Now as ever, Prozzäk makes no effin’ sense. If you’re unfamiliar, here’s their story: Established in the late ’90s, Prozzäk was a cartoon dance-pop duo borne of—of all bands—the straight-laced Philosopher Kings. They featured indeterminately European characters named Simon and Milo, who, in their quest for clubland romance, compared love to an STI. At their most sarcastic, they embodied Pirate Radio-era dance pop while gleefully mocking it; at their most eaernest, however, they wrote damn catchy pop songs. They rode that concept—and a fanbase that ranged from children to snarky music aficions—to four albums, world tours, and a Disney pilot. It’s been a decade since Prozzäk released their last album, Cruel Cruel World, and the project still makes no sense.

Befuddling as Prozzäk are, though, there’s still something endearing (and enduring) about the project—there’s a reason, after all, why they’re reuniting for Toronto’s Atomic Lollipop. It is, partly, an exercise in nostalgia (we did, after all, stream “www.nevergetoveryou” via RealPlayer using an excruciating 14.4 dialup modem). But it’s also a reminder that Canadian music—often rightly criticized for being American culture’s held-back-for-three-grades stepbrother—can be, and maybe should be, bizarre, theatrical, and hilarious. It’s a reminder that Hot Show exists, and while it’s a product of the web 1.0 generation, it’s still a darn good pop album. Prozzäk may not make any sense, but they’ve left a legacy. And a DeviantArt page.

So, on the eve of their reunion, we reached out to James Bryan McCollum—who voiced the Milo to Jay Levine’s Simon—to make sense of it all.

AUX: Why did you decide to reunite now?

James Bryan McCollum: Well, I think with Prozzäk, everything that’s happened with the project has been a surprise. [Nothing’s] been premeditated, and that’s kind of how it all started. When this came about, Jay and I, it wasn’t on our radar to do a show or do anything Prozzäk related, until we kept getting all these interview requests, thanks to people like yourself. Then we started to think about Prozzäk. Like, what’s happening—some serious kind of nostalgia? So we started talking about it. Then, we were approached by Atomic Lollipop, and it was the perfect fit for Prozzäk.

Before all that media attention, had you considered the project dead? Or at least on the backburner?

Well Simon and Milo have gone in seclusion. Simon’s sequestered away in the south of France, writing poetry alone, and Milo’s been meditating on a mountain somewhere. So it’s been a while. But Simon and Milo are always going to be a part of me and Jay, and I guess for people of a certain age, they’re part of their psyche too.

Considering how long it’s been since you’ve played a show, do you ever worry how Prozzäk’s live performance would translate to 2015?

Oh my God, no, are you kidding? If I think about it too much, we’ll just decide to not do it and go back into hiding. I mean, initially it wasn’t meant to be a live project. It was meant to be characters, and a story, and videos. The first shows we ever did were raves; we just had videos and lasers and we were actually in the audience. It was super cool going from the Philosopher Kings to this kind of Wizard of Oz, behind-the-scenes thing, where you’re hanging out with the audience.

But at a certain point, when we were putting the second album together, enough fans were saying, “We want to see you live!” So eventually we gave it a go, and we ended up putting on the most ridiculous, over-the-top, KISS-inpsired arena show, and we toured across Canada. And it ticked off all my boxes on my bucket list of how, as a kid, I wanted to put on a show. With laser, and pyros, and we had these massive heads we constructed that we stood on as characters, and of course, we had videos behind us.

We’ll get back to the giant heads. But I want to go right back to Prozzäk’s origins. How did the project even begin?

Well, it goes back to our time in the Philosopher Kings — Jay was the bassist, I was the guitarist. It started with a fist fight in Montreal after a show. After a gig, his sense of humour dug too deep, and it boiled over, so we took it outside. I punched him once, and after threatening to get his lawyer to sue me, we decided to make up for it — we’d try to use music to settle our differences. It sounds really cheesy, but it actually worked … We got in a room and found out that we have a really good creative chemistry.

Both Jay and I really love a lot of different kinds of music, and great songs. So there’s a lot of stuff that we liked — and we weren’t the only writers in Philosopher Kings. His brother [Jon Levine] and the singer Gerald [Eaton] did a lot of the writing, and we’d muscle in a lot of stuff over time, but at that point, we just really wanted to write our own stuff. Jay was really funny when his humour wasn’t directed at you. So I started to really enjoy it. He’d end up putting on the voice of this character who’d end up being Simon, which was his version of a British accent, and it was this character who was looking for love and was heartbroken — and that was a part of him, for sure. Jay’s definitely had his share of searching for Ms. Right. [Which you can certainly hear in the groan that opens up “Strange Disease,” below.]

But it developed really quickly. We did one song, and the A&R guy at Sony, where we were recording, heard it by chance, because we were in the same building. He just stopped, and was like, “What was that? Can you give me a whole album of that?” And we were like, “Yeah, absolutely!”

You mentioned that Simon was a part of Jay’s character. So was Milo meant to be reflective of your personality at all?

Well, I don’t know — I always ask my my psychiatrist to explain [it]. I guess I ended up being Jay’s listening post, I’d try to cheer him up when he’d be telling me about his woes with dating. When it came to the actual character, well, no, the accent I came up with — which was the closest thing to an accent that I could do — was some kind of Schwarzenegger Austrian thing. But the character’s definitely somewhere deep inside of me, because Milo came out. We both love smoothies and yoga — and who knows what else.

In the ‘90s and early ’00s, Simon and Milo were essentially club kids playing pop songs. But do you ever think about what kind of music they’d be playing now? Would they be playing, like, EDM?

Well, at the time, I think we were just trying to write pop songs. But I’ve always liked house music, and I’m not sure if Jay did at the time. But we just wanted to experiment, and for the first song, we were really trying to do the pop-dance that was happening at the time — like “Barbie Girl,” by Aqua. For some people, we were in the same ballpark. But we were always just writing off the cuff, then we’d mess around with production.

Now, it’d definitely be some EDM — I mean, EDM and pop have kind of merged into the same realm, and it’s everywhere. So I think that Prozzäk was just ahead of its time.

So what was the reaction of Prozzäk from Canadian dance-music circles in the ‘90s?

You know what? I have no idea, because we were so far removed from that scene. We were definitely not considered the cool kids for sure, because we were just having fun. I don’t know if those were club people who got into it, but we did have some great opportunities — our first few shows were at the last raves of the time. It was really cool to have that experience.

So you never had an angry Chris Sheppard beating down your door threatening to curbstomp you?

No! [Laughs.] Are you kidding me? Chris Sheppard would’ve loved it, it’d be right up his alley. It was during Love Inc.’s time! He would’ve been jealous.

Given a couple years of distance, what do you think of Prozzäk? Do you ever still play those songs?

Absolutely, yeah! Typically, when you work on something and invest so much emotion and time, you don’t go back to it right away. So, you know, I haven’t listened to Philosopher Kings and Prozzäk in ages. But when I had kids — I have two boys — at some point, I wanted them to check out Prozzäk, because that’s probably the one thing I’ve worked on that they’d think is cool. So when they were pretty young, I showed them video for “Sucks to be You” or “Strange Disease,” and then I had a great appreciation for it.

And the Prozzäk TV show was meant to be targeted towards kids, right?

Yes, the TV show! We spent a year in talks with Disney for a pilot for a Saturday-morning series. We were initially so excited about it, but what we were hoping for was a Fox TV things, like a Simpsons, only music. But being Disney, they wanted to take any of the edge out, and that lost a bit of the edge for me and Jay for sure. And yeah, it was test marketed, and it made it through seven layers of test marketing, and everyone decided it wasn’t that great. But you never know — we may still come up with a Prozzäk musical.

Wait, you had a musical?

Yeah. It worked for Queen, it worked for Abba, so maybe people will get behind it. Would you want to see a Prozzäk musical?

I’d definitely watch a Prozzäk musical.

So we have one potential ticket buyer.

So what would that musical even look like?

Well, the first album, Hot Show, sets the tone for the whole thing. Simon’s travelling the world with his friend Milo looking for love. You can take that anywhere, to all the continents with various means of transport with various women. I’m sure we can work on the finer points of the story. [Laughs.]

So are there any particular songs you’re excited to revisit?

There’s lots. From Hot Show, the kind of serious one at the end was “Anna Lisa,” and that song didn’t have any irony to it. I came up with this melody, and Jay really loved it, and he ended up writing these lyrics that ended up being about a breakup, but also about how his parents divorce really affected him. But on the other hand, I love listening to “New York City” and “Strange Disease” … I have my faves.

So about the giant heads you used to play in — we stumbled across these old Junos videos of you playing in them.

Oh really? Is that on YouTube?

Yeah. So we were wondering: What actually happened to them? Are Simon and Milo’s giant, disembodied heads sitting in a warehouse somewhere?

They were in a warehouse, and they were under tight security for a number of years. But then we realized that we were paying ridiculous amounts of money to have them sit there and do nothing. I know at one point, we were trying to get rid of them, but then they just disappeared. And now it’s become this big mystery — no one’s owned up to taking them. They’re huge, though, they’re like six feet by eight feet and really heavy. It couldn’t have been one person that took them. It must’ve been a team effort.

So I’d put a callout. If anyone knows where they are, we’d love to get those heads back for this show. And if you actually see them anywhere, take a photo. I want to know where they are.

It makes you wonder if they’re sitting in a private collector’s house in the Bridlepath or something.

And I’ll appeal to them, we need to have them back for one night.

You also played shows with Destiny’s Child. What was it like playing with a young Beyonce?

That was actually at Canada’s Wonderland, and that was a video show. So Jay and I were in the audience, and then we got to meet Destiny’s Child after. This was before Beyonce was Bey, but they were all totally cool, very professional, and I think they had a crush on Simon.

So do you and Jay have any plans to work together in the future—beyond Prozzäk?

It’s funny, because we got together recently in L.A., and every time we get together to make music, we make something. So we may have something new to play at the show, but nothing’s done or released yet. But stay tuned.