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After more than 25 years of working for the weekend, you'd think the guys in Loverboy would be ready to take a break.
Not hardly, says frontman Mike Reno, fresh from a session in a Vancouver studio where the band is putting the finishing touches on its first new album in almost a decade.
"Yes, the long-awaited new Loverboy album," Reno says of the project. "Canada is going to be its proving ground. We're going to do it the same way we did it when we released our first album back in 1980. Release it in our own country first, then spring it on everyone else."
The decision to start smaller is reflective of the way the band has been doing business for the last 10 years or so.
After rocketing to early international success on the strength of singles like Turn Me Loose and The Kid Is Hot Tonight, Loverboy's popularity waned with the onslaught of grunge and rap in the 1990s.
A personal tragedy -- the drowning death of Winnipeg-born bassist Scott Smith in 2000 -- further compounded the problem, and last year, the band found itself sharing a stage with novelty acts like Tiffany and Vanilla Ice on NBC's one-hit-wonder showdown, Hit Me Baby One More Time.
But despite the dubious talent levels of some of their co-stars on the bill, the members of Loverboy had a blast, and were reminded just how many fans are still out there.
"It was a lot of fun and win or lose, I can't find anything negative about it," Reno says. "When I heard they were going to have a viewership of 28 million, I immediately said, 'I'm in,' and the rest of the band said the same."
The decision paid off in spades, it would seem.
Loverboy's phone has been "ringing off the hook" since their television appearance, and the positive feedback eventually convinced them to return to the studio.
Their upcoming album doesn't have a title yet -- although tracks like Ain't Over Yet and Back For More seem like obvious choices -- but Reno is sure of the strategy he wants to take in bringing the band back to the fore.
With record labels unwilling to take chances on anything besides guaranteed big money-makers, it's up to bands like his -- bands with solid followings, who've kept their chops intact by playing continually, even in smaller venues -- to find new and effective ways to market themselves, he says.
In Loverboy's case, that might mean allowing fans to pay a nominal fee for the privilege of "joining the band" -- via backstage access, Internet updates and downloadable singles, keeping in mind older fans might not be visiting record stores as often as they were in the band's heyday.
"We want to make it fun and easy for people to hear new stuff from a band they love," Reno says.
To that end, the band's members intend to stick with their 100-show-a-year schedule, where fans can expect to hear a mix of new tracks and their classics like blue collar anthem Working for the Weekend.
It's the accessible, feel-good spirit embodied in that and other Loverboy hits that keeps the crowds coming back for more, Reno figures.
"People come because they know they're guaranteed to have a good time," says Reno, who'll be joined by guitarist Paul Dean, drummer Matt Frenette and bassist (and former Winnipegger) Spider Sinnaeve at McPhillips Street Station Friday and Saturday.
"They don't want to be reminded that Bin Laden is still on the loose, or that people are still blowing each other away in the Middle East, or they can't afford their rent this month.
"We'll let U2 remind them about that."