Future Breeds

If Future Breeds, the latest studio release from Hot Hot Heat, is proof of anything, it's that sometimes it takes a while to see things clearly. It's taken a decade of tours, albums, line-up changes and label switches - all rewarded with building commercial and critical success - for Hot Hot Heat to fine-tune its vision. But with Future Breeds, all that toil has coalesced into the band's most thrilling effort to date, one that coincidentally brings it full circle. On Future Breeds, Hot Hot Heat returns to its roots both metaphorically and literally with a hot-wired and proud party album throbbing with spontaneity and creativity. When the band began writing Future Breeds, front man Steve Bays, along with band mates Paul Hawley and Luke Paquin, sought to recapture the energy and sheer love for the art form that drove the late-nineties Vancouver punk scene from which the band emerged. The follow-up to 2007's Happiness Ltd., Future Breeds was the first HHH album cut in the band's own studio, Tugboat Place, which occupies a suite in one of Vancouver, British Columbia's oldest buildings, a marble-laden tower replete with a haunted floor. It was there over the past two years where Bays slipped into the role of producer/engineer/mad scientist, experimenting with amps and microphone placements, alternative sounds and vintage gear; he even roped in passersby and local buskers to add a little cello here, a beer-and-pot-fueled sax solo there. While some songs were treated like an experimental art project and pieced together over many months, some songs were cut in minutes, intentionally committing to the first or second take. If some artists can lose the plot in their own studios - with too much time in the control room - on Future Breeds, Bays, along with co-writers Paul Hawley (drums) and Luke Paquin (guitar) sought to get out of their own way, and make sure that they didn't kill the vibe with overdubs and over-thinking. It's what helps make the album so rambunctious, loud and, well, fun.