HIGH ON FIRE // Gettin’ Weird with Riffmaster Pike

“You won’t catch me making an illuminati eye in my fucking photograph ever. That’s the reason dogs like me… and cats.”

Trejo-riffic // Photo: Matt Warrell

When you read about High on Fire’s new record Luminiferous, you’re probably going to read a lot of weird stuff from frontman Matt Pike. There’s two reasons for that; number one is that music journalists are scum-sucking lowest-common-denominator assholes who can’t pass intellectual comment for shit. Chasing scandal makes their jobs so much easier. Number two is that Matt Pike keeps saying crazy shit.

Case in point: “We’re going to see things in 2015 that are going to fucking blow our minds. That are going to change things forever. And as long as I have freedom to do what I do, I’m going to do it.” That’s not a quote that’s been taken out of context – though you have very little reason to trust me on that because I am a bottom feeder shyster – it’s just a weird thing Pike said when we were talking about the new record.

Say wha? // Photo: Matt Warrell

For the bulk of said record, Pike on some pretty weird stuff. It’s probably the gnarliest metal record you’re going to hear all year, but that’s liable to get glossed over in the discussion surrounding Luminiferous. Matt Pike is ready to admit he’s gone next-level bonkers with the album’s subject matter. But it’s also clear he believes everything he says on it.

“I’m trying to expose the world deteriorating. Because bankers own all the money, all the media, all the… everything. Everything that creates humanity. Everything you can think. Everything on TV, it’s all a fucking lie. And I’m kinda over it. We have to sit there every day being preoccupied with the Super Bowl and things that make their lives OK, and they’re preoccupied with loans and where they fit with religion and whether god loves them and all these belief systems and all this fucking bullshit…

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“Sobriety’s a hell of a bitch.”

[MATT]

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“What’s going on… you know what I mean? What’s going on with chemtrails? What’s going on with the control of our media? What’s going on with the control of our dollar? When that collapses, everything’s going to collapse. I don’t know what to do about it, because I’m not a lawyer or anything, so all me and my band can do is use our voice to try and make everyone hear our art and wake up to the anomalies that are going on… Probably about September. I’m figuring the dollar’s going to collapse and there’s going to be an alien invasion or there’s going to be a meteor or something’s going to happen.

“It sounds crazy. Maybe I am crazy. I’m either crazy or the smartest fuckin’ dude… No I was just being narcissistic, I’m not the smartest dude ever. I know that. But, you know, I’ve figured it out a little bit.”

Stone cold turkey crazy // Photo: Matt Warrell

A discussion about Pike’s weirdness and all the stuff going on during Luminiferous is probably going to lead to people mentioning the fact that this is the frontman’s first album since a rehab stint that he has been very open about. Pike has the self-awareness to know what’s up in this respect. But he also wants people to know what’s up.

 “Sobriety’s a hell of a bitch. I’m fucking crazy. I used to self-medicate but now they give me weird medications to take. But they make me dumber than I was when I was self-medicating. Which I try not to do them any more because they make me a total freak. So yeah, sometimes it’s a hard thing to swallow but I want to explain to everybody that the sobriety came and me being fucking like this are two different things. When I wasn’t sober everything only made sense because I self-medicated.”

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Luminiferous is out now via Shock Records.

CLICK HERE for our Luminiferous review!