00:37:12,986 --> 00:37:19,128
And it just has some great songs on it, some some real drone-like pink floored music.

442
00:37:19,629 --> 00:37:28,052
Fourth fourth record would be a record by a band called Gong, which was founded by David
Allen, who's actually Australian.

443
00:37:28,353 --> 00:37:38,797
He was one of the original members of Soft Machine, and he got stuck in France and and and
basically couldn't get back into to the UK, didn't have a work permit.

444
00:37:38,797 --> 00:37:41,718
So he stayed in France and formed a band called Gong.

445
00:37:42,230 --> 00:37:48,034
And there's they have a record called You which which I listen to, I still listen to all
the time now.

446
00:37:48,054 --> 00:37:51,016
The fifth one would have to be Craft Work Autobahn.

447
00:37:51,176 --> 00:37:51,796
Yeah.

448
00:37:51,796 --> 00:37:56,799
Which is also a sort of classic record of mine.

449
00:37:57,300 --> 00:37:59,362
I I heard that for the first time in the middle of the night.

450
00:37:59,362 --> 00:38:07,987
I used to sort of listen to radio listen to the FM radio in the middle of the night when
everybody was asleep and I would be in my room listening to it under the covers.

451
00:38:07,987 --> 00:38:11,990
And it was back in the days where they the DJs

452
00:38:11,990 --> 00:38:20,192
on the radio we used to play whole sides of records first of all, and then they used to
play three or four in a row and before they told you what it was.

453
00:38:20,192 --> 00:38:30,385
And so I remember hearing it like over and over and not being able to stay awake long
enough to hear what the DJ the DJ to tell us what it was.

454
00:38:30,385 --> 00:38:33,676
And so it took me quite a while to f to find out that it was craft work.

455
00:38:33,676 --> 00:38:41,758
But that was that was definitely a very influential record in my music listening career.

456
00:38:42,478 --> 00:38:43,949
Great great, great picks, Ivan.

457
00:38:43,949 --> 00:38:48,714
And I mean you've picked some that are in the true pantheon of of you know, synth tracks.

458
00:38:48,714 --> 00:38:53,689
And I I'd be the first to argue that some of your creations deserve to be in that pantheon
as well.

459
00:38:53,689 --> 00:38:55,931
It's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you.

460
00:38:55,931 --> 00:38:59,104
We're super excited to see you live in Australia next year.

461
00:38:59,104 --> 00:39:02,236
I I know I'll we'll Yeah, we'll both be there.

462
00:39:02,637 --> 00:39:07,862
Yeah, we'll both be there with bells on and yeah, can't thank you enough for spending the
time with us as well.

463
00:39:08,184 --> 00:39:09,150
My pleasure, my pleasure.

464
00:39:09,150 --> 00:39:10,203
It's been great.

465
00:39:18,850 --> 00:39:25,960
As you said at the start, Paul, what a guy Ivan is and he certainly knows his way around
synthesizers as he demonstrated in that chat.

466
00:39:26,136 --> 00:39:27,116
Yeah, he certainly does.

467
00:39:27,116 --> 00:39:35,811
And you know, I I love the fact that he's really open about his influences and his
passions and he's he's as much a fan of music as we all are and and by we all I mean all

468
00:39:35,811 --> 00:39:38,513
of us here listening, watching the podcast.

469
00:39:38,513 --> 00:39:40,034
David and I are big fans as well.

470
00:39:40,034 --> 00:39:41,464
So it was it was really cool.

471
00:39:41,464 --> 00:39:48,638
Uh I I loved hearing his thoughts on his process too, for how he comes up with all his
synth hooks and things like that.

472
00:39:48,886 --> 00:39:49,826
Yeah, absolutely.

473
00:39:49,826 --> 00:39:57,504
Look, uh he already had me one over, but when he set listed Mike Oldfield as one of his
desert islandists, I was doubly won over.

474
00:39:57,504 --> 00:40:02,599
And yeah, look, as Paul said also in the introduction, uh there is so much more here than
the safety dance.

475
00:40:02,599 --> 00:40:07,293
And even the single they released around nine to twelve months ago called I Love the
Eighties.

476
00:40:07,293 --> 00:40:10,867
It is one of the most catchy pop songs.

477
00:40:10,867 --> 00:40:14,890
I I before we well and truly knew we were going to be talking to Ivan.

478
00:40:14,890 --> 00:40:18,192
I saw it about six to nine months ago and I went, Wow, what a great song.

479
00:40:18,192 --> 00:40:26,566
And it it obviously harks back, it talks about the eighties, but it's just so catchy and
his energy on stage is incredible if you get the chance to check out some of the live

480
00:40:26,566 --> 00:40:31,378
videos or if he comes to Australia and said I know Paul and I are going to be checking him
out.

481
00:40:31,558 --> 00:40:33,579
So yeah, looking forward to it.

482
00:40:33,579 --> 00:40:36,521
So a big thank you to all of you out there for listening.

483
00:40:36,521 --> 00:40:38,904
Really appreciate or watching as well.

484
00:40:38,904 --> 00:40:41,675
And a big shout out to our Gold and Silver supporters.

485
00:40:41,675 --> 00:40:50,710
Do wait around for the credits at the end of the show for all of our supporters, but
special mention to our Gold and Silver, Tammy Katch from Tammy's Musical Stu, Paul Headen,

486
00:40:50,710 --> 00:40:58,973
the Dreamscapist, Mike Wilcox from Midnight Mastering, Dave and the team from the
MusicPlayer.com Forums, Mr.

487
00:40:58,973 --> 00:41:03,486
Troy Kinnett, the wonderful keyboard player with John Mellencamp and many other projects.

488
00:41:03,486 --> 00:41:04,576
And I think that's it.

489
00:41:04,576 --> 00:41:06,500
I hopefully I haven't forgot no, I have.

490
00:41:06,500 --> 00:41:09,995
I forgot the lovely Mr Dewey Evans from the beautiful land of Wales.

491
00:41:10,017 --> 00:41:12,190
So thank you all to our Golden Tilbur.

492
00:41:12,190 --> 00:41:13,544
I said do hang around for the credits.

493
00:41:13,544 --> 00:41:15,627
There are some other great supporters as well.

494
00:41:15,627 --> 00:41:17,580
Thank you, sir, for joining me.

495
00:41:17,774 --> 00:41:20,029
Thanks for having me, as always, David, it was a pleasure.

496
00:41:20,182 --> 00:41:24,575
So yeah, thank you all again for listening and until we see you, keep on playing.