biography
How did the members of the original Hot Hot Heat even meet each other? Well, Steve and Dustin had played in multiple bands since 1995 and they met Paul through Victoria, BC’s local indy/punk music scene in 1998 and soon started rehearsing in different line-ups and with different band names. Then, the band line-up was completed with the acquisition of singer Matt Marnik. The band started out with a completely different sound than they do now. It was considered to be synth-punk or math-rock.
The logo was something the band wanted to be timeless and bold. In the first few months of the band, Paul had put two arrows made of electrical tape on his kick drum skin. Steve them combined it with a previous logo idea he had been toying with. In 1999, Paul bought a Juno 6 keyboard and asked Steve to try playing it since Steve had been playing the piano for most of his life and nobody else knew how. Paul then made up the name Hot Hot Heat, liking how it implied the nature of the music.
The lineup of HHH soon changed in 2000 when Matt Marnik was fired from the band. After a short hiatus, The remaining members of HHH, Steve, Paul, and Dustin, decided to continue. But they no longer had a singer. That’s when Steve decided to step up. Steve had sung on some solo recordings (such as The Phones) and realized it was something he needed to do in a band. The band then recruited Dante Decaro to play the guitar. The new band then recorded some demo songs (Ulyses, Inventing Words, and So Horrible) and sent them to some record companies. HHH’s style sparked interest in the legendary Sub Pop records of Seattle, WA—the same record label who signed famous artists such as Nirvana. The band then got to work an EP: Knock Knock Knock. The new sound was more melodic and pop-influenced than before and became more of a New Wave vibe. Shortly thereafter, Scenes One Through Thirteen was released on OHEV records and was a compilation of many of HHH’s earlier songs. But, Knock Knock Knock was soon followed by the band’s first full-length release, Make Up The Breakdown which was recorded over six days at Mushroom Studios in Vancouver, BC.
The first single off of MUTBD was Bandages—the single-most defining song in HHH’s history. It grabbed the attention of Warner’s Sire label and signed HHH to their major label contract. HHH shortly thereafter released a video accompanying the song which made it onto the charts and was even banned from UK’s BBC Radio 1 due to the war in the Middle East because of “prevalence of the word ‘bandages’ in the song” which hindered the song’s position at #25 in the UK charts but brought even further interest and intrigue to the band. The next single, though, wasn’t expected. Famous KROQ of California started to play the song and gathered a large LA fan base nudging the band to make Talk To Me, Dance With Me their next choice. Both songs reached No.1 on KROQ’s charts. The follow up and final single of the album was No, Not Now. In October of 2004, HHH got to work on their next album, but not without some major difficulties.
In 2004, Dante Decaro—who helped the band acquire their pop-punk sound, announced he was leaving the band because he didn’t favor the touring lifestyle. He stuck around for part of the recording of Elevator, but the album had other people, including Paul, recording the guitars. But this album not only had a major support of the band leave, but was their major label debut, so a lot of pressure was put on the band. While in LA, though, the band met Luke Paquin of San Fransisco’s local band The Stradlers. Luke played a bit with the band and the band decided he was the perfect fill for Dante. Although none of Luke’s actual playing was on Elevator, he is pictured in all of the album artwork.
(to be continued…)
