Blondes really do have more fun. Especially the second time.
Just ask Platinum Blonde frontman Mark Holmes. After two decades, he and his glam-pop brigade are finally back in action — and savouring every moment of their long-awaited encore.
"When you've got success once and you lose it, nothing can compare to regaining that success — nothing," the 46-year-old Toronto rocker says emphatically. "You drink every last drop of it, you breathe every last bit of it. I certainly did not do that the first time around. I was a teenager, after all. I felt entitled: 'Why wouldn't this always happen? I'm special.' But times change. The world changes. No one's infallible. So when you find a way of getting that back and it actually works, it's just incredible."
But it's also bittersweet. Even as the band — Holmes, original guitarist Sergio Galli, bassist Rob Laidlaw and drummer Dan Todd — celebrate their album Now & Never and single Beautiful, they continue to feel the loss of bassist Kenny MacLean, who died of heart failure in 2008, just hours after reuniting onstage with Holmes.
"It is difficult without Kenny," Holmes admits. "But I feel he's still with us in a way. He really wanted this, so I wanted to make it happen. I wanted to make it a reality. And Kenny would have been absolutely chuffed to know that good things can still happen to people who enjoy just making music. That's what he was all about."
With Now & Never in stores, Holmes — ironically, the non-blonde of the group — told me all about ruling the world, staying fresh and the perils of growing up. The highlights:
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If somebody told you 30 years ago you'd still be doing this, would you have been thrilled or horrified?
Horrified? No. I honestly assumed I would make music until my last breath. And after the band, I just made it in other places. I became a DJ and remix producer and found a lot of joy in that. It reinvigorated me. Basically, I've been playing to audiences since I was a kid. So there really wasn't much chance for me to get old. I always found that growing up was highly overrated anyway.
So why return to Platinum Blonde?
Kenny was the catalyst of all of this. He must have asked me hundreds of times over the years. He'd say, 'Let's get back together. Music doesn't have rock stars anymore.' And I'd say, 'I'm really busy with my DJ career.' I really couldn't see myself going back to that. Then one day, I noticed that all the bands I was remixing were starting to sound like Platinum Blonde. And I thought, maybe it's time to give them the real thing again. So the next time Kenny asked, I said OK. He was absolutely floored. He said, 'I'm doing a show Friday. Why don't you sing a couple of our classics and we'll say we're getting together again?' So we did. And I've never seen a guy so happy in all my life. He was just over the moon. And about three hours later, he was gone.
Was it tough to get back into that Platinum Blonde headspace?
I tell you man, the shoe fits exactly the way it did the day I took it off. And it feels like I just took it off yesterday. It was a crime how easy it was to blend back into it. Everything was the same.
The album honours the classic sound of songs like Doesn't Really Matter, Not in Love, Standing in the Dark and Crying Over You, but it also sounds fresh. How did you pull that off?
I think that has a lot to do with my DJ work. I'm constantly aware of things that are coming out and staying on top of new sounds and making sure I'm right there. And I believe Platinum Blonde had a sound that is quite contemporary at the moment — I hear it in Phoenix and Yeah Yeah Yeahs and so many bands. I hear it constantly. That has a bit to do with it. Basically, I think we're just in the right place at the right time.
Do you see this as a new beginning or a victory lap or what?
This is full-force forward. We are touring as many countries as possible. We are doing everything we need to do, like we're a band in their early 20s that's just come out and is pushing a record. We don't feel bigger or better than anyone else because of our status. But because now we have the Internet and YouTube and all those things, I'm predicting and hoping that we might be bigger in more places than we were before. And just be accepted for our music, not because of who we are or what we look like or anything.
Having said that, I see that all the other guys in the band have blonde dye jobs.
Actually, they're all blonde anyway. The drummer's had his hair like that for ages. And as long as I've known Robert, he's had blonde hair. Same with Sergio. They just look like that. There's no rule whatsoever.
What's the goal? World domination?
Yeah, just something simple like that. We don't want too much. World domination is good.
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