OPETH Guitarist: 'We'll Never Let Anybody Interfere With Our Music'

Australia PyroMusic.net has just conducted an interview with OPETH guitarist Peter Lindgren. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

PyroMusic.net: How have fans reacted to the radical label change to Roadrunner? I know initially there was a bit of an uproar, but how are things now?

Peter Lindgren: "Well, people were worried in the beginning. They thought we were going to turn into a nu-metal band, or that Roadrunner would change us, but people should now by now, we're not going to change. It's too late for that. We could have done that ten years ago. We'll never let anybody interfere with our music. The only thing we're using Roadrunner for is their ability to sell albums. In the past people have come up and told us it's hard to find some of the older albums. The whole idea is that Roadrunner sell our albums, we do everything else. They won't interfere, won't have any say in our music at all. I think they're doing a good job but we're not going to let them try to talk us into rapping or anything [laughter]."

PyroMusic.net: OPETH have achieved a phenomenal amount of mainstream attention for a metal band. It seems so many people have heard your music that ordinarily don't listen to metal at all. Why do you think this is?

Peter Lindgren: Well yeah. We're not a commercial band in the sense of having a lot of videos and radio play because the songs are too long and complicated but I think we have parts in the music that could appeal to anyone. If you're not a metalhead you can still like 'Damnation' or the ballads on the other albums. If you like those, and have more patience when you get to heavy songs you can really get into us. Eventually you're going to like the heavier vocals and music too.

PyroMusic.net: On to the topic of the video clip that was done with the release of the album. What was it like doing the clip?

Peter Lindgren: "Basically, a nightmare. When you do your first video you'd expect to have a lot of say in it. We wanted it to be a good video. We were on tour in North America and we were supposed to shoot this video. We didn't really know what was happening. The day we were in Los Angeles, we get told we need to record the video that day. We didn't really no what was going on. We didn't have any information. We wee just sitting there waiting for them. When we finally got there we were so pissed off we just thought, 'You can all just fuck off!' In the end we decided to do it though because record label (meaning us) had already spent the money on it so we decided, let's do it and forget it. The final outcome isn't very good. The video doesn't have anything to do with the song. It has snakes and girls... The song is an evil song and I guess that's just how it works sometimes."

Read the entire interview at PyroMusic.net.

Check out photos of OPETH's sold-out April 1 show in Israel at Metalist.co.il.