Matt Pike plays guitar like a demon, drinks like a fish and swears like a trooper. He’s our kinda human.

Former guitarist for San Jose doom gods Sleep, now frontman for Oakland metal force High On Fire, Pike is a 20-year veteran who wears his scars like badges of honour and his jeans with more than a hint of arse-crack showing.

Snakes For The Divine is High On Fire’s all-new fifth album. Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman (Metallica, Slayer), it’s released next week through the band’s new label, E1 Music/Shock.

UB.com’s Danger Coolidge called up Matt Pike for a chat. No surprise he was at a bar…

Nice work on the new album. We’d give it a 9 out of 10, which is basically as high as we go these days.
Who would get a 10 out of 10? You’d have to re-create Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden or some shit?

Pretty much.
Well 9 out of 10 is good for me, man, I’m stoked, thank you.

It’s out next week – got any good or bad feedback yet?
Good feedback, everybody loves the songs and that shit. The only bad feedback, and I knew it would come, is ‘cos [Greg] Fidelman’s a big producer guy. So there’s been disputes about the production on it, and it’s been either really really good or really really bad, so I guess different people have particular ears. Ultimately it boils down to what our band is and not the way it was recorded. It does matter some the way it was recorded but I don’t think that should take away from the compositions, which I thought were really good. But that’s my opinion. Opinions are like arseholes, everybody fuckin’ has one. I can’t talk everybody into every fuckin’ thing. I just do what I do and hopefully they like it. It’s for your enjoyment, so if you don’t enjoy it, don’t listen to it, I don’t give a fuck.

There was a lot of debate about Fidelman’s work on the last Metallica record too.
If Metallica sucks at all then it’s not ‘cos of Fidelman, it’s ‘cos Metallica sucks. Sorry, you’ve seen the fuckin’ movie, what else do you need to know? You’re either a good band and you have good material, or… I thought Metallica’s new album was better than the last fuckin’ crap they did with Bob Cock. They actually tried to make something good but, y’know, if you’re heart’s not in it… They already lived the fuckin’ dream, they’ve already done everything they need to do, fuck, let some other motherfuckers have it because it’s gonna happen anyway. I think Evander Hollyfield and Larry Holmes are some of the oldest boxers to ever make it that far but there comes a time when you have to hang up your gloves, bro. You ain’t gonna knock someone out. That’s not Metallica’s fault, it’s not Fidelman’s fault, it’s about how good the music is, how inspired someone is. Not everyone is like BB King or Lemmy and can just keep doing it for the rest of their life, because that means you’re going to be the underdog for the rest of your life too.

So how is Fidelman to work with, I know Slayer said good things about him?
Greg rules. He’s got a really good ear. At first he would make suggestions and I was like, “Hell no, dude.” But then I’d listen to him and try it his way and find that he usually had a point, whether we took the point or not. Usually whenever he made a point, or said, “Why don’t you guys try this?” we’d try it and we’d be like, “Dude, he’s fucking right.”

Albini would never be that organisational, obviously.
Albini is really hands-offish. Albini would read a book, or he’d read the stock market or something, something boring, and if you make him look up from the book, you know you fucked up. That’s how Albini operates. Fuckin’ weird dude. He’s fuckin’ awesome. [Jack] Endino is a little bit the same way. They are similar in their practices. With Greg, he pushes, and he helped us organise all the material. We must have had about four hours of material written that we had to compact into a 40 or 50-minute record so we had to cut the fat on all the shit, re-arrange it. We had a couple more songs that aren’t going on this record because we had too much material. We might use those down the road for some single releases or a picture disc or whatever. We did not have the budget he is used to working with – he is used to million-dollar budgets. But then he flew up and heard us practice and he was like, “I’m gonna make this happen. I’ve gotta record you guys.” So we did.

Are you really a bartender when you’re not touring?
Yep, I work at a shitty sleazy blues dive bar that’s kind of the best one in Oakland.

Ever had to break up a bar fight?
So many times. I was a door guy before this and I’d beat people up and throw ‘em out on the street. I don’t fuck around. I might not be the biggest guy but I know how to fight.

What is the best drug and alcohol combo to be on when you hit the stage?
I like to have a Vicodin or some kind of painkiller, for my hands, and I like to have a few whiskey and Cokes. Nothing major.

Old band Sleep is reforming for more shows?
Yeah, we’re doing some more touring. We did those shows in England last year and they went over fucking awesome. There were big bearded men covered in tattoos crying and shit, it was totally amazing.

Why did you agree to do it?
[All Tomorrow’s Parties] just kept offering us more and more money to get back together. Finally it was like, “We’ll give you $50,000 and all your expenses paid.” I was like, “Fuck! Earn fifteen grand in two days, sure I’ll do it.” We played with Jesus Lizard and Devo, which totally stoked me. After it was done I went to Amsterdam and got fucking loaded and had a blast.

How was it coming back together again?
We had six practices and we were spot on. It was like riding a bike. Sleep’s a little easier than High On Fire stuff. Not “Jerusalem”, actually, “Jerusalem” is pretty difficult. We had to run through it a couple of times. There’s a lot to remember and there’s a lot of waiting. I do a lot of waiting and listening to drums during that song.

When was the last time you stole something?
Yesterday I stole an electric skateboard from out of my girlfriend’s garage. I needed to move some couches because I’m moving house and I saw this electric skateboard and I asked her, “How long has this thing been here?” And she’s all, “I don’t know, like, years.” I’m all, “Fuck it, it’s mine.”

You working on getting HoF back for another Australian tour soon?
Fuck yeah, I want to come back and slap all your faces. I’m gonna make sure I got better equipment this time. God, it was like they’d fished some amps out of the harbour last time, what pieces of shit. I don’t think everybody got the real idea of High On Fire. I might have to bring all my own shit over there or something, man. I don’t like to perform like that. It’s like wearing someone else’s used sweatpants when you’re working out.

Thanks for the interview, Matt, see you next time you get down here.
Yeah, we’ll have another beer together. Love you to death man, see you Down Under.

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Snakes For The Divine is out February 26th through E1 Music/Shock

High On Fire MySpace: www.myspace.com/highonfire