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Interviews : “A world tour that doesn’t include Australia will never happen.” – an interview with Mikael Åkerfeldt

By on April 9, 2015

This May will see Opeth return to Australia yet again, this time on the back of their stellar new-est album Pale Communion. In the lead-up, Martin Michea had a chat with mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt and rather than turn it into an article, we thought he’d let him speak for himself;

Mikael: Hi Martin!

Metal Obsession: (In Swedish) Hello Mikael! I just thought I’d say straight away that I’m from Sweden, so we can do this in Swedish if you want!

(Rest of the interview in Swedish, translated by the interviewer)

M: Oh! Well then! Hello! I was just about to say that Martin is an easy name to remember, since I have two Martins in the band!

MO: Yeah, I was about to say the same thing! How are you doing?

M: Things are very well thank you, I’m drinking coffee and it is 11.30am here in Stockholm.

MO: That sounds like a fantastic start to the Easter weekend!

M: Yeah, I was just talking to my daughters, they want to go shopping and it is like the worst day of the year to do that since it is Good Friday! But I guess that some malls are open, so I will head out when I’m done talking to you.

MO: What’s the weather like over there? Is it cold still?

M: I’ll have a look. The thermometer is showing 12 degrees and it is a bit cloudy, so it’s not too bad. It snowed all day yesterday!

MO: Okay! Let’s get going with the questions. Are you happy with the reception that Pale Communion has received? Considering everything that was going on when you released Heritage.

M: I believe that it wasn’t as much of a shock to people as when we released Heritage. I think that our fans have gotten a bit used to the thing that we do now when we released Pale Communion. I don’t have Facebook or anything like that, so when it comes to what fans think, I just hear someone saying that this and this fan said this and that. Our publicist or our label send me various review samples and they have been great.

It feels like, when you glance at the top albums for 2014, we’re pretty high up on most of the lists, or we’re not included at all! But we’re also near the top in many prog/rock magazines. Even Classic Rock Magazine included us in their top 10, along with rock, heavy metal and blues artists. And in their prog section, Pale Communion was named the best album of the year by both the critics and the fans.

We have managed to do a bit of a detour into the prog rock lands. We’re metal still in a way as well. In Sweden, Close Up Magazine didn’t even include us in their top albums of the year, and we’re usually included there. But that’s life, you can’t have everything!

MO: Do you have a favourite song on the new album?

M: I do have a favourite track! It’s the last one, “Faith In Others”. I am very happy with that song. It turned out exactly like I wanted to. It’s not that common that that happens. It turned out just like I wanted to and even a little bit more than that. It is not only my favourite track on the album, but my favourite Opeth track overall.

MO: Do you have a track on any other album that you could compare with “Faith In Others”, from Blackwater Park maybe?

M: Not really, I hear a lot of flaws on those albums. I don’t think there is any perfection on Blackwater Park. A lot of people think that it is our ultimate album. The timing was perfect I think. We released it 2000, and back then there were no other bands that sounded quite like that. And people seemed to crave that sound. It had enormous penetration, but when I listen to the album I don’t think that “I will never be able to do better than this”. It is just another album to me.

It is usually the calmer songs that I tend to like a bit more. The last song on Ghost Reveries for example, “Isolation Years”, I’m extremely happy with. Other than that it is mostly sections that I’m pleased with.

MO: I guess it might be a bit difficult to like an entire song for you especially, as you hardly create any three minute pop songs.

M: Not yet! But we’ll get there! No, I’m just kidding!

MO: I’ve been looking at your recent setlists, and you’re only playing three songs from Pale Communion, was that a conscious decision that you made?

M: Yeah, when we’re heading down to Australia it will still only be three songs. And it is mostly because we don’t want to. We’re still in a pretty early stage of the tour so we’re starting out with three songs and as we go we might add or remove songs. Our goal is to have played every single song live, from all albums.

But we also learned our lesson, because of the Heritage tour, where we played six songs from that album. It was a bit too much for some fans. Some people went home and felt that they weren’t satisfied, I think. Our integrity is intact when we’re recording albums, that’s when it is all about us a band. But when we’re playing live it is all about the audience. We want people to be pleased. So we’ve changed our approach a bit. We’re not as big on playing as many new songs anymore. We’ve mixed it up a lot more since the Heritage tour. On this tour we’re playing at least one song from every album other than the first one, with a little more focus on Pale Communion.

MO: I think it is rather impressive that you’re doing this. Since your tracks are usually quite long, you can’t really do what Metallica do, playing 22-23 songs every night.

M: Yeah, there are always some people that want to hear songs from the second or third album that in this case are quite obscure compared to Blackwater Park. But I believe that even fans who don’t like those albums that much can appreciate that we’re doing this, that we’re taking care of our past.

MO: Absolutely. In my case, Rammstein is my favourite band and I feel that they’re not playing that many older songs live compared to newer material. I grew up with them and I often feel that I miss their old stuff when I see them live.

M: Yeah I can completely understand that and I also respect that fans feel that way. I am the same way, when I’m going to an Iron Maiden concert and other bands that I grew up listening to. I really want to hear the songs that I want to hear. I don’t really give a damn about if the band doesn’t want to play the songs that I want to hear.

Iron Maiden is a good example. I went to a gig when they had released A Matter Of Life And Death. I hadn’t heard a single second of that album. I went to the concert anyway, and they played the whole album in its entirety. And my initial thought was that “oh no, now they can’t play all the songs that I want to hear!” But then I thought that it is pretty incredible, they’ve pretty much been playing together since 1975, and that they’re still so proud of their new material. I really respect that.

And since you mentioned Metallica, I really love Metallica. When they released St Anger and Death Magnetic. I went to those concerts thinking that it is going to be awesome to hear those songs live.  But they hardly played any of the songs! They mostly just played their hits, which is cool of course. But at the same time it makes you wonder, why do you create new records if you don’t seem to be that proud of them?

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MO: Let’s move on to Australia. You’ve been here on every tour since 2002/2003. Are you still as excited to come here now as in the beginning?

M: I love Australia. We love Australia. I’ve been there a lot privately. I love being there. When it comes to the gigs there’s not a massive difference, you’re on a stage and there’s an audience who appreciates your music. But there’s still a special atmosphere there. I can’t really compare it to anything, but there’s this feeling. We’ve never felt that we never want to return again, on the contrary we feel that we’ve really got something to build on here. Australia has become an important market for us. A priority. A world tour that doesn’t include Australia will never happen.

MO: I as a Swedish person who lives in Australia must say that over here it feels like you’re on of the bigger acts, and at the same time you’re not really that big back at home.

M: For sure, the Swedish scene is one of the worst ones for us. Of course, we can play pretty big shows in Stockholm and Gothenburg. But other than that, in the smaller cities, it is all about Sabaton. We have to stay within the larger cities. Even Malmö has become a lot worse, so I’m not sure if we’re going to go back there anymore.

MO: Do you have any place that you always visit when you come here? Any restaurants or something touristy maybe?

M: Not necessarily. We’re being dropped off at some hotel. I usually head out for a walk to look for record stores, that’s my favourite thing to do when we’re not playing gigs.

MO: You have a special 25 year anniversary tour coming up later this year. Why did you pick Ghost Reveries for this occasion and is there any chance that Australia will be included in a similar tour in the future?

M: We picked Ghost Reveries since it’s that album’s 10 year anniversary. We did a similar thing for Blackwater Park when that record turned 10. That was our 20 year anniversary. It has become quite popular to play entire records. I don’t really have anything against that even if it is not something I usually prefer.

MO: Which album would be your next anniversary album?

M: Well, let’s see. When we’re turning 30. I guess that would be Heritage, since we released that in 2011. We didn’t release an album in 2010 since we were touring then. There will be no more anniversaries!

MO: Last week the local supports for your Australian tour were announced. I read somewhere that the band personally picked the supporting acts, is this true?

M: Not quite actually. When we bring one band on the entire tour, I step in and pick the band. But this time around, we had a few problems with confirming this tour. We’ve changed promoter, we were working with this Soundwave guy before, but he was busy with the festival so he couldn’t quite give us what we wanted this time around. So we changed promoter and were running out of time, so we never picked a band to follow us on the entire tour. I think it was our manager, Andy Farrow, who picked the bands.

MO: Do you still hear fans screaming for those “heavier” songs?

M: Well since we’re mixing it up now, on the contrary we get more sort of exalted fans at the concerts now with a similar setlist to the one we’re doing in Australia. Since we’ve done Heritage and Pale Communion some fans seem to believe that we dislike our older material and some of them are quite shocked that we’re playing those songs live still, and also the way we’re performing them. I believe that we are performing the old songs better now than we have ever done in the past. I haven’t heard any complaints at least, there are a lot of heavy material on the setlist.

MO: Last question, if you could go back in time to when you first started out with Opeth, what advice would you give yourself?

M: I heard a quote once and I love it: “A real musician don’t take advice.” I think that’s what I would have said!

MO:  Thank you so much for chatting to me today and I hope that you’ll have a great Easter with your family!

M: Thanks, you too!

You can catch Opeth live on the following dates;

Sunday 3rd May @ Enmore Theatre, Sydney w/ sleepmakeswaves
Monday 4th May @ The Gov, Adelaide w/ Dyssidia
Wednesday 6th May @ Eaton Hill, Brisbane w/ Caligula’s Horse
Thursday 7th May @ The Forum, Melbourne w/ Myridian
Friday 8th May @ Astor Theatre, Perth w/ Voyager

 

 

 

 

About

Martin is an aspiring music photographer/videographer. He is originally from the southern parts of Sweden and now he's living in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to his older sister, he got into Rammstein at the age of 9, and since then he's been into all types of metal/rock. He loves to combine photography and music, but also filming concerts and produce live material. Follow him on Twitter and check out his website.