The music industry is an ever-changing beast. As music evolves along with the way we're exposed to it, the primary question from fans is, "What's it like to be a musician now as opposed to the past?" Showcased in this unique group of videos, High on Fire / Sleep legend Matt Pike, Vektor's Blake Anderson and Ides of Gemini's J. Bennett sat down for Scion A/V's annual 'Music(less) Music Conference' to discuss what it's like to be a rock/metal musician in current times.

Scion A/V has been a staunch supporter of metal in recent years, allowing the artists they work with to retain all ownership of the creative content released under the Scion A/V label. Because of this, bands such as Meshuggah, Immolation, High on Fire and many others have jumped at the chance to work with Scion A/V.

This panel discussion from the 'Music(less) Music Conference' is broken up into seven parts, containing a ton of in-depth conversation with Pike, Anderson and Bennett. "What we do is play a style," Pike says about potentially competitive genres. "Whether that style is super popular or not, it's always been kind of an underground thing and it's for a specific kind of mind, just like classic is, just like jazz is. Everybody prefers something. Heavy metal is just a different way of us expressing ourselves as musicians and I think it's the most organic of electric music. Next to playing acoustic guitars and stuff like that, it really relies a whole lot on your creativity and what comes out of your hand as opposed to hitting an edit button."

Check out our exclusive premiere of the full panel discussion with Matt Pike, Blake Anderson and J. Bennett, starting with Part 1 above and followed by Parts 2 through 7 below.

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