The Heat Is On

After several attempts to call Hot Hot Heat frontman Steve Bays, a breathless voice finally arrives on the other line. “Sorry, I was just blow-drying my hair and I didn’t hear the phone,” he offers by way of explanation.

Say what you will about Bays’ hairstyling preferences, but on their sophomore album Elevator, Hot Hot Heat are definitely less of a ‘hair’ band than before. Mercifully, Elevator boasts the same bounce and buzz as its predecessor, Make Up For The Breakdown, something that Bays attributes to a couple of years of assiduous touring.
“I know vocally things have improved,” he explains. “I definitely know I was still learning to sing before Make Up For The Breakdown, and by the time we recorded Elevator I felt like I could portray whatever emotion I needed to. There was a lot of tightening up. By the time we finished touring Make Up For The Breakdown, we felt like the set was so tight whereas now we’re still refining the new songs. The focus is on the more abstract stuff and the creative stuff, and putting on a more energetic show. On the record we focus on the subtleties.”
Much of Elevator’s lyrical content, he reckons, has arisen from the ‘anthropological’ observations made on the road.
“You meet so many people that a big part was just learning how to interpret people in a short amount of time,” he offers. “I know people’s story quicker than normal. You see a lot of patterns and make a few sociological observations, like seeing similarities in people from Japan to Australia.”
When hotpress caught up with Bays two years ago, it appeared that touring had definitely taken its toll on the young singer – word had it that his trademark Afro was even beginning to wilt. Sadly for him, touring fatigue has plagued rock’s hardest working band ever since.
“It’s definitely mentally and physically exhausting,” he concedes. “I don’t think the shows ever suffer and we all tend to pull it together for the shows. We’re normally exhausted due to the later night and early flight, but you play on borrowed energy. In between the shows it can be tough, but we grew to really enjoy it…well three or four of us did.”
Of course, this is a thinly-veiled reference to the departure of guitarist Dante DeCaro prior to the release of Elevator. Though Dante had known all along that he was planning to exit the outfit, his leaving nonetheless exacted a hefty toll on his bandmates.
“We knew he wanted to leave while we were still on our first tour,” admits Bays. “He said he’d stick around until we found someone new. He didn’t exactly hate being in a rock band and touring; he just knew it wasn’t for him. He came from a small town of about 1000 people and he had this really close-knit community of friends that live in the forest. He just wanted to live a simple life with an acoustic guitar and a dog. I’m totally happy for him doing what he wants to do, but yeah, it was hard, like losing a wife or something.”
Still, it must have been strange co-writing an album with someone who wasn’t prepared to witness the fruits of his labour…
“Yeah, we started writing the record with him, but 90% of what made the album was stuff that Paul (Hawley, the drummer) and I had done,” he counters. “We just continued writing songs and Dante added his part, halfway through the process, knowing that he was leaving.”
Recovering from an early bout of 'difficult second album syndrome' the band seem genuinely delighted with the fruits of their labour.
“We were writing songs in the beginning that were heavier and darker,” reflects Bays. “We started to write what we thought were Hot Hot Heat songs but we were completely different people so we couldn’t write the same way as we did for Make Up For The Breakdown. We started doing dark heavy stuff, and we didn’t want to make the mistake of getting all dark and introspective on the second album. Let’s just write what excites us, even if it’s totally different. At first it seemed different, but the songs that made the cut were the most in your face, fun and energetic.”
While Bays and Hawley honoured their trademark frisky sound, they decided to make some changes in their approach to production – exit Nirvana collaborator Jack Endino, and enter Dave Sarley, producer of albums by Jet and Marilyn Manson.
“I don’t think we were attached to production ideas beforehand, with Jack (Endino) we put the mikes up and did it in six days,” he recalls. “We didn’t think too much about it. But I have gotten more into production value. It’s like another way to be creative. On record we’re a pop band, but live we’re a spazzy rock band. Live we’re drenched in sweat and rolling on the stage, but I still want the recordings to have subtleties and nuances. We needed someone like Dave to help us with that.”
Herein lies the glorious beauty of the band – Hot Hot Heat may be blessed with a head for quirky, knowing punk, but at the heart of their sound lies an aggressively catchy pop streak.
“We grew up playing in punk bands, art rock bands, metal and hardcore bands our whole life,” he agrees. “But now I hear we’re on MTV like six times an hour. Still, when I play a big stage I do it as though I’m in a little hall. We’re a rock band, but we love a challenge so every so often we branch off in a different direction. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes.”
Though a Hot Hot Heat Dublin date is yet to be arranged for their impending European tour, rest assured that Bays is very much on the case.
“We still talk about the Whelan’s show to this day, it was just awesome,” he says, remembering the night in June 2003 where he partied with The Vines and Hope Of The States in the infamous Whelan’s ‘band room’.
“We’ve been asking the manager to arrange a festival date there. That would be really something; after all, Ireland is just like a Disneyworld for adults, really.”b

Elevator is out now on WEA