Interview

Mikael Akerfeldt of OPETH

A Tell me a little about the background of the band
and the individuals in Opeth? How the idea for the
band started and how the guys met each other?

M: I'd been in a band called Eruption with Opeth's original (well,
semi-original) drummer Anders. This was late 80´s. I was friends with a guy called Davis who was the singer for this band, Opeth. When Eruption split I tried out for Opeth as a bass player. The other guys in Opeth at the time didn't like the idea of having me in the band, so there was a fight between them and David who wanted me in. We ended up re-forming Opeth as a 2-piece band (like the white stripes haha). David quit in 1991 and I became the singer (having been the vocalist in Eruption). Peter joined as a session bassplayer for a gig in 1991...our last gig with David. We've had several line-ups, but the most important ones are obviously the current line up as well as the first real recording line-up consisting of myself, Peter, Johan
and Anders. The Martins joined in 1997, for the My arms your hearse
record. I played bass on the recording but roughly Mendez was a member at that time. The idea for Opeth in the beginning was basically to make evil and satanic music. I was heavily into death metal and black metal, dark stuff. But when I, in 1991, got into prog and symphonic rock, my perspective on music changed somewhat. That's really when the band's sound took form. After Dave left I could incorporate clean vocals in the band too. Basically we just
wanted to have everything we liked in our own music, despite what style it was.

A. What other bands and artists have influenced you
as a player and influence the band as a whole?

M: I'm the sole writer these days and have been the main writer since
the
beginning and my influences are ranging from death metal to jazz
basically.
Morbid Angel, Judas Priest, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Bathory,
Air, Cressida, Gracious, Camel. Wishbone ash, Porcupine tree etc.

A. Opeth has been around for some years now and has
enjoyed great success in the European market, yet in
the US the band is virtually unknown. Why do you
think that is and what master plan does Opeth have for
hopefully conquering the US scene?

M: It's really the other way round...US is our best market yet in
commercial sense we're not known. We do sell a lot of copies over there, the 2 last albums have both been on the Billboards, in fact I think Damnation is still up here. We're touring US all the time. Europe is very good for us too but there's no real difference in our popularity...it's pretty much the same wherever we go, although US as a whole is consistently good.

A. Opeth's music is so diverse that for anyone to
try and label the band into any certain category would
seem to do the band an injustice? You seem to be
lumped in with the 'black metal' or 'death metal'
scene yet you offer so much more than the other bands
in those genres. How does that make you feel and how
would you want to be regarded?

M: I don't mind...I like it! We are a death metal band despite our
experiments. I don't wanna have a pretentious tag to our music, death
metal is direct to the point although a bit misleading. We're gonna be considered a death metal band as long as I do the screaming vocals I guess.

A. It seems that the heavier and harder music has a
much bigger following in Europe and the Scandinavian
markets. What do you attribute that to?

M: I don't know really...there is definately a hunger for heavy music in the US. That's where the metal bands get really big...doesn't happen in Europe. Here we're a bit jaded and not as excited about metal anymore as it's flooding the market. Too many bands, and too many crap bands. Germany is often hailed as THE metal country, but it's not really that cool. They get all the bands and the fans are over stuffed with metal. When we play there the reaction can be somewhat dazed. Like we're ' just another metal band'.
Everywhere else we are hailed as the fucking kings, but in Germany we
compete with 99% of the rest of the touring metal bands as virtually
all bands go on tour there.

A. What is the music scene like in Sweden?

M: It's pretty bad...mostly bands who have a 'The' name ending with a 's'. Garage rock bands. It's fine with music without any finesse sometimes, but I think some of these bands are so determined about being 'stripped down' that they almost become pretentious. Opeth is a fucking down to earth band consisiting of 4 bums basically. We have no image, no dreams really. We are much more 'street' than all them pretenders. As for the metal scene, the best thing about Sweden is the Sweden rock festival which features all the bands, forgotten bands sometimes of the 70´s and 80´s. It's beautiful!

A. Where do you find inspiration for lyrics?

M: Other bands lyrics or personal happenings. I like nice words and can write entire verses based ona beautiful word.

A. On Deliverance you went with your signature
sound and delivered the heavy songs that you are known
for. Yet on the Damnation cd, you have taken a 180
degree turn and wrote songs that are the complete
opposite of your norm. How do you switch gears from
writing heavy to writing very mellow songs?

M: It was easier to write the mellow songs actually. I think I was more excited about doing that as it was a new thing for me. Basically I just wrote music. Sitting down in my flat playing guitar and recording everything I think sounds cool. I can switch between styles very naturally as it has always been a part of our sound. My influences are so diverse that I don't feel it's a 180 degree turn anymore. It's all Opeth.

A. As mentioned above, on the new cd, you have
taken a 180 degree turn with the new material. How do
you think people are going to react to it? What are
you hoping to achieve with the 'mellower' sound?

M: Achieve? Nothing in particular. The album was done because I wanted
to write music like that for a change. I think we'll be back to extreme stuff in the future. 'Damnation' is a fantastic record that clearly shows that we're one of the best bands in the world today, not only for metal, overall, we are unique! Haha! I love to boast, but I do think it's true. A lot of people will be confused and turned of by that record, but equally many will get into it I hope.

A. Deliverance is in my opinion, not only THE BEST
collection of songs this year but quite possibly one
of the best cd's ever put out. Is this just an
experiment or something that may be expected again in
the future?

M: Yeah, that was done more freely as we had 'Damnation' coming out.
For Deli I allowed myself to go more over the top with the song writing and especially with the production. Steven Wilson and I were brainstorming a lot trying to come up with cool production features soundwise. It was all very spontaneous. There's no actual thoughts about anything we did, we just did it. Not thinking about if it would be good or shit....it was 'interesting' and that was the most important thing I guess this time around.

MIKAEL'S FAVORITES:

Favorite city to visit?
Sydney- Australia

Favorite club to play?
House of Blues - Chicago

Favorite club to just unwind in?
Again HOB in Chicago

Favorite hobby outside of music?
Collecting Lp's from the 60´s n 70´s

Favorite drink?
Tropicana orange juice right now

Favorite band?
The beatles or Zeppelin right now

Favorite author or book?
Bret Easton Ellis - American psycho

Favorite movie?
The deer hunter

Favorite actor/actress?
De Niro

Favorite thing about touring?
The gigs

Favorite thing about being home?
Fucking...haha!

Favorite thing to do of a day off?
Gameboy

3/14/2006