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“But sometimes it’s easy and sometimes
it’s hard. I try not to treat it like a job, it’s a
creative process. But touring is more of a
job type thing, where you do virtually the
same every day.
“I don’t get too stressed if I don’t come
up with something one day, or one month,
or six months. I don’t stress out about it, I
just hope that eventually it will be there. I
just need two chords that sound nice and
then off I go. If I have that then I can wait
another couple of months until I get the
next idea.”
Do you hear the other parts,
instruments, of the song when you
are writing?
“Yeah, I guess I do, but you are
romanticising the whole idea. If you could
see where I actually work, it is just like ‘oh,
is that it ?!’ It’s not cosy, it’s just me sitting
there. But yeah, you do hear stuff in your
head, I guess.”
“Sometimes I sit in my car when I’m
taking the kids to school and I have a
melody in my head. I can arrive at the
studio and it’s all finished. Then I record it
and listen to it and... it’s not a good idea!
But then sometimes it’s great.
“When I talk about me writing, because
I’m thinking about my idols, like Ritchie
Blackmore (Deep Purple), it’s like he’schanneling spirits and comes up with this
masterpiece, or whatever. But for me I just
write and every now and then something
good comes out of it.”Who else do you look towards for
inspiration?
“It’s different. All the stuff I grew up
with, like, I can be inspired by a fucking
soap opera! But the music that I consume
is rock and prog rock, of course, and some
hard rock and metal. But also singer-
songwriter stuff. I’ve also started listening
to classical and more jazz. It doesn’t mean
that I will write classical or jazz songs, but
I do try to surround myself with music all
of the time and I’m very restless. I want to
move on and try other avenues and make
myself inspired.”You mentioned before that you
thought Opeth should have been
around in the 70s. How do you think
you would have sounded if you had
been around then?
“Probably not anything like how we
sound today because most of our influences
are from the 70s. I’m not sure if it would
make more sense to be around in the 70s
because if we were then we would probably
start with skiffle music!
“It’s more a case that I’m thinking that if“I’m not sure
if it would
make more
sense to be
around in
the 70s
because if
we were
then we
would
probably
start with
skiffle
music!”
INTERVIEW: MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT