OPETH Mainman: 'We Don't Want To Be Different For The Sake Of Being Different'

The Irish Times recently conducted an interview with OPETH mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On the band's wider ange of influences:

Mikael: "I don't see the point of playing in a band and going just one way when you can do everything. It would be impossible for us to play just death metal; that is our roots, but we are now a mishmash of everything, and not purists to any form of music. It's impossible for us to do that, and quite frankly I would think of it as boring to be in a band that plays just metal music. We're not afraid to experiment, or to be caught with our pants down, so to speak. That's what keeps us going."

On the band's obsession with experimentation:

"It's not that I woke up one morning and had a brainwave to do a jazz riff and throw it into the mix. One critic of our most recent album was up in arms. He said we sounded like ELTON JOHN and BOYZ II MEN. So what? I'm cool with that, it's great. I don't feel we have any limits. We don't want to be different for the sake of being different; if I come up with something that sounds good then it stays in, regardless of whether some people think it sounds bad."

On whether he sees the possibilities for experimentation as being endless:

"When I say we don't have any limits it's not entirely true, because there are certain kinds of music I still don't like — namely hip-hop, ska, dance. So we wouldn't be experimenting with those types of music because we don't like them. There won't be any rapping on our albums anytime too soon, that's for sure.

"I had much more purist tastes when I was younger. If someone said we should do funk I'd have said no. We wanted to be heavy and extreme, which was our form of rebellion, as it is with kids and heavy metal. It still has an outsider element, and that's what we like. As the years passed, we got to play our instruments better and gained more musical influences. I wasn't afraid to say that this ELTON JOHN or that STEVIE WONDER song was good. But we still cling to our metal roots because we love them."

On the cliched perception about metal and its various subgenres is that it's all nihilistic, nefarious and negative:

"I like darker forms of music and lyrics, but that's just a personal taste — it doesn't necessarily make me a negative person. A lot of people would agree that from negative music you can draw positive emotions. Leonard Cohen is a good example of life-affirming feelings coming from listening to his songs. I like uplifting moments in music, too, but happy-dancey music makes me cringe to a certain extent. Some people don't believe me when I say this, but I actually like the negative vibe. Most of the metal lifestyle is quite dark, and that's just how it is. I've been hugely influenced by that, but as I say, I still like uplifting music."

Read the entire interview at Ireland.com.