Vegas rockers getting Higher

Like Alphaville, Tom Waits and seaweed-flavored potato chips, they're big in Japan.

It's a cliche, of course, but one that The Higher is happy to embrace.

The poppy Las Vegas rockers, who've been a top draw locally for the past five or six years now, found unexpected success in the Far East with their 2007 disc "On Fire," which lived up to its name overseas.

Though the album got off to a solid start here in the States, selling more than 25,000 copies, once it was released in Japan, it moved that many units in a few weeks. This is especially significant considering that in Japan, CDs are certified gold after selling 75,000 copies, compared to 500,000 in the United States.

The band's success led to a pair of sold-out shows in Japan, where they were treated like rock royalty.

"It was an intense moment for us," recalls frontman Seth Trotter. "It felt like we were in Fall Out Boy here in the States, where kids were giving us gifts, waiting outside our hotel rooms, swarming around our van to where we couldn't even drive out of the parking lot.

"We did radio show after radio show, I swear, we probably did more press in that week that we spent in Japan than we had up to that whole point in the U.S.," he continues, calling from a gasoline station at the state line as his band heads to a couple of California shows. "It was definitely a culture shock, everyone there is just so polite, so giving and understanding. Everywhere you turn, people are giving you things. You don't expect it."

Speaking of expectations, they've since been raised for the band's new album, "It's Only Natural," which is due out on June 23 via Epitaph Records.

This time around, The Higher is seeking to balance its radio-friendly pop/R&B shimmy with a more palpable guitar crunch, you know, something for the fellas in the house.

"I could tell that our girl following picked up tremendously," Trotter says of how the makeup of the band's fan base shifted after "On Fire." "Now, we're really excited for this new record to not only keep the girls that we've brought in, but also win our guys back."

Whatever the makeup of their audience might be, these dudes are just stoked to have a growing one. They're past the point of needing to have day jobs, that crucial threshold that all bands define themselves by, and now they can set their sights, a bit, um, higher.

"The first feeling I have is relief," Trotter says of being able to work as a musician full time. "We've been pushing for years to finally get where we are. We're really just proud that we can call this our job. Not a lot of our friends can say that they're working somewhere where they love to be.

"We definitely aren't rolling around in money," he adds with a telling little laugh, "but we are making a living doing what we love."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.