Loudside.com: Let's have a presentation of the band for a start.
Per: We're called Opeth and we're from Sweden, and the band has been going since 1990, which makes it 16 years now. I think it's only Peter and Michael left, the guitar players, from the original line up. Myself, I started being in the band a couple of years ago, three and a half years now.
Loudside.com: You've joined the band as a keyboard player, how did this actually happen?
Per: Well, they haven't had a keyboard player before in the band, and then they did an album called Damnation, which is like a mellow album, not a metal album at all. It's got more like the psychedelic 60s and 70s folk influence maybe, progressive rock. There are a lot of keyboards on that album and they started the tour for that album, they wanted a keyboard player, for that tour. They asked me, and I said yes! So I started playing with them and they wanted to try to put keyboards on the heavy songs as well, and I guess they kidnapped me, and I'm still here!
Loudside.com: You were in Spiritual Beggars, you still are. What style is it?
Per: It's classic hard rock, but since everyone really is into metal in that band, I guess it gets a little more of a metal edge.
Loudside.com: This is why you feel you might be the right person for Opeth?
Per: I don't know if I guess maybe.
Loudside.com: Do you feel the influence from bands from the 70's is being reinforced now with the keyboards? What do you feel you brought more than just an instrument? What do you feel you brought to the band itself?
Per: Well, it's really hard for me to say. I don't know. Except for the fact that it's a different instrument, with which they never worked really before, I guess it's a little more challenging for Michael to write music since it's there are more opportunities to broaden the sound.
Loudside.com: As you weren't in the band for all that time, you have this exterior point of view on the band. What's your point of view on Opeth before you joined them?
Per: Well, I've always liked the band, since they first released their first album, in 1995 I think, Orchid was released. And I thought it was I didn't know them at the time at all. I heard that album and it was pretty cool because it was a different take on extreme metal, with really long songs and a lot of acoustic passages as well. To me, death metal died in 1992 or something like that, and then it has been boring and boring and boring. When I heard Opeth and a couple of other different bands in the mid-90's, metal started to become a little bit more interesting again.
Loudside.com: Opeth has changed throughout the years.
Per: Yeah, it would be horrible if they didn't!
Loudside.com: Some of the fans prefer the earlier years. What about you?
Per: Well, my favourite album of Opeth is My Arms Your Hearse, and for me it's always gonna be that album.
Loudside.com: So it's in between.
Per: Yeah, it's the third album. I think it's always the case with bands that keep on doing things for more than a certain amount of years. It's always like that, some people prefer the early stuff, some people prefer the late stuff. It's always gonna be that way because why you like a band it's so at least for me it's so attached to a certain time in your life. Maybe if I heard My Arms Your Hearse for the first time today, that wouldn't be my favourite album of Opeth, maybe it would be another one. When people say that you suck nowadays and that the only good albums are the first two, it seems that people forget why they liked these albums, at the time.
Loudside.com: People also say 'that sucks' when you changed record labels.
Per: Well I don't know what to think about that just to say that people are stupid. And it's very disrespectful in a way to the band. I mean, it doesn't Opeth isn't the only band who has signed to a bigger record label than they used to be on. Usually, people say that because they have this romantic idea that small records label are the good guys and that big records label are the good guys. But I would say that all the record labels are the bad guys. I think people complain because they signed to a record label that wants to make money from the music, but I've never heard of a record label that doesn't want to make money from the music of the bands that they sign. And it doesn't matter if you sell 50 albums or 50 thousand or 50 millions. That's always the whole idea. Otherwise, it's just stupid to stop. Most bands choose to sign to a records label because it's too much work doing it by yourself. But still, you can do it by yourself, a lot of bands do that as well.
Loudside.com: I guess people might be concerned that bigger companies put more pressure on bands, and influence the bands so that they adapt their style, their music to a certain audience.
Per: Yeah, I know what you mean. The thing is, when we signed to Roadrunner, the album was recorded, mixed and done so. And we worked with the same guy, Travis. Everything is the same in a way.
Loudside.com: Since then, did you feel any other pressure coming from the company?
Per : No, the only thing that was different with Roadrunner, compared to the other labels that we've known, with other bands, is that they're a little bit bigger, and they work the albums harder, which gives us more work. And I guess that was the main purpose of signing to a bigger label.
Loudside.com: Are there more shows, more concerts?
Per: Yeah, we've been on tour for 19 months, that's a long time for a band of this level, or whatever we call it. When we're done with this tour, we're gonna take a longer break. I think we've done more than 250 shows. I think that's a record for Opeth.
Loudside.com: I noticed American labels like to have a lot of touring. There's this new trend: bands live of a few albums and constant touring.
Per : That's the only way for a band like this to survive, because I don't think anyone counts on being played on the radio, apart from the smaller radio stations, university radio stations. So the only thing we can do to survive is tour.
Loudside.com: You play in two bands, do you live of these bands or do you have to work apart.
Per: No, I have lived on playing music, for a long time.
Loudside.com: What about the other members of Opeth?
Per: No, everybody we sort of live of the music now, and it's impossible to have another job, we're constantly away. It's pretty hard to be away 300 days a year and then go and ask for a job.
Loudside.com: How do you cope with having two bands, now that Opeth is more demanding?
Per: Well, the other guys in Spiritual Beggars are in other bands as well. We haven't done anything for one and a half year now. But I don't think we're gonna stop, but you never know what happens.
Loudside.com: What do you like about playing live?
Per: Well, that's what I like about music, playing live. I'm not that into being in the studio. I think when you play live, that's when music becomes music. Music is supposed to be some kind of interaction between the audience and the band. That's what it's all about to me. To play live you have to go to places.
Loudside.com: Do you like visiting places? Do you actually have time, like here in Paris?
Per: Yes we had a day off here in Paris yesterday. We walked for hours and hours, it's just good to be somewhere else than home.
Loudside.com: Did you enjoy Paris?
Per: To be honest, I haven't had that much time. Since we were free yesterday, it was good to have a long good walk and check out things, so it was nice. I wanted to go to the Louvre, but I didn't have time, I missed that. So I did the usual touristy stuff, like the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame. It's always fun to check out old buildings.
Loudside.com: Nowadays, fans are getting younger and younger. What's your point of view on this trend?
Per: Well I guess it's good. I think we have a pretty diverse crowd with Opeth when it comes to age. We got people in their mid 40s who grew up listening to more classic rock like Led Zepplin. And I think Damnation was maybe the entrance to Opeth for some people that usually don't listen to a little more extreme metal. That's good, and it also shows that we don't have to play music to a certain audience and people just come to the shows because they like the music.
Loudside.com: What's your point of view on downloading music? Some people think it's killing the artists.
Per: Well, that's pretty obvious, if everyone goes to get everything in a store, you cannot have a store. But people know what they do. The record labels, they were pretty late in understanding what impact Internet had on people.
Loudside.com: Do you feel any impact on the band or on yourself?
Per: No. I don't think so, I think we're way too small. There are two sides to it, I know that a lot of people like to check out bands before they buy the album because it's really expensive. So, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and it's impossible to have a really good opinion on it but if you just think about stealing stuff, people can't do things anymore. Myspace nowadays is a really good place to check out bands.
Loudside.com: What music are you into?
Per : Everything, from jazz, blues to stuff that people don't call music, like real but I'm not into classical music at all, I don't know why really dark electronic stuff, drone experimental music. I've been listening to a lot of blues, preferably old blues. I guess I like all kinds of music, I'm just a music freak really. It depends on your mood.
Loudside.com: Well, thank you very much.
Per: Thank you!
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