Back in 1994, Montreal’s Terminal Bar almost gave way under a packed ska crowd. King Apparatus were headlining, Let’s Go Bowling were special guests, and everyone was dancing hard enough to cave the floor in. Matt Collyer remembers spotting a guy from his engineering class “flopping around” in the pit that night. They weren’t friends before, but became pals on the spot. “He came over to my crappy apartment a few days later, that afternoon we decided to make a band. We wrote ‘Coolest Guy in the Whole World’…or at least the chorus…we got cut short cause his mom came by and he had to leave.” That spark is what started the Planet Smashers, and three decades later it’s still there.
Their tenth album “On the Dancefloor,” out August 22, 2025 via Stomp Records, pulls directly from that lineage. The record digs into 2Tone grooves on cuts like “Police Brutality,” “Bags of Cash,” “Belly Up,” “Walk on back,” and “Easy Like I Do,” but it also carves out new ground. “Newish lane!” as Collyer put it. He said the lead single “Meet me on the Dancefloor” came after watching Mustard Plug at Gainesville Fest in 2024. “I wanted a thick catchy line that sounded like Mustard Plug. Yup. Our good buds. I remember saying to myself, ‘what would Mustard Plug do.’ The idea smacked me in the face… It’s about meeting up with your ‘friend’ in the pit and having a riot – forget about all the BS, about whatever’s bringing you down, etc. I used quotes cause sometimes you don’t even know their name, could be anyone but you keep seeing them in the pit at different shows. Somewhere along the way you became pit pals.”
“On the Dancefloor” is heavy with history in other ways too. Neville Staple of the Specials and Charley “Aitch” Bembridge of the Selecter appear together on “Police Brutality,” with Staple taking main vocals and Bembridge on timbales and backing vocals.
Both return on “Easy Like I Do,” joined by Sugary Staple. Collyer doesn’t downplay what that means to him: “I listened to the Selecter and the Specials my entire teenage years, back then I never thought I’d have the chance to record music with ‘em. So yeah, having Aitch and Neville on the album means a lot to me, same for my bandmates. Their contributions made both ‘Police Brutality’ and ‘Easy Like I Do’ better.”
Sara Johnston of Bran Van 3000 adds vocals to “Failing,” a collaboration that came through their engineer. Collyer laughed about how easily it happened: “Sara was a lucky bonus… it took her one pass of the song to nail it. Pro. :)”
For all its brass and bounce, the record leans on more than just party vibes. Collyer is clear that the band sees ska as a wide canvas: “Original one-drop ska from Jamaica barely ever sang about partying, same for the 2Tone movement. Both had light hearted topics from time to time, some bands more than others, but in general spoke more about social issues. Injustice. Inequality.
The popular 3rd wave ska songs were almost all about being silly and partying. We wanted a balance, somewhere between talking about the impactful social issues affecting our daily lives and also taking a moment to remember to celebrate the little things.”
If ska-punk has often been written off as novelty, Collyer shrugs it off: “Gotta ignore the haters! I mean, is the problem ska-punk being too simplistic? Or is it critics who take themselves too seriously? Rock n’ roll would’ve died if it was left up to those sad sacks.”
Montreal has changed since those early basement shows, but he stays connected to its new faces. “It’s awesome, there’s so many good bands and artists in Montreal (Canada too). In the punk-hyphenated world, I’m digging a bunch of Montreal bands like Taxi Girls, General Chaos, Fake Friends, Birds of Prrrey, No Waves, Conflit Majeur, Béton Armé and tons more. I’m also a big fan of Home Front from Edmonton, Chain Whip from Vancouver, Thunder Queens from London…there’s killer new bands all across the country, it’s great to see.”
Three decades in, what keeps the Smashers going? “I sincerely love playing music. It’s my happy place. I’m lucky that I get to do what I do.” And if there’s one thing he’d like the next generation to take from their records: “Messy fun!!! Let things fall in place naturally. :)”
Read about the history of ska through the lens of those who built it, from basement pits to American reinventions and beyond.
