Matt Pike from High on Fire
By Socratos
High on Fire was spawned from the ashes of legendary influential stoner, doom band Sleep in 1998. Since then they have been rocking stages with cosmically titanic bands and recording with legendary producers of various fame. I spoke to guitarist, songwriter & vocalist Matt Pike.
Where are you?
Oh I’m just kickin’ back at home, doin’ interviews, I’m kinda hanging out with my girlfriend right now.
You guys have played Soundwave before right?
Yeah we did one time, last time I was there we were with Lamb of God and Devil Driver
Yes! I was there as well, Lamb of God were amazing
Oh yeeeah
I read somewhere that last time you played Soundwave you had a whole bunch of shitty equipment and it sounded like “it had been fished out of the harbour” and that next time you come back you want to come back with better equipment. Have you taken care of that?
I’m trying to right now! I’m actually working on it so…. Yeah last time it was totally horrible. Yeah it was like someone pulled it outta the harbour
What was the problem? It wasn’t your type of amp or what?
No, it was just Marshalls but they beat it up a little and they blew up, it as like “Dude when was the last time anybody serviced one of these amps !” Like for real! It must have been like 20 years ago, know what I mean?
This year you should steal Slayers amps!!
Totally! Yeah that would be funny…
I read somewhere that you were involved with designing a 9-string guitar with the guys from Mastodon.
Yeah, actually me and Bill (Kelliher) were talking about it. Bill wanted one at the same time as me. Jimmy Archie didn’t know what they wanted the design to be like, Bill was just like, he didn’t really care so I thought I’d give him a hand and just went ahead with it. I wanted it kinda like an old Santana Yamaha guitar he plays, I made it like half an inch thicker though, it’s real solid and nice, a man’s guitar definitely!
What are the guys from Mastodon like? I remember seeing them a few years back with Slayer and the bass player was rocking out so hard that his eyes were rolled back into his head like he was in a trance.
They actually met at one of our gigs! We met in the middle of an ice-storm in Atlanta. We were playing this freezing-ass basement. We were playing with Trey & Brent’s other band,yeah it was kinda a trip so we’ve been friends ever since!
We started out touring with them when we all first started, we were on tour for like 2 years straight almost! They’re like family to us, you get like that with people you tour with you know. They all did Mescaline. I love those guys to death!
I get the feeling they take a lot of Mescaline!
Oh no, we’ve all got a lot older, that was years ago, we were all in our twenties back then…
Any memories of the road from that particular era?
Oh God, so much! I can’t remember much, but we did a lot of crazy shit. We went camping once and got invaded by Racoons. Someone put Chicken on Brent’s face as he was passed out under a tree. They got into the porn, the van and like everything was fucked! So that was fun camping with them.
They’re all amazing musicians, every one of them, I’ve seen them jamming onstage with Tool.
I wanted to ask you a bit about your inspiration for your latest album, Snakes for the divine.
Well a lot of that has to do with the Kabala and you know the Torah. With Adam & Eve, Adam had a first wife, Lillith who was apparently, um well, I don’t know if you’re familiar with David Icke’s theories, like in the biggest secret? Aryans were once on this plant and Adam and Eve were the first ones to cross-breed the genes & DNA between the human species and the reptoids, which are shape-shifting, half breed aliens. At the same time it’s like a metaphor for the lower realms of conciousness really. The reptilian brain being the most basic, primitive & violent level of our conciousness. To transcend that is kind of the goal right!? You can take it figuratively or you can take it literally ya know? But I just found it really interesting stuff to read about, so we based an album on those themes.
You spent some time in military school?
Yeah I was in juvenile hall and military school. I wouldn’t say it was good for me, I was just a troubled kid. I was on drugs, stole a lot of cars and car stereos and all that shit. I kind of took the wrap for the people I was doing it with and got sent to military school.
And after all of that you got yourself together and started Sleep, right?
Yeah, yeah.
How does it feel to have gone on from all that, to start bands like Sleep and High on Fire that are clearly a huge inspiration to a great number of other bands? Is it an honour when someone cites you as an influence?
It definitely is man. It’s a sign that we did a good job I guess, it’s flattering. In some cases though people directly rip you off. It’s flattering when you can hear your influence mixed with their own stuff, and they paying attention and being original. My intention would never be to be exactly like someone that I consider to be a master or someone that I hold as an influence, you should never try and be exactly like them, you know?! You gotta evolve it, take it to the next level.
So you have recorded with (legendary recorder of Nirvana’s first album & the Seattle grunge bands) Jack Endino!?
Yep! (bandmate) Geoff’s known Jack for a long time and I went along with it coz I like Jack Endino’s work. He’s a super guy to work with, we had a lot of fun making that album. He’s a bit of a “hands on” type producer, very creative. He helps with the arrangement of songs but generally he lets you do what you want, but he’ll suggest things you know?
Did he have many stories to tell about back in the day?
Off the top of my head I cant really recall one specific thing, he told me a million things! He taught me about making music in the studio, the placement of mics and all that stuff.
What about Greg Fidelman (Slayer, Metallica) and Steve Albini (recorder of Nirvana’s In Utero)?
Dude I love working with Steve Albini! Steve’s very hands-off, he gets a really good live sound. His whole place is like engineered and ultra-scientific, he’s kind of a science guy. But he’s rad! I love the sound he gets from the drums on the album he did for us, Blessed black wings.
You guys toured with Opeth & Dethklock!? How was that tour, was it like Metalocalypse back stage?
Oh that was great man! I saw Gene Hoagland playing drums for Opeth when I was on tour with them, and we all did a few voice over’s on Dethklock, touring with them was a pleasure. I should lie, but we were all pretty mellow on that tour.
So do you personally go into moshpits?
When I was a kid I was way into them! Now that I’m older I try to take care of all of my injuries that I’ve sustained over the years. Most of them come from skateboarding and fighting. I used to be a bouncer. I have a lot of bad joints, especially my knees are stuffed up. So I kind of avoid the mosh-pits out there now (chuckles).
Any advice for someone trying to survive your moshpit?
Oh I don’t know! Be the most brutal, that’s good for survival you know?!
High on Fire was spawned from the ashes of legendary influential stoner, doom band Sleep in 1998. Since then they have been rocking stages with cosmically titanic bands and recording with legendary producers of various fame. I spoke to guitarist, songwriter & vocalist Matt Pike.
Where are you?
Oh I’m just kickin’ back at home, doin’ interviews, I’m kinda hanging out with my girlfriend right now.
You guys have played Soundwave before right?
Yeah we did one time, last time I was there we were with Lamb of God and Devil Driver
Yes! I was there as well, Lamb of God were amazing
Oh yeeeah
I read somewhere that last time you played Soundwave you had a whole bunch of shitty equipment and it sounded like “it had been fished out of the harbour” and that next time you come back you want to come back with better equipment. Have you taken care of that?
I’m trying to right now! I’m actually working on it so…. Yeah last time it was totally horrible. Yeah it was like someone pulled it outta the harbour
What was the problem? It wasn’t your type of amp or what?
No, it was just Marshalls but they beat it up a little and they blew up, it as like “Dude when was the last time anybody serviced one of these amps !” Like for real! It must have been like 20 years ago, know what I mean?
This year you should steal Slayers amps!!
Totally! Yeah that would be funny…
I read somewhere that you were involved with designing a 9-string guitar with the guys from Mastodon.
Yeah, actually me and Bill (Kelliher) were talking about it. Bill wanted one at the same time as me. Jimmy Archie didn’t know what they wanted the design to be like, Bill was just like, he didn’t really care so I thought I’d give him a hand and just went ahead with it. I wanted it kinda like an old Santana Yamaha guitar he plays, I made it like half an inch thicker though, it’s real solid and nice, a man’s guitar definitely!
What are the guys from Mastodon like? I remember seeing them a few years back with Slayer and the bass player was rocking out so hard that his eyes were rolled back into his head like he was in a trance.
They actually met at one of our gigs! We met in the middle of an ice-storm in Atlanta. We were playing this freezing-ass basement. We were playing with Trey & Brent’s other band,yeah it was kinda a trip so we’ve been friends ever since!
We started out touring with them when we all first started, we were on tour for like 2 years straight almost! They’re like family to us, you get like that with people you tour with you know. They all did Mescaline. I love those guys to death!
I get the feeling they take a lot of Mescaline!
Oh no, we’ve all got a lot older, that was years ago, we were all in our twenties back then…
Any memories of the road from that particular era?
Oh God, so much! I can’t remember much, but we did a lot of crazy shit. We went camping once and got invaded by Racoons. Someone put Chicken on Brent’s face as he was passed out under a tree. They got into the porn, the van and like everything was fucked! So that was fun camping with them.
They’re all amazing musicians, every one of them, I’ve seen them jamming onstage with Tool.
I wanted to ask you a bit about your inspiration for your latest album, Snakes for the divine.
Well a lot of that has to do with the Kabala and you know the Torah. With Adam & Eve, Adam had a first wife, Lillith who was apparently, um well, I don’t know if you’re familiar with David Icke’s theories, like in the biggest secret? Aryans were once on this plant and Adam and Eve were the first ones to cross-breed the genes & DNA between the human species and the reptoids, which are shape-shifting, half breed aliens. At the same time it’s like a metaphor for the lower realms of conciousness really. The reptilian brain being the most basic, primitive & violent level of our conciousness. To transcend that is kind of the goal right!? You can take it figuratively or you can take it literally ya know? But I just found it really interesting stuff to read about, so we based an album on those themes.
You spent some time in military school?
Yeah I was in juvenile hall and military school. I wouldn’t say it was good for me, I was just a troubled kid. I was on drugs, stole a lot of cars and car stereos and all that shit. I kind of took the wrap for the people I was doing it with and got sent to military school.
And after all of that you got yourself together and started Sleep, right?
Yeah, yeah.
How does it feel to have gone on from all that, to start bands like Sleep and High on Fire that are clearly a huge inspiration to a great number of other bands? Is it an honour when someone cites you as an influence?
It definitely is man. It’s a sign that we did a good job I guess, it’s flattering. In some cases though people directly rip you off. It’s flattering when you can hear your influence mixed with their own stuff, and they paying attention and being original. My intention would never be to be exactly like someone that I consider to be a master or someone that I hold as an influence, you should never try and be exactly like them, you know?! You gotta evolve it, take it to the next level.
So you have recorded with (legendary recorder of Nirvana’s first album & the Seattle grunge bands) Jack Endino!?
Yep! (bandmate) Geoff’s known Jack for a long time and I went along with it coz I like Jack Endino’s work. He’s a super guy to work with, we had a lot of fun making that album. He’s a bit of a “hands on” type producer, very creative. He helps with the arrangement of songs but generally he lets you do what you want, but he’ll suggest things you know?
Did he have many stories to tell about back in the day?
Off the top of my head I cant really recall one specific thing, he told me a million things! He taught me about making music in the studio, the placement of mics and all that stuff.
What about Greg Fidelman (Slayer, Metallica) and Steve Albini (recorder of Nirvana’s In Utero)?
Dude I love working with Steve Albini! Steve’s very hands-off, he gets a really good live sound. His whole place is like engineered and ultra-scientific, he’s kind of a science guy. But he’s rad! I love the sound he gets from the drums on the album he did for us, Blessed black wings.
You guys toured with Opeth & Dethklock!? How was that tour, was it like Metalocalypse back stage?
Oh that was great man! I saw Gene Hoagland playing drums for Opeth when I was on tour with them, and we all did a few voice over’s on Dethklock, touring with them was a pleasure. I should lie, but we were all pretty mellow on that tour.
So do you personally go into moshpits?
When I was a kid I was way into them! Now that I’m older I try to take care of all of my injuries that I’ve sustained over the years. Most of them come from skateboarding and fighting. I used to be a bouncer. I have a lot of bad joints, especially my knees are stuffed up. So I kind of avoid the mosh-pits out there now (chuckles).
Any advice for someone trying to survive your moshpit?
Oh I don’t know! Be the most brutal, that’s good for survival you know?!
