High On Fire

Hey kids!

So I had a chance to speak with one of my idols, Matt Pike of High On Fire. Ever since I saw them years ago on a foggy afternoon at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill I was smitten. Sure I liked Matt's other band Sleep but High On Fire had a certain depth and aggression I was looking for. In fact, it was High On Fire's sophomore album Surrounded By Thieves that got me interested to work for Relapse Records as a street team guy. I've been with them now for 3 years and am continuing my work here in Tucson.

Well High On Fire has an amazing new album out Death Is This Communion and it hulks and slays the listener like no other Metal band out there today. As the band gets older, the music gets faster...go figure. Matt Pike was one of the founders of the influential stoner rock outfit Sleep which had an album consisting of one song, Dopesmoker, that clocked in a little over an hour. Heavy, doom sluggish bong rawk. Amazing. Now Pike leads the way of a thundering battalion of wizened barbarians through ancient ruins to do battle with mythical creatures that threaten the ways of the weed priests and warriors to follow. A molten fuse of classic thrash, fuzzed out stoner metal, growling doom hack and drums that roll with the avalanche of war rather than keep traditional pace with the guitar and bass that makes your fingers bleed just listening to it.

The saviors of modern metal I have always said.

Matt called me recently one afternoon just as I was waking up. He said he was a bit out of it too from the touring and endless promotions. So...what you read is what you get.

Enjoy!





Metal Mark: Hey Matt! How are you doing?
Matt Pike: I'm doing alright man. How are you?

Good! Trying to wake up...havin' my coffee.
(Laughs) Right on.

Where are you calling from?
I'm in Philadelphia at the Relapse office.

Oh cool. Well I got a link to hear the new album and I cranked it up so high one of my computer speakers blew. How do you like them apples?
(Matt just giggles)

Yeah. Well, anyway...what were some of the influences for the new album?
Oh wow. Well, the title alone, Death Is This Communion comes from an H.P. Lovecraft story, from "Call Of Cthuhlu", which is way cliche but I don't really give a fuck.

I know. A lot of your stuff reminds me of old D&D material.
(Laughs) Yeah, there's always a duality to it. I mean, sure, there is a lot of D&D stuff in it but there's also a lot of personal stuff as well. You know, struggles and stuff that goes on in life but, you know... It's just, uh... Why can't I fucking think right now?

Well gee whiz man! You got a new album coming out, a huge tour ahead of you and on top of it you have to ring up dorky writers like myself first thing in the morning.
Oh man. But yeah...aside from the D&D aspect I'm just real old school with my subjects and lyrics.

So what was it like working with your producer [Jack Endio]?
Oh it was great. He actually contacted us to produce the album since he knew Jeff (Matz, new bassist) for a while and he really wanted to work with us. Like pretty badly. When we were going through the list of people we wanted to work with he came up as the one that wanted to do it the most and he was just amazing at mixing. So I think we found our guy. He was simply amazing and worked with us really well.

I heard and saw on YouTube that jack had placed mics all over the studio to get a huge range and spectrum of sound.
Oh yeah. He did all kinds of crazy shit like that. We spent a lot of time on guitar tone and he does drums really good even though we had limited time in the big room so we had to move to a smaller room at the studio. So we did a lot of scratch tracks in the big room and re-amped everything when we moved. Re-amping is like when you take a track and re routing that track through the amp so its like you're playing the song without actually being there. It's pretty interesting.
You did all the recording in Seattle. What's your take on that city?
Um, it's cool. But it gets way depressing after its been gray too long. But I had a good time, got everything done which was nice.

And how is Jeff Matz working out?
Oh he's great. A swell guy and an awesome musician. I'm really happy to be working with him. He's been giving a hundred and ten percent if not more and is just a really cool guy.

Yeah you guys are like the Spinal Tap of bass players. You and Metallica.
(Laughs) Well, Jeff is pretty stuck now man. Until we tour him to death. I mean that's what happened to Joe [Preston]. He was just all 'look man, I love playing in your band and blah blah blah but it's just getting too much. I mean, I can understand. If I wasn't half insane I wouldn't be touring this much either.

So you're always touring or in the studio with High On Fire and your other side bands like Kalas and Scum Angel.
I'm just nomadic man, it's in my blood.

Is there a central theme to the new album?
Well...yeah. There's songs about magic and black magic and ether and all sorts of stuff. The first track "Fury Whip" is just about being punished and having bad luck. There's just a lot going on. When you read along with the lyric sheet you might be able to pick up on some of what we're getting across.

You've said, lyrically, that The Bible is your biggest influence.
Oh just the way it's laid out. I mean, people are always saying 'oh are you some kind of Christian band'? Um, NO! I just find the book interesting is all. It's really numerical and organized and when I write my lyrics on paper they don't look like what they look like on the album, like organized and counted. Yeah I have some weird obsession with that and find it pretty interesting.

But still on the Conan The Barbarian tip.
(Laughs) Totally. Completely. I can't help it.

There's a song, "Headhunter", that is just one huge drum solo that sounds like ten drums at once. Dez [Kensel] is the best drummer out there right now.
No doubt. I think I left during his drum takes so I don't know if that was once take or not. Dez and I don't really fight or anything, even after all these years. He has everything to do with the songwriting process. Half of these songs wouldn't exist without him. I defiantly wouldn't have riffs with rhythm without drums so...he is crucial to the songwriting.

So tell me about the birth of a High On Fire riff.
I always have riffs and ideas and stuff and now I can go to Jeff who has been writing a lot of stuff on the album. Then we can take it to Dez and decide if it's going to be 3s or 4s or some weird time signature. Once we have the drums figured out we can work on trying different things, play it like this or like that. There's a lot of different ways you can play a riff. Or even change it so there is different timing.

And I find it funny that as time goes on you guys seem to be getting faster.
Yeah. That's true and I don't know why that is. It's like when you enjoy playing your music you just start playing it that way. It's not a big conscious decision or like it just happens that way I think it's just a natural progression.

So I heard you shot a video for your first single "Rumors of War".
Oh yeah, it's all done. Shot out in LA. It's just us live. That song is very political and I've been reading a lot of stuff about how the Illuminati are actually reptoids, this alien race that has been here since Atlantis and the leaders of society have been bred to have this reptoid blood in them. I just find that concept completely intriguing. There's a lot of that on this album too.

So where do you draw most of your influences from?
Mainly books. A few films but really anything I find intriguing I just go with it.

Tell me about the upcoming tour.
We hit Europe first then the United States. Then we'll be home for the holidays then hit Europe again, then the States, then Australia and probably Japan.

A lot of people probably don't know this but you made Rolling Stone's Top 100 Rock Guitarists list.
Oh my God. I was so stoked on that. I have no idea how it came about, they just put me in there. I was kinda shocked.

Well I always thought you guys were the savior of Metal since the genre has become so splintered as of late.
Oh I know. You're either on one side and call it "hardcore" or on the other side where it's all melodic. Then you try and take black metal and make it all marketable. I mean, when I make a record I try not to listen to music at all. To try and stay non-influenced. I just try and get involved with the writing and not get involved at all. I don't want anyone to influence me. But, you know, I grew up listening to AC/DC, Van Halen, Motorhead, Slayer, Black Sabbath and they all influenced me as a kid to play. Definitely Slayer was a big influence but I have millions and millions of influences. But they don't dictate what I am going to write. I never go "I wanna write a song like that". It's more like "oh, well, the riff goes like this and what can we do with it?"

Have you ever opened up for Slayer or Motorhead?
Oh yeah, we opened up for Motorhead. Slayer offered us a tour but my drummer wasn't in the best shape then. Dez had to have back surgery so we had to woefully decline but hopefully we'll get another shot at that. We're pretty good friends with Kerry King's roadie and I think that's how we got the shot before. That and the Mastodon guys probably pushed a little for us.

Ever been approached by the Ozzfest people to tour?
Oh yeah. We did the Sounds Of The Underground tour but that was a different beast altogether. But we declined Ozzfest because we wont shell out $75,000 to play in front of a bunch of kids that don't appreciate us. I'm not going to pay anyone to play that's just bullshit.

So I see you teamed up with [artist] Arik Roper to do the album cover which is just amazing. How did that image come about?
We just sent him a copy of our pre-production demo and some lyrics and he just went off. That's kind of how he works and he works really well with us. Like for some weird reason that seems to be our guy.

So any last words to the readers out there?
Huh? Oh yeah. See you out there. Prepare to be destroyed!


www.relapse.com

www.highonfire.net