God of
extreme prog
metal
INTERVIEW: MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT
16
Mikael Åkerfeldt is not just one of the most highly acclaimed songwriters of his
genre, he’s a true legend.
How’s the tour going?
“It’s good. It’s just a small
run, I think seven shows.”Opeth have been going
for nearly 30 years. Do
you have the same fire
for this now as you did
when you started?
“Probably not, not on
tour anyway. When we
play that’s the highlight of
the day, but other than that
I’m not really psyched about
it - it’s just the same shit
different day! But we hang out and we have
a good time.
“When I was on my first tour, I was like
20, and the first tour we did 20 years ago, I
was probably more excited about it.
“But the creative process in the band is
something that I am still excited about, at
least as excited and perhaps even more so.”How does the creative process work
in Opeth?
“I write the bulk of the stuff in-between
touring cycles. If we have a world tour
scheduled I don’t write in-between the
tours, I write when everything is done and
that’s just two shows away.”And you’re planing the next album to
be out in 2019?
“Ahhh, that’s just something the managersaid! He just wants to have something in
the diary. When I say ‘we’re going on a
break.’ He’s like, ‘you deserve it. So when
are you going to do the next album? Can
we say 2019?’ So I was like, ‘probably not.
But if it makes you feel better then yeah,
for sure.’
“But I want to take my time. Because
we have been constantly touring and we
started fairly late, the record had been out
for a while, before we started touring. But
ever since we started it has been constant
touring. Then straight into writing,
recording, press touring. It’s never ending!
“But you come to realise after a while,
especially when you are not so excited
about every tour, that you have the power
to say no.”Do you treat the writing process likea full-time job, or do you
have a different method?
“Yeah, I have a good work
ethic. I have my children every
other week and when they’re
with me I leave them at school
at 08:00 and then go straight
to the studio and I work until...
everything I write is shit! And
if I don’t have the kids I tend to
drop in a bit later.
“So I don’t force it really,
I just tend to come up with
something if I spend a certain
number of hours in the studio.
And even if I erase stuff from the day
before that’s still progress.”Any step forwards is a step in the
right direction...
“Yeah, I mean, I have erased half a record
before. I just wrote lots of stuff and decided
to erase it and people were going ‘that’s
insane!’ But that was good for me, that was
still progress.”Do you find writing easy and natural
or is it a process you have to break
down technically?
“No, I just sit down and I play guitar!
Or whatever is at hand. I can’t play piano
but I have a keyboard, so if I come up with
something that doesn’t work on guitar I try
on the keyboard, or I try on the drum pads,
istock I’ll try anything out to see how it goes!“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...”
M
ikael Åkerfeldt has a unique position within music. Revered
among the world of progressive, extreme, and even classic metal,
he and his band, Opeth, are one of the most successful exponents
of a genre littered with enduringly well-selling acts.
Not only that, though, he’s known critical acclaim for over 20 years and
holds the position of being one of the most highly regarded songwriters
and guitarists in the metal world.
Having formed Opeth in 1989, Åkerfeldt has released 12 albums with theband (the most recent being Sorceress, which was released in September
2016) and has been the driving force behind the group’s combination of
death/black metal and prog/classic rock.
We caught up with Mikael during the tail end of Opeth’s 2017 European
tour and discovered that at the beginning of the band’s career, he had to
commit every song to memory, as he had no method of recording
them - a unique challenge, espcially considering that some of the tracks
were 20-minutes long...God of
extreme prog
metal