Along with rehearsing for the upcoming performances, Bays has also been readying the release of a new Hot Hot Heat album, the band\u2019s first since 2010\u2019s Future Breed.<\/i> In fact, he just got the masters a couple of days before we talk to him, and he\u2019s been burning the 4-am oils for quite some time working on a number of different projects, including the release of an album by another one of his projects, Fur Trade. For him, a 1:15 pm interview is as good a wake-up call as any.<\/p>\n
\u201cLately I\u2019ve been so busy that the first thing I do when I wake up is music stuff. I usually wake up to a phone call from somebody in one of the bands, so I\u2019m used to it. Mostly I\u2019m just super stoked to take a sigh of relief that this new Hot Hot Heat is done,\u201d he says of the album that he\u2019s been creating, off and on, for the better part of three years. \u201cI finally got the master and I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d want to hear it after all of that, but I put it on and actually flipped out. I listened to it three times in a row, driving around the city in my car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bays says his music career shifted substantially when he built his own studio in 2010. Not only was it a way to take control of the recording process and work with a number of different musicians, it also gave him the infamous \u201creal job\u201d that many people who play in bands never get. Really, it was the best of both worlds for Bays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just needed to feel like I could work a job and work for other people,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of freaky being a musician; even after having a bit of success there\u2019s still that looming feeling of complete uncertainty with every album. So I just wanted to know that I could learn a trade, partly because I wanted to be able to feel that I had that blue collar trade in me, but then also because if you\u2019re a painter you want to be able to learn to use your paintbrush as well as possible. Figuring out how to present myself with a more fulfilled vision was a huge motivator for building a studio.\u201d<\/p>\n
While work has been steady from outside artists and collaborators, Bays says the biggest benefit of owning his own studio has been regaining control over his own music.<\/p>\n
Bays explains that before he built Tugboat Pl. he would record with producers and engineers who didn\u2019t always share his vision. And the demos he had already recorded and gotten attached to before going into other peoples\u2019 studios wouldn\u2019t always translate the way he wanted them to as finished products.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of it, it was a really frustrating experience because I just didn\u2019t feel like I was quite getting the ideas across as well as I could have,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
When Bays got together with Workman and Dahle earlier this year to form Mounties, it was a completely different kind of energy than his work in Hot Hot Heat and his other projects. Three completely different musicians were coming together almost on a whim, but with the pressures of doing something outside the spectrum of what they were used to. It was a good challenge for Bays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find myself always craving a challenge. And I think that\u2019s why I did the studio as well; I need to always feel like I\u2019m moving forward and doing something different, as opposed to saying, \u2018Well, I know I do this one thing really well, I should just keep doing it.\u2019 That probably would be a smart thing to do,\u201d he chuckles, \u201cbut I just need to feel that things are always changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bays admits he\u2019d like to someday find a path back to Victoria, maybe even work on a way to make his studio succeed in the smaller market, having hopefully built up a substantial client base by then. But in the meantime he\u2019s just excited, if not a little nervous, to return to his home city and play in front of a festival audience in the city that started his life in music.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictoria\u2019s always been an awesome show for Hot Hot Heat. The last Rifflandia we played [in 2010] was so fun,” he says. “The only thing I was nervous about was getting enough rehearsing in, but then I sat down with the songs and it felt like we had just played yesterday. We toured for years so a lot of it is muscle memory, which is what you want. The last thing you want to think about is how to play your songs, you want to save your brain for personality stuff onstage, so you can give the crowd a unique experience.\u201d<\/p>\n