Pitchfork

Breakdowns, makeups, megaproducers, and a few stray synthesizer bleats later, Victoria, British Columbia's Hot Hot Heat have made their way to Happiness LTD., their follow-up to 2005's Elevator. Laden with left-field instrumental turns and layered with production work by, among others, modern rock hitmakers Rob Cavallo and Butch Walker, Happiness LTD.-- out now on Warner Brothers/Sire-- marks the former Sub Poppers' second album for a major label.

According to HHH vocalist Steve Bays, the Happiness sessions were the first time the band struck a truly comfortable balance between ambition and execution. "The first record we did, it was literally documenting what was done at our jam-spot and it was recorded at Mushroom Studios in six days. The second record, we wanted to do a full-on, big, whole 'L.A. thing' and go into an L.A. studio. We wanted to do [Happiness] in our hometown for most of it and have our friends there and it was almost-- I don't want to say a big party because that kind of trivializes it-- but it was definitely a lot of people hanging out and exchanging ideas and it was like a giant experiment. And in the end, we just had a ton of songs and we picked the eleven songs that seemed to fit the theme that started to emerge by the end of it."

That theme can be summed up in the eight words that comprise Happiness LTD's opening line and served as fodder for its title: "Happiness is limited but misery has no end.'" But Bays confides that the statement's pessimism "isn't how I feel in general. But there was a point where I got into a really dark place after my first time having my heart broken. There was a period where I thought I wanted to not make music, not even have anything to do with rock music. I retreated away from everyone, so that's a lot of the theme of the record, trying to pull yourself out of a crazy place. When you get into that state of mind where it feels like, 'what's the point in chasing happiness because it's just a temporary thing?' At the end of the day, I really feel like happiness is temporary, but it's still something worth working towards, those little moments of fulfillment and excitement and craziness and adventure that's worth working towards."

For a major label band with a never-ending touring schedule (see below), those "little moments" come wherever the tour bus shifts into park and the hotel keys are doled out. Bays says that much of Happiness LTD. was inspired by his time in flux in the wake of Elevator. "I concluded that I don't like writing at home, because it's too cozy and your friends are there. There's kind of a lack of intensity."

And, as Bays found, there's nothing like the road--and the resulting drama--to kickstart a period of intense prolificity. "I think a lot of this record was deciding to live life again. I didn't want to write an album that was just about being on the road and about how hard it is to be a musician and cry-me-a-river kind of stuff. But coincidentally, there was a lot of weird stuff I was going through that was a good excuse for me to step back from the band for a little bit."

For Bays, that temporary split from his longtime friends and co-workers took on a life of its own. "I really started to second-guess everything. It started with my real heartbreak and then I just started hanging out with completely different people and pushing myself away from the other guys in the band for the first time in years. They're my childhood friends that I've been playing music with for thirteen years. So it was a weird period in my life, really just a dark, weird zone that I was in and then I realized the only thing that I could really rely on were Dustin [Hawthorne, bass] and Paul [Hawley, drums], who I've been playing music with for years. I just started to rely on the band more than ever. All of a sudden I went from not even knowing if I wanted to make music to actually only wanting to do that 24/7."

Bays took a zenlike approach to life in the run-up to Happiness, ridding himself of all unnecessary elements. "I was just in my room surrounded with instruments and it became this great period of writing. At one point, I sold everything I had and moved into this little one-room, bachelor, hole-in-the-wall kind of thing and within six months I had every instrument I could get my hands on in my bedroom. We made a ton of demos, and a lot of what was on those demos made it onto the final record. It actually ended up being a really unorthodox way of making a record but I think, for that period in time, it was perfect."

Sonically, the album's greatest influence seems to be the recent lineup shakeup they endured, flipping now-Wolf Parade/Johnny and the Moon member Dante DeCaro for guitarist Luke Paquin. As Bays recalls, "When Luke joined the band, right after we finished recording Elevator, right away it was almost like we were a different band once we started jamming with him, getting to know each other... I don't know, there was just this urge to start something new right away, like the second he joined." That new sound, full of "non-traditional arrangements" and a decreased reliance on "defined chorus and elaborate intros," Bays says, is the sound of Happiness LTD.

On the subject of something new, Bays is already ready-- well, sort of ready-- to talk about the follow-up to Happiness, which has been on shelves for mere days. "People are saying that Happiness LTD. sounds quite a bit different from the last two. I want the next one to sound totally different, not even close at all. I like that feeling of getting excited about an idea and then chasing it and following it through and then finishing it and putting it in the past. If I took anything out of the last year, it was that I think that's the best thing to do: Whatever the fuck you feel like doing. Just do it and don't worry about anything."

Hot Hot Heat:

09-20 Victoria, British Columbia - Sugar
09-22 Seattle, WA - Qwest Field (ENDFEST)
09-23 Bend, OR - Domino Room *
09-24 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom *
09-26 San Diego, CA - Soma *
09-27 Fresno, CA - The Exit *
09-28 Ventura, CA - Majestic Theatre *
09-29 Queen Creek, AZ - Schnepf Farms (Edgefest)
10-01 Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre *
10-03 Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line Music Cafe *
10-04 Chicago, IL - The Vic *
10-05 Detroit, MI - Saint Andrew's Hall *
10-07 Montreal, Quebec - Club Soda !
10-08 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus !
10-10 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground *
10-11 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club *
10-13 New York, NY - Webster Hall *
10-14 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts *
10-15 Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live! *
10-17 Atlanta, GA - Center Stage Theatre *
10-18 Orlando, FL - The Social *
10-19 Fort Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room *
10-20 St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre *
10-22 Houston, TX - Meridian Red Room *
10-23 Austin, TX - Emo's *
10-24 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater *
10-27 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre *
10-28 Los Angeles, CA - The Music Box at the Fonda *
10-29 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues *
10-30 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *

* with De Novo Dahl, Bedouin Soundclash
! with De Novo Dahl, Sebastien Grainger Et Les Montages