Before shredding the stage at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, MA last Thursday, I sat down with High On Fire’s drummer Des Kensel. With the combination of his massive sounding drums and intense skills, he only adds to the pure power that the group exhibits live. Click after the jump to learn more about the group’s recording process, touring plans, and just how they got those drums to sound so massive.

You guys just had a new album come out and you’re on tour right now with Mono, Panthers, and Coliseum. How’s the tour going so far?

Des Kensel: Tour is going good. We’re about half way through. We’ve had some highs and some lows.

You guys just played some shows in New York, right?

Des: Yeah, we played Manhattan and Brooklyn. New York was great, L.A. was great, Austin was great. I’m sure tonight in

Boston is gonna be great. Our last headlining tour after the release of Blessed Black Wings was at the downstairs at the

Middle East was one of the best shows of the tour. Hopefully tonight will be like last time. People around here like to buy our t-shirts, so hopefully they’ll do the same tonight.

It seems that metal fans are more dedicated and do you think that impacts record sales? Are you guys going to pull a Radiohead?

Des: Yeah, as far as record sales now a days, it’s really kind of hit or miss. I know labels are having problems with downloading. We have a good fan base and we’ve been progressing every record with record sales, but as far as people coming out and really into it, I think our fans definitely like to drink. At the end of the night, you have a little buzz, you see a couple of new t-shirts and our new record at the merch table and that’s cool, they buy a few shirts and a record. They go home and rock out to the record and walk around with our t-shirt on.

Spread the word of High on Fire?

Des: Tell all their friends how good of a time they had at our show.

Since Matt [Pike, frontman/guitarist] came from the band Sleep, did that help at first with establishing the fanbase?

Des: That was a good stepping stone and definitely let us skip some steps for a beginning band. It was still pretty rough. Sleep was well known, but when we started going on tour and it was like “ex-members of Sleep.” A lot of people didn’t give a shit.

No one in Arkansas really cares about Sleep?

Des: Yeah. We played Tallahassee, Florida on our first tour and we got paid fifteen bucks and got free Schlitz’s all night. It helped open up some ears and eyes, but I feel its been an awful while and we’ve established ourselves as our own band and made our own name. Matt has moved on from that and we’re our breed. The other guys have OM [Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius] .

Yeah they’re gotten pretty big too.

Des: Yeah, I’ve gotten to know them and they’re great guys. Everyone’s still friends. The Sleep thing helped, but we’re definitely High On Fire now.

How did you guys get Mono on this tour? Coliseum and Panthers are both kind of in the same vein or similar genre as you guys, but Mono seem to stand out.

Des: Each band had something to bring on this tour and they’re all kind of rock or heavy in their own way. Mono is a bit more dynamic and moody, but when they bust out into those loud parts it’s heavy. Our label, Relapse, and our booking agent, Leafy Green, like to do, and I like this too, is to make real eclectic bills. They really mix it up and get a wider fan base at the show. It’s worked in the past and worked pretty well. It’s not like you’ve got “the metal tour” and every band is like (imitates someone growling) and has a breakdown with a pissed off singer. Some of those bands I like, but when you go on and you’ve got four or five bands in one night and it all sounds the same. It’s a long night.

I told my friend I was interviewing you guys and he told me to ask you, “How they got the drums to sound so fucking hard, like someone ripped out your heart and is constantly squeezing it with a metal claw?” I don’t know where he got that from.

Des: Well that’s killer, me being the drummer and all (laughs, re-reads the question on my piece of paper) Uh (laughs), I don’t know man. The drums I used, I actually bought them used at this drum store in San Francisco. They’re really big, deep drums and that sound goes well with the High On Fire sound. I just try to hit them hard and precise and powerful. Whenever I think of drum parts I try to think what’s make it going to sound as close rhythmically and as stomping and powerful as possible. We always pick engineers that want to get a raw, aggressive, powerful sound.

You guys were with Steve Albini for the last record, right? What made you want to change it up for Death Is This Communion? Have you been changing engineers every record?

Des: He’s great and I personally hope we get to work with him again. On this one we felt we need a little more time and wanted someone to push us a little bit, someone more hands on. Not like “Bob Rock Producer,” just someone who would say, “You could do a better vocal take,” or “You sped up a little there.” When we went with Albini, the very first thing he said was, “I’m just gonna press record and try to get you the best sound I can in my studio, with my style, and your sound.” I think it worked out great, but like I said, we wanted someone to critique it a little bit more. Jack [Endino, producer] did a great job. He’d been trying to get us for a while and finally used the right lure or something. It worked out great. [Jack was] a pleasure to work with.

You said you wanted more time on it. Was that just to take a break from writing and recording?

Des: Just spend more time in the studio. Another thing Jack did was work within our budget and went out and found studios that had good equipment, that he had a report with and could get us in there for the amount of time that we wanted with the amount of money that we had. With Steve, we had to mix that record in two days and two, sixteen hour days of mixing just kills us. By the end, he’s like “What do you think of that?” and I’m like “I don’t know, it sounds great, just get me the hell out of here.” That was one of the main things, just spend five or six days mixing. There was no need to mix more than two or three songs a day. There is no need to keep hearing those songs and any musician who hears the same thing over and over again.

It drives you nuts.

Des: It does. You start to get a little crazy and you just don’t care anymore. We wanted to take our time on the mixing, that was the big thing. Jack lives next to the studio, Soundhouse Studios. First we did drums at this place Vast down the street.

Any plans for after tour?

Des: Once the record comes out, you just gotta hit it. Even though we’re gaining popularity, we’re still somewhat an underground band on a somewhat independent label, so basically the best promotion is go and play in front of people, word of mouth. That’s also the only way we could financially keep it going. When we get off this tour I think we have two or three weeks off and then we go to Europe. I think in mid-January we’ll do a secondary market tour of the states. Instead of Boston, [we’ll play] Worcester, North Hampton, or Amherst, or whatever.