Quest for Fire Interview: SXSW 2010

A psychedelic rock band in the tradition of the 13th Floor Elevators, Quest for Fire is an amalgamation of four members with ties to influential garage and metal bands of the past. Their trippy, long-form songs and solo-based jams evoke memories of classic underground blues-rock from the '70s. The Toronto-based quartet will be appearing at this year's SXSW festival in Austin, Texas before hitting the road with label mates Nebula. Spinner spoke to Quest for Fire guitarist and frontman Chad Ross about being a psych rock band, being Canadian, and not being named after an Iron Maiden song.

How did your band form?

I think mainly it was Andrew [Moszynski] and I playing with the Deadly Snakes -- I was in the Snakes for five years. There's a lot of common ground. The Deadly Snakes were essentially a garage band. Mike [Maxymuik] and Josh [Bauman] were old friends; Mike's from a pretty popular Canadian metal band called Cursed. We all liked a lot of psychedelic stuff that comes out of the garage rock world, and we essentially just bonded on those things. We were sitting around at a party one night, and decided to get together and start jamming. It worked out pretty good.

How'd you come up with your band name?

It's based around the movie and the book (of the same name). A lot of interviews and reviewers get it wrong. They say we're named after "the worst Iron Maiden song." It's a misconception. Truthfully, none of us are really Iron Maiden fans. Definitely not named after that. But it's a good name, I just thought it just seemed very suited to what we're doing.

Describe your sound.

A lot of the songs and the imagery are fundamentally Canadian. If you go two hours north of Toronto you're pretty much in Canadian wilderness; I think we wanted to function in that tradition. Canada's pretty vast with lots of space, and that's kind of how I feel about Quest for Fire sometimes – these big long songs, it's kind of spacious.

What are your musical influences?

As far as lyrics go, it's a lot of Canadian imagery, a lot of wilderness imagery for sure. One of my favorite authors is Cormac McCarthy – his writing's very sparse, very desperate. Musically we listen to a lot when we jam or record – in between songs we'll have the iPod going. A little bit of Captain Beyond, a lot of folk music, a lot of reggae. We're all over the map. I love the 13th Floor Elevators, and the [Bob] Seger System.

Are comparisons to other bands or styles flattering or annoying?

A lot of reviews and articles just want to call us a stoner rock band or metal band -- I don't really like those terms. We're just kind of functioning in the tradition of being a psychedelic rock band. Then we'll get called a metal band by a reviewer, and then I listen to back to our recordings and I don't hear any metal. I would prefer that we were called a psych rock band.

Do you feel validated by Canada's gold medals in ice hockey?

Not at all. I don't want to come across as sounding anti-nationalist. I like the sport for sure, every kid did in Canada. But I don't really feel that way about it. I think Canada's a wonderful place. I did watch the game, I did cheer, but I didn't, like, ball up in tears.

What is your biggest vice?

Can it be food? Well, Toronto is a very multicultural city. They've got the West Indian food called a roti. Toronto's like the land of rotis. There's a big Caribbean population here; I feel like I have to stop at every roti place. As a band, I think our biggest vice is jamming. We're at our finest when we do really long jams. We haven't hit the stage of our band where we're annoyed with jamming. we look forward to bringing a six-pack of beer -- we'll sit, jam and chat. And eat a roti.

Beatles or Stones?

Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

What's the craziest thing you've ever experienced while on tour?

Oh God, there's been so many. We toured across Canada in November. We drove from Toronto to northern Ontario. If you ever drive to northern Ontario, it's pure wilderness. You can drive on the highway for 200 kilometers and just see wild beasts. And we're thinking the weather won't be too bad; there were highway closures on the Trans-Canada Highway, huge snowstorms. We had to wake up at 4AM to get to Winnipeg, drive 17 hours through the Canadian wilderness in a nasty snowstorm, just kind of white-knuckling it. You can drive for an hour or two and not see anyone on the road.

As you mentioned, you and Andrew came from legendary Canadian garage rock band the Deadly Snakes. How did the Snakes prepare you for Quest for Fire?

A lot of how Quest for Fire sounds came from us being in the rhythm section of the Deadly Snakes. We loved those classic, original psych bands when we were with the Snakes, and now that Andrew and I are kind of the songwriters, we take those influences in when we write.

What's in your festival survival kit?

A sleeping bag and a six-pack. Every time I've been [to Austin], the beer just flows and the tacos flow. I don't know, just beer and tacos. My dad lives in Dallas, so he's going to come down and take me to this rib place. So, ribs and tacos and light beer. And the sleeping bag. We're playing four or five shows during SXSW; it's all on the MySpace page.

What makes Quest for Fire work?

We're all really good friends. That's essential to being a good band and coming up with good songs. If you want to be involved in collective art, you have to get along. Having a wonderful time is usually pushed along with a few beers and a couple other things, but it's nice to leave our day jobs and the rest of our lives behind.

So what are your day jobs?

I've been a carpenter for about 10 years. I can't picture doing anything else. I work for myself; I get to work outdoors in different scenery. I can get up and do music any time I want, and not feel bad about taking time off. Josh also does construction. Mike works at SOCAN, and Andrew's a vintage clothing dealer.

When can we expect the next Quest for Fire album?

Our new record's coming out in July on Tee Pee Records. The final mixes are happening right now. We're all pretty stoked on the new record. It's very similar to the last one, but we're going a bit further.