Spread the Social Love:
Opeth are a strange breed of band, one that manages to meld the progressive ambience and technical brilliance of prog rock with the crushing brutality of death metal, a scene that saw a massive boom come from their native Sweden. Now in their 20th year the band celebrated 2010 in spectacular fashion by releasing a legacy editon of their seminal classic Blackwater Park followed by a 10 city worldwide tour playing that album in its entirety as well as playing the High Voltage festival in London and stepping in as a last minute replacement for Heaven and Hell at this years Bloodstock, so stating that 2010 has been a great year for the band would be a sever understatement.
It was a great pleasure for me to sit and have a chat with the bands keyboard player Per about all things Opeth before the band played their slot at the High Voltage festival.
Altsounds: 2010 has already been a great year for you with the release of the Legacy edition of Blackwater Park and the evolution XX shows. You must be really happy right now?
Per: Yeah, compared to the recent couple of years this year has been pretty calm. The tour we did for the anniversary shows was only 10 dates and we’re only doing 5 festivals over the summer so its kind of a holiday for Opeth (laughs)
Altsounds: It’s the inaugural High Voltage festival. How do you feel about being asked to play?
Per: This is a cool festival and its one of those we’d want to go to even if we weren’t playing, there’s lots of things id like to see.
Altsounds: There’s a lot of legendary acts playing here, how do you feel about playing alongside those acts.
Per: Its an honour of course, there’s plenty of people here that all of us in the band listened to when we were kids and just starting out; its just good fun. Lots of people came over here like Mr Randy Bachman from Bachman Turner Overdrive came over and told me he was a fan of us, that’s not really something you really count on!
Altsounds: You guys have been around for 20 years yourselves now, How do you feel about being considered a legendary act in your own right?
Per: Legendary is maybe a bit too much. Call us a band that’s been around for 20 years (laughs) I don’t know, I think there’s a few bands from our generation who have been around for a long time and I guess people enjoy continuity because, it means everyone is enjoying what they are doing if they do it for a long time. Music is everything to everyone in this band so I hope that has something to do with it. You can only write and play the music you do, you can never count on people coming to the shows and buying the albums.
Altsounds: How was playing The Royal Albert Hall?
Per: It was different but very cool, also a classic venue as well. We’ve seen loads of live DVDs filmed there and the venue showcased on Swedish TV so its kind of mindblowing to walk into that venue during the day when none of the audience were there, but then it’s a busy day so you forget it and get into the groove.
Altsounds: The show is being released on DVD as Opeth live at the Royal Albert Hall. When you put that package together did you at all discuss releasing all the other shows from the mini tour on DVD?
Per: It’s a cost thing, especially if you are going to film every show, depending on what type of filming you want. This was filmed like all our other dvds so that’s pretty costly. I don’t think it was ever considered but we have recordings of every show, but since it’s a ‘Live at the Albert Hall’ DVD that’s what’s being released now. I don’t know if, or how any of the other stuff is ever going to be released.
Altsounds: The Evolution XX shows you did worldwide to celebrate the anniversary of the band and release of Blackwater Park were a special treat for the fans. How did the idea for those shows come about?
Per: Firstly Mikael said last year ‘We turn 20 years next year’ what should we do? Maybe we could go to a pub in Stockholm somewhere and bring some gear and if any of our friends wanna play a song or two they can and we’ll drink beer (Laughs) and it escalated from there to lets do a show at Royal Albert Hall; and then it was well lets do more shows in LA and New York if we can fit them in as well. When we had the Royal Albert Hall date confirmed we booked the rest.
Altsounds: As an aside from Opeth, you started a side project with JP the drummer from Clutch. Are there any more plans for the project?
Per: Yes, JP and I are flying out to Gothenburg tomorrow and we are gonna record a new album this week.
Altsounds: Are there any plans for a new Opeth album at this stage?
Per: There are plans for a new album, I don’t have any dates or deadlines right now, it will be done when its done. I know Mikael has written some stuff but I don’t know how much, I don’t think he even knows either because he just writes stuff, then we listen to it and sort things out, its very fragmentary right now but of course there is going to be a new album.
Altsounds: You guys are also playing Bloodstock as a replacement for Heaven and Hell. How do you feel about playing, and it being in place of Heaven and Hell?
Per: As much as it is of course an honour, sadly the circumstances are tragic. I don’t think we feel that we are replacing them because they cant be replaced, it’s a case of the festival asked us if we wanted to play and we said yes because its an honour, and we said if we can get enough time we can play some non Opeth songs as a tribute as well.
Altsounds: Thank you very much for your time Per. We are very much looking forward to seeing what Opeth has instore for everyone over the next year.
Per: Keep your eyes peeled, its gonna be lots of fun.
For more information on the forthcoming Opeth live dvd including full tracklisting and pre order info please check out Roadrunner Records UK
And for more information on Opeth including upcoming tour dates check out Opeth on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
It was a great pleasure for me to sit and have a chat with the bands keyboard player Per about all things Opeth before the band played their slot at the High Voltage festival.
Altsounds: 2010 has already been a great year for you with the release of the Legacy edition of Blackwater Park and the evolution XX shows. You must be really happy right now?
Per: Yeah, compared to the recent couple of years this year has been pretty calm. The tour we did for the anniversary shows was only 10 dates and we’re only doing 5 festivals over the summer so its kind of a holiday for Opeth (laughs)
Altsounds: It’s the inaugural High Voltage festival. How do you feel about being asked to play?
Per: This is a cool festival and its one of those we’d want to go to even if we weren’t playing, there’s lots of things id like to see.
Altsounds: There’s a lot of legendary acts playing here, how do you feel about playing alongside those acts.
Per: Its an honour of course, there’s plenty of people here that all of us in the band listened to when we were kids and just starting out; its just good fun. Lots of people came over here like Mr Randy Bachman from Bachman Turner Overdrive came over and told me he was a fan of us, that’s not really something you really count on!
Altsounds: You guys have been around for 20 years yourselves now, How do you feel about being considered a legendary act in your own right?
Per: Legendary is maybe a bit too much. Call us a band that’s been around for 20 years (laughs) I don’t know, I think there’s a few bands from our generation who have been around for a long time and I guess people enjoy continuity because, it means everyone is enjoying what they are doing if they do it for a long time. Music is everything to everyone in this band so I hope that has something to do with it. You can only write and play the music you do, you can never count on people coming to the shows and buying the albums.
Altsounds: How was playing The Royal Albert Hall?
Per: It was different but very cool, also a classic venue as well. We’ve seen loads of live DVDs filmed there and the venue showcased on Swedish TV so its kind of mindblowing to walk into that venue during the day when none of the audience were there, but then it’s a busy day so you forget it and get into the groove.
Altsounds: The show is being released on DVD as Opeth live at the Royal Albert Hall. When you put that package together did you at all discuss releasing all the other shows from the mini tour on DVD?
Per: It’s a cost thing, especially if you are going to film every show, depending on what type of filming you want. This was filmed like all our other dvds so that’s pretty costly. I don’t think it was ever considered but we have recordings of every show, but since it’s a ‘Live at the Albert Hall’ DVD that’s what’s being released now. I don’t know if, or how any of the other stuff is ever going to be released.
Altsounds: The Evolution XX shows you did worldwide to celebrate the anniversary of the band and release of Blackwater Park were a special treat for the fans. How did the idea for those shows come about?
Per: Firstly Mikael said last year ‘We turn 20 years next year’ what should we do? Maybe we could go to a pub in Stockholm somewhere and bring some gear and if any of our friends wanna play a song or two they can and we’ll drink beer (Laughs) and it escalated from there to lets do a show at Royal Albert Hall; and then it was well lets do more shows in LA and New York if we can fit them in as well. When we had the Royal Albert Hall date confirmed we booked the rest.
Altsounds: As an aside from Opeth, you started a side project with JP the drummer from Clutch. Are there any more plans for the project?
Per: Yes, JP and I are flying out to Gothenburg tomorrow and we are gonna record a new album this week.
Altsounds: Are there any plans for a new Opeth album at this stage?
Per: There are plans for a new album, I don’t have any dates or deadlines right now, it will be done when its done. I know Mikael has written some stuff but I don’t know how much, I don’t think he even knows either because he just writes stuff, then we listen to it and sort things out, its very fragmentary right now but of course there is going to be a new album.
Altsounds: You guys are also playing Bloodstock as a replacement for Heaven and Hell. How do you feel about playing, and it being in place of Heaven and Hell?
Per: As much as it is of course an honour, sadly the circumstances are tragic. I don’t think we feel that we are replacing them because they cant be replaced, it’s a case of the festival asked us if we wanted to play and we said yes because its an honour, and we said if we can get enough time we can play some non Opeth songs as a tribute as well.
Altsounds: Thank you very much for your time Per. We are very much looking forward to seeing what Opeth has instore for everyone over the next year.
Per: Keep your eyes peeled, its gonna be lots of fun.
For more information on the forthcoming Opeth live dvd including full tracklisting and pre order info please check out Roadrunner Records UK
And for more information on Opeth including upcoming tour dates check out Opeth on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
![Review: Killswitch Engage – Disarm The Descent [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F1%2F2%2F8%2F3%2F8%2Fkillswitchengagedisarmthedescentcover.jpg&h=75&w=75&zc=1&q=70)
![Review: Various Artists - Kitsune America 2 [Compilation Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F2%2F6%2F3%2F2%2F9%2Fkitsune_america_2.jpg&h=75&w=75&zc=1&q=70)
