Opeth

Monday, 19 September 2011 00:34

Publisher: Luis Alves

New Album Interview

Opeth

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Mikael Åkerfeldt and Fredrik Åkesson from Opeth talk about the writing and recording of their tenth album “Heritage”, their favourite songs, the sudden shift in the band’s more traditional sound and their relationship with Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree, among other topics…

This interview is brought to you by RIFF Mag from Warner International.

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Talk about recording the album (where, how long it took, did you write in advance or in the studio, production etc).

Mikael Åkerfeldt: Well…the “Heritage” album was written in 6, 7 months in my home pretty much, and I’ve recorded a demo version of all the songs there. We’ve recorded 12 tracks for the album and it’s 10 on the actual album. It was recorded in a studio called “Atlantis Studios” in Stockholm, downtown Stockholm basically, and it used to be called “Metronome Studios”, connected to the Metronome record label. We spent 21 days there recording with an engineer called Janne Hansson and I produced the album (…). Per [Wiberg] is playing on the album, even if he’s not in the band anymore, and our new keyboard player, Joakim Svalberg is also playing on the album. He is playing on the title track, actually the first song, a piano piece which is the first time we heard him play, you know? (…)

Talk about your on-going relationship with Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree and what he is like to work with?

Mikael: Steven Wilson is, has been a mentor for me in the last couple of years I think.(…) I’ve been a fan of his music since their third record “Sky Moves Sideways”, and while I was listening to everything they’ve put out, (…) one day I’ve got an e-mail from him, and we’ve just done an album called “Still Life”, and I immediately asked him if he wanted to produce the next album, which was going to be “Blackwater Park”, [to] which he said, (…) “Yeah”. He wrote me basically saying he liked our music, and I was like “Wow that’s amazing”. So we did the “Blackwater Park” album, he was producing the vocals and some of the lead guitars on that one and co-mixing it, you could say. He also did the next two records “Deliverance” and “Damnation”…same thing, he came in and produced the vocals and stuff like that, and he also mixed the “Damnation” record and then [after], we continued asking him if he wanted to work with us for the (…) RoadRunner catalog, the “Ghost Reveries” and the “Watershed” records, but he was busy with Porcupine Tree at the time. Asked him again [later]…he actually said “the next time I want to be involved”, and he did the mix together with me for the “Heritage” record…He’s one of those guys we just get along (…) whenever we looked at bringing other people into the band in terms of helping us out with production and stuff like that, (…) because his, I mean his musical references are [similar]. We listen to a lot of the same type of bands and we seem to have the same idea of what good and bad music is, if you know what I mean and…he’s just very easy to work with you know, so I loved to work with him again and we have (…), this project that we are working on at the moment, it’s coming out next year I think.

Does the title Heritage have any special meaning for example in relation to the inspiration for the album?

Fredrik Åkesson: Well…the title “Heritage” connects with the music really…it’s about our musical heritage I would say.

Mikael: Yeah, the Swedish folk music basically (…) has been very important for everyone in Sweden. I think you know…even if you’re not a music fan, you’re aware of…I think everyone lacks that type of sound. You can’t compare it to anything else, it’s only found there and that was one of the things we’ve picked up. Throughout our discography there’s bits and pieces in there but maybe it’s more apparent on the “Heritage” record than ever before and also, basically all the inspiration for the music was taken from older music, like the 60’s, the psychedelic scene and the progressive scene of the 70’s and also the hard rock scene that started in the 70’s and [went] into the 80’s.

The album artwork is quite distinct - how did the concept come about and who designed it?

Mikael: I came up with the concept…it was actually our manager who said it would be cool “with a tree or something like that” once he heard some of the music, and that idea stuck to my head and I came up with the rest of the concept and everything, which (…) on paper it’s a fairly outrageous concept, but Travis Smith did the artwork and he’s been working with us since the “Still Life” record in ‘98, ‘99, something like that, and…I was surprised (…) he kind of understood what I was looking for and it’s exactly the way I envisioned it, you know? It’s amazing…I think he’s never done anything that looks quite like that one and we’ve certainly never had anything like that one before, and it caused a big stir in the metal underground. A lot of people loving it, a lot of people hating it, a lot of people think it’s a joke, but it is, I mean, it’s quite humorous in a way that picture, but it also got a great sense of seriousness to it as well.

Why did you decide to stick to purely clean vocals again (the first time since the "Damnation" release in 2003)?

Mikael: There is no screams like death metal screams on this album, but that was basically because of the songs you know, there was no place for that type of vocals. I didn’t want to put it in there just because some people expect us to do it, you know? We always kind of go with the flow and the songs kind of take shape and you just make decisions after that, if you know what I mean. I’m not sure what we are going to do next, it might be a death metal record, you never know, but that’s the beauty of Opeth I think...I don’t want people to know what they’re going to get, we’re simply not one of those bands so it’s…it’s a little bit of a “take it or leave it” attitude and we didn’t want it to be a ballad album. Just because there are no screams on it, doesn’t mean that it’s not intense you know? I think this album has a higher intensity than some of the metal records that we’ve done. Its a cocky little record I think, and some people obviously are not going to like the fact that I’m not screaming on that album, but I mean, if that’s the only thing you like about Opeth, then we are not really your band I think…You have to be a little bit more open minded if you’re going be able to understand what we are doing…

Fredrik: But then again, the clean vocals on the album [have] taken another level in the way I think Mikael pushed his voice, so he sings more aggressive with his clean voice on this one, which I think is a good thing to get more dynamics, as people are used to hear in Opeth.

Mikael: Yeah, I tried to develop that voice you know? With the screams I don’t really know where to take it. I haven’t been able to develop that type of vocals for years, you know, I don’t know what else I can do with it…But the clean singing is something I’m constantly developing and I feel I’m becoming a better singer (…) as time goes by…

Fredrik: I remember when Mikael told me there’s not going to be any death metal vocals on this album, I was a bit “Wow, are you really sure about that?” And then when I went to Mikael’s (…)house and he played me the stuff, I’ve realised his vision and there’s actually no room for death metal vocals on this one, and it would be kind of stupid to squeeze it in there just for having it…

Talk about the 5.1 mix.

Fredrik: Yeah, the 5.1 mix on the album I think…has turned out really good. Steven did it. I heard it two times now and there’s so many details in there that it’s a bit of a journey.

Mikael: Yes, it’s bringing a new life to the record. I’ve listened to it, the regular stereo mix, I don’t know how many times, lots of times anyways…The first time we had a playback for journalists in Stockholm, playing the whole album in a surround mix with [a]“Genelec”, a nice system, I sat down to just to go through it all to see if everything was there because I’ve never heard the mix and I just wanted to see what it sounded like, and I’ve ended up like listening to the whole thing. It was like hearing it for the first time again, so…it was beautiful and I immediately texted Steve like “wow that’s a beautiful beautiful mix”(…). He [Steven] asked me “Do you want to be involved in this mix? Do you have any suggestions?” and I’m like “No, you take care of it, you have more of a knowledge about that type of thing, and just try and base it as much as you can on the stereo mix which has already been improved by me”. So, he just did it on his own and it’s a beautiful, beautiful mix i think. I have one of those surround systems but I haven’t listened to that many records in the surround environment basically, but this one I think is amazing.

Which song or songs are you most proud of on the album?

Mikael: It’s a bunch you know…I like them all otherwise they would [have] never been recorded but there’s a few songs [in which] everything clicked perfectly with the performances, with the writing, with the sound and the mix and everything…One of my favourites, my personal favourite actually is a song called "Häxprocess" which is a Swedish word (…). I can’t really say why it just came, you know, it just clicked with me. Its a very emotional song I think, and I also like “The Devil’s Orchard” which is going to be the first single, (…) more of an uptempo kind of intense song…

Fredrik: Yeah, “The Devil’s Orchard” is my favourite. Also I really like the song “Folklore” which has a really cool groove to it.

Mikael: And “Nepenthe” is a very strange song. Goes between like almost like a jazz type of…

Fredrik: Axe is playing with brushes, it’s actually two different drum kits in that song. You have the Rock Kit in the solo section where I tried to play some more “widly-woo” type of solo…

Mikael: Like a fusion type solo…it’s nice!

Fredrik: Yeah, Mikael wanted me to play something in the vein of fusion, I’m not really a fusion player so I kind of faked it around then. It came out pretty cool I think…

Mikael: Yeah, it did…

Talk about your new signature guitar models from PRS.

Fredrik: Yeah, I’ve got a new signature model out, Fredrik Åkesson model with PRS - SE, which are, they’re gonna be around 900 quids I think… and I can really stand up for this guitar. I bounced the idea with Douglas (…) at PRS guitars for, I think it was about half year, and really picked it with the details, and it’s a solid workhorse I would say, and I could really recommend it to any young kid that wanna pick up a proper guitar and [doesn’t] have 4000 quids to spend on a expensive one…

Mikael: Yeah, I have my model which, I mean, I’ve never figured i would get my own signature guitar, let alone with PRS guitars which is, as far as I’m concerned, the best guitar brand in the world and, I think it was Paul Reed himself who just [said] “Would you be interested in this?” and I’m like “of course!” you know? So we’ve developed a guitar (…) from my specs, basically it’s a 24 fret single cut guitar and it’s kind of “posh” looking, [with] gold hardware and it’s got the Opeth “O” beneath the bridge, and it’s a very nice guitar. It’s based on a guitar that they’ve built for me before, that I’m playing on “The Roundhouse Tapes” DVD if you’ve seen that, which was a really, quite expensive guitar, a Modern Eagle model, which was, I think, one of the last of it’s kind because they had little room for these selected pieces of wood that they only use for the very very best guitars, and this has, some Brazilian rosewood in it which is, (…) an extinct piece of wood. Maybe it’s…it’s wrong to use it, but they had some pieces of really nice woods that I’ve used for this guitar and basically I based my SE, which is a Korean made guitar but you know, I don’t want to have a signature model that no one can afford to buy, like Fredrik said you know? If you put something out that’s going to be like thousands of pounds and nobody will [buy], you know, like our fans, I guess most of our younger fans don’t have that type of income to be able to buy a guitar like that, so its roughly around 700, 800 quid I think, and for that money you get a really good guitar and I’m playing that guitar all the time. I’m switching between some of the more expensive guitars and playing my own guitar, and I always kind of long for my SE when I’m playing some of the other PRS guitars. Not saying they’re bad or anything, they’re amazing guitars, but mine, just clicked with me and you know, it’s a really good feeling to put your name on something that you actually love, if you know what I mean, as opposed to just putting a product out you know? This is the guitar I love to play…

You can hear the rest of the audio interview in the widget below: