And every music magazine and its mother seems to feature a glowing article fawning over the band’s fresh sound, headlined by some strained variation of the band’s name (prime examples include “Heat Wave,” “Hometown Heat” and the none-too-clever “Hot Hot Hot”).
But the amassing hype and bombardment of media coverage barely fazes DeCaro.
“It’s part of the job,” he says nonchalantly, shrugging off a year’s worth of New Musical Express cover stories and Spin raves. “I guess you can never see anything that’s in the near future.”
It’s unlikely that the band foresaw any of this fame when they formed in the island city of Victoria, British Columbia in 1999. Hot Hot Heat originated with current bassist Dustin Hawthorne and drummer Paul Hawley, later bringing on board DeCaro and lead singer Steve Bays.
The band’s initial songs were synth-based but leaned violently towards punk. As they began playing more shows and generating some major local buzz, they gradually smoothed out their sound. They released a handful of EPs, eventually amassing them into a full-length entitled Scenes One Through Thirteen.
The band’s big break came when Sub Pop Records, former home to such ground breaking acts as Soundgarden and Nirvana, signed the quartet. The band’s releases on the label, the Knock Knock Knock EP and their second LP, Make Up the Breakdown, have firmly established their reign as kings of Canadian punk.
Naturally, the band’s unique style drew attention from major labels.
“It was the next logical step for the band,” DeCaro says. “There were a bunch of labels interested. Even the people at Sub Pop felt that the record would be better in the hands of people who could get it greater exposure.”
The band members eventually agreed to a contract with Warner Brothers Records, which arranged to re-release Breakdown with increased support from radio and MTV. With the label behind them, the group left behind small Vancouver clubs to play alongside the likes of mainstream superstars No Doubt and indie heavyweights the Shins.
They also kept up the touring, banging out their crowd-pleasing anthems with a wide variety of bands, such as Radio 4, the Pattern and the Walkmen. Their main goal with their live performances, DeCaro says, is pure entertainment.
“When we play a live show, we want it to be as fun as possible for ourselves,” he says, “and the best way to make fun it for us is to make it good for the audience.”