Mike Hickey has provided guitar abuse for such bands as Venom, Carcass and Cronos and bass for Cathedral.
MAXIMUM INK: Tell us about your background such as who inspired you to pick up the guitar, education, influences etc...?
MIKE HICKEY: My first inspiration to get a guitar was seeing KISS on t.v. So I ended up taking lessons from a bluegrass singer. I took lessons from as many teachers as possible, took all the school music classes like theory and jazz band and started jamming and gigging with older, better players and started digging into learning stuff off of records. After high school I went to Berklee for a while and was fortunate to be playing with people like Derek Sherinian, Al Pitrelli, and Mike Shapiro. My influences are vast... Beck, Holdsworth, Mahavishnu, VH, Hendrix, Ace, DiMeola, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bloomfield, Leslie West, John Sykes, Pantera, I could go on and on. I listen to all kinds of music all the time.
MI: You have played guitar for various metal bands such as Venom, Carcass andCronos. Tell us about that part of your career?
MH: I was living in L.A. in 86 trying to get a gig and got offered the Venom job, so I went to England to play with them. We did one album-Calm Before The Storm; and toured Brazil and Japan. A lack of activity and some drummer problems led us into forming Cronos with a drummer in America. We recorded two albums; Dancing In The Fire and Rock and Roll Disease with that incarnation. In 92 I was tech-ing for Carcass ,Cathedral, and Brutal Truth. That led to both the gigs with Carcass and Cathedral. With Carcass I played on the Heartwork tour and got to shred every night with one of my favorite guitarists Bill Steer.
MI: Are you involved with the Venom reunion in any way?
MH: Not as far as playing or writing, but I am involved with Venom for the rest of my life. Cronos is one of my best friends and we are always in touch. I
may be getting involved with the upcoming U.S. tour. The new album Resurrection is fantastic.
MI: You also played bass for Cathedral?
MH: Yes that was just to fill in at a couple of shows at first but it worked out great and I did the full tour for the Ethereal Mirror lp. I really love to play bass, and those guys were loads of fun. So much fun, that I stole the drummer to play with Cronos in the last line up. Which gave us the Cronos:Venom album.
MI: You also provided some lessons for Guitar Player magazine. What was that like?
MH: It was great. They were good with the cash! I sent in some stuff to Andy Ellis dealing with grind/metal stuff and he liked it so I ended up doing 6 or 7 articles and one got published in one of their books to. I have some of those lessons appearing on www.truefire.com
MI: Tell us about your gear set-up?
MH: Well it's very basic.....I have a pile of guitars so I like to use a Les Paul for standard tunings usually, and an Ibanez RG when I'm tuning down. I have two 5150 heads and 4 Marshall cabs and I run one amp dry and one with chorus. I have a splitter box before the amps. That's all, just crank it up to 6L6 meltdown and let it rip! I am looking into some pedals to give me a little ambience for live.
MI: You have a great new album out called "Gold". Take us through the album track by track?
MH: Okay. First of all I'm making these one at a time, as I don't have a deal yet, but you can find it at Something Heavy: That's the Ibanez tuned to B. Some odd time signatures, heavy crunch and a nice melodic solo...It's a riff inspired by My Bloody Valentine.
87: This is my tribute to all that is rock... Whitesnake, Dio, Maiden...the classic gallop, the muting. I pretend I'm John Sykes everytime I play it! And of course it's the Les Paul.
Funeral March: A dark trilogy on the Ibanez, down to B again. Some cool harmonies, a classic double tracked solo, and sick octaves at the end.
Gold: My favorite, I wrote it on my 56 Goldtop on cold penniless night. Simple chords, melodic. Elements of Zep, Aerosmith, Vai... who knows? But all I know is I like this track the best, and I surprised myself on the bass solo.
WC Blues: This is a classic VH style boogie with a kind of southern rock ending. This tune is best listened to in a pickup truck while drinking Coors.
The Sabbath: Influenced by Sabbath although it sounds nothing like them. I tried to stay in my A blues box and work the bends Leslie West style for the soloing. A heavy duty crunch riff.
The A jam: I like this too...elements of Satch and Vai with the super heavy Mountain/Band of Gypsys end riff. This one gets jammed different every time.
I feel that this material is different from most instrumental stuff because I am not basing the song around lots of lead guitar...more riffs and song style formats.
MI: What was the recording process like?
MH: I recorded both Gold and Goatreign over four days with two additional days for mixing. We laid down drums and rhythm guitar and I built the rest up from there. Hats off to Excathedra drummer Shawn Progen for nailing all the drums in one day!
MI: What are some of the highlights of your career?
MH: All the big tours, the Guitar Player thing is an honor, mostly the friends I've made in the music community.
MI: Can you share some insights and advice with other guitarists on how they can become proficient on their instrument?
MH: Practice, listen, play with better players than yourself.
MI: You also produced your other bands new album, Goatreign. Tell us about it?
MH: Six slabs of molten metal ready to destroy all in its path.