MIKAEL KERFELDT: 'I've Always Seen OPETH As A Band Without Boundaries'

Chad Bowar of HeavyMetal.About.com recently conducted an interview with vocalist/guitarist Mikael kerfeldt of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

HeavyMetal.About.com: Congratulations on "Heritage" cracking the Top 20 on the Billboard chart in its debut week. Were you surprised, considering the sorry state of the music industry today?

Mikael: It's a little bit more than they estimated. I know it means we sold records, but I'm not too impressed with chart positions. It's fun and cool to the people at the record label; it means a lot to them.

HeavyMetal.About.com: What was your mindset going into the songwriting process for "Heritage"?

Mikael: I was a bit discouraged with the contemporary metal scene, and I wanted to break away from it even more. I feel we've been on the outskirts of that scene for a a couple of years. I just couldn't see myself writing another album in the same vein as the last couple of records. Thankfully, I listen to so many different kinds of music, and writing music has never been a problem. I've always seen OPETH as a band without boundaries. So if it's good and everybody in the band likes it, it's an OPETH record. In the end, I sat down and wrote the music that I wanted to hear right now.

HeavyMetal.About.com: How does your songwriting process work?

Mikael: I write for all the instruments and make demos for the entire record. Just because I write for all the instruments doesn't mean they have to play it exactly. It's what I think sounds good, but if you have a better idea I'd love to hear it. I'm not an accomplished keyboard player or drummer, but I can write for those instruments. I just leave it open for everyone to do what they want to do. The idea in making a good sounding demo for me is to intimidate them a little bit and make them feel like they have to go to that next level.

HeavyMetal.About.com: Do you think "Heritage" will have a wider appeal than your past albums, and might appeal to more non-metal fans?

Mikael: I've never seen the metal label as a stigma. Those are our roots. I don't have a problem with that. I'd like to think metal fans today have more of an open mind, but I'm not sure. Our fans for sure have an open mind, because we've been hinting about an album like this for a long time. It's not a complete surprise. It wasn't an overnight switch. It is different-sounding, though.

HeavyMetal.About.com: You and Steven Wilson (PORCUPINE TREE) will be releasing an album next year as STORM CORROSION. Give us a preview.

Mikael: It doesn't sound like either of our bands. I'm not sure if it's completely now and original. There's a lot of soundtrack type music. Both myself and Steven are into '70s music like TANGERINE DREAM and stuff like that. I wouldn't say it's electronic music, but it has an earthy vibe to it. We have choirs and strings. It's a pretty beautiful record, not very rock-sounding.

HeavyMetal.About.com: Did you do all the singing?

Mikael: No. He's doing most of the vocals. I'm singing on one and a half songs, he's singing on four. Generally I play guitar and some bass and sing, and Steve plays the keyboard and some bass and sings.

HeavyMetal.About.com: With both your busy schedules was it difficult to find time to do it?

Mikael: No. We're friends. He bought a new place and I went over to see what it was like and to hang. In the back of our minds we knew we might write something, but we wanted to keep it casual and didn't want to stress. If we came up with something on that trip, fine. If not, the next one. We had a couple glasses of wine and went in to see what we could do. We went in and started recording.

Read the entire interview from HeavyMetal.About.com.