OPETH Frontman Talks Label Search, New Studio Album

OPETH frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt recently spoke to Australia's HailMetal.com about the group's current search for a new label home and the band's songwriting process, among other topics. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

HailMetal.com: Recently your label Music for Nations closed down, leaving OPETH stranded. How has the search for a new label been, and any ideas who are the most likely contenders to sign with?

Mikael Åkerfeldt: "We've gotten a wide array of offers, everything from big labels to labels who want us to pay $200 to appear on some obscure compilation tape.

"To be honest, I don't care who we sign to as long as they can do the job right. I concentrate on the music while our management is taking care of the business.

"Right now I think we've gotten 12 serious offers that we're looking through."

HailMetal.com: Last year "Damnation" was released, an obvious change of style from more aggressive metal to pure melodious rock. I'm aware that this is something of a one-off, and that is wasn't an overall change of style for the band. With this in mind, what did you expect to achieve from this album, and how has the response been?

Mikael Åkerfeldt: "It's been good overall. I think most metal dudes accepted this album as they knew we're into '60s and '70s psychedelia and so on. I love the album. I think it's one of our best however different it might be. 'Damnation' has outsold the previous record and I think the reason being that we've reached out to people who are into rock and psychedelia, like PINK FLOYD or whatever. Many people say to me that they've never been into metal, but they love 'Damnation' and got into OPETH through that album. We're bringing some new people into the metal scene!"

HailMetal.com: The DVD also includes a lengthy documentary on the recordings of your last two albums, "Deliverance" and "Damnation". It seems that your producer Steven Wilson played a strong part in those recording sessions, in both creation and production. Will he be contributing as strongly in the next album, or will his role be downplayed?

Mikael Åkerfeldt: "I don't know. I've asked him to help us out again and he said yes. He's going to produce the next album but we're not sure how it's gonna work. His contribution is very 'heat of the moment' as is the entire recording process for us. If he comes up with an idea, we'll try it. That's basically as far as it goes."

Read Mikael Åkerfeldt's entire interview with HailMetal.com at this location.