Search Results for: steve bays

Canadian rock outfit Hot Hot Heat will return in the fall with its next album, “Happiness LTD.” Due Sept. 11 via Sire, the project was co-produced by the band with Butch Walker, Tim Palmer and Rob Cavallo. Tracks include “Outta Heart,” which frontman Steve Bays calls “the most non-Hot Hot Heat song we’ve ever done,” and “Harmonicas & Tambourines,” which features four drum kits playing at once. “It covers the journey from bliss to misery and the attempt to get back to bliss, while acknowledging how exciting the ride can be in between,” Bays adds of the album. “Happiness LTD.”… Read more »

Los Angeles – Don’t tell Hot Hot Heat keyboardist/vocalist Steve Bays that press coverage doesn’t matter: The reviews for “Make Up the Breakdown,” the band’s 2003 effort for Seattle-based Sub Pop Records, had a direct influence on the act’s major-label debut. “People said we sounded like Dexys Midnight Runners, so I went out and bought a Dexys Midnight Runners album,” Bays says. What he heard resulted in the current single “Goodnight Goodnight.” The song, which Bays describes as a cross between OutKast’s Andre 3000 and early Beatles, takes a keyboard-laced dancehall groove into a chorus that downshifts the song. The… Read more »

OK, so you know how we’re always telling you not to believe everything the U.K. press tells you? If you haven’t heeded our advice before, it might be time to start now. It seems some of the hacks across the pond had been sounding the death knell for our country’s favourite new wave party punkers, Hot Hot Heat. Not surprising since the Victoria quartet have been showered by U.K. praise since the release of 2002’s Make Up The Breakdown, but it seems the inevitable second phase to the build-em-up-chop-’em-down model started even before the Hot Hots released their much anticipated… Read more »

For the past year, Hot Hot Heat frontman Steve Bays’ life has been an endless stream of numbers: one departed guitarist, two epiphanies, 30 scrapped songs, 42 hectic studio days, 168 hours of tape, 365 nights between shows and 4,000 used T-shirts. And out of all that came one herky-jerky new record called Elevator, which, according to Bays, is about as appropriate a handle as any. “There were so many ups and downs that went into making this record. It was a manic period, and it was extremely stressful,” he said. “It was a year of tripping hard, a year… Read more »

“‘Paul Doesn’t Like Friendster Because It Involves Putting In An Effort’ there, there you go, that’s your headline!” says Paul Hawey, drummer of one of Canada’s most loveable and danceable bands, Hot Hot Heat. Hawey offers me the teaser line to this story because he and his mates, consisting of singer Steve Bays, guitarist Dante DeCaro and bassist Dustin Hawthorne, have been way too busy to concern themselves with that uber-popular online community for friend-making. There is a reason for that, actually there are many reasons keeping the Victoria, B.C. natives occupied and one of them has to do with… Read more »

Canadian rockers Hot Hot Heat will head home to Victoria, British Columbia, after a fall tour to work on the follow-up to 2002’s Make Up the Breakdown. “This is the end of this period of touring,” frontman Steve Bays says. “We want some new songs.” Shows on the band’s current tour, which kicked off last night in Las Vegas, will likely include at least one new one, “You’re Making Such a Mess.” “People get into it the first time they hear it,” Bays says. “It’s really bizarre sounding, so it draws people in right away.” Another new track, currently untitled,… Read more »