Few bands have emerged from Ottawa with the success of Hollerado. So it’s understandable fans were disappointed when the group called it quits back in 2019. They went out with a bang, which included multi-night, multi-venue love-ins in Ottawa and Toronto, featuring other artists joining them on stage, including Tokyo Police Club. So when TPC also announced they were going their separate ways after a final run of shows, it only seemed fitting that Hollerado would return the favour and play one of their final gigs. Given it had been five years since they last played together, what better way to get back up to speed than playing a show or two, including back in their hometown?
And so Thursday night, Algonquin Commons will see Menno, Nixon, Jake, and Dean back together on a local stage for the first time since their show at Bronson Centre, ready to enthral fans (as they spent over a decade doing), dusting off hits like “Juliette” and “Born Yesterday” as part of their many top 20 hits strewn throughout their catalog.
We recently caught up with lead singer Menno Versteeg, who’ll also be pulling double-duty, opening the following night with his solo material for the aforementioned Tokyo Police Club for their final show in town. Part one of the chat focused on the Hollerado reunion and future plans.
Apt613: First, the reunion show for Hollerado, how did that come up?
Menno Versteeg: It came up because Tokyo Police Club, who, when we were doing our four-night finale in 2019, basically what they’re doing now, they opened for us. We asked them and they were like “Yeah, we’ll play that show, of course!” even though they wouldn’t normally be an opening band for us. We had such a nice time, having your friends play on your final show. So when they asked us if we would play, how can you say no?
Before, it just didn’t feel right to get back together just to get a paycheque and play some beer festival in the middle of nowhere or whatever, but this was our best buds doing a send off. Of course, we’re going to do that.
When you got back together, was it like riding a bike where everything fell back into place, or was it rusty because it’s been a while?
No, it was unbelievably like riding a bike. We’re all best friends, we really are. We’re like brothers in every way. We hadn’t played music together in five years, not once. Not since our last show have we picked up instruments together. And it was like two days. It was nuts. Even the songs and the lyrics—I thought it was going to take me a while, I’d even printed out all the lyrics sheets and everything so I would have them to learn, but didn’t need them.
Now that you’re doing these one-off shows with Hollerado, do you see any recurring things happening?
We’re having so much fun. It’s one step at a time, and it’s been really nice to reconnect musically. There’s no doubt about that. It’s been really really beautiful. So I could see something happening. Maybe we write some new music together. But that’s the thing about this musical journey. Coming back with Hollerado, we’ll know. We always said when we ended it, we’ll know if it feels right to do something again — just one little thing. And then we’ll know if it feels right to do another thing again, but just one thing at a time.
There’s no master plan of ‘Here’s our big comeback idea.’ That’s just going to end in failure. But I could see us getting together and writing some music and just seeing how that feels. But everyone’s so busy too. We’ve moved on with our lives in pretty interesting ways. Everyone has different jobs and pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Hollerado and Tokyo Police Club have always been linked. At some point, have you guys thought of just having that colossal get together, like a ‘Temple of the Dog’ style merging of two bands?
No, it’s never really come up. I think what’s so interesting about our friendships — we do different things and really respect each other and what we do. And it’s really fun collaborating with the members.
There’s no master plan of ‘Here’s our big comeback idea.’ That’s just going to end in failure. But I could see us getting together and writing some music and just seeing how that feels.
But that alchemy of joining, not the two bands, but just the different members in a different context, it’s made some really cool stuff. Jake with Girlfriend Material (with Graham Wright and Josh Hook), and Dave (Monks) and I in Anyway Gang, we’ve written some great stuff together. But I think slamming the two bands would be absolute chaos!
So no ‘Hollering at the Police Club’ then?
The name’s not bad. Maybe that will be for both of our reunion tours, in another five years.
Check in tomorrow for Part 2 of our chat with Menno Versteeg, focusing on his new chapter as a solo artist.
Hollerado will be playing ‘One Night Only’ at the Algonquin Commons Theatre, Thursday, Nov. 21. Limited tickets left, available here.
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