High on Fire w/ Kylesa, Torche, and Medusa
Monday October 11
8 PM
$15
21+
Few metal bands have rocked more faces than High on Fire have in the past twelve years. With five full-length albums to their name and a touring schedule that would make anybody tired just by looking at it, High on Fire are undoubtedly one of the most hardworking metal bands around. Opening bills for Metallica and Megadeth doesn't hurt either.
I caught up with drummer and founding member, Des Kensel about opening for a cartoon band, drinking moonshine with Hank III, and a possible tour with The Go-Go's.
Live Buzz: I read that on your first tour you played a show in Florida for fifteen bucks and free beer. A decade later you're touring with Megadeth and opening for Metallica. Did you ever see that coming?
Des: Yeah, I do remember that. I actually booked that tour and we played at a place in Tallahassee, and the guy was like well I can only give you fifteen bucks, but you can have all the free Schlitz you want. So we were like alright, cool I guess. Not much you can do about it.
Live Buzz: I saw Dethklok in Chicago on the tour they did before the tour with you guys and there were a lot of young kids there who had never been to a metal show before. How do you feel about being embraced by the Cartoon Network crowd and being a gateway band for a lot of kids to get into metal?
Des: I think it's awesome. That tour went well for us. The lineup was very eclectic but we've done some support tours before where you can tell that the audience is not into what we're doing, but I think slowly they've been coming around. I think it's great that Cartoon Network is involved. They took a song of ours that I guess they've been playing during ads on TV and they put out an MP3 of it and it's great. When I was a little kid I was looking for any possible way to find new music that I liked. Anything that's going to allow newer or younger audiences to hear us. I'm all for it as long as it's tasteful because our name is slapped on it.
Live Buzz: I've heard the term hipster metal being thrown around referring to bands like The Sword and Baroness. It seems like if you put out records that have an appeal beyond the metal community you get flack for it. Have you guys ever encountered that?
Des: No, I mean I've started to hear that term the last year or so and I think it's pretty funny. I guess it's when someone does something that certain people latch onto and it becomes the new hip thing. I'm not saying that's what we are or anything. We used to be called stoner rock and if we're hipster metal now, whatever (laughs) no one really gives us flack for it. At least not to our faces. Whether it's hipster metal, stoner rock, or shitcore we're gonna just keep doing what we do.
Live Buzz: You've toured with a lot of quality bands that wouldn't be considered metal, like Mono and Russian Circles. Do you prefer to tour with metal bands, or do the other bands kind of break up the monotony of only touring with other metal bands?
Des: I like those tours. It's cool because if you go to a death metal show or something and you see the flyer for the show, and you can't even read all the names on the bill because of the death metal lettering. You go to see one of those bands because you've heard of one of them and you just see five bands that sound exactly the same. Whether it be Russian Circles or Mono or whoever, it keeps it interesting and they're heavy in their own way.
Live Buzz: I heard that Hank III almost played bass on Death Is This Communion. Is that true?
Des: Yeah, we wanted Joe Preston to fill in on bass for Blessed Black Wings because our bass player George just quit two weeks before we were going to record. Joe ended up touring with us for two years, which was a lot more than we thought or expected. Finally he was like I'm done, I'm going to do my own thing. So we were right back in the same position we were in for BBW, and we did a tour with Superjoint and just kind of made friends with [Hank] from that, so if we played in Nashville he would come out. If he was in San Francisco we'd go see Hank III doing that, and we'd keep in touch. We contacted him to play bass for DITC and of course him being the way he is he was like, (start southern accent) "Oh man, you know I'd love to do it, but I'm so busy right now with my own shit." He recommended Jeff [Matz].
Live Buzz: What's it like drinking with Hank III?
Des: (laughs) It's cool, man. Actually, one time after a show in Nashville he wanted us to stay at his place. He had all these old mason jars full of moonshine, like peach moonshine and raspberry moonshine. We were just hanging out at his house listening to tunes, and he was like, (southern accent) "Hey Des man, you gotta come downstairs with me" and he showed me his big jam room and his drumkit. He's a super cool guy, he loves music and whenever we hang out with him he's just one of the dudes. He's humble and always has kind things to say about our band. When someone starts fluffing our ego like that how can we not like him?
Live Buzz: Do you get a chance to listen to new music on tour? Any new bands people should check out?
Des: Touring as much as we do, the way I've been turned on to new bands recently is if somebody's playing something in the van or we happen to be at a bar after a show to get a drink and somebody is playing something cool. We just did some shows with Russian Circles in Canada and I like their new record. I still keep in touch with Relapse and I love that last Disfear record. Our merch girl played me the newest Torche, which is when I first heard Torche. Touring as much as we do, honestly, I don't go out there like I used to when I was young and hungry, looking for the next new thing. I got 115 decibels blaring in my ears for 120 minutes a night so my downtime is downtime (laughs).
Live Buzz: On the new album, I love the track "Bastard Samurai." It's an epic, brooding song that seems like a new style for you. Is there any story about how it came about?
Des: Yeah, when we went to record [Snakes for the Divine] we had two weeks of pre-production in a rehearsal studio that had a PA, which is the first time we had really done that. It actually helped because we were out of Oakland, out of our element, away from all our distractions, and we got to just concentrate on finishing the record. We had most of the songs written, but we knew we needed some extra material to make it as long as we'd like. Near the end of the pre-production Jeff just started fucking around on guitar but sort of drop tuning, and then Matt started messing around and two of the songs were written from the drop tuning. One was "Bastard Samurai," and one was "Ghost Neck." But with "Ghost Neck" we decided to step it back up to standard tuning. We went into the grab bag of riffs we had to finish putting ["Bastard Samurai"] together, adjusting the timing or the tuning and we had it done in two days. It's a little different than the standard High on Fire formula, which is one reason why when we wrote it we were super into it. I remember getting back to our hotel that night and we had a nice little buzz from drinking, and just listening to it over and over.
Live Buzz: I've read about you guys drinking on tour, but for as much as you are called stoner rock there isn't much about you guys smoking. Do you smoke?
Des: I don't. I have, but I don't. It's just not my thing. For me, it's counterproductive, but I'm not against marijuana. Whether it helps people medically or mentally or whatever, that's great. I probably drink a little more than the average person, but everyone's got a little crutch. Even Matt [Pike] doesn't really smoke weed anymore. I'm sure everyone's heard Sleep stories about how much weed they would smoke but like anything it eventually reaches it's limit and you have to start stepping away.
Live Buzz: So you've played with Metallica and Megadeth and opened for a cartoon metal band, is there anything else left to cross off the High on Fire bucket list?
Des: (laughs) You know whenever this question comes up I give more or less the same answer, kind of as a joke. The Go-Go's (laughs). If you ever watched their behind the scenes things, those chicks used to party.
-David Ray
