{"id":26452,"date":"2015-04-23T07:30:57","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T21:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=26452"},"modified":"2015-04-23T13:43:03","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T03:43:03","slug":"mikael-akerfeldt-of-opeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2015\/04\/mikael-akerfeldt-of-opeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt of Opeth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201c\u2026it\u2019s just the five of us playing the songs and we\u2019re trying to play them as good as we can with as much passion as we can. I think what we have to offer is just more of a musical experience you know and very little eye candy, and some people probably find that very boring and they need that eye candy in order to make it interesting, but we don\u2019t have that on offer unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

From release: Swedish progressive metal heroes Opeth are set to return to Australia in 2015 in support of their 11th album \u2018Pale Communion\u2019. Hailed as one of the most influential progressive metal bands in the world, Opeth have an ever-growing fanatically loyal fan base in Australia and are returning for a headline run after their highly successful \u2018Heritage\u2019 tour in 2013. One factor which makes Opeth\u2019s live shows second to none is that their concerts are always filled with surprises and you never know what their setlist is going to be! Featuring songs from their earlier death-metal material, up to their later symphonic prog-rock, an Opeth live show is like no other and is a must see for all die-hard fans.<\/p>\n

In his home in Stockholm we gave Mikael of Opeth a call to talk about the band\u2019s return to Australia, as well as their latest album \u2018Pale Communion\u2019, how they almost may not have been a band anymore, and about tattoos\u2026<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re here because you\u2019re heading back to Australia, as you continue to release albums and as the sound of the band progresses, how do you go about putting a set list together these days?<\/strong>
\nWell it’s similar to the process how it was ten to fifteen years ago, we just basically take a collection of songs that we think that the audience wants to hear and songs that we like playing, I mean it happens that we pick a few songs that are popular songs, the fans like them but they\u2019re boring to play you know what I mean? If that happens we kind of scratch them out of the equation and choose some other songs, but right now what we\u2019re going to do in Australia is we\u2019re playing songs from each album apart from the first one and that\u2019s because of time restrictions basically, and restrictions that we put on ourselves basically because we don\u2019t want to play for too long. We don\u2019t want people to go away thinking it was too long, it\u2019s around two hours so I don\u2019t know how many songs, but every record apart from the first one.<\/p>\n

We love you down here, what do you think it is about Australian audiences that allows them to attach to Opeth the way they do?<\/strong>
\nAustralian audiences have always been great since the first time we were there which must have been in 2002 or 2003 I think it was around the Deliverance record, always had a great response there and it always went down well and it\u2019s kind of become a very important market for us on a commercial level as well as we love playing there. It\u2019s a great country, we love just being there and I\u2019ve been there many times privately and obviously we\u2019ve played there many times now and they\u2019ve always been good to us. I mean we see some negative reactions in Australia too when we toured for the last two records, for the Heritage record but that\u2019s been the same everywhere, people yelling out \u2018Play some fucking metal\u2019 or whatever, and it\u2019s been the same in Australia. Overall it\u2019s been fantastic, we always pull a good crowd and have a good time and at the end of the day the people leaving the shows seem to have enjoyed themselves so that\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

I shamefully have never seen Opeth live before and will be changing that in May, so for someone like me who hasn\u2019t been to a show before, rather than describe a typical live show, what do you want the concert goer to walk away with from the experience?<\/strong>
\nA good memory, we don\u2019t really have a show if you know what I mean, we don\u2019t have a nice stage set up, we don\u2019t really run around, there\u2019s no monsters coming down, it\u2019s just the five of us playing the songs and we\u2019re trying to play them as good as we can with as much passion as we can. I think what we have to offer is just more of a musical experience you know and very little eye candy, and some people probably find that very boring and they need that eye candy in order to make it interesting, but we don\u2019t have that on offer unfortunately. We just play the songs and that\u2019s it, hopefully the songs are strong enough so they don\u2019t need extra spice, extra cream on top you know what I mean? *laughs* it always surprises me when we play sold out shows and I\u2019m wondering why? When I think that the only thing that it boils down to at the end of the day, it\u2019s not that I have a great fucking torso that people want to see, it\u2019s all about the songs, there\u2019s no crazy personality in the band like isn\u2019t that guy crazy let\u2019s go watch him\u2026 it\u2019s only songs and we still pull people and that\u2019s great. It couldn\u2019t be better, because I\u2019m shy, I\u2019m not like an entertainer in that sense I\u2019m just a simple musician and it kind of works well for me.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pale Communion\u2019 has been out for just over seven months, and was three years since \u2018Heritage\u2019 in that time did you have an idea or direction of how you wanted this newest album to come together?<\/strong>
\nI didn\u2019t have really have much of an idea, the only idea I had is that I didn\u2019t want to repeat anything from the past including the Heritage album, even if I loved that album I didn\u2019t want to try and make another record like that, quite frankly I don\u2019t think it would be possible for us to do it. So it was just that I like to go into every writing process with a clean slate basically, I rarely use old ideas that were never finished, I always like to write everything from scratch and there are a few exceptions to that of course, but generally just got into the writing mode thinking I want to come up with a great collection of songs and I want to be a bit different to the previous record or previous records and I was really lucky, I wrote this album fairly quickly and we recorded it supremely quickly, it was recorded in only thirteen days which is realty fast for us. I don\u2019t really think too much, I listen to and consume a lot of music and I like to think that I draw inspiration from my record collection, you could say I\u2019m a product of my record collection, I just sit down and write, sooner or later something decent is going to come out.<\/p>\n

As producer, do you feel you have to be harder on yourself as an artist than you would be if you were simply performing?<\/strong>
\nYeah of course, I\u2019m quite specific. I don\u2019t see myself as a producer even if I have been producing every record, it\u2019s easy for me to come up with ideas and solutions when you run into problems while recording, like how are we going to merge this piece with the next? For this band at least I don\u2019t seem to have a problem with taking care of this band musically if you know what I mean, but I don\u2019t see myself as a producer, but we did put a lot of pressure on ourselves as musicians, everyone\u2019s got their stations within the band, like Fredrik who\u2019s playing lead guitar, he wants to do the best most emotional playing he\u2019s ever done with each new record Martin our drummer and Mendez our bass player wants to nail everything down better than they ever have before and that\u2019s also somewhat of a demand from everyone else in the group you know? I wanted to sing better than I\u2019d ever done, so I pushed myself a lot, but I think you can only kind of play with the cards that you\u2019ve been dealt, if the songs are not up to par what can you do? This time around we were kind of lucky, everybody understood the songs, everybody put their own personality into the songs and it was a very, very smooth process writing this record and especially recording it, it was magical almost.<\/p>\n

You worked once again with Steven Wilson who mixed the album, what is it about Steven that works for the sound of the band?<\/strong>
\nHe\u2019s first and foremost he doesn\u2019t come from the metal background that we do, we\u2019ve been mixing and co-producing some of the heavy records we\u2019ve done in the past that was a good decision I think because it helped us to kind of advance and broaden our sound his help did\u2026 We have had people working with the band that have done a great job but I\u2019ve never felt able to put my complete trust in their hands you know what I mean, so as a result there\u2019s been a lot of fights between the engineer or the mixing guy, but with Steven he might feel strongly about something I don\u2019t agree with but in the end he always folds because it\u2019s not his record\u2026 mixing it, co-producing it so it\u2019s a healthy way to work. We had an argument me and Steven about one song on the new album and I wanted a little bit of a vocal effect and he was like \u2018this is your best vocal performance ever and you\u2019re gonna fuck it up with an effect?\u2019 I\u2019m like \u2018no Steve it\u2019s gonna sound great, it\u2019s not an effect perse, it\u2019s just gonna make the voice sound a bit more thin and it\u2019s gonna sound great\u2019 and he was against it, but he said I\u2019ll do it, it\u2019s your record, so let\u2019s do it, in the end he came back and he got used to it and he loved the song just as much.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a huge fan of melody and the new album is swimming in them, was that intentional and you wanted to do something different this time around?<\/strong>
\nYeah I wanted melodies, when I come to think of it that\u2019s one of the early kind of ideas I had for this album, we\u2019ve always been somewhat of a melodic band and I wanted to get back to the strong melodies. I think I\u2019d been listening to music with a strong sense of melody privately and I wanted to get back to that and to have a strong almost sing a long type choruses which I think we succeeded, it became a very melodic album without me being cheesy I think.<\/p>\n

We spoke with Fredrik a couple of years ago and he said that if it wouldn\u2019t have been for \u2018Heritage\u2019 and the direction change for the band that maybe the band wouldn\u2019t have existed anymore, was that truly somewhat of a pivotal point for the band and its future?<\/strong>
\nYeah it\u2019s not untrue, I was struggling after \u2018Watershed\u2019 after \u2018Watershed\u2019 and going to the writing process for \u2018Heritage\u2019 I kind of continued writing in the vein of the \u2018Watershed\u2019 record and I finished one song, almost had another and I think I had a third idea of songs in that vein but I knew in my heart that it\u2019s not really what I want to do, it sounds good and it could be an Opeth record I guess, but it wasn\u2019t crystal and that\u2019s not acceptable for me. I was worrying, I was like fuck, if I write the music that I really want to write maybe the other guys won\u2019t like it then maybe we don\u2019t like the sound and we don\u2019t have a career, but the more I thought about it I kind of changed my opinion, if I just do write the music that\u2019s expected of us as a band without feeling it myself, then we\u2019re really doomed because no record that we\u2019ve ever done in the past has been written under those premises, every record has been written under the idea that we\u2019re gonna write what we want to hear or what was expected of us, or what the fans want to hear. So I had Mendez come over, our bass player, and played him these ideas that I had, and when I stopped the music\u00a0 he just looked at me, kind of shrugged and was like \u2018what\u2019s this?\u2019 I\u2019m like what do you mean? He says \u2018that\u2019s not what you should be writing, that\u2019s not at all what I wanted to hear at least, this is not what we\u2019re supposed to do now.\u2019 It was almost like we were linear and it was\u00a0 relief, he basically slagged me off, he killed me saying the music I\u2019d written was shit, it wasn\u2019t good enough basically that\u2019s what he said, and I\u2019m string headed and stubborn and I\u2019m surprised my reaction want along the lines of \u2018write something better yourself then motherfucker\u2026\u2019 instead I was like \u2018you\u2019re right\u2019\u00a0 it\u2019s not what I want to do, it\u2019s not what we should do, and he left and I think he was worried that fuck, maybe we\u2019re over because I write most of the music and if I can\u2019t deliver the goods then we\u2019re fucked basically. So I started writing again and the first song that I wrote after I\u2019d been deleting these early songs, I basically bunched them up in the computer and deleted them and saved so I couldn\u2019t get them back, I couldn\u2019t rework ideas from there, they were gone forever. So I wrote another song quickly in the afternoon, a song called \u2018The Lines In My Hand\u2019 which is on the \u2018Heritage\u2019 record\u00a0 and called up Mendez to come over again, then played him that song and he was fucking shocked, yes, ok\u2026 I looked at him and he looked afraid but very, very excited and that\u2019s when I knew we were onto something because that song was so fucked up it gave me a whole new corridor of open doors for me to play around with so I could write however I wanted and that\u2019s basically what I wanted to do in the first place. So we ended up with a \u00a0very schizophrenic record like \u2018Heritage\u2019 which I love and we as a band are very, very defensive about that record because it was such a beautiful experience to record it too, so that\u2019s what happened basically.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve now been in Opeth for 25 years this year, in terms of goals and things you still want to do with the band, what\u2019s left that you haven\u2019t yet done?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t really think in those terms, I don\u2019t set up goals basically and I think it might be a way to not get disappointed that I didn\u2019t reach my goals, that I didn’t achieve my goals. I\u2019ve become comfortable in the fact that I\u2019m a professional musician after twenty five years and that\u2019s ok, that\u2019s what I am, it defines me as a person, I think defines the other guys as persons too and so we\u2019re just a happy camp. We make plans for maybe tomorrow or for a week or if it\u2019s something to do with touring you have to plan ahead but when it comes to the creative side of the band I don\u2019t really have any plans, I\u2019m just gonna try and sit down and write songs like I always have like when I\u2019m writing for the next Opeth record. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re over yet at least\u2026<\/p>\n

Your logo is instantly recognizable, and many fans of yours have taken to get it tattooed on, what do you think it is about your music that encourages people to get this image on them permanently?
\n<\/strong>Well I mean it is a nice logo and it almost looks like something you can find in a decent tattoo parlour you know what I mean, the O, and it\u2019s a beautiful thing, I don\u2019t think you necessarily have to be a fan of the band, you just have to find something in your life that means a lot to you that starts with a fuckin\u2019 O *laughs* and then just tattoo it. I think obviously people or a lot of them with that tattoo are fans of the band or have been fans of the band and our music has meant something to them maybe throughout their lives or maybe at a particular moment in then I\u2019m going to get a tattoo and then I\u2019m going to buy myself a couple of beers, it\u2019s so normal to have a tattoo but back in the day it wasn\u2019t, so everybody\u2019s got a tattoos anyway, it makes me happy that they choose to have an Opeth tattoo, and a lot of people have come up to me and shown of various body parts and said \u2018ok look at this\u2019 so that\u2019s super cool, I can\u2019t explain why they go to those lengths but I hope it\u2019s because we have made music that moved them.<\/p>\n

Lastly, I know you said you don\u2019t look ahead but let\u2019s try and predict the future, so finish this sentence, by the end of 2015, Opeth will\u2026<\/strong>
\nCelebrate New Year\u2019s Eve\u2026<\/p>\n

*laughs* Taking the easy way out\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, sorry *laughs*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Catch Opeth at their Australian Tour Dates<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday May 3\u00a0Sydney\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Enmore Theatre<\/p>\n

Monday May 4\u00a0Adelaide<\/strong>\u00a0-The Gov<\/p>\n

Wednesday May 6\u00a0Brisbane<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Eatons Hill<\/p>\n

Thursday May 7\u00a0Melbourne<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Forum<\/p>\n

Friday May 8\u00a0Perth<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Astor<\/p>\n

Tickets on sale now from HERE<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Stockholm, Sweden<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt – Vox, guitars, Martin Mendez – bass, Martin Axenrot – drums, Fredrik \u00c5kesson – guitars, Joakim Svalberg – keys<\/p>\n

Website: <\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.opeth.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Current release:<\/strong> Pale Communion (Roadrunner Records)<\/p>\n

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