Andrew Gunn of Quest for Fire on Leaving Garage Rock Behind

"I guess the idea was to have a band with a way hugrier sound than anything we had done before," Andrew Gunn of Quest for Fire told Noisecreep. For Andrew and Chad Ross, what was before the psychedelic landslide of effects that is Quest for Fire was The Deadly Snakes - a pinnacle of excellence in garage rock - but Andrew and Chad have moved past the 60's throwback and onto something completely different.

"Right before The (Deadly) Snakes broke up Chad and I figured it might be best to get something else going soon rather than being caught off guard and not having a new band and an excuse to drink a bunch of beers in a s---ty practice space on Friday nights," Andrew says. So with friends Josh Bauman and Mike Maxymuik, the former drummer of defunct hardcore punk band The Cursed, in that practice spot, Quest for Fire began to fiddle around and create songs that weaved heaps of various melodies and noise on top of each other and they took these stacks of psychedelia into the studio for their self-titled album.

"The (Deadly) Snakes were very rigid in how we never tried to do any overdubs in the studio and tried to make it as live sounding as possible. I think we are taking the opposite approach with this band by layering things," Andrew laughs, "there is nothing wrong with having ten guitar tracks on a song. Oh, and playing psychedelic type stuff really lends itself to having a real big sound and no one is going to complain if you play a song that goes on for fifteen-minutes."

Andrew holds nothing against his time in his former band though, "I'd never knock The (Deadly) Snakes for anything but this is a totally different approach and for a guy who likes his effects pedals this has definitely opened a lot of doors to just f--- around with every little toy I find at a music store."

Many garage rock aficionados live by a code that once you play it you always play it. On upsetting Deadly Snakes fans who live by that code Andrew says, "We're doing what came naturally to us and whether people like it or not I'm not going to lose much sleep over it."