OPETH's MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT: 'I'm Not Scared Of Anything When It Comes To Music'

Sam Dunn of Banger TV conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt of Swedish progressive metallers OPETH on July 9 at the Eistnaflug festival in Iceland. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On what makes OPETH such a good band:

Mikael: "It all comes down to talent at the end of the day. We're very talented. I don't know… I think we're… Of course I'd say we're a good band; I'd say we're a fucking good band. We're not really afraid, I think; we're not of anything musically. In fact, we need the experimentation and all these different styles that we have in our music — we need that, I think — and it make sense to us. Because we basically try to play and write music that's kind of connecting with what we're listening to on a daily basis, what we're listening to as music consumers."

On why OPETH has gone through so many musical changes over the years:

Mikael: "I don't know why, to be honest. For me, there was never a massive difference between some of the records that people think are so different to the one before; I never really that type of difference. I know that we're evolving and there's new music coming in. I'm a record collector — buying records, listening to records; I love music — but I never understood what makes, say, 'Heritage' such a vastly different record than the ones before. I mean, I can hear it's different, but, you know, you add some distortion on it and maybe a scream here and there, and it's pretty much the same shit. But we're been lucky, I guess."

On whether he ever gets scared or anxious about some of the musical changes that OPETH undertakes on its albums:

Mikael: "I don't get scared. Say if I could never write a song again; I mean, that would be terrible for me. Luckily, that's never happened. I've had a few periods in my life where I can't come up with anything that I like. I'm not scared about where we're gonna go. Like if I have a song, or a record, that's different, or that's very different, it doesn't scare me at all. I'm not scared of anything when it comes to music. I'm more scared about stagnating and just pumping out shit just to maintain a career and to pay the bills. That's scary."

On how he keeps creating magic when it comes to his songwriting:

Mikael: "For me, I sit down and sometimes I'm lucky, sometimes I'm not. You have to understand: we've done twelve studio albums now, and if I would keep all the shit that I've written, that's another hundred records of shit. So all the good stuff, I think, that we've put out comes with a tail of absolutely horrible shit music that I'm ashamed of… I'm lazy and horrible with some things in my life, but when it comes to music and writing music, I'm really tunnel-visiony. I work a lot, and I work because I love it; I get lost in it, and it becomes… It's like a bubble when I'm writing, which is a lovely feeling."

OPETH will release their twelfth album, "Sorceress", on September 30 through Nuclear Blast via OPETH's imprint label Moderbolaget Records.