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Hot Hot Heat
Steve Bays likes to frequent truck stops.When on the road, the 29-year-old Canadian lead singer and keyboardist enjoys checking out the misadventures of truckers when the tour bus makes a rest stop. Since debuting on Sub Pop in 2002 with their indie-smash Make Up the Break Down, HHH has been touring consistently with bands such as The Killers (who share their sound).
In 2005, HHH found mainstream success when Elevator was released on Warner Bros. The album spawned their two biggest hits, “Goodnight, Goodnight” and “Middle Of Nowhere,” but also garnered them some indie backlash. In a time when Bays describes “everything” as “indie,” HHH released their new effort, Happiness Ltd., an addictive and upbeat record that finds the band comfortable catering to fans who “get it.”
Where are you guys?
We’re just driving [through] farmland at the moment. I just woke up and it’s quite beautiful. All I can see is trees and cows. I just saw a vulture.
Cool. Perhaps you can buy a ranch like many rock stars do.
I would love to move into a small town and buy like a crumbling little farmhouse and live in that if I could afford it.
You can’t afford a colossal ranch?
No, no, no. Isn’t Detroit sorta cheap? 'Cause I remember when we played with The Von Bondies, Marcie was always telling me about how you can buy a mansion for like $100-grand or something.
Not that cheap, but you can get a mini-mansion for around 300.
You can’t even get an apartment in Vancouver for 500.
I read you wrote this record with a broken heart. How are things now?
Now, I’m definitely in a completely different headspace. It’s so weird; I don’t think I was ever as sensitive to how much your headspace affects everything. Not just writing lyrics, but writing music and when you record it. There’s some songs on the album when I heard myself sing I could tell I wasn’t as psyched as I would be live. We ended up bringing people in for takes when we recorded and having a party in the studio every night.
Sounds fun. What goes on inside the tour bus?
We watch a lot of documentaries. I’m obsessed with documentaries. Sometimes I like to take really ridiculous photos of people. We got these matching white Adidas tracksuits …
Like Run-DMC!
Yeah, they look exactly like Run-DMC outfits. We were at a party last night that happened to have a lot of guns, like AK-47s, so we did a photo shoot holding all these guns. It was really creepy wearing these white tracksuits.
That’s funny. A lot of bands make the road sound so drudging.
I think we’ve figured out how to make it pretty enjoyable most of the time. The only thing that’s annoying is trying to find a place to shower and stuff. But for the most part it’s pretty adventurous. We’re at this truck stop right now called Triple J. Triple J is like the ultimate truck stop where all the truckers park at night to sleep. There’s lots of lot lizards and they all hang out at the restaurant. Do you know about lot lizards?
I was at a truck stop in Cleveland once and a trucker was relieving himself in the bathroom. He was quite loud.
Aw, brutal. That’s crazy. Whenever we pull over to Triple J I’m always so psyched because it’s kinda like the Disneyland for truckers ... it’s everything you can imagine. | RDW
Hot Hot Heat • October 5 • St. Andrews Hall
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