|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steve Bays is a busy guy. After returning from Hot Hot Heat’s 2010 tour in support of the eclectic and brilliant Future Breeds, Bays has been tirelessly working as a producer, engineer and musician on a multitude of projects. His side project, Fur Trade, is about to release an album, and he’s been producing and mixing for two up-and-coming Vancouver bands—Sun Wizard and The Gay Nineties.
Despite being “jacked on coffee”, Bays was remarkably even-keeled throughout our 45-minute interview. On the phone he exudes dudely composure, and his measured talking voice barely hints at the bouncy, rapid-fire, spittle-spouting sneer he adopts for his songs. He’s clearly passionate about all things music, but he also shows an awareness of social issues, eagerly discussing Canadian social welfare programs and his charity work with Songs for Africa.
This was one of the easiest, most conversational interviews I’ve ever conducted–a testament to how well-grounded and relatable Bays is. Here’s what the skinny jean clad, curly-froed Vancouverite had to say about the Vancouver hockey riots, a near death experience in Rwanda and the good/bad Canadian bands debate. For the full-length interview (it’s a bit of a doozie), click here.
Everyone came into town planning on recreating the riot from ‘94. Like there were people who had banners that said “Riot 2011” and stuff before the game even started. It was really disgusting.
On the future of Hot Hot Heat…
I kinda put Hot Hot Heat on pause, just because I got so obsessed with production, engineering, mixing and mastering. We recorded about 20 demos for Hot Hot Heat and a lot of it was starting to come together, but we all just kinda hit a wall where we were really burnt out. Making Future Breeds was such a crazy, weird process that we weren’t super eager to get back in the studio but we kinda forced ourselves to as soon as we got home from tour.
We had this big master plan… We’d been on tour for ages and our girlfriends were all mad at us. But I kinda cracked the whip and forced us all to go straight back in the studio. And in some ways that was good, cause we came up with about 20 demos, but in other ways that was bad, because I think that just created like, the ultimate feeling of burnout after that [laughs]. Just getting home from touring and going straight back into 12-hour days at the studio. And then at the same time I was getting asked to work for a bunch of other bands, so I kinda said, “let’s put the record on pause for a bit while I explore some other stuff”.
Some of the demos I think are amazing, but I’m probably not gonna come back to it until the new year. And then I’ve got a side project called Fur Trade. That album is finished and I’m just finishing the mixing right now.
On the video for “No Applause Allowed” (in which Bays goes about his day-to-day life with several grievous wounds)…
I think it was inspired by the fact that I’d been pretty much working at the studio all the time, and sometimes I will completely let myself go for weeks or months without sleep or hygiene or food. Kevin, the director, —who’s a good friend of mine— he loves that whole lifestyle and he’s also basically gone into the same mode with the videos he’s making. He also did the video for “Yvr”.
The lyrics for that song are based on the relationships that you have within the band. I don’t think people realize, but often when you hear someone singing a song about someone else, it’s often about someone else in the band.
You play music to other people and you make records and all these other people hear it, but often the only people you’re really trying to impress are your bandmates.
On small-band resentment towards big bands who seemingly take for granted the opportunity to play huge, sold-out venues…
I think that people who get insulted by that also forget that the life of just being a normal person or whatever, and just sleeping in late in your bed, waking up, surfing the net, going to get a coffee, running into your friend on the street. All the simple parts of life that we all take for granted are actually…really, really fun. And awesome.
Do you have any songwriting advice?
I like coming up with formulas so that we’re not starting off with a blank, white piece of paper. I’d rather show up and say “here’s a cardboard cereal box. My goal is to add as many mustaches to the people on this cereal box as possible.” Come up with some sort of template. So often I’ll say, “For this song, we need to somehow make a really heavy song all with major chords.” Or, “we really want a 5/4 song.”
As far as lyrics, I usually write down on my phone cool words and things that people say. I’m always just writing down thoughts, either concepts or just phrases that people say. I’d say most of my lyrics are just phrases stolen from people around me and then kind of exploited for my own use.
And then sometimes in the last few years I’ve been collecting song titles, cause it’s really hard to come up with cool song titles. Whereas if you have a song title first, then you can almost write the lyrics around that, cause you’re not just starting with a blank white piece of paper.
On visiting Rwanda for Songs for Africa…
Oh yeah, it really is something else. It’s really crazy; I loved it. The only thing that freaked me out—and this didn’t make it into the documentary—was probably two days in, there was a road trip planned for everyone and we were leaving at like 6 or 7 in the morning. And I woke up and I just felt horrible and really ill. And I told them “ah, I’m feeling really ill” and they’re like “oh, I’m sure a three hour drive on a bumping, rocky road will be fine” [laughs].
And then later when I was about to get into the van, I started vomiting like crazy. And long story short, I just said, “go without me”. So I was like in Rwanda for the first time, on my own, just deathly ill. And somehow I managed to get a cab to a hospital. And it was like missing a door on it and stuff [laughs]. And long story short, I ended up being in the hospital for 3 days. And I didn’t know anyone and I didn’t speak their native language, but fortunately there’s a lot of French-speaking people in Rwanda, and I grew up speaking French in school. So that saved me, cause I was able to communicate with them that way.
The thing that really saved me was I had a bunch of Family Guy on my iPod. So it was like 3 days of just sitting in a dark room, wondering if I was gonna die, watching Family Guy. If I didn’t have that Family Guy I think I might’ve lost my mind. But yeah, they didn’t want to put that in the documentary.
Leave a Comment