Hot as a docker’s oxter

Steve Bays isn’t looking too healthy. Slumped in a chair in Whelan’s back room, his eyes are rimmed red with a morning-after glaze, and even his trademark afro is beginning to wilt. The toll of Hot Hot Heat’s hectic touring schedule, coupled with last night’s revelries on account of Bays’ birthday, is beginning to show as he eyes my Guinness queasily before taking a determined sip of bottled water.

The Canadian quartet have been making quite a name for themselves since their inception in ’99. Having charted the waters of fledgling metal, straight edge hardcore, emo, indie rock, jazz and prog rock bands, the group’s decisive formula garnered them a deal with Seattle’s famed Sub Pop records, who subsequently released their Knock Knock Knock EP in April 2002. (“We just wanted to be on the same label as Nirvana,” admits Bays).

Label portfolios aside, it was the band’s snowballing reputation as a live force that propelled 2003’s debut album Make Up The Breakdown into the sights of a fawning music press. In retrospect, it’s easy to see why.

A few hours post-interview and the band are mid-way through their Whelan’s set. The infectious ‘Bandages’ is blaring through the speakers, all frenetic, syncopated keyboards, ska guitars, and vocals that pack as many syllables into one phrase as is humanly possible, laced with a hefty dose of simple-yet-effective melody and a helluva lot of rhythm. Bays (vocals and keys) works the stage like a mini Mick Jagger and Freddie Mercury combined – flamboyant, animated and manic all at the same time. These boys are good.

However, Hot Hot Heat’s all-conquering incendiary live appeal does not wholly translate to their LP. Whilst accomplished, Make Up The Breakdown fails more often than not to capture the essence of a sound so obviously rooted in live performance, leaving the songs sounding somehow deflated, as if they’ve been forced into a box that’s much too small for them. Surprisingly (and refreshingly) this is a factor which Bays duly notes.

“The recording doesn’t do it justice, I agree,” he says. “We recorded it in six days. We had no idea that it was going to be anything more than just a little indie record. If we had known that it was going to blow up the way it did, we’d have spent six weeks or something, y’know?!

“I don’t regret it though. It was where we were at. When you have school and jobs and you’re trying to hold a band together and you’re pretty broke – we were all living together in a two bedroom apartment – you are rough around the edges. I think our next record is going to be a lot more thought-out, we’re gonna spend a lot more time on it. But at this stage I’m just glad that it’s a recording that shows potential.”

Hot Hot Heat have seen their name mentioned in the same breath as bands as diverse as The Cure, The Clash and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, but it’s their ability to embrace all facets of their vast musical tastes (Bays cites everything from the Beatles to Justin Timberlake to jazz and classical piano), whilst adding their own unique spin, that keeps them from sounding like a rehashed retro covers band.

“To me, the only place that you can really see our influences is in the aesthetic, in that we’re using instruments that have been used for years – like a Hammond organ in combination with a Telecaster guitar going through a Fender Twin amp,” Steve reflects. “That’s the industry standard and has been since the ‘60s, so whenever you use that combination you’re going to sound a bit retro. Then with chord progressions, if you write a chord progression that is truly unique and nobody’s ever used it before, which is basically impossible, then you’re writing prog rock and nobody can get into it. We did that for years, writing and putting out prog records. It’s really cool because it’s extremely unique and nobody’s ever done it before – but it’s also really alienating.

“It’s like a book – you can write a book that university professors will really appreciate or you can write a book that everyone can relate to. It’s important to pick and choose what things are unique about your music and what things are basic and simple and use them as your strengths. You don’t want to alienate people by making it overly complicated, unless you can make it work – unless you’re the Queens Of The Stone Age.”

This pragmatic approach works in the group’s favour. Their sound is, essentially, quite exposed and clean, too bright and bombastic to be masked behind walls of effects, but still managing to retain that all important human touch to keep it from sounding like contrived glossy pop.

“I didn’t listen to our record for a long time but I couldn’t sleep last night, it was like eight thirty in the morning, and so I actually listened to our record in my bunk and it surprised me how it was really clean,” says Bays. “Actually, the first time I heard the recording, when it was done, I was almost embarrassed because I felt really naked on it. In the past, everything was kind of disguised. There’s ways of accenting certain things – like, if you have a bad drummer you can add a lot of compression or keep it low in the mix or if he’s lazy with his foot you can keep the kick drum low. But most vocalists have a lot of effects on their voice, and when I first heard it, it was really straight up.”

That’s the charm though.

“Yeah,” he smiles. “That’s what I was thinking last night.”