Talking guitars, new album composition, touring, and more with one of prog death's best.
Text by Rohan (@manvsplaylist), Photos by Ekaterina Gorbacheva (@ekaterinagorbacheva.art) at YouTube Theater on October 30, 2024:
With the latest release of their new album, The Last Will and Testament, Opeth have just wrapped up a tour across the United States. The Heaviest of Art crew were on hand at their October 30th show at the YouTube Theater, and we were able to spend some time with lead guitarist Fredrik Åkesson for a Q&A talking about the new record, touring, guitars, and more, which is paired with shots from the special night for your reading/viewing pleasure.
You're here with a tour that's at an interesting time for the band with the new album, obviously in the can, but not yet in the ears of the audience. I've had it for about two or three months. It's just so complex. It's really hard to wrap your head around it. I'm really curious as to when you first heard the direction it was going, how you responded to it.
Fredrik: I got really happy about it. I thought it was the perfect direction right now. We have done four of these more proggier albums, which I love, but it felt like it's been a natural progress to bring in the growls. The songs are more intense, more compact, but with more ingredients.
I guess a lot of people have caught on to that aspect of the new album, that the growls are back and stuff. It’s a point prominently made in the first few lines in the press release, and I feel like that's getting a lot of attention. To me, it's the actual underlying complexity of the rhythms and the dynamics that's just incredible.
It's good that you mentioned that! Not many people do, but with the rhythms and the drum patterns, I think Mikael wanted to take it to the next level since we have a new drummer, Waltteri, stepping in. He wanted to push him to the limits. He had to work his ass off to nail all these patterns because it's really complex.
Even though the foundation of the beat could be a steady 4/4 beat, there's so much polyrhythmic stuff going on, so you get tricked. When I learned the riffs, it's like, I didn't get it! It took me some while. Waltteri and I were rehearsing together for maybe 20 times before the entire band got together. We just played guitar and drums, nailing all the riffs. It was super difficult in the beginning to get used to these polyrhythmic beats that mess with your brain a bit!
Was Walt in mind when Mike was writing this? Was his flair a known quantity that Mike was trying to lean on or accentuate, or did Walt have to adapt to – “Hey, this is the direction that this music is going. This is the template we've laid down for you?"
Yeah, of course, he added stuff on, but the beats and everything were written by Mike. Of course, he crystallized everything and made it happen. Some things that Mike may program might not be possible. You have to be an octopus to ply it! However, Walt was working on these songs for six months before we recorded it, learning with them. He said to us that if he only had a month learning these songs, he wouldn't have made it. He was really practicing for it, he’s a very ambitious guy.
As this new material was in its evolutionary stages, at what point is Mike sharing either daily recordings with you, or riff ideas? Is he sharing little passages here and there? Or is it the first time you hear it once he's got a fully formed demo?
Well, we got the first song in the beginning of June last year, and that was “Paragraph 7”. Before that, he sent me just the solo part of the section he wanted me to put a solo on. I asked him, “Can I hear the entire song?” He’s like, “I'm not really done with it!” I did that solo without knowing what the entire song is going to be like. It was cool in that aspect to do solos on my own this time. I didn't go to my studio and just improvise, I did it in my studio, took my time, and put some more depth and thought into it. That was not your question, talking about solos on the guitar, wasn't it? Ha! Where was I…..??
I was asking if you don't get to hear anything until the songs are fully baked.
Yeah – right! So, I got that section for “Paragraph 7”, and then in June, we got the full demo of it. Mikael makes really well done demos! All the arrangements are there. He spends a lot of time on them. He can spend a whole day on just a single snare fill! Luckily, after we recorded the real deal, it sounds better. When you first get it, it's like, “Fuck, man, it sounds like an album!!”, but it gets more earthy and organic and more powerful with everybody playing the real thing, doing their thing on it.
Was the process for this record any different in that sense that you get the demos once they're done, once the concept is formed? Has this process always been the way in which you've been involved in the writing process?
Yeah, more or less. We wrote a few tracks together over the years. Then, I had a couple of ideas and we had sat down and recorded some parts. Mike spent some time thinking about it and then would add something, stuff like that, but he's a bit of a lone wolf when it comes to that. You don't want to interfere with it either because he comes up with a lot of good stuff.
I don't have to be writing on every album. I present some ideas, and if he likes them - ok, but sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. This time around, he really had a clear vision of what to do. I think there's no fillers on this album. Every song serves a purpose, and it's linked together from the beginning to the end in a very good way to me, at least.
Another aspect beyond just the rhythmic dynamics that jumped out to me was the increased presence of the keys and the synths across the entire album. Was that something that took you by surprise?
You mean the strings and stuff like that?
Yeah, that’s part of it.
Well, I'm a big fan of the raw experience and the band energy. Sometimes, I can feel like it's a bit too pompous, but it's kind of a pompous album, so I think it fit it very well. Live, it's going to be different! It's more of the band's collective sound. That's cool that we come across maybe even heavier live than on the albums.
Totally, yeah. That's been my experience with seeing you guys countless times. On this one, it'll be interesting to see if ever you can assemble the personnel to be able to do either a full album run or even just... I mean “Paragraph 5” to me has so much instrumentation going on.
Yeah, that one we talked about doing it live, which would probably require the string section to do it. We played all the songs together, but now we're playing “Paragraph 1” and “Paragraph 3” on this tour because those two songs are released, which works great! We don't use click tracks live, but we did sample Ian Anderson's voice. You will hear it at the gig, but it's our drum tech. He hits us a sample. We figured that's legit because we're not having click tracks or anything on tapes. It's actually physically beaten in there on the beat. We have some sound effects, but no instruments. We're looking at rehearsing at least five of the new songs before we start touring in Europe, and we're looking at Australia as well - so there's a lot of talk about that.
Cool. They're starved for music down there, right!? It's interesting you mentioned that. I was curious to get your take, not on saying which region you prefer, but just speak to the differences in audiences as you go around the world. The European crowd compared to the US crowd is so different!
Yeah, completely.
The Australian crowd, rabid! Japanese crowd, also completely different.
South America, different again!
They all have different personalities. Is there one that you enjoy playing to the most?
The Australian audience is funny. They are maybe, to a certain extent, a little bit similar to the American crowd, but not really. They're maybe a bit more wild, I would say. The Australian crowd is more wild, but sometimes in the States, it could be really wild as well. We were just down in Texas a few nights ago, it was just going crazy!! The variation is really fun. South America, they're really, really loud, and they're good at singing. They usually sing along with the riff or the guitar melody. That's not very common at all. When you stand there and they suddenly sing this melody, it's a very powerful feeling, like being at an Iron Maiden show or something! That's when I really get goosebumps.
We're trying to step up our game for the live performance with the band. We try to be more active on stage. That's something we're talking about, just having more fire. Mike said the other day that somebody has been picking that up, that they've noticed a bit more enthusiasm. Hopefully, we'll manage to show you some of that tonight!
We'll be on the look out tonight then! So, speaking of the live arena, you've played in some of the most, and you've taken death metal, if I can call it that, to some of the most iconic venues in the entire world! Royal Albert Hall is one that comes to mind, countless others. What do you see as the next on that list? Are there venues on the list that are goals that either you have or Mike have? It's like, “I want to play there!!”
Yeah, Madison Square Garden, of course!! Carnegie Hall is another on that list that comes to mind.
We played the Sydney Opera House. That was very cool! We played at Radio City Music Hall and Red Rocks was fantastic. That was probably my favorite! It was very majestic having these two red cliffs. Of course, we're not an arena band, but we're playing halls to a certain extent. Yeah, let me think, what else?? Ah – Budokan, that's a classic, that would be cool! We haven't played Rock in Rio. That would be awesome too. but that's a festival and not a venue, though.
Right on. Can we spend the last couple of minutes, if I may, talking some guitars??
Absolutely! I’d love that!
Ok, cool - When did you first become a PRS guy?
It was when I joined Opeth. They approached me because Mikael was endorsed by them. They were really kind and very generous, which makes you feel spoiled sometimes, but then again, we're out there promoting their guitars all the time as well. Since then, basically, since I joined in 2007, I've been playing them. They're really trustworthy touring guitars. They have double truss rods in the neck. They can really take a beating!
How many of them do you have in your rig when you travel on a tour like this?
I use six of them because we have three different tunings, so I need a backup for every tuning, which you can alter a little bit. Yeah, that's enough - six.
Are you a gearhead yourself? From a personal perspective, what does your collection like back home?
Well, I have a bunch of vintage stuff. I have a Strat from 1970, one from '72, one from '71. I have a Black Beauty Les Paul from 1956, original.
Wow! Where'd you land that?
In Stockholm. I had a '62 CBS Original Strat that I traded, which I regret, but I couldn't afford to have them both! That one is great. I have an SG, Angus Young style from '69, which is killer. Another one that I have is the SG from '72. I also have a Junior from 1955 with a P-90, that's just sick! We use a lot of those on the albums for rhythms. For the new album, for instance, for all the heavy riffs, I used a 70s Strat, but it has a DiMarzio FS2 in it, so it's a bit more beefier. Still, you have the single coil because Mike wanted a more crispy single coil tone, which was actually a smart idea because it cuts through the sound picture, the sound frame in a good way. It has all these keyboards and strings. We still wanted this new album to have a lot of guitar heaviness — something I always fight for in this band!
Well, I think you won on this album, right? It really comes through.
Yeah, it's fun! I got to do a lot of solos on this new album. They’re shorter, but there’s solos on every song, apart from “Paragraph 2”, which is a tapping technique. They're short solos apart from the ballad solo, but this album is a bit restless. Compact and restless, I think.
The Last Will and Testament is available now via Reigning Phoenix Music / Moderbolaget Records (Listen).
