OPETH Mainman On Touring, Lineup Changes And Progressive Music

Lee Troupe of "The Funeral Directory" show on WUTK 90.3 FM, the college radio station for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH before the band's May 22, 2009 concert at The Bijou Theatre in Knoxville. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Q: Are there any other bands or musicians you've particularly enjoyed playing with, throughout the years?

Mikael: It doesn't really matter, to be honest. I rarely go see the shows for the support bands, because I can't really relax before our own show. So, uh, I just want a band that I like and that's cool and that maybe brings a new kind of, a cool vibe for the whole tour, the tour package. If you go for the obvious bands, people will say, "Why don't you go on tour with KATATONIA?" and that kind of stuff, which, you know, we toured with them, but, it's like, we have the same fans in many ways. You want to reach out to people who haven't heard you, and even though it's like we bring out a small band sometimes that we like that might not pull many people, you know, it gives the whole tour a little bit of credibility.

Q: Mikael, do you prefer these smaller, theater-type shows, or the bigger clubs or festival shows?

Mikael: This is perfect for me, I think, this size. Usually, we have a good stage sound with this type of venue. I don't particularly like playing really small pubs and I don't particularly like playing arenas. Arenas make you feel isolated, especially if it's like, we did an arena tour with the Gigantour, and some of those places, there weren't really any people. It was like 1,000 people in a 20,000-capacity arena. Yeah, it's not fun. And too-small places, it's like, you have the crowd right there, you know, there's no...it's just, I've never liked too-small shows. This size is perfect, for me.

Q: You have three relatively new members of the band [Fredrik Åkesson, Per Wiberg, Martin Axenrot]. With those three new guys, how has the songwriting process changed?

Mikael: Didn't really change much. I wrote most of the stuff on my own. Fredrik and I co-wrote one song together, the song that became the first single, "Porcelain Heart". We did that together. But the rest of the stuff I wrote in my house, basically, and that's the way it's always been. It doesn't really matter that much who's gonna play, as long as it's good musicians, I think. For me, I know a lot of people like the old line-up and everything, but for me, this band is so much better, you know. It's so much easier for everyone, there's never any problems with anything, and certainly not playing the stuff, which is really cool.

Q: What's the biggest obstacle that OPETH has faced as a band throughout the years?

Mikael: It is, I guess, the lineup changes, even though that's a bit contradictory to what I just said, but, you know, it's to find new guys, and to kind of adjust to the fact that these people you've been playing with half your life are not going to be there anymore. Musically, as I said it's not been a big problem, but is it gonna work out on a personal level? Is is going to last? That kind of stuff. So, that's always rough. But otherwise, it's like, you know, if we have problems, it's usually easy to solve. We kind of try to keep it on a, like... As long as the band is doing fine, I don't really worry about the rest. If it's business and money and that kind of stuff, I don't really worry about that. You lose a little money, sometimes you get more money, so it kind of evens out in the end.

Q: Do you still keep in touch with any of the ex-members of the band?

Mikael: Not that much. It's mostly because I'm away most of the time, it's kind of difficult. Me and Peter, we kinda stay in touch. We've been talking about having a dinner together for like a year and a half now, and it's just impossible to arrange. I don't keep... well, the first drummer, we call each other up every now and then for a while, but I can't really say we stay in touch. That would be a lie.

Q: What bands and albums have influenced the more progressive side of OPETH?

Mikael: I like everything, pretty much. It doesn't necessarily have to be a progressive band in order to have me writing something that sounds progressive. I can get ideas like that from whatever, you know. But if we're talking progressive bands, like in the beginning, it was bands like KING CRIMSON. Yes was big, um... GENESIS, the big bands. PINK FLOYD was big for me. Through them, I kinda started looking for obscure bands. And now I'm completely lost in record collecting.

Q: So you guys definitely have a progressive side, and you also have a very big folk element in your music. So I guess you can't pick out a specific person that influenced you in that regard, or a specific band?

Mikael: There was folk rock music that I listened to a lot as we, around the time when we did the first couple of albums. Like British folk rock, like STEELEYE SPAN, FAIRPORT CONVENTION, that kind of stuff, you know, the famous bands. And some of the not-so-famous bands, a band called TREES that I really liked, and a band called MELLOW CANDLE I really liked. Some Swedish bands, we have a Swedish band called KEBNEKAISE, named after the highest mountain we have, which basically combined Swedish folk music with rock. And they were awesome. Yeah, there's a couple of bands from like, the traditional type of folk music from some countries, it's quite special. You can't find anything remotely like that anywhere else. Some of it kind of sucks, like for me, I don't like Greek folk music, can't listen to it. So I wouldn't be interested in a Greek folk rock band. But the Swedish rock music I think is very cool and unique.

Q: There's been a side project with you and Steven Wilson and Mike Portnoy of DREAM THEATER, that's been rumored for a long time. Is anything going to ever happen with that?

Mikael: I don't think so, to be honest.

Q: Oh, that's a shame.

Mikael: It feels like it's not up to me, because the other guys are workaholics. And I'm not a workaholic. So when I'm off tour, like after this tour, when we're done, I'm gonna take a break, I'm not gonna do anything for a while. Because those guys, they just go into a new project, like as soon as they finish one... I think they've got, what's it called, ADHD? [laughter] They're working all the time, and I'm just not one of those guys. And I'm not going to be an instigator to get this project started. I have to wait until they say something.

Q: Well, you've got enough going on, and you've got your family...

Mikael: Yeah, well, Mike Portnoy's got like three or four kids now. I don't know how he does it, to be honest. But um, I'm not sure if it's a good idea anyways, that project, because, you know, for me I would be passive. If I'm working with Steven Wilson, I'm kinda passive, waiting for him to say or come up with something. I have no idea what it's like working with Portnoy, he might be really difficult. Besides, it might come out just like everyone's expecting: A cross between PORCUPINE TREE and OPETH. Which is like, fucking boring. [laughter]

"The Funeral Directory" can be heard online Monday nights at www.wutkradio.com (click "Listen Now!") from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. ET.

HardTimes.ca conducted an interview with Mikael Åkerfeldt before OPETH's May 3, 2009 concert in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Watch the 28-minute chat below.