Luke Paquin

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Luke Paquin (May 1, 1978) is the newest member and guitarist of the band Hot Hot Heat, replacing former guitarist Dante DeCaro (now of the band Wolf Parade). Before joining Hot Hot Heat, Paquin played with San Francisco band The Stradlers. He met Hot Hot Heat by way of mutual friends in Los Angeles.

Before playing with Hot Hot Heat, Paquin formed the Stradlers in San Francisco after graduating from Academy of Art College in 2001. The band consisted of Paquin on guitar and vocals, Jesse Kirschner on drums and Dan Horne on bass. The band gigged at many San Francisco and Oakland clubs, including shows with Fox Gloves Family. They played little outside of the West Coast, and mainly gigged in California and Oregon.

Prior to his work in the Stradlers, Paquin played in the Dan Horne Trio, mostly while he was enrolled at the Academy. The group was together from 1995 to 2000, in one form or another, and opened for the Electrocutes (formerly Ragady Anne, later The Donnas).

The Dan Horne Trio essentially came out of Luke's first band, Smileyface, a band formed by Paquin and childhood friend Adam Metz, in June 1991. The two were vaguely acquainted from attending middle school together in Palo Alto, but became friends, and started playing music together, after meeting by volunteering together at a Palo Alto concert. Metz, 13, played bass, Paquin, then also 13, played guitar. Rhythym guitarist Dan Horne came into the fold in September 1991, when he met Paquin in the eighth grade. At this time, Metz contacted an older student at Palo Alto High School, Tommy Garadis, and offered to pay him to drum for the band, since they were having trouble finding a suitable drummer. Under the pre-Smileyface moniker Six Feet Under (9/91-3/92) the band gigged and made some boom-box recordings. In spring 1992, Metz and Paquin, now 14, joined forces with Palo Alto high sophomore Scott Young to form Spunk Toast, a short-lived covers outfit.

Metz and Horne re-grouped in September 1992 to record demos in Horne's basement, with Horne now on drums. In this season, Smileyface truly began. Paquin rejoined the group, and vocalist Luke Ricci, also a Palo Alto High student, joined. Although Ricci only sang with the band from late 1992 to late 1993, his vocals are included on the first Smileyface tape, a cassette-only release that included four songs. Lyrics were by Metz, Paquin and Ricci, and music was composed by the band as a whole, which was most unusual, for a group of 14 and 15-year-olds.