We had to go through a lot to get this Opeth interview done. We (me and three other zines) were at the 013 venue at 18.00 to do our interviews, and everyone seemed to know we were coming. Everyone… but Opeth. Great start. After some tea and coffee guitar player Peter Lindgren was willing to see us all at the same time. Goodbye for 75% of my questions.
How’s the tour going so far?
Well, pretty fine actually. It’s just a very short tour. This was on short notice as well. As a band, we already knew we wanted to do a ‘Damnation’ Tour, but the management wanted us to do the US for the third time, but they realised that was not a very good idea, and it was late, so that’s why it’s so short. So far it’s been good and so far this is the last.
What was your reaction to the murder of Anna Lindh?
You always get upset, of course. We didn’t expect it to happen back in 1986 (Prime Minister Olof Palme, ed.), but he was a hot shot politician at the time. Not many people regarded Anna Lindh as, you know, an international politician, even though she was probably more famous than Palme was. They have got the guy now, at least that’s what they think. He was alone, saw her at the store and knifed her to death, apparently. It’s just so stupid and unnecessary. Like I was saying, this doesn’t happen in Sweden. At least, that’s what we always thought, but maybe we have to rethink that. There was a lot of talk going on, why she didn’t have any bodyguards etc. I don’t think politicians will be using bodyguards now, which I can understand. You can’t blame her, even though having bodyguards might have helped.
And what does it mean for Sweden?
Well, hard to tell. I mean, all of a sudden a lot of people seem to have known her, which is a bit ridiculous. Media is blowing it out to this proportion. There is always going to be a discussion about how the famous should act and protect themselves. I don’t think anything will change, however.
How are the reactions to the seated shows?
We haven’t done that many actually. Our plan was to do only seated shows, but there are few venues that are big enough to enable us to do so. I think when you do a mellow set you might as well sit down. When you have a seated audience, people are more polite and modest in between the songs. In Stockholm we had a seated show which had both a mellow and a heavy set. That was a bit awkward. It wasn’t supposed to happen really, they were only rehearsals for the DVD we recorded last week in London. For the heavy set we’d prefer people standing up, doing what they want to do.
To some, ‘Damnation’ came like a surprise.
We thought it would be boring to just release yet another Opeth album. We wanted to put out a super heavy album, but Mike said he had a lot of mellow songs, so we wanted to do something with those as well. Then, I think it was Jonas from Katatonia who came up with the idea to put out two albums, one heavy, one mellow. From that point on it was crystal clear to us what we wanted to do. This kind of music has been there almost from the start, we developed that from the first day. This is the first album with only that side of us.
And the next album?
We’re going to start writing the next album early next year, maybe. And then record it and release it, so that would probably be late next year. We might release the DVD recording as a live CD, for the fans who don’t buy DVDs.
You spent as much time in the studio for ‘Deliverance’ and ‘Damnation’ combined as you would normally spend on one album. Was it a hard job?
Yes, it was, actually. The reason was that whereas we thought we had this great idea of releasing two albums, the record company didn’t agree, and we had to offer them the both of them as one album, which meant we had the same budget. We had 8 weeks in stead of 7, like we spent on Blackwater Park. However, we wanted it to still have the same Opeth quality, so it meant we had to work harder. So it was tough.
In Biebob, Mikael told us his favourite ballad is Deep Purple’s “Soldier of Fortune”. I would like to know which is your favourite ballad of all time and your favourite Opeth ballad.
Well, before this tour it was “To Rid the Disease”. No we’re playing it so much, but now we’re playing it so much, I’m not sure… I would have to say that song, however, to do myself justice. Of all time… It’s probably a Red House Painter song. I listened to a song called “Dragon Fly”… I can’t say, really. At the moment, that‘s the one however.
What do you feel when you are performing? People usually think you guys are a bit static on stage.
It’s two experiences actually. The ‘Damnation’ set is very intense when we play it. You have to concentrate on playing a lot, since you don’t have distortion to cover your mistakes up. There’s nothing much to do… I mean, you can’t head bang to a ballad, right? When you play a heavy set, however, the feeling is all about the power, which is completely different. I can imagine it’s harder to spot during a mellow set, which doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It’s just harder to spot. We close our eyes, are very into the music. The mellow set is very intense and intimate. There’s also more interaction with the audience. In Sweden I could hear myself swallow in between songs. They just didn’t know how to react…
What were your influences for ‘Damnation’?
Well, Porcupine Tree of course, but also many 70s rock bands like Camel. It’s sort of like a tribute to all of our influences. We wanted it to sound like such an album too, you know. We even rebuilt the drum kit to a jazz kit.
Why didn’t you use real mellotrons on the tour?
They are very expensive, and there’s only one guy in the world who still builds them. We now use a Korg, which has the sounds in it. We would love to have one, but then the flights would all be terribly expensive.
‘My Arms Your Hearse’ and ‘Still Life’ had a lyrical concept. Why not Deliverance and Damnation?
Yes, in a way this means the lyrics mean more than they should. But they shouldn’t be overshadowing the music, you know. Without a concept, the lyrics can be much more personal as well. We spent seven and a half weeks on music, and Mike wrote the lyrics in between breaks. A lot of people think he writes great lyrics, and I agree, but… It’s like this: Bad lyrics can ruin a good song, and good lyrics can lift up a bad song, but most lyrics around are not extremely good and not very bad.
Is it then an option to write an instrumental album?
Well, Mike’s voice is like an instrument really, that would be strange, unfair to us as a band, too. It would be the same as leaving out the drums or the guitars.
Why isn’t Porcupine Tree here?
This was just on such a short notice, and Steven is writing material for a new album, so even though that would have been more fun, it was impossible. When we play with Porcupine Tree we want to do a balanced set, since they also cover the entire scale as well.
How do you guys respond to the current Opeth hype?
Is there a hype?
Yes, there is. You’re even selling your merchandise at Metallica prices, now.
Are we? Wow… Ok, we usually don’t know these things. Hmm, well, we have always had good reviews, but finally the fans are hyping us too. We can finally sort of live as musicians now, but at the start of this year, I looked at the audience during a show in the US, and I thought: “My God, I must be the poorest guy in here.” But then I looked at Mikael and the Martins, and I thought “Oh no, we are the poorest guys here.” The hype will bring new fans, but I think our true base had already been set. Even though ‘Damnation’ is a non-metal record, they will continue following us.
The Martins are also an influence on the Opeth-sound, right?
Certainly. They listen to completely different music at home. For “Bleak”, for instance, we sort of stole everything from a Syrian guy called George Wasif. We paid for that song though.
Finally, you guys are music freaks, so you must love vinyl?
We do, or rather… Mike is a vinyl junkie. Really, he is, he buys stuff on e-bay etc. He even buys stuff he doesn’t know, just because it’s rare. Our label isn’t that enthusiastic, however, since vinyl usually costs money. When we release our albums on vinyl, we want them to look as good as they sound. We will probably release ‘Deliverance’ ourselves, with a nice folding LP.
Showing posts with label 2003. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2003. Show all posts
Monday, 3 November 2003
Thursday, 2 October 2003
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Collin (02 Oct 2003)
Mikael Åkerfeldt's first started out playing guitar as far back as 1986. It wasn't long before he assembled his first group [under the name of Eruption] playing death metal covers of Bathory and Death.
It took a friend by the name of David Isberg to open his eyes [and ears] to a band called Mefisto, whose demo tape 'The Puzzle' showed that the combined the use of death metal vocals, acoustic passages and guitar solos could work. It soon sealed the fate of the band, but proved the beginning of a new band called Opeth [whose name was coined after Opet, the city of the moon, in book by author Wilbur Smith].
Although members came and went within Opeth, guitarist Peter Lindgren came into the fold in 1991, and has remained since.
Opeth's debut 'Orchid' was released in 1994, but it was the follow up 'Morningrise' in 1996 that gained the groups initial underground following.
Prior to Opeth's return to the studio, the band acquired both newcomers Martin Lopez [drums] and Martin Mendez [bass]. Although Mendez hadn't had the time to learn the songs [leaving Åkerfeldt to play bass on the album], 'My Arms Your Hearse' was released in 1997, with claims from both press and fans alike as Opeth's best work to date.
After signing a new contract with Peaceville Records [after fulfilling their agreement with Candlelight records], work started for what was to be their 1999 release 'Still Life'. While the album proved to be their most successful at the time, it was 2001's 'Blackwater Park' that placed the band on a whole new plain. Co-producer Steven Wilson [of Porcupine Tree fame] proved to be a major influence on the albums sound and an inspiration to Opeth.
Last year saw Åkerfeldt's bold plan to release the first part of a double album when 'Deliverance' was unveiled to an awaiting legion of fans. Needless to say, the album is not only the best selling album in Opeth's history, but also unanimously well received by everyone.
- I managed to catch up with Mikael Åkerfeldt during a stop over in Graz, Austria [Arnold Schwarzenegger's home town] while on tour with Madder Mortem.
Today is going to be our tenth gig, and we have another four weeks to go. That's a lot. But everything is going pretty good. We're going to Italy and Spain and a couple of gigs in France. We're tired obviously, because we just did a weeks tour in the U.S., and we only had two days off before we started this European tour. This is the biggest tour we had done ever without a doubt. It never ends. We're pretty much booked solid for the next year. It's weird being as busy as this, especially for a slacker like myself!
- Although Opeth's popularity and world acclaim has been a slow and gradual climb, it still takes Mikael by surprise the way 'Deliverance' has been received since its release.
It's been mostly good reviews, and the fans seem to like it. The new material is going down live very well. Everything about it has been going pretty good. We even won the Swedish Grammy in the 'Best Hard Rock' category for 'Deliverance' just the other day! We also won a Swedish radio award too. That's pretty big for a garage band like us. It feels weird to be nominated for awards, especially these sorts of awards because it's not like our background, if you know what I mean. It's so different to what we really are.
- Many would suggest that Opeth have well and truly elevated beyond the 'garage band' status that Mikael associates with the band. However, he insists that Opeth still feel like an underground band.
I definitely feel that Opeth is still an underground band. I don't think its ever going to be a case of where we're thinking that we're superstars or anything. We're still musicians that love to play music, and that's pretty much about it. We don't have any high opinions of ourselves, we just want to have a good time and play the music. I don't worry about anything because I just don't care. I've been doing this for such a long time now, that it feels like I don't really care about anything anymore. I just want to play music, and that's all. I don't care about the business side, I don't care if Opeth is Opeth and I don't care about anything. I just want to have a good time.
- The release of 'Deliverance' was the first part of what Mikael considered a double album. If the albums had came out as Mikael had originally envisioned them, it really would have been a double album is the proper sense of the word.
I think 'Damnation' has been pushed back again. They're going to put it out in May now. It's always been the record company decision to put it out later. My idea was to put it out at the same time as 'Deliverance', but the company wanted some time in between the releases so they could promote them properly. That way we could do interviews for both of them separately. They were both 'hot' albums if you know what I mean. 'Damnation' was originally mean to come out in March I think, but our manager wanted to push it back to May because we are going to be doing so much touring for 'Deliverance', and therefore we wouldn't have time to be home to do interviews for 'Damnation'.
- Down through music history, double albums have always been something seen as a cardinal sin for record labels. Their way of thinking [besides marketing, sales and lack of longevity] is that releasing two albums at the one time may have an overwhelming effect on the audience. It would be the case of giving them too much to swallow in one go.
It crossed my mind, but the two albums are so different that it could be a different band. It's not like it's two hours of the same kind of music. 'Damnation' is like forty minutes long, and sounds totally unlike anything we have ever done in the past. It could be a different band pretty much. It really didn't worry me that much.
- The last time I spoke to Mikael [just after the release of 'Blackwater Park'], he mentioned that the band had only conducted three full band rehearsals before heading into the studio. Much to my surprise [and astonishment], the number was lower for 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation'.
It was only one rehearsal this time. We went through the tricky part, but we had a lot of time in the studio working that out too. I guess it sounds weird, but we've been doing it like that since 'Still Life'. That was also recorded with just one rehearsal before heading into the studio. We're getting used to the fact that we're working a lot of the bits and pieces out in the studio. It's kind of refreshing to work that way because the material doesn't get old to the composer. We're so into the music that we want to surprise ourselves a little bit. When the finished album is out there, we don't know exactly what's on there ourselves. You kind of forget what you've done in the studio. It's like you're a fan and you get the new album from one of your favourite bands. It's pretty interesting to work that way. And it's also interesting to take those kinds of risks, the risk of failing.
- While the majority of press for 'Deliverance' has been in praise for the band, there are some that claim that the band aren't willing to deviate from their original sound and try something new for fear of losing their core fan base.
It's true you know. Of course we have a formula, and it's how I write the songs. I don't see the point of changing if you don't have anything good, or better to change into. We've been playing this kind of music for such a long time that it's become our style. Just as Iron Maiden has a style. But for 'Damnation', there's a drastic change in style for us. I also want to stress that it's a drastic change for that album, and not a drastic change for the future of Opeth. It might be, but I'm not sure at this stage. For the next album, after 'Damnation', it might be something completely different. As for the heavy albums after 'Deliverance', of course they're going to in some terms similar to each other because it's the same band, and the same guy is writing the music. It's only going to be slight changes depending on what influences we have at any given moment when I'm writing new songs.
- There's no denying that 'Deliverance' caters to long time fans of Opeth. However, with the more acoustic sounding 'Damnation', the possibility of it being their biggest seller and bringing a whole host of new fans to the world of Opeth isn't out of the question.
You know I think it probably will sell more copies, if it's available to those people and if it's promoted as a non extreme metal album. I've already done a couple of weird interviews that I wouldn't have done, had it been for 'Deliverance' or any of the earlier albums. I recently did an interview with a big blues magazine from England. He was asking me questions, 'O.K. So why has Opeth become a blues band?' I was a bit surprised because I'm fairly influenced by the blues, but it's not like it's a blues album! I think interviews like that will help maybe get a little more radio play and stuff like that. I think a lot of new people should get into Opeth with the 'Damnation' album. I always thought that there have been parts in Opeth's music that a lot of people could like, and not only metal people. You just see that from what Porcupine Tree did for us. People that are into Porcupine tree, and have never heard a death metal band before, seem to like Opeth now. That was simply from Steven producing our album. I speak to loads of Porcupine Tree fans, and they always tell me that they never listened to metal before. It just goes to show that extreme metal is not as unmusical as some metal fans would like to have it.
- Steven's influence, although not as clear to same, more evident on 'Deliverance' than what it was on 'Blackwater Park'. Not only has Steven helped out on the vocal passages, but he also appears to have helped out on the instrumentation.
Yes, that's true. I think we brought it up an extra step this time around. On 'Blackwater Park', as it was his first production job for Opeth obviously, I think that he may have felt that he didn't want to take up too much space. But this time around, when he came down to the studio, we knew each other better, and we could start work instantly. I was very tired by the time he came in down to the studio, and he helped out a lot. I had pretty much most of the vocal lines completed, but he helped out a lot with the vocal harmonies, some of the keyboards and some weird effects and stuff like that. He appeared a little bit more than he did on 'Blackwater Park'. But on 'Damnation', he's all over that album.
- Mikael mentioned to me last time that the melodic vocals were the hardest part of the album to make, and that doing death metal vocals were something he compared to as 'rapping'. The clean vocals on 'Deliverance' are certainly a marked improvement on previous albums, but Mikael still feels there's a long way to go yet.
It's a very big challenge. Firstly I want to improve my singing with every new release, and secondly, you want to have vocal lines that are just perfect. Maybe even vocal harmonies that are perfect. When we start with the vocals, I subconsciously know that I have to do my best. It's pretty much the most important thing about the whole recording. It goes for both styles of vocals too. Even though I know the screaming technique so well now, I'm still eager to make it even more brutal than ever before. When it comes to the clean vocals, I just want it to be delicate and beautiful and the best I've ever done. Every time I record, I want the best vocals ever! [Laughs] Since I'm not Ronnie James Dio, it's always going to be a bit of stress before I start with the vocal session. You never know how it's going to turn out at the end of the day, but with Steve's help, it's a big help. It's really comfortable to work with him.
- While Steven is credited with co-producing 'Blackwater Park', 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation', his role is limited to areas that his talent are best put to use.
He's not even there for the recording of the death metal vocals. You know, he's not actually involved in the entire production. For all three of the albums, he came to the studio once we have recorded all the drums, guitars and bass. He helps out with the lead guitars, the clean vocals and on 'Damnation's case, the keyboards too.
- Mikael seems comfortable with all his creative energies going solely in Opeth [Bloodbath's 2002 release 'Resurrection Through Carnage' doesn't count as nearly all the material was entirely written by Katatonia's Jonas Renske], but talk has come up about a project forming between Steven and Mikael.
We talk about that all the time, and that's probably going to be my next thing. After all the stuff I've done with Opeth with the recording of two new albums, and all the touring we're going to do, I think we need a lot of time away from each other. That's when I'm going to concentrate on doing something together with Steven. He has a couple of songs that didn't make it to the last Porcupine Tree album [2002's 'In Absentia'] because the other guys in the band thought they were too heavy. We might do something with those. Especially the songs called 'Cut Ribbon'. Steven said he wanted to record it with me. I think we're going to start out with that track and try and write some new material after that.
- Before the collaboration goes ahead though, there's quite a bit of touring that needs to be completed first. Then there's another tour in support of 'Damnation'.
I think we have a two week break in between the tours, in which we have rehearsal schedules for the 'Damnation' tour. But it's not a lot of rest to be honest. I don't see really how we're going to make it! [Laughs] We put it on ourselves pretty much, because of the decision to make two albums. Somehow we have to make it work, but there are a lot of things coming up. We have to do all this touring for 'Deliverance'. By the end of this tour, 'Damnation' comes out, and we have to do press for that, and then tour for that album. It's a lot of work coming up. With the 'Damnation' tour, we plan to play all the songs from the album, as well as doing remakes of elderly mellow tracks. We're thinking of doing things like 'Face Of Melinda', 'The Night And The Silent Water', 'Harvest', 'To Bid You Farewell' and things like that. We're going to bring in a keyboard player, because, as I said, there are a lot of vintage keyboards on 'Damnation'. We're going to have Per Wiberg from the Spiritual Beggars with us. So we're going to concentrate only on the mellow material. It's almost like we have two parallel careers. One is an extreme metal band, and one is a mellow progressive seventies influenced band.
- That parallel career that Mikael mentions looks set to become a permanent thing too.
What I think is going to happen is like has happened with 'Damnation'. Mainstream people will listen to 'Damnation', and like it, and find out that we're actually an extreme metal band. They're pretty much going to be bound to pick up a copy of 'Deliverance', 'Blackwater Park' or any of our earlier albums. I think most of those people are going to like it eventually too. Even though some people might think it's a weird thing for us to do one soft and one heavy album side by side, at the end of the day to be quite honest, I think it's a pretty smart business move! [Laughs] We'll see what happens. I don't know, and to be quite honest, I don't care. I try not to think about it too much about it to be honest. Al I know is that, I personally love both styles. For me, it's not a problem to cross over. It never has been a problem for me, and as for the future of music in Opeth, I have no idea what's going to happen next.
- Travis Smith [who has worked with Opeth and numerous artists over the years] designed both the 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation' covers artwork. The association is anything but clear-cut on both sides when coming up with exact ideas.
I had the idea for the picture for both the covers, but that was pretty much it. I told him about how I wanted a picture that was like a bedroom, with the old furniture. I wanted a very dark, melancholic picture. That's pretty much all I told him, and that's the picture he came up with for the cover and the pictures in the booklet. I like to just give him rough ideas for what we want on the covers, and let him do the rest. He's the artist after all. I want it to be his view, but only influenced by me! [Laughs] The cover for 'Damnation' is very similar to 'Deliverance' actually. It's a picture he sent, and could well have ended up in the 'Deliverance' booklet. We thought it was such a good picture that we decided it should be the cover for 'Damnation'. It's very similar packaging to 'Deliverance', only a bit lighter in colour, whiter actually.
- Opeth have always been very cryptic in regards to their lyrics and album titles. However, the titles for both 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation' are a little more straightforward than at first thought.
It's exactly as you said, one is a 'Ying' and the other a 'Yang' sort of thing. That was the idea from the beginning. The original idea was to actually call the albums 'Deliverance Part I' and 'II', and to have the same cover, but to have one very dark, and one very light. So it's not like we're very far away from the original idea. When I came up with the song title 'Deliverance', I thought it was a good title for the album. That song is very representable for the whole feel of the album. As for 'Damnation', we just wanted the opposite. A friend of mine asked me what the opposite of deliverance was, and straight away I said it was damnation. We all kind of looked at each other, and it was like, 'Yeah. That's the other title!' I like the fact that 'Damnation' is more like a metal title, yet we chose to have the title for our mellow album.
- And like 'Blackwater Park', the title 'The Master's Apprentices' is another salute to another long gone group.
Yes, that was my tribute to Australia. I love that band, so the title had to end up there sometime. I have three of their albums, and as you already know, I only buy vinyl these days. I remember hearing the band all those years ago, and I always thought that it was a really good name for a band. So I basically just ripped it off.
- Which then leads up to the upcoming tour of Australia.
It's one of those places in the world we've all be longing to go, but never could afford it to go there on private cash. Going there on tour is something we all look forward to more than anything else we have ever done. Australia is like…the end of the world! [laughs] Obviously we have loads and loads of fans that have been longing to see us, especially going by the amount of e-mails I get from Australia. We're playing in Perth now too, which is cool. We got so much hate e-mail because we weren't playing there originally.
I think the gigs themselves are going to be good. On top of that, it's like a dream for us to go over there as tourists. We want to see the country and meet the people. Personally I'm very interested in the wildlife. I'm looking forward to doing a bit of safari sight seeing! [laughs] There's nothing in particular I want to see while I'm down there, because I want to see everything. I'd be intrigued just watching a spider crawl up the wall. We're going to be flying every day, because our schedule is pretty much packed. I think Peter has already decided he's going to stay in Australia a few days after all the gigs are finished. I haven't decided yet. It all depends on how much time we have left and what follows after the tour of Australia. It's like once you're there you have to make the best out of it. If we're able to stay a few extra days, then that's a good idea. We're all very hyped up about the whole Australia trip.
I would like to personally thank Mikael Åkerfeldt for his generous time, and Brooke Harry [Zomba Records] for making it possible.
It took a friend by the name of David Isberg to open his eyes [and ears] to a band called Mefisto, whose demo tape 'The Puzzle' showed that the combined the use of death metal vocals, acoustic passages and guitar solos could work. It soon sealed the fate of the band, but proved the beginning of a new band called Opeth [whose name was coined after Opet, the city of the moon, in book by author Wilbur Smith].
Although members came and went within Opeth, guitarist Peter Lindgren came into the fold in 1991, and has remained since.
Opeth's debut 'Orchid' was released in 1994, but it was the follow up 'Morningrise' in 1996 that gained the groups initial underground following.
Prior to Opeth's return to the studio, the band acquired both newcomers Martin Lopez [drums] and Martin Mendez [bass]. Although Mendez hadn't had the time to learn the songs [leaving Åkerfeldt to play bass on the album], 'My Arms Your Hearse' was released in 1997, with claims from both press and fans alike as Opeth's best work to date.
After signing a new contract with Peaceville Records [after fulfilling their agreement with Candlelight records], work started for what was to be their 1999 release 'Still Life'. While the album proved to be their most successful at the time, it was 2001's 'Blackwater Park' that placed the band on a whole new plain. Co-producer Steven Wilson [of Porcupine Tree fame] proved to be a major influence on the albums sound and an inspiration to Opeth.
Last year saw Åkerfeldt's bold plan to release the first part of a double album when 'Deliverance' was unveiled to an awaiting legion of fans. Needless to say, the album is not only the best selling album in Opeth's history, but also unanimously well received by everyone.
- I managed to catch up with Mikael Åkerfeldt during a stop over in Graz, Austria [Arnold Schwarzenegger's home town] while on tour with Madder Mortem.
Today is going to be our tenth gig, and we have another four weeks to go. That's a lot. But everything is going pretty good. We're going to Italy and Spain and a couple of gigs in France. We're tired obviously, because we just did a weeks tour in the U.S., and we only had two days off before we started this European tour. This is the biggest tour we had done ever without a doubt. It never ends. We're pretty much booked solid for the next year. It's weird being as busy as this, especially for a slacker like myself!
- Although Opeth's popularity and world acclaim has been a slow and gradual climb, it still takes Mikael by surprise the way 'Deliverance' has been received since its release.
It's been mostly good reviews, and the fans seem to like it. The new material is going down live very well. Everything about it has been going pretty good. We even won the Swedish Grammy in the 'Best Hard Rock' category for 'Deliverance' just the other day! We also won a Swedish radio award too. That's pretty big for a garage band like us. It feels weird to be nominated for awards, especially these sorts of awards because it's not like our background, if you know what I mean. It's so different to what we really are.
- Many would suggest that Opeth have well and truly elevated beyond the 'garage band' status that Mikael associates with the band. However, he insists that Opeth still feel like an underground band.
I definitely feel that Opeth is still an underground band. I don't think its ever going to be a case of where we're thinking that we're superstars or anything. We're still musicians that love to play music, and that's pretty much about it. We don't have any high opinions of ourselves, we just want to have a good time and play the music. I don't worry about anything because I just don't care. I've been doing this for such a long time now, that it feels like I don't really care about anything anymore. I just want to play music, and that's all. I don't care about the business side, I don't care if Opeth is Opeth and I don't care about anything. I just want to have a good time.
- The release of 'Deliverance' was the first part of what Mikael considered a double album. If the albums had came out as Mikael had originally envisioned them, it really would have been a double album is the proper sense of the word.
I think 'Damnation' has been pushed back again. They're going to put it out in May now. It's always been the record company decision to put it out later. My idea was to put it out at the same time as 'Deliverance', but the company wanted some time in between the releases so they could promote them properly. That way we could do interviews for both of them separately. They were both 'hot' albums if you know what I mean. 'Damnation' was originally mean to come out in March I think, but our manager wanted to push it back to May because we are going to be doing so much touring for 'Deliverance', and therefore we wouldn't have time to be home to do interviews for 'Damnation'.
- Down through music history, double albums have always been something seen as a cardinal sin for record labels. Their way of thinking [besides marketing, sales and lack of longevity] is that releasing two albums at the one time may have an overwhelming effect on the audience. It would be the case of giving them too much to swallow in one go.
It crossed my mind, but the two albums are so different that it could be a different band. It's not like it's two hours of the same kind of music. 'Damnation' is like forty minutes long, and sounds totally unlike anything we have ever done in the past. It could be a different band pretty much. It really didn't worry me that much.
- The last time I spoke to Mikael [just after the release of 'Blackwater Park'], he mentioned that the band had only conducted three full band rehearsals before heading into the studio. Much to my surprise [and astonishment], the number was lower for 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation'.
It was only one rehearsal this time. We went through the tricky part, but we had a lot of time in the studio working that out too. I guess it sounds weird, but we've been doing it like that since 'Still Life'. That was also recorded with just one rehearsal before heading into the studio. We're getting used to the fact that we're working a lot of the bits and pieces out in the studio. It's kind of refreshing to work that way because the material doesn't get old to the composer. We're so into the music that we want to surprise ourselves a little bit. When the finished album is out there, we don't know exactly what's on there ourselves. You kind of forget what you've done in the studio. It's like you're a fan and you get the new album from one of your favourite bands. It's pretty interesting to work that way. And it's also interesting to take those kinds of risks, the risk of failing.
- While the majority of press for 'Deliverance' has been in praise for the band, there are some that claim that the band aren't willing to deviate from their original sound and try something new for fear of losing their core fan base.
It's true you know. Of course we have a formula, and it's how I write the songs. I don't see the point of changing if you don't have anything good, or better to change into. We've been playing this kind of music for such a long time that it's become our style. Just as Iron Maiden has a style. But for 'Damnation', there's a drastic change in style for us. I also want to stress that it's a drastic change for that album, and not a drastic change for the future of Opeth. It might be, but I'm not sure at this stage. For the next album, after 'Damnation', it might be something completely different. As for the heavy albums after 'Deliverance', of course they're going to in some terms similar to each other because it's the same band, and the same guy is writing the music. It's only going to be slight changes depending on what influences we have at any given moment when I'm writing new songs.
- There's no denying that 'Deliverance' caters to long time fans of Opeth. However, with the more acoustic sounding 'Damnation', the possibility of it being their biggest seller and bringing a whole host of new fans to the world of Opeth isn't out of the question.
You know I think it probably will sell more copies, if it's available to those people and if it's promoted as a non extreme metal album. I've already done a couple of weird interviews that I wouldn't have done, had it been for 'Deliverance' or any of the earlier albums. I recently did an interview with a big blues magazine from England. He was asking me questions, 'O.K. So why has Opeth become a blues band?' I was a bit surprised because I'm fairly influenced by the blues, but it's not like it's a blues album! I think interviews like that will help maybe get a little more radio play and stuff like that. I think a lot of new people should get into Opeth with the 'Damnation' album. I always thought that there have been parts in Opeth's music that a lot of people could like, and not only metal people. You just see that from what Porcupine Tree did for us. People that are into Porcupine tree, and have never heard a death metal band before, seem to like Opeth now. That was simply from Steven producing our album. I speak to loads of Porcupine Tree fans, and they always tell me that they never listened to metal before. It just goes to show that extreme metal is not as unmusical as some metal fans would like to have it.
- Steven's influence, although not as clear to same, more evident on 'Deliverance' than what it was on 'Blackwater Park'. Not only has Steven helped out on the vocal passages, but he also appears to have helped out on the instrumentation.
Yes, that's true. I think we brought it up an extra step this time around. On 'Blackwater Park', as it was his first production job for Opeth obviously, I think that he may have felt that he didn't want to take up too much space. But this time around, when he came down to the studio, we knew each other better, and we could start work instantly. I was very tired by the time he came in down to the studio, and he helped out a lot. I had pretty much most of the vocal lines completed, but he helped out a lot with the vocal harmonies, some of the keyboards and some weird effects and stuff like that. He appeared a little bit more than he did on 'Blackwater Park'. But on 'Damnation', he's all over that album.
- Mikael mentioned to me last time that the melodic vocals were the hardest part of the album to make, and that doing death metal vocals were something he compared to as 'rapping'. The clean vocals on 'Deliverance' are certainly a marked improvement on previous albums, but Mikael still feels there's a long way to go yet.
It's a very big challenge. Firstly I want to improve my singing with every new release, and secondly, you want to have vocal lines that are just perfect. Maybe even vocal harmonies that are perfect. When we start with the vocals, I subconsciously know that I have to do my best. It's pretty much the most important thing about the whole recording. It goes for both styles of vocals too. Even though I know the screaming technique so well now, I'm still eager to make it even more brutal than ever before. When it comes to the clean vocals, I just want it to be delicate and beautiful and the best I've ever done. Every time I record, I want the best vocals ever! [Laughs] Since I'm not Ronnie James Dio, it's always going to be a bit of stress before I start with the vocal session. You never know how it's going to turn out at the end of the day, but with Steve's help, it's a big help. It's really comfortable to work with him.
- While Steven is credited with co-producing 'Blackwater Park', 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation', his role is limited to areas that his talent are best put to use.
He's not even there for the recording of the death metal vocals. You know, he's not actually involved in the entire production. For all three of the albums, he came to the studio once we have recorded all the drums, guitars and bass. He helps out with the lead guitars, the clean vocals and on 'Damnation's case, the keyboards too.
- Mikael seems comfortable with all his creative energies going solely in Opeth [Bloodbath's 2002 release 'Resurrection Through Carnage' doesn't count as nearly all the material was entirely written by Katatonia's Jonas Renske], but talk has come up about a project forming between Steven and Mikael.
We talk about that all the time, and that's probably going to be my next thing. After all the stuff I've done with Opeth with the recording of two new albums, and all the touring we're going to do, I think we need a lot of time away from each other. That's when I'm going to concentrate on doing something together with Steven. He has a couple of songs that didn't make it to the last Porcupine Tree album [2002's 'In Absentia'] because the other guys in the band thought they were too heavy. We might do something with those. Especially the songs called 'Cut Ribbon'. Steven said he wanted to record it with me. I think we're going to start out with that track and try and write some new material after that.
- Before the collaboration goes ahead though, there's quite a bit of touring that needs to be completed first. Then there's another tour in support of 'Damnation'.
I think we have a two week break in between the tours, in which we have rehearsal schedules for the 'Damnation' tour. But it's not a lot of rest to be honest. I don't see really how we're going to make it! [Laughs] We put it on ourselves pretty much, because of the decision to make two albums. Somehow we have to make it work, but there are a lot of things coming up. We have to do all this touring for 'Deliverance'. By the end of this tour, 'Damnation' comes out, and we have to do press for that, and then tour for that album. It's a lot of work coming up. With the 'Damnation' tour, we plan to play all the songs from the album, as well as doing remakes of elderly mellow tracks. We're thinking of doing things like 'Face Of Melinda', 'The Night And The Silent Water', 'Harvest', 'To Bid You Farewell' and things like that. We're going to bring in a keyboard player, because, as I said, there are a lot of vintage keyboards on 'Damnation'. We're going to have Per Wiberg from the Spiritual Beggars with us. So we're going to concentrate only on the mellow material. It's almost like we have two parallel careers. One is an extreme metal band, and one is a mellow progressive seventies influenced band.
- That parallel career that Mikael mentions looks set to become a permanent thing too.
What I think is going to happen is like has happened with 'Damnation'. Mainstream people will listen to 'Damnation', and like it, and find out that we're actually an extreme metal band. They're pretty much going to be bound to pick up a copy of 'Deliverance', 'Blackwater Park' or any of our earlier albums. I think most of those people are going to like it eventually too. Even though some people might think it's a weird thing for us to do one soft and one heavy album side by side, at the end of the day to be quite honest, I think it's a pretty smart business move! [Laughs] We'll see what happens. I don't know, and to be quite honest, I don't care. I try not to think about it too much about it to be honest. Al I know is that, I personally love both styles. For me, it's not a problem to cross over. It never has been a problem for me, and as for the future of music in Opeth, I have no idea what's going to happen next.
- Travis Smith [who has worked with Opeth and numerous artists over the years] designed both the 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation' covers artwork. The association is anything but clear-cut on both sides when coming up with exact ideas.
I had the idea for the picture for both the covers, but that was pretty much it. I told him about how I wanted a picture that was like a bedroom, with the old furniture. I wanted a very dark, melancholic picture. That's pretty much all I told him, and that's the picture he came up with for the cover and the pictures in the booklet. I like to just give him rough ideas for what we want on the covers, and let him do the rest. He's the artist after all. I want it to be his view, but only influenced by me! [Laughs] The cover for 'Damnation' is very similar to 'Deliverance' actually. It's a picture he sent, and could well have ended up in the 'Deliverance' booklet. We thought it was such a good picture that we decided it should be the cover for 'Damnation'. It's very similar packaging to 'Deliverance', only a bit lighter in colour, whiter actually.
- Opeth have always been very cryptic in regards to their lyrics and album titles. However, the titles for both 'Deliverance' and 'Damnation' are a little more straightforward than at first thought.
It's exactly as you said, one is a 'Ying' and the other a 'Yang' sort of thing. That was the idea from the beginning. The original idea was to actually call the albums 'Deliverance Part I' and 'II', and to have the same cover, but to have one very dark, and one very light. So it's not like we're very far away from the original idea. When I came up with the song title 'Deliverance', I thought it was a good title for the album. That song is very representable for the whole feel of the album. As for 'Damnation', we just wanted the opposite. A friend of mine asked me what the opposite of deliverance was, and straight away I said it was damnation. We all kind of looked at each other, and it was like, 'Yeah. That's the other title!' I like the fact that 'Damnation' is more like a metal title, yet we chose to have the title for our mellow album.
- And like 'Blackwater Park', the title 'The Master's Apprentices' is another salute to another long gone group.
Yes, that was my tribute to Australia. I love that band, so the title had to end up there sometime. I have three of their albums, and as you already know, I only buy vinyl these days. I remember hearing the band all those years ago, and I always thought that it was a really good name for a band. So I basically just ripped it off.
- Which then leads up to the upcoming tour of Australia.
It's one of those places in the world we've all be longing to go, but never could afford it to go there on private cash. Going there on tour is something we all look forward to more than anything else we have ever done. Australia is like…the end of the world! [laughs] Obviously we have loads and loads of fans that have been longing to see us, especially going by the amount of e-mails I get from Australia. We're playing in Perth now too, which is cool. We got so much hate e-mail because we weren't playing there originally.
I think the gigs themselves are going to be good. On top of that, it's like a dream for us to go over there as tourists. We want to see the country and meet the people. Personally I'm very interested in the wildlife. I'm looking forward to doing a bit of safari sight seeing! [laughs] There's nothing in particular I want to see while I'm down there, because I want to see everything. I'd be intrigued just watching a spider crawl up the wall. We're going to be flying every day, because our schedule is pretty much packed. I think Peter has already decided he's going to stay in Australia a few days after all the gigs are finished. I haven't decided yet. It all depends on how much time we have left and what follows after the tour of Australia. It's like once you're there you have to make the best out of it. If we're able to stay a few extra days, then that's a good idea. We're all very hyped up about the whole Australia trip.
I would like to personally thank Mikael Åkerfeldt for his generous time, and Brooke Harry [Zomba Records] for making it possible.
Tuesday, 16 September 2003
Peter Lindgren - Interview by Dark Angel (16 Sep 2003)
I had a chance to chat with Peter Lindgren [guitars] after their second to last show of the tour, at the B Complex in Portland. They soon would be ending their Damnation tour and be heading back home to Sweden for a well deserved four weeks break. Peter was kind enough to share with me some of his thoughts and opinions. I'd like to thank him for his time, patience and openness.
- The Damnation tour is obviously quite different from tours you've done in the past, What is it about this tour that you particularly like?
Yea, first of all this is a change from what we usually do. I mean we've been touring since January, and after a while each time you get out on tour you don't really look forward to it, but this time around we did twelve new songs. That were never done before and they're all mellow more or less, so it was an important change. Just to be out on the road and to be doing something different, it was refreshing. We did put out two albums at the same time, and they're both of equal importance, so this is like when we're supposed to promote this [Damnation] but we're not going to do it extensively as we did with Deliverance, but it's a nice refreshing change.
- Yeah, something different than you've done before.
Exactly.
- Do you have much spare time when you're on the road and if so; how do you occupy your time?
There's a lot of time to kill. Usually we travel on this bus in between the cities, so you're stuck on the bus. So what do you do? Maybe you listen to music, or you have a book, watch television, if it works. You know, have a couple of drinks. When we actualy come to the cities we have a little schedule of sound checks, interviews maybe, and it depends, I mean we had a day off in San Francisco yesterday. For some that can be a kind of tourist thing. But most of the time we come into the cities and we haven't ever seen it, you know, and you have like an hour and you don't have a car with you, so your stuck with your legs and you have to walk.
- Wouldn't it be nice if you had a little tour guide.
That would be nice. Also there are times where you could be really hung over and you don't want to really do anything, you know. But if you're in Paris, for example, we've done Paris several times and the first time you didn't want to spoil it by being hung over. That was the same for San Francisco, I really wanted to be the tourist. So it depends, there's always a lot of time to kill but almost always, it's on the bus, which is boring.
- So that prohibits you from doing more of the city type things.
Yea, there's always a schedule that you have to follow which is bad because you can't get out for five hours and do New York, unless you skip the sound check. Then again the cities that you want to see, those are important cities most of the time, so you don't want to skip the sound check because the gig's going to be big. So there's always a catch 22 sort of thing.
- Do you have any funny, interesting or embarrassing stories that have happened to you while on this tour that you'd be willing to share?
This tour nothing much has actually happened. We don't share a bus with Porcupine, because they have their own bus. The most embarrassing stories or funny stories always come up when there's two bands on the bus. This one [tour], now we know each other so well on this bus, there's nothing really exciting that ever happens. It's like if you know your friends for a long time it's not going to be really exciting. It's when you come together with people that you don't know, and you get somebody really drunk for example, that's when things happen. And this tour's only been three weeks long so it hasn't happened much that I can think of right now or that I can tell on tape.
- Well sometimes in tight quarters, people can surprise you and the people that you don't know, it's always fascinating to meet them.
But that's the most intriguing thing, I like touring with other bands on the tour bus because... It is nice to be on your own because there's a lot of free space, you don't bump into people a lot of the time but it is also a bit boring because I've been on tour with these guys for almost seven months now so I know exactly what's going on all of the time. So you know, Martin is in the back lounge, Mike is up front or will go to bed early, so it's always the same story. But when you're on tour with Nevermore for example or Paradise Lost, with everybody getting fucked up all of the time, because it pushes us more and more, you know every night you want to see... I wonder if King Kong's going to get really drunk and piss himself or something.
- Get a video camera
Yeah! Exactly, but you know you don't want to see Mike really drunk because you've seen it so many times already.
- What has the audience's response been like so far on this tour, have people been expecting you to play some of the heavier Opeth tunes, or have they been more excepting of the mellow set?
The first couple of shows, I think that the promotion wasn't so good, so some people didn't know that it was Damnation. But our fans are on the internet all the time so now they even know the set list that we do, so there's no surprises anymore. There's always people screaming for Demon of the Fall or heavier songs, but that's always going to happen, it's always that way. It was more in the beginning. Now they know that we do Damnation, which is a good thing because people are more... You know when we do heavy songs there's a bit more moshing going on and people are going crazy or what ever. Now you can actually see people closing their eyes, singing along, which is a nice kind of thing, it's different. Also, I mean, a lot of people have come up to us and say it's really good, but I guess the people that don't like it, don't come up to us and say it.
- Yea, somebody probably wouldn't come up to you and...
To tell you "hey, this sucked"
- It would take a really rude person probably...
Yeah, you know, and nobody has actually said that yet...
- Well that's good, 'cause it doesn't...
But there must be some people that don't like it, there's been a bit of complaining...
- Some people who are more like into the harder style...
Yeah, you know, and they go out onto the internet and see... "Well, they didn't do Demon of the Fall; bla bla bla". Well we've done it three times already in the U.S. so there's no point in doing it again.
- Yeah, exactly, we're all up for a change. With this being your most extensive tour yet, putting out two albums back to back, what kind of impact has it had on the growth of the band? Has it really pulled you guys together, more ambition? I mean you guys are insanely ambitious anyways, that's obvious.
I don't know, I mean we are pretty close and tight as a band, we don't actually argue because we know when you see that somebody's pissed off you don't push him, you just step back and if you are pissed off you just step back your self because you don't want to create a fuss. I don't know what's going to happen musicallly. This is the first time we've toured heavily, and we haven't written anything after this. It depends on what's going to happen next, but I guess we're real tight as a band and as persons, you know. To tight maybe, because when we get back home the last thing we do is call each other, which is a bad thing because we're usually friends. But now we spend so much time together, so the last people I want to see when I get back home is them three guys. So, when we look back at it, lets say when this touring is done and we have a proper break from each other, then it's probably going to be a really bonding thing, you know. But as soon as I get back now it's like "See you, bye"
- You're off and ready to do other things. What's the driving force behind the making of Damnation? Is there any specific thing, event or concept that you're really trying to apply?
Actually first of all, we wanted to do a heavier album as a sequel to Blackwater Park, but Mike had a lot of mellow stuff that he didn't know what to do with. So somebody came up with the idea to put out two albums. Which one would be a mellow album.
- Which I think is brilliant.
Yea, it was Jonas of Katatonia, it was his idea. It is a good idea and from that point on when we started working on that from that perspective it was easy to do it actually. But the album is actually more a tribute to all of our influences. Not only the metal influences, but the influences that sometimes shine through on the heaver albums, but this is more obvious. There's a lot of Nick Drake, a lot of Pink Floyd things going on, so it's an easy way to... It's a bit like paying respect to those bands. We used melotrones for the first time, a lot of our favorite bands of all time used keyboards. We don't have a keyboard player so that we couldn't do, but now we thought we'd just put everything in this album.
- Do you ever listen to 80's bands, like Depeche Mode?
Yea, I'm the guy who's mostly into the Cure, Depeche Mode the 80's stuff...
- I kind of got the hint of a little Depeche Mode in there. I didn't want to say that it was, but I was just curious. ...
There could be. I'm probably the heaviest Depeche Mode fan in this band but everybody's got some songs that they really like.
- Well that's really cool that you've kind of thrown that all together. Does the band have a favorite album or song that they like to preform?
Well, I guess we all have our favorites. My favorite to perform is probably any new song, that we haven't done live before. The least favorites are the standards that we have to do, like Advent we've done so many times, we're going to try to change that now. We played Master's Apprentice's once, in Germany, that was pretty fun because it was like a brand new experience. Before this tour, all these new songs were fun to play, now it's like "alright we've done this a hundred times".
- Gotta make a new album.
Yea, gotta make a new album. Deliverance is a good song to play and Face of Melinda is fun to play because the more that's going on the more fun it is to play. I actually like Demon of the Fall because it's a blast. It's the last song that we do on the regular set so, you know that you can just bang your head five minutes and then get on. So, that's a good song to.
- Can you think of a certain show that you've played that stands out in you memory as a favorite, and if so, for what reason?
There are several shows. I don't know if there's a specific greatest one, or what ever. There's been a few in the U.S., actualy quite many. On this tour, the LA show was the best audience wise and Chicago was probably next to that. The first Milwaukee show that we did in 2000 was great because we didn't even know that we had any U.S. fans.
- Was that for Blackwater Park?
No, it was before that, it was for Still Life. We had borrowed equipment and everything, it was just a mess, and then we entered the stage and there was 2000 people screaming. We had to hush them, you know, make them quiet because we couldn't hear what we were doing. We did a great show in Sydney once this year. Milan is always really good, in Italy, but I think in general the U.S. is our greatest country to play.
- How come, I'm just curious?
Well, just you know, I think the fan base is a bit bigger in general in the U.S.. There are parts in Europe where we've done well like Italy, down south and England but Sweden is shit. [for shows]
- Are you serious?
I am serious, yeah, and U.S. in general is really good, you know.
- I am completely shocked.
I don't know, I mean, we get a lot of respect in Sweden, like we won the Grammy this year. But when we play shows, everyone in Stockholm, which is our own city, people don't fucking care. A lot of people are in bands and they go, "Well, I'm in a band to so I don't give a fuck".
- I've read somewhere that the [Swedish] government will fund a band...
That's not true. I've heard it so many times. Now we got a rehearsal room, our first rehearsal room in a long time. Like on this tour now and we had to pay a lot for it. There's a lot of band rehearsal rooms, but we had to struggle to get one and it's fucking expensive. There's this place we can go when you're a kid and you can borrow instruments for a while you can borrow a rehearsal room, but then you need to be on a really basic level. Instruments are expensive. I think maybe ten years ago people were rich in Sweden, you know it's a wealthy country, but it's gone down now a bit so... It's not like the government will support, it's the opposite way around. If you are a musician you are like, just outside the system, you know, but that's when it comes to us for example. Pear, the keyboard player, he's got like uh... If you make it right you can get support from the government. He's got support because he's like a cultural person, you know, but I"ve never heard of that myself. You know so it doesn't happen for everybody, he's been around for a long time.
- Are you happy with the success of the band so far, and what kind of hopes do you have for the future?
Yes I am happy. Definitely, I mean, on each album that we do, it's been going a bit slow actually. I'd hope that when we recorded our first album... We thought that we were the greatest band in the world, but nothing happened. So now, each album we get a better reception, we get played for more people, what ever, sell more records, all that. So it's getting better with each album, which is good. I mean, when we start going downwards I want us to quit on the top, you know, but so far it's just gone up hill. But you know, if you'd asked me that question ten years ago when I wanted to be part of the greatest band of all time selling the most records and everything... That's not going to happen anymore, we don't care for commercial success really. It's a good thing that we have a bit of a reputation as a quality band, you know, we have a lot of people that respect us. If we can keep that, that's good and if we can keep improving and continue to do good music and if we grow as a band and get more people to our shows that good, so you feel like you're rewarded every time. It's not that it's going down, playing the same metal show over and over every year, now that would be really boring. I don't really hope for much. We've been in this band for such a long time where we can have a tour bus and your own bed and everything, that's fine.
- You won the Grammy though and you don't feel ...
You know, a Grammy's just the same as any other thing, it means a lot in one way but it doesn't mean anything in another way. Because I don't think that we're a better band now than we were three years ago, but we have a good back up from the record label. They nominated us. So it's just a record label prize, if you're with the right people you can get nominated and win. It is a bit of a kick in the balls for people who actually didn't know about us. In Flames for example was sure that they'd win, but we won.
- Is that some kind of a rivalry type thing?
It's a friendship rivalry, we're all friends with them.
- That's what I figured.
But they're always a step ahead of us. As soon as we achieve something, and you talk to them, they're like " well we did that last season". They're always a step ahead of us, so now we've won the Grammy. They've never won it, which is nice. We also won another prize, which is a radio prize, which is actually only based on quality so that's more important. It's called the P3, which is the radio channel. We won that too, we just took it from In Flames, who was also nominated. But the good thing about these silly prizes is that you get your name out, everybody knows about them. So if you have a Grammy you can call up a clothing company, like I did a couple of weeks ago and say like, "We won the Grammy, do you want to endorse us for clothes"? They were like, "Okay". So I went into this store and I'm like, "I want this shirt, or what ever, and these pants". But it was only because we won the Grammy. So they probably checked the list and were like, "Oh yes". My mom, she would go like, "Well you're on tour now, that's great, but listen to me now...", but then she talks about herself , or what ever. Now we won the Grammy, so she's like, "You won the Grammy"! She was really excited about all that. She loves Damnation. She doesn't like the heavy stuff, of course you know. The Grammy prize has to sides. It's a record label prize that doesn't mean anything, but then you get your name out and it's easy to get good deals in Sweden for example. So we're going to do a bit of a Scandinavian tour now. We played Stockholm, a small city and a festival, that's all we've done in seven years in Sweden. So that's probably why we don't have a name there because we never cared about Sweden.
We talked a little bit more about the ins and outs of the Metal scenes in both Sweden and the US and also about bands that we like and dislike, but I wont go into detail about that. We do have a mutual liking for Tool though. I would again like to thank Opeth and Peter Lindgren for their time.
- The Damnation tour is obviously quite different from tours you've done in the past, What is it about this tour that you particularly like?
Yea, first of all this is a change from what we usually do. I mean we've been touring since January, and after a while each time you get out on tour you don't really look forward to it, but this time around we did twelve new songs. That were never done before and they're all mellow more or less, so it was an important change. Just to be out on the road and to be doing something different, it was refreshing. We did put out two albums at the same time, and they're both of equal importance, so this is like when we're supposed to promote this [Damnation] but we're not going to do it extensively as we did with Deliverance, but it's a nice refreshing change.
- Yeah, something different than you've done before.
Exactly.
- Do you have much spare time when you're on the road and if so; how do you occupy your time?
There's a lot of time to kill. Usually we travel on this bus in between the cities, so you're stuck on the bus. So what do you do? Maybe you listen to music, or you have a book, watch television, if it works. You know, have a couple of drinks. When we actualy come to the cities we have a little schedule of sound checks, interviews maybe, and it depends, I mean we had a day off in San Francisco yesterday. For some that can be a kind of tourist thing. But most of the time we come into the cities and we haven't ever seen it, you know, and you have like an hour and you don't have a car with you, so your stuck with your legs and you have to walk.
- Wouldn't it be nice if you had a little tour guide.
That would be nice. Also there are times where you could be really hung over and you don't want to really do anything, you know. But if you're in Paris, for example, we've done Paris several times and the first time you didn't want to spoil it by being hung over. That was the same for San Francisco, I really wanted to be the tourist. So it depends, there's always a lot of time to kill but almost always, it's on the bus, which is boring.
- So that prohibits you from doing more of the city type things.
Yea, there's always a schedule that you have to follow which is bad because you can't get out for five hours and do New York, unless you skip the sound check. Then again the cities that you want to see, those are important cities most of the time, so you don't want to skip the sound check because the gig's going to be big. So there's always a catch 22 sort of thing.
- Do you have any funny, interesting or embarrassing stories that have happened to you while on this tour that you'd be willing to share?
This tour nothing much has actually happened. We don't share a bus with Porcupine, because they have their own bus. The most embarrassing stories or funny stories always come up when there's two bands on the bus. This one [tour], now we know each other so well on this bus, there's nothing really exciting that ever happens. It's like if you know your friends for a long time it's not going to be really exciting. It's when you come together with people that you don't know, and you get somebody really drunk for example, that's when things happen. And this tour's only been three weeks long so it hasn't happened much that I can think of right now or that I can tell on tape.
- Well sometimes in tight quarters, people can surprise you and the people that you don't know, it's always fascinating to meet them.
But that's the most intriguing thing, I like touring with other bands on the tour bus because... It is nice to be on your own because there's a lot of free space, you don't bump into people a lot of the time but it is also a bit boring because I've been on tour with these guys for almost seven months now so I know exactly what's going on all of the time. So you know, Martin is in the back lounge, Mike is up front or will go to bed early, so it's always the same story. But when you're on tour with Nevermore for example or Paradise Lost, with everybody getting fucked up all of the time, because it pushes us more and more, you know every night you want to see... I wonder if King Kong's going to get really drunk and piss himself or something.
- Get a video camera
Yeah! Exactly, but you know you don't want to see Mike really drunk because you've seen it so many times already.
- What has the audience's response been like so far on this tour, have people been expecting you to play some of the heavier Opeth tunes, or have they been more excepting of the mellow set?
The first couple of shows, I think that the promotion wasn't so good, so some people didn't know that it was Damnation. But our fans are on the internet all the time so now they even know the set list that we do, so there's no surprises anymore. There's always people screaming for Demon of the Fall or heavier songs, but that's always going to happen, it's always that way. It was more in the beginning. Now they know that we do Damnation, which is a good thing because people are more... You know when we do heavy songs there's a bit more moshing going on and people are going crazy or what ever. Now you can actually see people closing their eyes, singing along, which is a nice kind of thing, it's different. Also, I mean, a lot of people have come up to us and say it's really good, but I guess the people that don't like it, don't come up to us and say it.
- Yea, somebody probably wouldn't come up to you and...
To tell you "hey, this sucked"
- It would take a really rude person probably...
Yeah, you know, and nobody has actually said that yet...
- Well that's good, 'cause it doesn't...
But there must be some people that don't like it, there's been a bit of complaining...
- Some people who are more like into the harder style...
Yeah, you know, and they go out onto the internet and see... "Well, they didn't do Demon of the Fall; bla bla bla". Well we've done it three times already in the U.S. so there's no point in doing it again.
- Yeah, exactly, we're all up for a change. With this being your most extensive tour yet, putting out two albums back to back, what kind of impact has it had on the growth of the band? Has it really pulled you guys together, more ambition? I mean you guys are insanely ambitious anyways, that's obvious.
I don't know, I mean we are pretty close and tight as a band, we don't actually argue because we know when you see that somebody's pissed off you don't push him, you just step back and if you are pissed off you just step back your self because you don't want to create a fuss. I don't know what's going to happen musicallly. This is the first time we've toured heavily, and we haven't written anything after this. It depends on what's going to happen next, but I guess we're real tight as a band and as persons, you know. To tight maybe, because when we get back home the last thing we do is call each other, which is a bad thing because we're usually friends. But now we spend so much time together, so the last people I want to see when I get back home is them three guys. So, when we look back at it, lets say when this touring is done and we have a proper break from each other, then it's probably going to be a really bonding thing, you know. But as soon as I get back now it's like "See you, bye"
- You're off and ready to do other things. What's the driving force behind the making of Damnation? Is there any specific thing, event or concept that you're really trying to apply?
Actually first of all, we wanted to do a heavier album as a sequel to Blackwater Park, but Mike had a lot of mellow stuff that he didn't know what to do with. So somebody came up with the idea to put out two albums. Which one would be a mellow album.
- Which I think is brilliant.
Yea, it was Jonas of Katatonia, it was his idea. It is a good idea and from that point on when we started working on that from that perspective it was easy to do it actually. But the album is actually more a tribute to all of our influences. Not only the metal influences, but the influences that sometimes shine through on the heaver albums, but this is more obvious. There's a lot of Nick Drake, a lot of Pink Floyd things going on, so it's an easy way to... It's a bit like paying respect to those bands. We used melotrones for the first time, a lot of our favorite bands of all time used keyboards. We don't have a keyboard player so that we couldn't do, but now we thought we'd just put everything in this album.
- Do you ever listen to 80's bands, like Depeche Mode?
Yea, I'm the guy who's mostly into the Cure, Depeche Mode the 80's stuff...
- I kind of got the hint of a little Depeche Mode in there. I didn't want to say that it was, but I was just curious. ...
There could be. I'm probably the heaviest Depeche Mode fan in this band but everybody's got some songs that they really like.
- Well that's really cool that you've kind of thrown that all together. Does the band have a favorite album or song that they like to preform?
Well, I guess we all have our favorites. My favorite to perform is probably any new song, that we haven't done live before. The least favorites are the standards that we have to do, like Advent we've done so many times, we're going to try to change that now. We played Master's Apprentice's once, in Germany, that was pretty fun because it was like a brand new experience. Before this tour, all these new songs were fun to play, now it's like "alright we've done this a hundred times".
- Gotta make a new album.
Yea, gotta make a new album. Deliverance is a good song to play and Face of Melinda is fun to play because the more that's going on the more fun it is to play. I actually like Demon of the Fall because it's a blast. It's the last song that we do on the regular set so, you know that you can just bang your head five minutes and then get on. So, that's a good song to.
- Can you think of a certain show that you've played that stands out in you memory as a favorite, and if so, for what reason?
There are several shows. I don't know if there's a specific greatest one, or what ever. There's been a few in the U.S., actualy quite many. On this tour, the LA show was the best audience wise and Chicago was probably next to that. The first Milwaukee show that we did in 2000 was great because we didn't even know that we had any U.S. fans.
- Was that for Blackwater Park?
No, it was before that, it was for Still Life. We had borrowed equipment and everything, it was just a mess, and then we entered the stage and there was 2000 people screaming. We had to hush them, you know, make them quiet because we couldn't hear what we were doing. We did a great show in Sydney once this year. Milan is always really good, in Italy, but I think in general the U.S. is our greatest country to play.
- How come, I'm just curious?
Well, just you know, I think the fan base is a bit bigger in general in the U.S.. There are parts in Europe where we've done well like Italy, down south and England but Sweden is shit. [for shows]
- Are you serious?
I am serious, yeah, and U.S. in general is really good, you know.
- I am completely shocked.
I don't know, I mean, we get a lot of respect in Sweden, like we won the Grammy this year. But when we play shows, everyone in Stockholm, which is our own city, people don't fucking care. A lot of people are in bands and they go, "Well, I'm in a band to so I don't give a fuck".
- I've read somewhere that the [Swedish] government will fund a band...
That's not true. I've heard it so many times. Now we got a rehearsal room, our first rehearsal room in a long time. Like on this tour now and we had to pay a lot for it. There's a lot of band rehearsal rooms, but we had to struggle to get one and it's fucking expensive. There's this place we can go when you're a kid and you can borrow instruments for a while you can borrow a rehearsal room, but then you need to be on a really basic level. Instruments are expensive. I think maybe ten years ago people were rich in Sweden, you know it's a wealthy country, but it's gone down now a bit so... It's not like the government will support, it's the opposite way around. If you are a musician you are like, just outside the system, you know, but that's when it comes to us for example. Pear, the keyboard player, he's got like uh... If you make it right you can get support from the government. He's got support because he's like a cultural person, you know, but I"ve never heard of that myself. You know so it doesn't happen for everybody, he's been around for a long time.
- Are you happy with the success of the band so far, and what kind of hopes do you have for the future?
Yes I am happy. Definitely, I mean, on each album that we do, it's been going a bit slow actually. I'd hope that when we recorded our first album... We thought that we were the greatest band in the world, but nothing happened. So now, each album we get a better reception, we get played for more people, what ever, sell more records, all that. So it's getting better with each album, which is good. I mean, when we start going downwards I want us to quit on the top, you know, but so far it's just gone up hill. But you know, if you'd asked me that question ten years ago when I wanted to be part of the greatest band of all time selling the most records and everything... That's not going to happen anymore, we don't care for commercial success really. It's a good thing that we have a bit of a reputation as a quality band, you know, we have a lot of people that respect us. If we can keep that, that's good and if we can keep improving and continue to do good music and if we grow as a band and get more people to our shows that good, so you feel like you're rewarded every time. It's not that it's going down, playing the same metal show over and over every year, now that would be really boring. I don't really hope for much. We've been in this band for such a long time where we can have a tour bus and your own bed and everything, that's fine.
- You won the Grammy though and you don't feel ...
You know, a Grammy's just the same as any other thing, it means a lot in one way but it doesn't mean anything in another way. Because I don't think that we're a better band now than we were three years ago, but we have a good back up from the record label. They nominated us. So it's just a record label prize, if you're with the right people you can get nominated and win. It is a bit of a kick in the balls for people who actually didn't know about us. In Flames for example was sure that they'd win, but we won.
- Is that some kind of a rivalry type thing?
It's a friendship rivalry, we're all friends with them.
- That's what I figured.
But they're always a step ahead of us. As soon as we achieve something, and you talk to them, they're like " well we did that last season". They're always a step ahead of us, so now we've won the Grammy. They've never won it, which is nice. We also won another prize, which is a radio prize, which is actually only based on quality so that's more important. It's called the P3, which is the radio channel. We won that too, we just took it from In Flames, who was also nominated. But the good thing about these silly prizes is that you get your name out, everybody knows about them. So if you have a Grammy you can call up a clothing company, like I did a couple of weeks ago and say like, "We won the Grammy, do you want to endorse us for clothes"? They were like, "Okay". So I went into this store and I'm like, "I want this shirt, or what ever, and these pants". But it was only because we won the Grammy. So they probably checked the list and were like, "Oh yes". My mom, she would go like, "Well you're on tour now, that's great, but listen to me now...", but then she talks about herself , or what ever. Now we won the Grammy, so she's like, "You won the Grammy"! She was really excited about all that. She loves Damnation. She doesn't like the heavy stuff, of course you know. The Grammy prize has to sides. It's a record label prize that doesn't mean anything, but then you get your name out and it's easy to get good deals in Sweden for example. So we're going to do a bit of a Scandinavian tour now. We played Stockholm, a small city and a festival, that's all we've done in seven years in Sweden. So that's probably why we don't have a name there because we never cared about Sweden.
We talked a little bit more about the ins and outs of the Metal scenes in both Sweden and the US and also about bands that we like and dislike, but I wont go into detail about that. We do have a mutual liking for Tool though. I would again like to thank Opeth and Peter Lindgren for their time.
Saturday, 10 May 2003
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Stacey Rosenbaum (10 May 2003)
The Refuge was honored to sit down and talk with Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth before their sound check on May 10, 2003 in Houston, Texas. Not quite two weeks into their three-week US tour, we wanted to catch up on how they were holding up. Upon arriving on their tour bus, we catch Mikael making a pot of coffee, and the remaining three sleeping in the back. We sit down to talk.
Many of our questions were derived from members of the Refuge, as a lot of us are big Opeth fans.
MR: How are y’all holding up on the tour, is it going well or has there been any complications?
MA: No, it’s been pretty good so far. The only problems we’ve run into is like maybe the venue is dirty, or the wedges on the stage are shitty. The crowds have been good so far. We enjoy the shows. People have been pretty good. We have this bus for ourselves now with the crew. It’s nice, it gives us some privacy, where before we always shared with other bands. It’s all good.
MR: Okay. Do y’all do anything to relax on tour?
MA: No. We just hang around all day waiting for the sound check, then wait for the gig. All the time in between is pretty much relaxation time.
MR: Like sitting around watching t.v?
MA: Yeah, but it’s not real, you don’t feel relaxed.
MR: I know Lacuna Coil is playing with y’all, are there any other bands?
MA: There is actually another band called Yakuza. They’ve done most of the gigs we’ve done so far. Then we have another band called Beyond The Embrace.
MR: Do y’all all get along?
MA: Yeah, we don’t see each other much, maybe hang out at the venue, or grab a beer after a show. We don’t share a bus, we haven’t gotten to know them. But they’re all cool guys…… and girl.
MR: Okay. We don’t really get to see y’all much here in the US, which we hope changes.
MA: Well, we play here more than anywhere in the world, especially this year. We have a total of four tours. This is our second tour, then we come back in July, then we have another one in September.
MR: Do y’all like touring in the US?
MA: Yeah.
MR: If you could tour with any band in this genre of music, who would it be?
MA: Well, our top band to tour with, because we think touring with them would be great for our image because they are huge, would be Tool. But we would probably never get that gig, but it would be a good thing for us. I think their fans might like us. I think we’re the kind of music they like. And we’re massive Tool fans. Metallica would be cool too.
MR: Yeah. I wish y’all were on the Summer Sanitarium tour with them.
MA: Yeah. We’re actually playing one gig with them. It’s at a festival.
MR: How did you get involved in music, and how old were you when you decided you wanted to do this?
MA: Pretty young I guess. I was into sports when I was younger. Soccer and (inaudible), but I’ve always been into heavy metal. I started playing a little bit of guitar when I was young, like 5 or 6, I got my first acoustic. But I didn’t really start until I got a high end guitar because it didn’t mean shit to me, because I was into heavy metal. I didn’t start for real until I got my first electric guitar. I was about 10 or 11.
MR: Who were your biggest influences?
MA: All sorts of music. All the old metal bands from the 70’s, 80’s. As well as the whole death metal scene in the late 80’s. Black metal bands, all the 60’s and 70’s psychedelia, progressive rock, modern rock, soul. Anything, we listen to different types of music. If I were to name off bands, probably Morbid Angel, Judas Priest, Zeppelin. All the rock bands you’ve probably never heard of. I’m a big collector, I collect vinyl from the era.
MR: What inspires y’all to be so unique and challenge clichés within the music scene?
MA: It wasn’t anything that triggered like “okay, we have to be different”. It was just a combination of all the influences that made us sound the way we do. I guess, you know, especially when I got into the whole classic rock thing. A way to rhyme music that had the long songs with a lot of dynamics going on. We obviously have the death/heavy metal background. Combining the modern things with extreme things. And from there it’s just been developing. Trying to keep up with what we’ve done in the past. But it’s not like we’re pushing ourselves hard, we have to change. I write the music at home, like I always have. It happens b… accident.
MR: Y’all have had several different members since Opeth began. Were your parting of ways amicable, and do y’all still stay in contact with prior members?
MA: No, it’s hard actually. Even though it’s a discrepancy parting with members, there’s a little bit of bad blood I guess. Not so much from our part, if I should fire someone I can’t be angry with them. Our first drummer was a childhood friend of mine, he quit the band. Ever since then we’ve lost contact. I don’t meet him that much anymore. I invited him to my wedding, I hope he will come there ya know? It’s pretty hard. It’s not like we’re enemies or anything, we’re still friends. But at the time there was probably a little friction.
MR: Is it difficult to play the lead guitar and sing?
MA: Sometimes. Some songs I regret writing because it’s so hard. But practicing I can pretty much do anything we’ve done.
MR: Do you or Peter come up with the riffs?
MA: I write all the music. But me and Peter wrote together for the first two albums. Mainly because we had two harmonies, two guitars playing totally differently, trading one riff or whatever so it was easier.
MR: So it’s all you, not a group effort, you do all the music and lyrics??
MA: Yeah, I do the music and the lyrics. But I’m not like “this is your part, this is your part, this is your part”. They all get to play, or change, especially the drummer, Martin Lopez. If I had a drum beat on a demo, if it was iffy I’d be like “do whatever you want”. As far as the main song, the arrangement, all the lyrics, obviously all involve the production man.
MR: How do you interchange your growling and singing and not miss a single note?
MA: I do miss. I fuck up a lot.
MR: I guess people don’t hear it.
MA: It’s weird. We played in Dallas the other day and I was choked for a long time, we hadn’t played until that. I sang really okay actually at that show, but the place was really really bad. And afterwards the guys from Lacuna Coil came up and told us “Strapping Young Lads and Meshugga, they’re two of my favorite bands and tonight you guys kicked their asses.” We’re like “what are you talking about, we stunk?”. But I think for me a live gig is not about, does not have to be perfect. It comes from some kind of energy, or, you know, we try to enjoy ourselves and hope that the crowd sees that.
MR: Do your vocal chords get fatigued?
MA: Yeah, sometimes. But no so much actually from the singing and screaming. When you’re on the tour you have a couple of beers, smoke a lot, stuff like that. You wake up with that (clears throat), but it’s not so bad. I lost my voice once in my whole career, on the road. We did an instrumental set once, without any vocals, we had the crowd singing all the songs.
MR: Oh how neat!
MA: It was pretty cool actually, but it was weird. Something you do once and never again. But I’m trying not to drink as much. Alcohol is the worst thing for my voice.
MR: Do you do any training or preparation for your voice?
MA: No. I probably should, but I don’t.
MR: So your voice is really something you were just gifted with.
MA: (laughter) If you want to put it that way. I just sing. I don’t consider myself as a fantastic singer, I just do my job. And it’s for Opeth, the band.
MR: Have y’all had any extensive training on your instruments or are you pretty much “self-taught”?
MA: Yeah. I had one guitar lesson actually. But that guitar player just wanted to show off. Peter I think has taken a few guitar lessons like years back before the band. Martin might have taken a few drum lessons, but he’s a teacher. He teaches kids.
MR: So, no classical guitar background?
MA: No, I was just into that stuff. I’m into guitar, regardless if you’re playing metal, or blues, jazz or classical. I love everything. I haven’t taken any lessons. I just listen to other bands and see how they’re playing.
MR: What was it like recording Damnation, that was just like completely different than everything else? (I love it by the way).
MA: Thanks. (laughter) The whole recording process of both albums, Deliverance and Damnation, was a bit complicated actually. We had so many problems. We put ourselves in the position where we slept on the floor in the studio for the whole duration of the recording. It was pretty bad, the whole recording. But as for Damnation, getting together to record the actual music was nice. But that album is pretty much a result of those influences I mentioned. I personally had my mind set on how it should sound. It was nice seeing it all come together to sound like a record from the 70’s.
MR: What inspires you to write your poetic lyrics? There are so many bands out there who stick with the “hate/kill/destroy” mentality. What inspires you to stay away from that?
MA: I don’t have any lyrical preference. I don’t read books. They don’t have anything to do with my lyrics. I pretty much read other band’s lyrics and get inspiration from there. I like nice work. I have a dictionary, checking out some words. Being Swedish there’s a lot of words that you’ve never heard. Just having single words can create an entire verse. I can get inspired from that single word and write something around that word. The last couple of albums I didn’t have a dictionary, I just wrote something like before, I had to be more personal because I couldn’t hide behind those words. I didn’t have a concept or anything, so I was just writing about something that happened to me.
MR: A lot of times the singing or lyrics of many bands seem to be crunched the fit the confines of their music. But y’all’s lyrics and vocals seem to just mesh and flow really well together. How do y’all achieve that?
MA: It’s all a matter of taste. I’m not saying that my style is the best in the world, but I try to write everything, that has anything remotely to do with this band (inaudible). And the same thing goes with the lyrics and how we use the vocals in the songs. Like you have a mellow part come in, there’s the mellow vocals, or just turn around and have a real aggressive riff that has clean nice mellow lines over that. With the long songs, I want to keep it interesting.
MR: A person on our message board says “You are not a run of the mill metal band, you create true art”. How long does it take y’all to do it? Does it take a long time to….
MA: to write the music? Yeah, it takes a long time actually. It does. It’s hard to say exactly how long it takes, because when I’m home, I play guitar every day. If I come up with something, I record it. And that’s the problem, it can take years. The two latest albums I started writing just before we went on the Blackwater Park tour here in the US in 2001. I think in the Springtime I started writing some of the songs off that, we recorded the albums in the Summer of 2002.
MR: How long did it take y’all to record Orchid?
MA: Twelve days. We recorded in only twelve days.
MR: Did it take a while to get all the music and lyrics ready for it?
MA: We’d been around for such a long time before that. That was recorded in 1994. We’ve been a band since 1990. And those four years in between, those songs were created, all the songs. A lot of the songs off the Morningrise album were also done during that period of time. When we went into the studio, we were ready! We had been rehearsing six times a week for all those years. When we recorded Orchid, it was like “this song-blah blah blah”, we mixed it up you know. Which was actually, to be quite honest, was a bit boring to get the final album. You know, you’ve got your first album, and you know exactly what’s on there. Everything was exactly as it sounded in rehearsal. But I think it’s a good debut album. But now we recorded a totally different one we’ve never rehearsed, never.
MR: You did the piano on Orchid didn’t you?
MA: No, that was our drummer, the one who quit the band.
MR: Silhouette is my favorite song.
MA: Yeah, it’s good. He’s good. I remember because he was great at the piano, but he was mostly playing boogie woogie. He said “Mike, I’ve got this song that maybe would be good”. He played it and I was like (opens eyes wide). I’ve never seen him play like that! And he actually did another that was supposed to be on the Morningrise album, but didn’t make it. It was a piano song and I was playing acoustic guitar with it. But it never got recorded.
MR: Wow, that would have been nice!
MA: It would have been fantastic!
MR: So there’s never really any disagreement on the stuff that you write with the other band members?
MA: No, not really. I love the fact that we don’t rehearse, no one knows the tracks. (inaudible). Something out of the ordinary, we may do something else with vocals or lead guitars or something.
(Peter Lindgren emerges from the back of the bus, but does not join us. He goes about getting coffee and breakfast/lunch.)
MR: Y’all have changed labels a couple of times. Is your current label a keeper?
MA: Yeah. I think so. They are really good, really supportive. I also like the fact that their roster, no two bands sound the same. They’ve got their nu metal band, boy band, they’ve got their glam rock band, and they’ve got us. All the bands are different on their label. All of them, even though I don’t like any of those bands, I still think that within their theme, they are quality. They’re doing a really good job, not only for us, but for all the bands on that label. We’re happy with them.
MR: The big thing for people to do these days is downloading music off of the internet. How do y’all feel about that?
MA: I’d much prefer them to buy the album of course. But I think if you’re a band that’s not huge, I think it might be a good thing. But I will never understand. I’m old school, I go out and buy my records. Never in my life have I downloaded a track. I want the whole package. I don’t want a shitty mp3 file with clicks. Even though I might get one good track off a cd, I’m still happy. It’s not a great loss if you spend a few dollars on a cd and it’s shit.
MR: Has your involvement in Bloodbath affected Opeth at all?
MA: No. My involvement in Bloodbath was pretty much non-existent. The first cd we did, I was there, we partied and did those songs. But for the recording I wasn’t involved. We did the songwriting process only because I was writing for Opeth. The only thing I did on the album as far as singing was one lyric. I wrote one lyric, I went down one day and did the vocals, six hours, and went back home. They wanted me to sing and I love the album. But Bloodbath is pretty much a rip-off of the Swedish/Stockholm scene of the late 80’s. But it’s a fantastic album.
MR: Y’all seem to present yourselves as very intelligent, artistic, very dedicated to your music and performance, without the media hype. A lot of bands love that, the media. Has this been purposeful for y’all?
MA: Not at all. I’ve never seen the reason why you should concentrate on anything else other than the music. With Opeth it’s always about the music. We don’t call up magazines. Whatever hype or whatever’s going on about us is entirely because the media wants to write about us. Because of our music.
MR: Do y’all have groupies?
MA: Yeah I guess we do, but I’m getting married and I don’t look for groupies. We’ve all got girlfriends. If you want it, it’s probably there.
MR: Do y’all like that?
MA: There’s nothing wrong when chicks come up to me and say they like me, but I don’t understand the whole concept of needing to fuck someone in a band.
MR: How do you feel about love in general?
MA: Love in general?! It’s one of my main resources of inspiration. It was pretty easy for me to call it love when I was in over my head. They always broke up with me though. But now it’s, my girlfriend I’ve got now, we’ve been together for five years, and it’s a fantastic relationship. I’ve never had it like this where you actually know you want to be with someone for the rest of your life. To find that in life, I don’t need groupies.
MR: Yeah. That’s hard to find anyway when you’re in that position of fame too.
MA: Yeah. We’re all kind of calm, mellow guys. We’re not fuckers really. All of us are in relationships and not looking to ruin anything.
MR: Do you have any religious or spiritual beliefs?
MA: No. I’m actually baptized, and I was confirmed too, but that was one of the things you did, everybody did it. But I didn’t have any beliefs. We went on this trip up to the North in Sweden, for confirmation, like this camp. We stayed there for a week and we read the Bible and we had to do our own prayers. But I brought my death metal album, I wasn’t into that whole thing at all. It was just pretty much a theme because once you got in the front, you got a lot of gifts. My sister did it, I saw she got money and I was like “yeah” you know. All my friends did it, so I went there. But I’ve never believed in anything, any religion at all.
MR: Do you have any comments on the political state of the world right now?
MA: Uhm, well, with all the wars, the war that’s been going on here…..obviously I’m trying to keep a low profile you understand. (inaudible) is wrong.
MR: Do you have any funny stories you can tell about your band mates?
MA: (points at Peter) He got a bottle in his head last night. (laughs) It was funny. We got a trash bin thrown on stage. But any band members, I can’t really remember. There was something really bad that happened to our bass player, but I don’t think he’d ever forgive me if I tell it. I can’t think of anything else right now.
MR: Out of all of your currently released records, which one is your favorite? And which one did you enjoy working on the most?
MA: The first one [Orchid] was enjoyable to record because it was short time, we were hungry, it was fun being in the recording studio for the first time. Damnation is probably my favorite record. My Arms Your Hearse is also another favorite of mine. Blackwater Park was fairly enjoyable to record. Deliverance has the most bad memories. I think all of them are good records. As far as favorites go, Damnation. My Arms Your Hearse, maybe Still Life?
MR: We know you just released Deliverance and Damnation, and we know we may be asking a hell of a lot right now, but how long until the next masterpiece?
MA: I think it might take a long time. We’ll be touring the whole year, and into the next year too. After this we’re going to have a long break, you know, do something else for a while. I can’t see anything else coming until, maybe recording in 2004. No, 2005!
MR: What might we expect?
MA: I haven’t written anything.
MR: Do you want it to be like your previous stuff, or something kind of close to Damnation?
MA: I don’t think it will be another record like Damnation, but I just haven’t written anything at all, so it’s hard to say.
MR: So we’re just all going to have to wait and be surprised.
MA: Yeah.
MR: Last question! Is there any message you would like to give all current Opeth fans, and new fans?
MA: For the fans that are already into Opeth, we’d obviously like to thank [them] for their support for the band. I hope they’ll stick around and I hope they find whatever we do in the future, they find it interesting. And we promise that we’ll continue doing high quality music. Just hoping they’ll stick around and wait for our next album whenever it is out. Come check us out on tour. Come see the band in July for the Damnation Tour. Since we’re not playing Damnation tonight. We’ll be doing that tour in July with Porcupine Tree here in the US to promote Damnation. Then we have another, longer tour in September. For the new fans - I don’t know what to say. If you’ve just gotten into Opeth, you have a lot of stuff to check out. Seven albums. Here’s hoping that the ones that get into the new album go back and check out the old ones and see where we’re coming from. Hopefully they will like that too.
MR: Thank you so much for talking to us. I can’t wait for the show tonight!
MA: Thank you. (grins and shakes my hand)
There are no words to express how much The Metal Refuge appreciates the opportunity that Mikael, Opeth, their management and publicity people have honored us with. We also want to thank the die hard Opeth fans at the Refuge for contributing to this interview with suggestions for questions. The Refuge will continue to spread the word about Opeth in every way we can.
Many of our questions were derived from members of the Refuge, as a lot of us are big Opeth fans.
MR: How are y’all holding up on the tour, is it going well or has there been any complications?
MA: No, it’s been pretty good so far. The only problems we’ve run into is like maybe the venue is dirty, or the wedges on the stage are shitty. The crowds have been good so far. We enjoy the shows. People have been pretty good. We have this bus for ourselves now with the crew. It’s nice, it gives us some privacy, where before we always shared with other bands. It’s all good.
MR: Okay. Do y’all do anything to relax on tour?
MA: No. We just hang around all day waiting for the sound check, then wait for the gig. All the time in between is pretty much relaxation time.
MR: Like sitting around watching t.v?
MA: Yeah, but it’s not real, you don’t feel relaxed.
MR: I know Lacuna Coil is playing with y’all, are there any other bands?
MA: There is actually another band called Yakuza. They’ve done most of the gigs we’ve done so far. Then we have another band called Beyond The Embrace.
MR: Do y’all all get along?
MA: Yeah, we don’t see each other much, maybe hang out at the venue, or grab a beer after a show. We don’t share a bus, we haven’t gotten to know them. But they’re all cool guys…… and girl.
MR: Okay. We don’t really get to see y’all much here in the US, which we hope changes.
MA: Well, we play here more than anywhere in the world, especially this year. We have a total of four tours. This is our second tour, then we come back in July, then we have another one in September.
MR: Do y’all like touring in the US?
MA: Yeah.
MR: If you could tour with any band in this genre of music, who would it be?
MA: Well, our top band to tour with, because we think touring with them would be great for our image because they are huge, would be Tool. But we would probably never get that gig, but it would be a good thing for us. I think their fans might like us. I think we’re the kind of music they like. And we’re massive Tool fans. Metallica would be cool too.
MR: Yeah. I wish y’all were on the Summer Sanitarium tour with them.
MA: Yeah. We’re actually playing one gig with them. It’s at a festival.
MR: How did you get involved in music, and how old were you when you decided you wanted to do this?
MA: Pretty young I guess. I was into sports when I was younger. Soccer and (inaudible), but I’ve always been into heavy metal. I started playing a little bit of guitar when I was young, like 5 or 6, I got my first acoustic. But I didn’t really start until I got a high end guitar because it didn’t mean shit to me, because I was into heavy metal. I didn’t start for real until I got my first electric guitar. I was about 10 or 11.
MR: Who were your biggest influences?
MA: All sorts of music. All the old metal bands from the 70’s, 80’s. As well as the whole death metal scene in the late 80’s. Black metal bands, all the 60’s and 70’s psychedelia, progressive rock, modern rock, soul. Anything, we listen to different types of music. If I were to name off bands, probably Morbid Angel, Judas Priest, Zeppelin. All the rock bands you’ve probably never heard of. I’m a big collector, I collect vinyl from the era.
MR: What inspires y’all to be so unique and challenge clichés within the music scene?
MA: It wasn’t anything that triggered like “okay, we have to be different”. It was just a combination of all the influences that made us sound the way we do. I guess, you know, especially when I got into the whole classic rock thing. A way to rhyme music that had the long songs with a lot of dynamics going on. We obviously have the death/heavy metal background. Combining the modern things with extreme things. And from there it’s just been developing. Trying to keep up with what we’ve done in the past. But it’s not like we’re pushing ourselves hard, we have to change. I write the music at home, like I always have. It happens b… accident.
MR: Y’all have had several different members since Opeth began. Were your parting of ways amicable, and do y’all still stay in contact with prior members?
MA: No, it’s hard actually. Even though it’s a discrepancy parting with members, there’s a little bit of bad blood I guess. Not so much from our part, if I should fire someone I can’t be angry with them. Our first drummer was a childhood friend of mine, he quit the band. Ever since then we’ve lost contact. I don’t meet him that much anymore. I invited him to my wedding, I hope he will come there ya know? It’s pretty hard. It’s not like we’re enemies or anything, we’re still friends. But at the time there was probably a little friction.
MR: Is it difficult to play the lead guitar and sing?
MA: Sometimes. Some songs I regret writing because it’s so hard. But practicing I can pretty much do anything we’ve done.
MR: Do you or Peter come up with the riffs?
MA: I write all the music. But me and Peter wrote together for the first two albums. Mainly because we had two harmonies, two guitars playing totally differently, trading one riff or whatever so it was easier.
MR: So it’s all you, not a group effort, you do all the music and lyrics??
MA: Yeah, I do the music and the lyrics. But I’m not like “this is your part, this is your part, this is your part”. They all get to play, or change, especially the drummer, Martin Lopez. If I had a drum beat on a demo, if it was iffy I’d be like “do whatever you want”. As far as the main song, the arrangement, all the lyrics, obviously all involve the production man.
MR: How do you interchange your growling and singing and not miss a single note?
MA: I do miss. I fuck up a lot.
MR: I guess people don’t hear it.
MA: It’s weird. We played in Dallas the other day and I was choked for a long time, we hadn’t played until that. I sang really okay actually at that show, but the place was really really bad. And afterwards the guys from Lacuna Coil came up and told us “Strapping Young Lads and Meshugga, they’re two of my favorite bands and tonight you guys kicked their asses.” We’re like “what are you talking about, we stunk?”. But I think for me a live gig is not about, does not have to be perfect. It comes from some kind of energy, or, you know, we try to enjoy ourselves and hope that the crowd sees that.
MR: Do your vocal chords get fatigued?
MA: Yeah, sometimes. But no so much actually from the singing and screaming. When you’re on the tour you have a couple of beers, smoke a lot, stuff like that. You wake up with that (clears throat), but it’s not so bad. I lost my voice once in my whole career, on the road. We did an instrumental set once, without any vocals, we had the crowd singing all the songs.
MR: Oh how neat!
MA: It was pretty cool actually, but it was weird. Something you do once and never again. But I’m trying not to drink as much. Alcohol is the worst thing for my voice.
MR: Do you do any training or preparation for your voice?
MA: No. I probably should, but I don’t.
MR: So your voice is really something you were just gifted with.
MA: (laughter) If you want to put it that way. I just sing. I don’t consider myself as a fantastic singer, I just do my job. And it’s for Opeth, the band.
MR: Have y’all had any extensive training on your instruments or are you pretty much “self-taught”?
MA: Yeah. I had one guitar lesson actually. But that guitar player just wanted to show off. Peter I think has taken a few guitar lessons like years back before the band. Martin might have taken a few drum lessons, but he’s a teacher. He teaches kids.
MR: So, no classical guitar background?
MA: No, I was just into that stuff. I’m into guitar, regardless if you’re playing metal, or blues, jazz or classical. I love everything. I haven’t taken any lessons. I just listen to other bands and see how they’re playing.
MR: What was it like recording Damnation, that was just like completely different than everything else? (I love it by the way).
MA: Thanks. (laughter) The whole recording process of both albums, Deliverance and Damnation, was a bit complicated actually. We had so many problems. We put ourselves in the position where we slept on the floor in the studio for the whole duration of the recording. It was pretty bad, the whole recording. But as for Damnation, getting together to record the actual music was nice. But that album is pretty much a result of those influences I mentioned. I personally had my mind set on how it should sound. It was nice seeing it all come together to sound like a record from the 70’s.
MR: What inspires you to write your poetic lyrics? There are so many bands out there who stick with the “hate/kill/destroy” mentality. What inspires you to stay away from that?
MA: I don’t have any lyrical preference. I don’t read books. They don’t have anything to do with my lyrics. I pretty much read other band’s lyrics and get inspiration from there. I like nice work. I have a dictionary, checking out some words. Being Swedish there’s a lot of words that you’ve never heard. Just having single words can create an entire verse. I can get inspired from that single word and write something around that word. The last couple of albums I didn’t have a dictionary, I just wrote something like before, I had to be more personal because I couldn’t hide behind those words. I didn’t have a concept or anything, so I was just writing about something that happened to me.
MR: A lot of times the singing or lyrics of many bands seem to be crunched the fit the confines of their music. But y’all’s lyrics and vocals seem to just mesh and flow really well together. How do y’all achieve that?
MA: It’s all a matter of taste. I’m not saying that my style is the best in the world, but I try to write everything, that has anything remotely to do with this band (inaudible). And the same thing goes with the lyrics and how we use the vocals in the songs. Like you have a mellow part come in, there’s the mellow vocals, or just turn around and have a real aggressive riff that has clean nice mellow lines over that. With the long songs, I want to keep it interesting.
MR: A person on our message board says “You are not a run of the mill metal band, you create true art”. How long does it take y’all to do it? Does it take a long time to….
MA: to write the music? Yeah, it takes a long time actually. It does. It’s hard to say exactly how long it takes, because when I’m home, I play guitar every day. If I come up with something, I record it. And that’s the problem, it can take years. The two latest albums I started writing just before we went on the Blackwater Park tour here in the US in 2001. I think in the Springtime I started writing some of the songs off that, we recorded the albums in the Summer of 2002.
MR: How long did it take y’all to record Orchid?
MA: Twelve days. We recorded in only twelve days.
MR: Did it take a while to get all the music and lyrics ready for it?
MA: We’d been around for such a long time before that. That was recorded in 1994. We’ve been a band since 1990. And those four years in between, those songs were created, all the songs. A lot of the songs off the Morningrise album were also done during that period of time. When we went into the studio, we were ready! We had been rehearsing six times a week for all those years. When we recorded Orchid, it was like “this song-blah blah blah”, we mixed it up you know. Which was actually, to be quite honest, was a bit boring to get the final album. You know, you’ve got your first album, and you know exactly what’s on there. Everything was exactly as it sounded in rehearsal. But I think it’s a good debut album. But now we recorded a totally different one we’ve never rehearsed, never.
MR: You did the piano on Orchid didn’t you?
MA: No, that was our drummer, the one who quit the band.
MR: Silhouette is my favorite song.
MA: Yeah, it’s good. He’s good. I remember because he was great at the piano, but he was mostly playing boogie woogie. He said “Mike, I’ve got this song that maybe would be good”. He played it and I was like (opens eyes wide). I’ve never seen him play like that! And he actually did another that was supposed to be on the Morningrise album, but didn’t make it. It was a piano song and I was playing acoustic guitar with it. But it never got recorded.
MR: Wow, that would have been nice!
MA: It would have been fantastic!
MR: So there’s never really any disagreement on the stuff that you write with the other band members?
MA: No, not really. I love the fact that we don’t rehearse, no one knows the tracks. (inaudible). Something out of the ordinary, we may do something else with vocals or lead guitars or something.
(Peter Lindgren emerges from the back of the bus, but does not join us. He goes about getting coffee and breakfast/lunch.)
MR: Y’all have changed labels a couple of times. Is your current label a keeper?
MA: Yeah. I think so. They are really good, really supportive. I also like the fact that their roster, no two bands sound the same. They’ve got their nu metal band, boy band, they’ve got their glam rock band, and they’ve got us. All the bands are different on their label. All of them, even though I don’t like any of those bands, I still think that within their theme, they are quality. They’re doing a really good job, not only for us, but for all the bands on that label. We’re happy with them.
MR: The big thing for people to do these days is downloading music off of the internet. How do y’all feel about that?
MA: I’d much prefer them to buy the album of course. But I think if you’re a band that’s not huge, I think it might be a good thing. But I will never understand. I’m old school, I go out and buy my records. Never in my life have I downloaded a track. I want the whole package. I don’t want a shitty mp3 file with clicks. Even though I might get one good track off a cd, I’m still happy. It’s not a great loss if you spend a few dollars on a cd and it’s shit.
MR: Has your involvement in Bloodbath affected Opeth at all?
MA: No. My involvement in Bloodbath was pretty much non-existent. The first cd we did, I was there, we partied and did those songs. But for the recording I wasn’t involved. We did the songwriting process only because I was writing for Opeth. The only thing I did on the album as far as singing was one lyric. I wrote one lyric, I went down one day and did the vocals, six hours, and went back home. They wanted me to sing and I love the album. But Bloodbath is pretty much a rip-off of the Swedish/Stockholm scene of the late 80’s. But it’s a fantastic album.
MR: Y’all seem to present yourselves as very intelligent, artistic, very dedicated to your music and performance, without the media hype. A lot of bands love that, the media. Has this been purposeful for y’all?
MA: Not at all. I’ve never seen the reason why you should concentrate on anything else other than the music. With Opeth it’s always about the music. We don’t call up magazines. Whatever hype or whatever’s going on about us is entirely because the media wants to write about us. Because of our music.
MR: Do y’all have groupies?
MA: Yeah I guess we do, but I’m getting married and I don’t look for groupies. We’ve all got girlfriends. If you want it, it’s probably there.
MR: Do y’all like that?
MA: There’s nothing wrong when chicks come up to me and say they like me, but I don’t understand the whole concept of needing to fuck someone in a band.
MR: How do you feel about love in general?
MA: Love in general?! It’s one of my main resources of inspiration. It was pretty easy for me to call it love when I was in over my head. They always broke up with me though. But now it’s, my girlfriend I’ve got now, we’ve been together for five years, and it’s a fantastic relationship. I’ve never had it like this where you actually know you want to be with someone for the rest of your life. To find that in life, I don’t need groupies.
MR: Yeah. That’s hard to find anyway when you’re in that position of fame too.
MA: Yeah. We’re all kind of calm, mellow guys. We’re not fuckers really. All of us are in relationships and not looking to ruin anything.
MR: Do you have any religious or spiritual beliefs?
MA: No. I’m actually baptized, and I was confirmed too, but that was one of the things you did, everybody did it. But I didn’t have any beliefs. We went on this trip up to the North in Sweden, for confirmation, like this camp. We stayed there for a week and we read the Bible and we had to do our own prayers. But I brought my death metal album, I wasn’t into that whole thing at all. It was just pretty much a theme because once you got in the front, you got a lot of gifts. My sister did it, I saw she got money and I was like “yeah” you know. All my friends did it, so I went there. But I’ve never believed in anything, any religion at all.
MR: Do you have any comments on the political state of the world right now?
MA: Uhm, well, with all the wars, the war that’s been going on here…..obviously I’m trying to keep a low profile you understand. (inaudible) is wrong.
MR: Do you have any funny stories you can tell about your band mates?
MA: (points at Peter) He got a bottle in his head last night. (laughs) It was funny. We got a trash bin thrown on stage. But any band members, I can’t really remember. There was something really bad that happened to our bass player, but I don’t think he’d ever forgive me if I tell it. I can’t think of anything else right now.
MR: Out of all of your currently released records, which one is your favorite? And which one did you enjoy working on the most?
MA: The first one [Orchid] was enjoyable to record because it was short time, we were hungry, it was fun being in the recording studio for the first time. Damnation is probably my favorite record. My Arms Your Hearse is also another favorite of mine. Blackwater Park was fairly enjoyable to record. Deliverance has the most bad memories. I think all of them are good records. As far as favorites go, Damnation. My Arms Your Hearse, maybe Still Life?
MR: We know you just released Deliverance and Damnation, and we know we may be asking a hell of a lot right now, but how long until the next masterpiece?
MA: I think it might take a long time. We’ll be touring the whole year, and into the next year too. After this we’re going to have a long break, you know, do something else for a while. I can’t see anything else coming until, maybe recording in 2004. No, 2005!
MR: What might we expect?
MA: I haven’t written anything.
MR: Do you want it to be like your previous stuff, or something kind of close to Damnation?
MA: I don’t think it will be another record like Damnation, but I just haven’t written anything at all, so it’s hard to say.
MR: So we’re just all going to have to wait and be surprised.
MA: Yeah.
MR: Last question! Is there any message you would like to give all current Opeth fans, and new fans?
MA: For the fans that are already into Opeth, we’d obviously like to thank [them] for their support for the band. I hope they’ll stick around and I hope they find whatever we do in the future, they find it interesting. And we promise that we’ll continue doing high quality music. Just hoping they’ll stick around and wait for our next album whenever it is out. Come check us out on tour. Come see the band in July for the Damnation Tour. Since we’re not playing Damnation tonight. We’ll be doing that tour in July with Porcupine Tree here in the US to promote Damnation. Then we have another, longer tour in September. For the new fans - I don’t know what to say. If you’ve just gotten into Opeth, you have a lot of stuff to check out. Seven albums. Here’s hoping that the ones that get into the new album go back and check out the old ones and see where we’re coming from. Hopefully they will like that too.
MR: Thank you so much for talking to us. I can’t wait for the show tonight!
MA: Thank you. (grins and shakes my hand)
There are no words to express how much The Metal Refuge appreciates the opportunity that Mikael, Opeth, their management and publicity people have honored us with. We also want to thank the die hard Opeth fans at the Refuge for contributing to this interview with suggestions for questions. The Refuge will continue to spread the word about Opeth in every way we can.
Thursday, 24 April 2003
Mikael Åkerfeldt - Interview by Chris Bruni (24 Apr 2003)
Since the release of last year's deadly Deliverance, it seems that the Opeth machine has never run stronger. The band's wild and hectic ride has been demanding, but at the same time, the overwhelming recognition Opeth are constantly being bombarded with comes well deserved. Through the years of hard, intense and stressful work that Mikael Akerfeldt and co. (them of course being guitarist Peter Lindgren, bassist Martin Mendez, and drummer Martin Lopez) have given us, one can look upon a repertoire that shall forever be etched in metal's immortal echelons.
It is surely well deserved, even to the point where Guitar World magazine has claimed Opeth as "metal's most brilliant band" and rightfully so, when such promise was showcased as far back as their Orchid debut in 1995 (an album that still sounds just as mind-blowing as it did when it came out). Since then, there's been no turning back.
But before Deliverance was released in November of last year, Opeth did announce that with the conjunction of said album, they will release its counterpart Damnation, an all-out acoustic observation where there will be no heavy and extreme parts whatsoever. Instead, it will possess Opeth's more delicate and mellow side which we are all familiar with. Could Damnation be Opeth's most challenging release? That's notable because it definitely was quite the task for Akerfeldt to weave this latest masterpiece together. But it is definitely one of their most alluring, haunting, possessing, and quite possibly their darkest and most introspective release ever. It is natural that, at the present moment, Damnation is the Opeth album that seems to be the most obsessive; it is an album that easily fits within the band's repertoire with sheer musical magic that bleeds throughout an impeccable traditional sound picture. The way that only Opeth can deliver.
Bravewords.com caught up with Mr. Akerfeldt, who had just gotten back from a mini-tour of Australia. He gives us an insight on everything the band has been up to since and during the endless touring, along with the impending future.
"We spent a week in Australia, but we went to London, stayed a couple of days there and then we went to Oslo for the Inferno Festival," Mikael begins. "That was great and we went down really, really well. Australia was great; five gigs, four sold out. So it was really good. They have been waiting for such a long time to see us. They were crazy! Especially in Sydney, I think that will go down as one of our best gigs ever."
How was the recent European tour, following the mega success of the North American one just prior?
"It was also good. But I think we have been spoiled by the U.S. tour because that was so good. Some of the gigs were really, really good and some really shitty which didn't feel right. We played, one show in old Eastern Germany; there were 200 people maybe, and then one show in Austria which also had about 200 people. I mean you kinda get depressed when you've done seven albums and you're playing in front of very few people. It was just that the U.S. tour was so good that we expected everything to be like that. But obviously some gigs on the European tour were really good and some shitty."
And now you're coming back to the U.S. for another tour...
"Yeah there's so much to do. But we only did certain areas on the first tour. So we have to come back to do the south parts of America. We're only doing two gigs on the Danzig tour, the most part of it with Lacuna Coil and we're doing one gig with Meshuggah, in Dallas. We have them as support actually, so that's a bit intimidating (laughs). This tour will go on for four weeks. After this tour I think we have two more U.S. tours coming this year!"
You mentioned that you had plans to do a special tour for Damnation. How much of a reality is it now?
"It's very real. We're going to do this with Porcupine Tree. I don't know where we will be playing, I just spoke with Steven Wilson today, and he told me that we start on the 15th of June and I think it is until the 5th of July. When we did the tour for Deliverance, we did most of the heavy stuff and I want to give Damnation a proper chance and I want to play all of those songs. We're also gonna try to rehearse stuff like 'To Bid You Farewell' and all that other stuff, do remakes of them and see how they work. It's going to be a joint headline thing. For me, I don't care where we play, as long as we get the same amount of stage time. So I think it's going to be at least an hour and a half each."
And you have been threatening to do an all-out mellow album since My Arms Your Hearse.
"Well ever since Morningrise, Lee Barrett (ex-Candlelight owner, present day Elitist Records) said that we should do something like an acoustic album. And at the time I was interested in the idea but I felt that I wanted to do something heavy. And now since I have piled all these influences up in my head, from '60s and '70s progressive music that I have been listening to for the last 15 years or whatever, I just picked them out and did the songs for Damnation. I felt that this was the right time to do this because it felt easy to write these kind of songs."
The thing is that Damnation is much more than a simple acoustic album, meaning that people were expecting these songs to simply be full versions of the mellow parts of the traditional Opeth songs. But it's much more than that. Actually, it's quite different...
"Yeah, you know I had to do it a bit differently because in the heavier songs, the mellow parts are used as an effect in a way and obviously they are part of the whole sound. It's very effective regardless of what you are doing; if you do a mellow part next to a super heavy part, it has that certain effect. But this time around I had to concentrate on the quality of a whole mellow song. So it had to have some kind of structure to it."
So Damnation was virtually written at the same time as Deliverance?
"Simultaneously, I wrote this with Deliverance. It was just depending on the mood I was in. Some riffs, that I maybe could have used for Deliverance I put on Damnation instead. But it's not so far away; it still sounds like Opeth. It was just a matter of putting the songs together in the right way and the whole production on the album is what makes the difference. But musically, we could have used a bit of 'Windowpane' and put some of it on a heavy Opeth song or whatever."
Frederick Nordstrom vs. Steven Wilson...
"Steven has been with us since Blackwater Park and I think he knows now how we work in the studio. He's gotten more into the producer's role this time and he got us working because with Blackwater Park we were so lazy and we got him lazy too! But this time we were under a little more time pressure and he was like, 'Come on, let's get this done...' and when he was fixing with stuff on the computers he was like, 'Okay go have your cigarettes and everything and I'll fix this and tell you when I'm done.' So it was kind of easy but Frederick never worked with us as a producer or anything. He just fixed the sounds; if there's any technical problem he would help Steve with that. Pretty much I would do the takes of my vocals for example, and then I wasn't so involved with the whole sound production. If I had an idea, I would tell them and they would try to tweak it. But many times I would do 20, 30 takes of a verse and go out to have a cigarette, come back in, and Steven would just fix everything and maybe have a little idea with the sound production with effects or something. This time I think he knew exactly how we worked."
I can imagine that it must have been a field day for Steven Wilson to work on Damnation.
"I think it was easier for him to produce an album like Damnation because he only produced certain parts of the songs on Blackwater Park and Deliverance; just the mellow parts. He didn't get an overview of the entire song. This time around he produced the whole album and every song."
There was even talk about Damnation brining Opeth to a new level of commercial success, but personally, I find Damnation too bleak and dark to reach total commercial satisfaction.
"It's like... I think a lot of fans think that this is a commercial move. But we don't see it like that in any way. For me it was just getting closer to the influences I have. There is obviously... when you do a mellow album and you are an extreme metal band like ourselves, it's inevitable that you could possibly get some commercial success or get into the mainstream just because it doesn't have the extreme elements in it. So like your mother, father or grandparents could listen to it and think it's nice. But that's just because we're an extreme metal band. So it was never like, 'Oh we have to make some money' or 'We have to sell more records.' But I think that's the side effect. If everybody doesn't like the screaming, I think it would be easier for them to get into an album like Damnation."
So your ideal intention was to release this simultaneously with Deliverance?
"That was my original idea. But it was just from an artistic point of view that I wanted to have them released at the same time. But if you are on a label, they have to do promotion for albums and two albums out at the same time will confuse people and I think maybe I'm rating the average music listener too high or maybe the company thinks people are stupid. But either way I don't want to get into any arguments about the release dates because I got my dream fulfilled in making these two albums. So released at the same time or not, it didn't really matter."
Do you think people might find it a bit hard to accept Damnation as a new Opeth full-length?
"Maybe. Because it's six months in between, they see it as we went into the studio after Deliverance and threw together another couple of songs. But both albums were recorded at the same time. I guess a lot of people will see that this is the new Opeth album. But it's very much linked to Deliverance in the sense that they were recorded in the same time."
What about concept-wise, what is the connection between Deliverance and Damnation?
"I wanted to have a concept theme that involved both albums. But I couldn't be bothered to come up with an idea; I just had the idea for them to be linked together. So the only thing that kind of connects these two albums is obviously the artwork, the titles, and the fact that they were recorded at the same time. But lyrically there's no connection. I didn't have any ideas because there was just so much pressure. And lyrics are not my thing really."
There are a lot of songs that hit a nerve and as you mentioned; Damnation enabled you to experiment more. For example, the way the song 'Closure' ends could be the most experimental thing I have ever come across on an Opeth track.
"That was one of those riffs that could have ended up on Deliverance since it's kind of a heavy riff. But Martin Lopez is very into all these percussion-like songs and I showed him that riff on the demos and he just got these ideas for the percussion bits and then I figured that it will be on Damnation. It was also like a build-up because I wanted to put 'Closure' and 'Hope Leaves' together; to have 'Closure' cut immediately and have 'Hope Leaves' start immediately. But it was just to build up to some kind of climax, a production kind of thing."
'Ending Credits' has a Santana-like feel to it...
"To be quite honest that was like a Camel kind of thing. A very naive kind of melody, something you would hear on a boat cruise with people dancing. But it's very tongue-in-cheek; it was one of the songs that I wasn't sure if we were going to have it on the album. I just love it, it's silly and everything, but it serves its purpose because it's the only song on the album that has a stream of light."
The final track 'Weakness' is one of the darkest songs you've ever written...
"I wanted the same kind of vibe as Led Zeppelin's 'No Quarter' which is basically a very tremolo-ish Fender Rhoades piano feeling. When I wrote the song, I originally wrote it on guitar but I always had the idea for it to be played on a Fender Rhoades. So I just played the demo to Steven, he played it on piano and we put some Mellotron vibe on it with some very naked guitar leads. I just wanted it to be really stripped down."
There are also some vocal experiments as well...
"I wanted it to be very... naked or whatever (laughs). Before I was always behind multi-tracked vocals and reverb, but this time, because the whole production was very dry, we wanted the vocals to be kind of dry too and be in the centre of the sound picture. I was a bit stressed in the fact that I was going to record the vocals because I don't consider myself as a great vocalist and everything that goes wrong will be audible. So I had to concentrate a bit more. But I was also, as if I was slightly out of pitch, if I had some shit in my throat or whatever, it added to the whole picture of the album. It sounds vulnerable which I wanted it to sound like. If you can have Ronnie Dio... actually bad example, but having it like Rob Halford high-pitched, it would be strong of course, but if it's closer to Nick Drake, it should be fragile."
I guess it was inevitable that Steven Wilson made a guest appearance adding some backing vocals...
"I didn't write any songs specifically for his voice. He was so involved with it anyway because he's so into the whole production thing, doing backing vocals, playing keyboards... I dunno, I didn't really think about it. But Steven has a higher range than me so it was perfect to do backing vocals and there were parts that I made him do that I couldn't do."
Tell me about the keyboard sounds and effects that were incorporated...
"We were supposed to have the guy from Spiritual Beggars, who is going to come on tour with us actually, do the keyboards on the album too, but he was at a birthday party or something. It was nothing complicated, just chords pretty much. But instead of me trying to work it out, you know it went so fast with Steven playing them because he knows his music. So he just put them down. We got the Mellotron sounds from a friend of ours actually; it's not real Mellotron sounds, just very good samples. Mellotrons are just so hard to come by; they are really expensive, and can cause a lot of problems if they get out of tune. But the samples we had are so good in that sense that even they got out of tune. It was easier to have samples instead of having the real deal, but when I get the extra money, I was actually thinking about getting a Mellotron. I didn't want to write Roland XTP on the album. I wanted to say 'Mellotron' (laughs)."
Before Blackwater Park came out, you mentioned that you were dabbling in a prog project with a few locals from the scene. Since this hasn't manifested yet, does Damnation kind of compensate for it? Will this prog project see the light of day?
"It was me and the keyboardist of Spiritual Beggars who got together and did a couple of songs. We never got anywhere with it yet. It's still in the works, we still plan to do something, but he's always touring with Spiritual Beggars and he's going to come on tour with us, so it'll have to wait. I've always talked too much saying I'm going to do this and that, but I want to do all these things. There are so many people out there I want to work with and I am going to try and make all these projects become a reality as soon as I can."
And what about this collaboration with Steven Wilson you are to take part in?
"We're going to do a cover of an American songwriter, this girl named Linda Perhacs, who did one album in 1970. It's a fantastic album called Parallelograms, I've been a fan of hers for a couple of years and Steven is also an avid fan. As far as I know it's not going to be a tribute album, but we know the guy who put out the CD version of her album and he's going to do a split 7" single where me and Steven are going to do a cover of hers on one side and Pathos, which is a Swedish progressive band, will do another cover of hers on the other side. Me and Steven haven't chosen the track yet but I'm probably going to put down some acoustic guitars and vocals over here and then he's going to do the rest in England."
Why do you think people are taking notice of Opeth now, more notably the band's rise to fruition after the release of Blackwater Park?
"It's just that we've been around for a while and after Blackwater Park, which was such a successful album, I think it goes down to units shipped and if someone is making a little bit of money, with the little extra push, all of a sudden you are selling more records. So I don't think that Blackwater Park on its own was our best album or anything. I think it was the album that the company decided to push a little extra. We got a proper thing in the U.S. and it's all because of that I think. I don't think it was all of a sudden people started to go and buy Opeth albums. The label just did a good job."
You have made comments on music leaking on the internet and MP3 downloading. Have your thoughts changed on this particular medium of obtaining music?
"I understand how it all works now. It doesn't upset me as much because it's going to be out there anyway. It's just a matter of when. I mean I would rather have our music be on the internet a week before the album came out, not a month. I mean of course people get the album for free, but I hope our fans understand that if we don't sell albums, we can't record. That's just how it is. Say if Damnation sold 1000 copies whereas it should have sold 150,000, obviously it's a big difference. Fortunately, with Opeth, we can use the internet to branch off a little bit; a lot of people will get to hear about the albums because of the internet. But if you are a big band like Metallica where the fans don't feel any obligations to pay the dues to buy the albums, I think Metallica will suffer severe losses. But a couple of years back, I was upset with the whole internet thing with people downloading MP3s. I'm never going to be a person who downloads an album because I'm obsessed with music and I want to have the packaging and everything."
But is it still easy these days to make a living off the music?
"I'm not sure if it's easier. It's still very hard. For me, I spent several years in poverty with no money or anything. But now since we're the fucking cream of the crop or whatever, we get some money and since I'm the only songwriter in the band, I get all the publishing money. But as for the Peter and the Martin's, they have more problems than I do. Their only income is only if the album recoups. But if they don't get any royalties, their only income is touring and merch fees. It's kind of hard if you are just a musician in the band and not a writer. And I've agreed to split my publishing and give 50 percent of the funds or whatever, something that will keep us and the other guys going. So I'm going to watch their backs as much as I can. But it's still hard."
Well as they say, no rest for the wicked...
"We literally have no time to rest! As I said, we just got back home and here I am doing interviews again. I figure that maybe after all this touring, it's time for a long break. We've set our minds on doing all this touring and press and just kind of become whores of metal pretty much and just do everything the labels tell us to do. And after this is all done, I think we'll retire for a while. I don't think we are going to do something like Damnation again. To be quite honest, I don't know what it's going to be like. I played a little bit of guitar today and it's like... I have no idea. I feel a bit confused with the whole Opeth thing. So I guess I have vague plans to do something. I wanna do something like a two track album. Two 30 minute songs and I've been thinking about doing something with an occult theme (laughs). I dunno why, but I mentioned it to the Martin's, who were black metal kids a few years back, and they were like... shivering. They were so into the idea of doing something evil. The last couple of shows, before our encores, I was talking to the audience saying, 'This next song is dedicated to our lord Satan.' And everybody went fucking crazy!"
It is surely well deserved, even to the point where Guitar World magazine has claimed Opeth as "metal's most brilliant band" and rightfully so, when such promise was showcased as far back as their Orchid debut in 1995 (an album that still sounds just as mind-blowing as it did when it came out). Since then, there's been no turning back.
But before Deliverance was released in November of last year, Opeth did announce that with the conjunction of said album, they will release its counterpart Damnation, an all-out acoustic observation where there will be no heavy and extreme parts whatsoever. Instead, it will possess Opeth's more delicate and mellow side which we are all familiar with. Could Damnation be Opeth's most challenging release? That's notable because it definitely was quite the task for Akerfeldt to weave this latest masterpiece together. But it is definitely one of their most alluring, haunting, possessing, and quite possibly their darkest and most introspective release ever. It is natural that, at the present moment, Damnation is the Opeth album that seems to be the most obsessive; it is an album that easily fits within the band's repertoire with sheer musical magic that bleeds throughout an impeccable traditional sound picture. The way that only Opeth can deliver.
Bravewords.com caught up with Mr. Akerfeldt, who had just gotten back from a mini-tour of Australia. He gives us an insight on everything the band has been up to since and during the endless touring, along with the impending future.
"We spent a week in Australia, but we went to London, stayed a couple of days there and then we went to Oslo for the Inferno Festival," Mikael begins. "That was great and we went down really, really well. Australia was great; five gigs, four sold out. So it was really good. They have been waiting for such a long time to see us. They were crazy! Especially in Sydney, I think that will go down as one of our best gigs ever."
How was the recent European tour, following the mega success of the North American one just prior?
"It was also good. But I think we have been spoiled by the U.S. tour because that was so good. Some of the gigs were really, really good and some really shitty which didn't feel right. We played, one show in old Eastern Germany; there were 200 people maybe, and then one show in Austria which also had about 200 people. I mean you kinda get depressed when you've done seven albums and you're playing in front of very few people. It was just that the U.S. tour was so good that we expected everything to be like that. But obviously some gigs on the European tour were really good and some shitty."
And now you're coming back to the U.S. for another tour...
"Yeah there's so much to do. But we only did certain areas on the first tour. So we have to come back to do the south parts of America. We're only doing two gigs on the Danzig tour, the most part of it with Lacuna Coil and we're doing one gig with Meshuggah, in Dallas. We have them as support actually, so that's a bit intimidating (laughs). This tour will go on for four weeks. After this tour I think we have two more U.S. tours coming this year!"
You mentioned that you had plans to do a special tour for Damnation. How much of a reality is it now?
"It's very real. We're going to do this with Porcupine Tree. I don't know where we will be playing, I just spoke with Steven Wilson today, and he told me that we start on the 15th of June and I think it is until the 5th of July. When we did the tour for Deliverance, we did most of the heavy stuff and I want to give Damnation a proper chance and I want to play all of those songs. We're also gonna try to rehearse stuff like 'To Bid You Farewell' and all that other stuff, do remakes of them and see how they work. It's going to be a joint headline thing. For me, I don't care where we play, as long as we get the same amount of stage time. So I think it's going to be at least an hour and a half each."
And you have been threatening to do an all-out mellow album since My Arms Your Hearse.
"Well ever since Morningrise, Lee Barrett (ex-Candlelight owner, present day Elitist Records) said that we should do something like an acoustic album. And at the time I was interested in the idea but I felt that I wanted to do something heavy. And now since I have piled all these influences up in my head, from '60s and '70s progressive music that I have been listening to for the last 15 years or whatever, I just picked them out and did the songs for Damnation. I felt that this was the right time to do this because it felt easy to write these kind of songs."
The thing is that Damnation is much more than a simple acoustic album, meaning that people were expecting these songs to simply be full versions of the mellow parts of the traditional Opeth songs. But it's much more than that. Actually, it's quite different...
"Yeah, you know I had to do it a bit differently because in the heavier songs, the mellow parts are used as an effect in a way and obviously they are part of the whole sound. It's very effective regardless of what you are doing; if you do a mellow part next to a super heavy part, it has that certain effect. But this time around I had to concentrate on the quality of a whole mellow song. So it had to have some kind of structure to it."
So Damnation was virtually written at the same time as Deliverance?
"Simultaneously, I wrote this with Deliverance. It was just depending on the mood I was in. Some riffs, that I maybe could have used for Deliverance I put on Damnation instead. But it's not so far away; it still sounds like Opeth. It was just a matter of putting the songs together in the right way and the whole production on the album is what makes the difference. But musically, we could have used a bit of 'Windowpane' and put some of it on a heavy Opeth song or whatever."
Frederick Nordstrom vs. Steven Wilson...
"Steven has been with us since Blackwater Park and I think he knows now how we work in the studio. He's gotten more into the producer's role this time and he got us working because with Blackwater Park we were so lazy and we got him lazy too! But this time we were under a little more time pressure and he was like, 'Come on, let's get this done...' and when he was fixing with stuff on the computers he was like, 'Okay go have your cigarettes and everything and I'll fix this and tell you when I'm done.' So it was kind of easy but Frederick never worked with us as a producer or anything. He just fixed the sounds; if there's any technical problem he would help Steve with that. Pretty much I would do the takes of my vocals for example, and then I wasn't so involved with the whole sound production. If I had an idea, I would tell them and they would try to tweak it. But many times I would do 20, 30 takes of a verse and go out to have a cigarette, come back in, and Steven would just fix everything and maybe have a little idea with the sound production with effects or something. This time I think he knew exactly how we worked."
I can imagine that it must have been a field day for Steven Wilson to work on Damnation.
"I think it was easier for him to produce an album like Damnation because he only produced certain parts of the songs on Blackwater Park and Deliverance; just the mellow parts. He didn't get an overview of the entire song. This time around he produced the whole album and every song."
There was even talk about Damnation brining Opeth to a new level of commercial success, but personally, I find Damnation too bleak and dark to reach total commercial satisfaction.
"It's like... I think a lot of fans think that this is a commercial move. But we don't see it like that in any way. For me it was just getting closer to the influences I have. There is obviously... when you do a mellow album and you are an extreme metal band like ourselves, it's inevitable that you could possibly get some commercial success or get into the mainstream just because it doesn't have the extreme elements in it. So like your mother, father or grandparents could listen to it and think it's nice. But that's just because we're an extreme metal band. So it was never like, 'Oh we have to make some money' or 'We have to sell more records.' But I think that's the side effect. If everybody doesn't like the screaming, I think it would be easier for them to get into an album like Damnation."
So your ideal intention was to release this simultaneously with Deliverance?
"That was my original idea. But it was just from an artistic point of view that I wanted to have them released at the same time. But if you are on a label, they have to do promotion for albums and two albums out at the same time will confuse people and I think maybe I'm rating the average music listener too high or maybe the company thinks people are stupid. But either way I don't want to get into any arguments about the release dates because I got my dream fulfilled in making these two albums. So released at the same time or not, it didn't really matter."
Do you think people might find it a bit hard to accept Damnation as a new Opeth full-length?
"Maybe. Because it's six months in between, they see it as we went into the studio after Deliverance and threw together another couple of songs. But both albums were recorded at the same time. I guess a lot of people will see that this is the new Opeth album. But it's very much linked to Deliverance in the sense that they were recorded in the same time."
What about concept-wise, what is the connection between Deliverance and Damnation?
"I wanted to have a concept theme that involved both albums. But I couldn't be bothered to come up with an idea; I just had the idea for them to be linked together. So the only thing that kind of connects these two albums is obviously the artwork, the titles, and the fact that they were recorded at the same time. But lyrically there's no connection. I didn't have any ideas because there was just so much pressure. And lyrics are not my thing really."
There are a lot of songs that hit a nerve and as you mentioned; Damnation enabled you to experiment more. For example, the way the song 'Closure' ends could be the most experimental thing I have ever come across on an Opeth track.
"That was one of those riffs that could have ended up on Deliverance since it's kind of a heavy riff. But Martin Lopez is very into all these percussion-like songs and I showed him that riff on the demos and he just got these ideas for the percussion bits and then I figured that it will be on Damnation. It was also like a build-up because I wanted to put 'Closure' and 'Hope Leaves' together; to have 'Closure' cut immediately and have 'Hope Leaves' start immediately. But it was just to build up to some kind of climax, a production kind of thing."
'Ending Credits' has a Santana-like feel to it...
"To be quite honest that was like a Camel kind of thing. A very naive kind of melody, something you would hear on a boat cruise with people dancing. But it's very tongue-in-cheek; it was one of the songs that I wasn't sure if we were going to have it on the album. I just love it, it's silly and everything, but it serves its purpose because it's the only song on the album that has a stream of light."
The final track 'Weakness' is one of the darkest songs you've ever written...
"I wanted the same kind of vibe as Led Zeppelin's 'No Quarter' which is basically a very tremolo-ish Fender Rhoades piano feeling. When I wrote the song, I originally wrote it on guitar but I always had the idea for it to be played on a Fender Rhoades. So I just played the demo to Steven, he played it on piano and we put some Mellotron vibe on it with some very naked guitar leads. I just wanted it to be really stripped down."
There are also some vocal experiments as well...
"I wanted it to be very... naked or whatever (laughs). Before I was always behind multi-tracked vocals and reverb, but this time, because the whole production was very dry, we wanted the vocals to be kind of dry too and be in the centre of the sound picture. I was a bit stressed in the fact that I was going to record the vocals because I don't consider myself as a great vocalist and everything that goes wrong will be audible. So I had to concentrate a bit more. But I was also, as if I was slightly out of pitch, if I had some shit in my throat or whatever, it added to the whole picture of the album. It sounds vulnerable which I wanted it to sound like. If you can have Ronnie Dio... actually bad example, but having it like Rob Halford high-pitched, it would be strong of course, but if it's closer to Nick Drake, it should be fragile."
I guess it was inevitable that Steven Wilson made a guest appearance adding some backing vocals...
"I didn't write any songs specifically for his voice. He was so involved with it anyway because he's so into the whole production thing, doing backing vocals, playing keyboards... I dunno, I didn't really think about it. But Steven has a higher range than me so it was perfect to do backing vocals and there were parts that I made him do that I couldn't do."
Tell me about the keyboard sounds and effects that were incorporated...
"We were supposed to have the guy from Spiritual Beggars, who is going to come on tour with us actually, do the keyboards on the album too, but he was at a birthday party or something. It was nothing complicated, just chords pretty much. But instead of me trying to work it out, you know it went so fast with Steven playing them because he knows his music. So he just put them down. We got the Mellotron sounds from a friend of ours actually; it's not real Mellotron sounds, just very good samples. Mellotrons are just so hard to come by; they are really expensive, and can cause a lot of problems if they get out of tune. But the samples we had are so good in that sense that even they got out of tune. It was easier to have samples instead of having the real deal, but when I get the extra money, I was actually thinking about getting a Mellotron. I didn't want to write Roland XTP on the album. I wanted to say 'Mellotron' (laughs)."
Before Blackwater Park came out, you mentioned that you were dabbling in a prog project with a few locals from the scene. Since this hasn't manifested yet, does Damnation kind of compensate for it? Will this prog project see the light of day?
"It was me and the keyboardist of Spiritual Beggars who got together and did a couple of songs. We never got anywhere with it yet. It's still in the works, we still plan to do something, but he's always touring with Spiritual Beggars and he's going to come on tour with us, so it'll have to wait. I've always talked too much saying I'm going to do this and that, but I want to do all these things. There are so many people out there I want to work with and I am going to try and make all these projects become a reality as soon as I can."
And what about this collaboration with Steven Wilson you are to take part in?
"We're going to do a cover of an American songwriter, this girl named Linda Perhacs, who did one album in 1970. It's a fantastic album called Parallelograms, I've been a fan of hers for a couple of years and Steven is also an avid fan. As far as I know it's not going to be a tribute album, but we know the guy who put out the CD version of her album and he's going to do a split 7" single where me and Steven are going to do a cover of hers on one side and Pathos, which is a Swedish progressive band, will do another cover of hers on the other side. Me and Steven haven't chosen the track yet but I'm probably going to put down some acoustic guitars and vocals over here and then he's going to do the rest in England."
Why do you think people are taking notice of Opeth now, more notably the band's rise to fruition after the release of Blackwater Park?
"It's just that we've been around for a while and after Blackwater Park, which was such a successful album, I think it goes down to units shipped and if someone is making a little bit of money, with the little extra push, all of a sudden you are selling more records. So I don't think that Blackwater Park on its own was our best album or anything. I think it was the album that the company decided to push a little extra. We got a proper thing in the U.S. and it's all because of that I think. I don't think it was all of a sudden people started to go and buy Opeth albums. The label just did a good job."
You have made comments on music leaking on the internet and MP3 downloading. Have your thoughts changed on this particular medium of obtaining music?
"I understand how it all works now. It doesn't upset me as much because it's going to be out there anyway. It's just a matter of when. I mean I would rather have our music be on the internet a week before the album came out, not a month. I mean of course people get the album for free, but I hope our fans understand that if we don't sell albums, we can't record. That's just how it is. Say if Damnation sold 1000 copies whereas it should have sold 150,000, obviously it's a big difference. Fortunately, with Opeth, we can use the internet to branch off a little bit; a lot of people will get to hear about the albums because of the internet. But if you are a big band like Metallica where the fans don't feel any obligations to pay the dues to buy the albums, I think Metallica will suffer severe losses. But a couple of years back, I was upset with the whole internet thing with people downloading MP3s. I'm never going to be a person who downloads an album because I'm obsessed with music and I want to have the packaging and everything."
But is it still easy these days to make a living off the music?
"I'm not sure if it's easier. It's still very hard. For me, I spent several years in poverty with no money or anything. But now since we're the fucking cream of the crop or whatever, we get some money and since I'm the only songwriter in the band, I get all the publishing money. But as for the Peter and the Martin's, they have more problems than I do. Their only income is only if the album recoups. But if they don't get any royalties, their only income is touring and merch fees. It's kind of hard if you are just a musician in the band and not a writer. And I've agreed to split my publishing and give 50 percent of the funds or whatever, something that will keep us and the other guys going. So I'm going to watch their backs as much as I can. But it's still hard."
Well as they say, no rest for the wicked...
"We literally have no time to rest! As I said, we just got back home and here I am doing interviews again. I figure that maybe after all this touring, it's time for a long break. We've set our minds on doing all this touring and press and just kind of become whores of metal pretty much and just do everything the labels tell us to do. And after this is all done, I think we'll retire for a while. I don't think we are going to do something like Damnation again. To be quite honest, I don't know what it's going to be like. I played a little bit of guitar today and it's like... I have no idea. I feel a bit confused with the whole Opeth thing. So I guess I have vague plans to do something. I wanna do something like a two track album. Two 30 minute songs and I've been thinking about doing something with an occult theme (laughs). I dunno why, but I mentioned it to the Martin's, who were black metal kids a few years back, and they were like... shivering. They were so into the idea of doing something evil. The last couple of shows, before our encores, I was talking to the audience saying, 'This next song is dedicated to our lord Satan.' And everybody went fucking crazy!"
Sunday, 20 April 2003
Martin Lopez - Interview by Toni (20 Apr 2003)
OPETH is one of those bands that can't easily being labeled into just one style. Some people say that they play Doom/ Death, others say that Proggressive. And the truth is that it's not as easy. My personal opinion is that they do Proggressive Death Metal with certain Doom parts. They have just released their new album called "Damnation", a very strange and accoustic record full of good harmonies and melodic parts. A record that distances itself from their previous ones, but that shows the quality of a band that released their debut record back in 1995. They came to Spain to give some shows and we had the opportunity of interviewing their drummer Martin Lopez. A very cool guy (as you all may know by now, he and the bass player, Martin Mendez are from South America). Just before the show started, we did this chat with him and here we have what he told us.
Everything is alright. Just a bit tired of so many dates of tour, but OK anyway. Lets see what happen today with the crowd from Madrid.
I'm sure that people will enjoy it a lot.
I really hope so...
First of all, as far as I know, this last album you're about to release was supposed to be released at the same time than "Deliverance", why to delay it some months after all?
Basically it was a decision from the label. We didn't expect to release both records as a double CD or something like this. We had both records recorded and we pretended to release both at the same time, but the label thought that it was going to be better to release "Deliverance" first and then, some months after, to make the release of "Damnation". Of course, this new album is different than the first one and that's another reason to release each record with some space in between.
I still haven't got the opportunity of hearing "Damnation" and, but I know that it certainly is different than your previous records. As far as I know, it is more doomy and quiet. Why to make such a change in the style of the band for "Damnation"?
Well, it's still OPETH. But we wanted to make something really different than just the typical record with fast songs and slow songs mixed. We wanted to make something very soft and smooth. We've always done very aggressive records in the past and we wanted to try something different and I think we've got it. Many people will think that we have changed or something and that's not the case.
And can we say that this new record is the start of a new period for OPETH? I mean, can we expect records such as "Blackwater Park" or "Deliverance" in the future or is this new "soft" style the definitive one for the band?
No, not at all. We don't know what we're doing in the future. Perhaps we'll be doing such aggressive records as "Deliverance" or maybe that we'll be doing softer songs for the following releases. We'll see.
What do you think that your old fans are going to think of this new record? Do you think they're going to enjoy it as much as they did, for example with "Deliverance"?
Why not? I know what you mean with this question, but I don't think that the old fans from the band will be disappointed with "Damnation". As I said before, it's still OPETH after all. It sounds like OPETH, the only difference is that it's a little bit more smooth. People that have heard it so far think that it's one of the best records from the band, although it sounds a bit more different.
Lets talk about the contribution you had from one of the members from the band PORCUPINE TREE, stylewise, a very different band to OPETH, in "Deliverance". Why did you decide to take him to make this contribution?
Steve Wilson from PORCUPINE TREE, produced "Blackwater Park" and since this moment, he became a fan of the music from OPETH. It happens more or less the same between OPETH and PORCUPINE TREE. We really like this band's music, so as soon as we asked him to collaborate, he did agree and so, we did include him in the record doing some stuff.
You're a band that seem to enjoy to play live. Tell us how important is for a band like OPETH to play live.
Live is everything, man. A band show what they are live. You can record the best record in the world, but if then, you go onstage and you are not able of showing your potential, then, you loose credibility in front of your fans. We enjoy so much to play live. It's absolutely important for the band and I think that for the fans too.
Both Martin's (you and the bass player) seem to enjoy very much your incorporation in OPETH, isn't it?
Definately, we're part of the band right now and we love what we do. At first it was strange because you were thinking like: "oh, my God, I'm part of this project..." and I didn't use to believe it, but now, I'm absolutely happy of being part of this band, for sure. I think it happens the same with Martin Mendez.
And what about the language? Two Spanish and two Swedish... Isn't it funny sometimes or you use to speak in Swedish when you're altogether?
There are no problems with the language. I don't use to use Spanish to talk. I'm always talking in Swedish when we're altogether. Anyway, I enjoy it very much when I have the opportunity of speaking with someone in Spanish, like now with you.
Maybe this one's a very typical question for you, but I have to ask it: Some people say that you play Proggressive Death Metal. Others say that you play Doom/ Death. What do you personally think?
We definately are a Death Metal band. I don't have any doubt about that. Maybe we're more melodic than your usual Death Metal band, but for sure, our vocals and the rhythms and the general sound is Death Metal... except for the new record "Damnation" that's very slow and soft. But I repeat that I have no doubt about the style of the band. Then, if someone wants to say that we're Doom or Proggressive, well, of course it's up to them.
At the moment you've experienced some label changes. What are for you the main differences between Candlelight, Peaceville and Music For Nations?
Each label is different to the other and all of them are similar. As you may know, Music For Nations were the owners of Peaceville and then we were obliged to enter the Music For Nations rooster, so everything was very strange at the time. Now everything is clear and we're very proud of being part of Music For Nations. No comments about Candlelight as I was not part of the band those days.
If you were offered by a big multinational to be signed with them, what would you do?
Of course, to study the offer. Then, who knows? But we're happy in Music For Nations as they give us all the support we need and we don't have any intention on leaving them.
How the future looks for OPETH?
Well, of course, we look to the future with hope. We really hope to be a good band that everyone enjoys. Of course, you always have the intention of doing as much records as possible, to play as much as possible and to make the name of the band as known as possible in the world, but apart of that, we pretend to make OPETH a big thing.
Well Martin. Thanx a lot for this interview right before the show. Thanx for the time. Just enjoy your stay in Madrid and if you want to add something, do it now.
Thanx to you for the support. I'm sure that we'll enjoy this gig and the others we're doing over Spain. I hope that everyone enjoy "Damnation" too as it's a record done with the heart.
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