Rockezine.com interview with High on Fire on Jan 30, 2003

with Matt Pike on Jan 30, 2003

I talk to singer/guitarist on the phone while the band`s on the German leg of their European tour. It took a while before the interview got online, but here it finally is...
		The tour with Mastodon is going well. It’s been pretty good so far. Sometimes we’re blown away by the audience. We’re playing Belgium, France, Germany, Holland. We’re over here for 26 days and it’s great. Mastodon is our brother band. We did many tours together, in the States, Japan and now Europe. We’re like one band.
		After the demise of the Man’s Ruin label High On Fire was picked up by Relapse. Tee Pee records re-released their Man’s Ruin debut album ‘The Art OF Self Defense’. Relapse are cool, they do us right. Tee Pee wanted to put out ‘The Art OF Self Defense’ first, and he [Tony Presedo] is a friend of mine so it’s kind of a favor to let him re-release it. He’s pretty straight up.
		The new album ‘Surrounded By Thieves’ has been out for a while. [It’s being picked up] a little bit. For the most part it’s ok. Not as much as Nile or Dillinger Escape Plan who are also on our label, but I think we’re ok.
		Again, High On Fire worked with Billy Anderson as producer. I feel comfortable working with Billy Anderson. On the first record we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing but this time we really worked on getting a better sound. We’re more of a live band but I like being in the studio as well. We really try to make it sound live.
		High On fire has toured with many different bands. That has a positive influence on the band. Yeah, it does. Especially playing with bigger bands. They make me think about how to influence the crowd. But also playing with Mastodon every night; they’re a great band so we really have to do our best.
		Matt Pike’s influences are pretty diverse. All kinds of stuff man. From classical to jazz, like Beethoven and Coltrane to the obvious Sabbath, Slayer and Exodus of course. And a lot of hardcore like Black Flag and Circle Jerks.
		Before forming High On Fire, Matt Pike played guitar in Sleep. A stoner/doom band with a cult status. In the beginning it helped, yeah. It made us get gigs. But after a while the rest of the band got tired of it. I can understand that. And you know, it [High On Fire] is different so if you want to hear Sleep you can go home and listen to the record. But it’s ok if people come to see us and expect Sleep. I just want to let them hear what I’m doing now.
		High On Fire’s future plans are simple and clear. We’ll record another album. We have some stuff already and we’ll be touring. But we’ll take a break first and then we’ll start working on the record.
(Walter de Korver)