Opeth released their fourteenth studio album “The Last Will and Testament” in November 2024. Several months before release, we were invited to a Stockholm hotel to chat with band leader Mikael Åkerfeldt and guitarist Fredrik Åkesson. We asked them about the new record, recording at the famous Rockfield Studios in Wales, sleeping in the same room as Dio and Tony Iommi, not stalking Morten Harket and of course, what Norwegian records they have in their collections.
Text & photos (Mikael & Fredrik): Anne-Marie Forker
Band photo: Terhi Ylimäinen
I haven’t had an emotional reaction to a record like this since Scott Walker’s “The Drift”.
Mikael: Oh, man…
That’s meant as a compliment, Scott Walker is my favourite artist.
Mikael: Oh, I love him. Fuck, yeah!
Fredrik: When I joined the band Mikael told me about Scott Walker and listening to “The Drift”.
Mikael: And the crooner records [laughs]…
Fredrik: Scott 3…
Mikael: Yeah. Number three is my cry record.
“Rosemary”, “It’s Raining Today”.
M: Yeah, I love it. You love it?
Yeah, it’s one of my favourite records of all time, certainly in the top five.
M: Yeah, it’s one of the records I’m most attached to on an emotional level. Did you hear The Walker Brothers’ “Nite Flights” record?
Oh yes, it’s great. [Mikael joins in at the same time] The Electrician!
M: Jesus Christ!
Similar to “The Drift”, your new record is dense and claustrophobic in places, but it’s also got cinematic, classical moments, and I wondered if your solo work on the “Clark” TV series soundtrack had impacted it musically, and also in terms of coming up with a fictionalised concept?
M: No, neither actually. “Clark” was huge for me, it was super fun to work with that but it was like I was writing for a client, ultimately, for a director, I wasn’t writing for my own pleasure. I had some guiding lines for what I was going to provide, I didn’t have any footage to write to. So I had to kind of take a shot in the dark – “Is this okay?” I had the outline, the story starts in the ‘40s and I figured it has to fit with the ‘40s. So, I had a go at ‘40s music, how things sounded like then, kind of, and then on, you know, ‘60s and ‘70s was much easier. And the most fun was the ‘80s, you know? But no, I didn’t really take any inspiration. I learnt a lot but I didn’t take any musical inspiration. I was just writing shit. I wrote a hundred songs for “Clark” and they ended up using maybe half.
What’s happened to the rest?
M: It’s just gone.
Fifty songs?!
M: [laughs] Yeah. Some really cool stuff. But yeah, you sign a kind of waiver of sorts and you submit it to Netflix, in this case, they own it. So whether they use it or not, it’s gone. I still have this music, I can listen to it but I can’t release it. But I learnt how to work faster, how to make decisions faster. I must have gotten some type of inspiration, I guess. But I don’t know what that could be. The story itself for this record, it just started, like, “what should I write about?” Right , okay, I’m going to put together some type of concept. Why not? Try it. So, there was no influence from “Clark” that I can say “yes”, apart from I wrote fast.
And I learnt to trust my instincts more, which I always have, deliver fast, delete, make fast decisions. There are some sounds I hadn’t used for Opeth music before that I used on “Clark”, that found their way into this record but it’s mostly like a mellotron sound, or something like that.
There is something of the concept of the family on the previous record.
M: Yeah, “Next of Kin”, of course, all of those songs were a bit on a more personal level than what they usually are in my case – I just write whimsical shit. But I spent more time with the last record, and I think that’s because of the Swedish language approach. I can’t hide behind the beautiful English language anymore and I had to put it together in Swedish, like “Oh, it looks silly”, or “it doesn’t make sense” or something, you know?, So the layers came out differently. So there’s one song in particular, it’s called “Universal Truth”, I think. I can’t remember the English titles.
I don’t understand it, but I always put the Swedish version on.
M: It’s much better. But that song kind of dealt with interview I saw on TV or YouTube, or something with this man, who was being interviewed because he had a falling out with his brother over an inheritance. And it was really a sad interview, framed in a glitzy type of TV show. But it kind of stuck with me and I thought that was interesting. The whole “blood is always thicker than water” thing – well, is it? Put a wad of cash in front of siblings or family and see what happens. So, that topic stuck with me. I didn’t make any deliberate decision, after that song, that this is what the next album is going to be about. But, it was there and also the TV series “Succession”, which I loved, which is more about a power struggle within the family. Have you seen it, Succession?
No, I haven’t seen it.
M: It’s about a fictional Rupert Murdock type of media mogul guy, who’s old and he’s looking at his children, who’s going to take over the business. And they’re all trying to make their way. So, that inspired me. And then when I was looking for something to write about that became pretty quickly established. This could be something. It’s fairly original at least, in the world of rock, as a concept record. I don’t know if it’s been done before, but it’s something that’s easily relatable. I think most people have a family situation or had some sort of issue. There are secrets, infidelities, divorces, deaths, fights, all those kind of things, which enabled me to use my own perception of family relations and put those influences in, and then just elaborate the guiding lines of the story. What’s going to happen? How many children? A patriarch, 1920s, different roles between men and women which allowed for the patriarch to be a more unquestionable leader-type guy, conservatively religious but filled with regrets on his deathbed. And this idea that he’s not just listing things he’s giving away in his testament, but rather revealing secrets about himself, his life, his regrets, which will directly affect the lives of his children as they knew it. And all of a sudden “That’s not true! My life has been something else. It’s been a lie”, which I found really interesting. I thought that was a pretty unconventional way of writing a testament. But then we did an interview on a promo trip, just the other week, and this guy was talking to a Spanish reporter. He said, “it’s so funny that you wrote this because my dad left a will, and it was like that – he was basically asking for forgiveness in his will”, which was awesome and I thought that people are going to say “You know, you should list things, property, or business.”
Materialistic stuff.
M: Yeah, that kind of thing. So it was interesting that that actually happened. And then my girlfriend helped me with the twist to the story. I shouldn’t reveal the whole thing, I guess you can read up.
The twist is that he’s not the father.
M: Yeah, he’s not the father of anyone, he doesn’t have any children at all.
Not the twins, not the sick girl.
M: No, he’s sterile. So I thought that was nice twist and all together a good story.
That’s the last track, isn’t it?
M: Uh-huh.
The guitar work on that last track… I think that’s one of the best solos I’ve heard from Opeth on any record.
F: Oh really? Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.
Were you given complete freedom to create it?
F: Yeah, actually. Mikael just asked me – Can you do something nice? And I did it on my own. Usually – when we did “In Cauda Venenum”, when we recorded solos, we did it together or Mikael asked me to his demo studio and I recorded stuff and mainly improvised, and Mike was quite satisfied. Maybe I’m more picky with it because it’s my stuff.
[all laugh]
F: It was something like that. But the point is that they were more improvised and then this time around, I spent more thought with the solos and especially this one because it’s longer and the aim was to do an emotional solo
It is.
F: And I had to come up with a melody that wasn’t borrowing from the melody in the song. So, that was my first goal with that one, and I did find a nice melody to build a solo around. And then, at the end, I borrowed from the melody in the song to tie it all together. But I improvised a lot of takes and then analysed a little bit “I like that, like that, like that” and then I went for it. I was a bit inspired by Richie Blackmore, we talked about the Rainbow track, the instrumental…
M and F: “Snowman”.
F: [hums tune] It doesn’t sound like that, but that was kind of the mood of it a little bit. And then of course like a bit of a Gilmour-ish kind of thinking.
Being from Belfast I heard a bit of Gary Moore in there as well.
F: Gary Moore, absolutely. Thank you so much. I’m happy that you noticed that.
It’s well placed on the record.
F: Well, it’s also very important. I think all solos are important for me but it closes the album. We were also talking, in the fade out of the solo, I wanted to build in a bit more fast stuff. Well, not showing off too much but we talked about “Marching Out” by Yngwie [Malmsteen], which is from his second album “Marching Out”, but there’s an instrumental track where he actually plays very nicely and calmly, very melodic
M: Not the typical Yngwie.
F: Not the typical “more is more”, but at the end, he starts playing a bit faster in the fade out, and we had that as a bit of a reference because we grew up, both me and Mike, listening to that album quite a lot.
M: We did the same thing. In the fade out we both, as kids, just raised the volume so we could hear every note.
That’s cool. How do you work out between you, who takes what guitar part?
M: I’ve stepped down – he’s such a great guitar player – and, besides, any idea I might have around a solo piece in the past I was like “just play something!” You know, first take with Frederik will do, it will be an amazing guitar solo just off the cuff, playing, improvising. So, more and more he’s taking control of that. I usually give him a part, here’s a solo part for you – have fun.
F: For “The Last Will and Testament” the first track we all got was Paragraph Seven. But the first thing I got as far as I can remember, was just the actual solo section. So, I didn’t get to hear the entire song. So, I mean, since Mikael is the main songwriter he delegates me solos, and I’m happy when I get them. I like to be creative. And he gives me a lot of freedom with them. He can have a specific idea – “Could you start on a long note, maybe that one?” – some sort of guidance somewhere, but most of the time I have a lot of freedom with them. You know, I try to look at them – I’ve said this before – a bit like tiny little compositions within the song.
M: I want to present it in all its glory when they hear the song first time. So that’s why I wasn’t sure about the part leading up to the solo or the parts after the solo. So that’s why he only got that section. So there’s no specific creative idea that I had, that something’s going to happen if I do it this way or that way. It was just that I need to know myself, a hundred times over, if the song is good enough before I let anyone else hear it. And at that point, those songs weren’t finished.
F: Mikael makes these demos. They sound like albums. He gives a hundred percent focus to every detail, I would say, and it’s always a challenge for the entire band, I guess, to make it sound more than that, which luckily enough we manage to do.
M: Yeah.
F: Which is great, you know, and that particular song, that one I heard the entire song before, but the first track was just snippet. Or the first that Mike presented.
M: Yeah. That did cause some problems because, of course, they are numbered on the record, and I presented the first song that they got and said “This is Song 1”, but it’s actually song 7. And then song 3 was song 4, etc.
F: It was so confusing!
M: Like what song are we talking about it?! But now it’s kind of settled.
F: Oh yes, definitely! So we started humming the intro riff instead of so we could recognise the songs. “Okay, oh is it this one?” [hums]
What’s your favourite “paragraph” from this record, and why?
M: Paragraph 2 for me, but it changes. 2 feels like it is a key song for the record. It’s the most elaborate. The composition is interesting to me. It’s quite wild and crazy, and beautiful in some parts. It also has a long narration for Ian Anderson. It’s got [Joey] Tempest singing. Ebb and flow. There’s a little thing I nicked from Paul Simon in there, which I’m really happy about, a really happy theft. But I think that’s a happening song, and where I’m at musically, with my music taste. It’s a bit like a musical vomit. Just like BLEGH. There you have it!
A mix of everything.
M: Yeah, and that’s kind of what I like with our music, because I don’t really know what I like. So just a weird mix of everything.
F: Like with the albums, I think all the songs are very different but they’re still connecting. But my favourite now is maybe Paragraph 4. I love the section where we have this harpist, playing the whole part, and Ian Anderson plays his flute solo. And then I have to pinch my arm, you get to play a guitar solo after him and I really like the ending. It’s very, very brutal. Dark –
M: Dark.
F: – Very intense. There’s this riffing going on, a bit longer than other sections on the album where it’s more compressed. But this actually was half as long in the beginning but then you extended it which was great.
M: It feels like a fever, that ending, a fever rising.
There’s definitely tension there.
F: Yeah. But I like them all. I think there’s no fillers, for me at least.
You recorded in Rockfield, that legendary place – I really want to go. What was that experience like?
F: Well for us, it’s the third time going there. But for this time it was the first time playing in the Quadrangle Studio, the other coach house, as well, which they built first.
M: That’s the oldest one.
F: Was it ‘67 or something like that? And this was the classic one where Queen did “Killer Queen” and “Night at the Opera”.
M: “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Was the piano there?
M: Not the “Bohemian” piano, but the “Killer Queen” piano is there, that we used on the ballad for instance.
Oh wow, the same piano?
F: Yeah and we also had the upright piano, which Freddie wrote it on. They used to have it there but it’s got mould or something and it’s gone. Also Rush of course, “Hemispheres” and “Farewell to Kings”. The Quadrangle is bigger than the other one. It has a lot of options. If you’re talking about drums, they have three big drum rooms that you can use, depending on what you’re aiming for. But they still have the same old console that they used. I think we used for the guitars, the same preamps that Brian May used.
M: Yeah, they had the section of preamp sort of stuff there. I mean, it is the newer of the two studios from 1973. [laughs]
It’s only, what, 51 years old?!
F: We had a great time. Tom who works there, and also we brought Stefan Boman with us from Sweden, they were a great team together because Tom knows the studio, so that was a good combination with us too. Apart from that, it’s a great place to be. You’re in an enclosed environment in the countryside. It’s a farm. So it’s very relaxing and it’s good for the focus.
Is the remaining brother there? The two brothers that set it up, the surviving one?
M: We only met Kingsley this time.
F: Recently he wanted to take Mike to where they did the Spring cover.
M: Yeah. Spring was a band that he found in a gas station in the early ‘70s and their car had broken down. And he walked up to them – “Are you a band?” And they’re like, “Yeah, we’re a band from Leicester. We’re called Spring.” And it’s like “Come and record in my studio!” So they went and recorded – the singer in Spring was Pat Moran, who became house engineer – If you look at the Rush record, for instance you’ll see his name as engineering. So yeah, Kingsley wanted to take me to where they shot the cover to that record which was around Monmouth. I actually managed to find a copy of the Spring record. It’s super rare. But I found a copy, brought it in and had Kingsley sign it for me, because he had done the engineering on that.
How cool.
M: That was cool.
F: And also, in the studio – one thing to another – the last album Dio did there, in the same studio, which was kind of spooky, was “Heaven and Hell” with Tony Iommi. So, we found out that the apartment I had or condo was the one that Dio had, the one you were sleeping in was the same as Toni Iommi and Freddie Mercury. Falling asleep at night going to bed …
Looking at the same ceiling Dio looked at.
Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Pretty spooky. It didn’t feel bad, but strange. It’s kind of spooky there at night, you know, if you look out from your bedroom window it’s a courtyard, an old horse yard and the fog creeps in.
It sounds wonderful.
M: You should go there. You can go there. I mean, you don’t have to book the studio. You can go there and just stay the night.
F: Yeah, they have tours, you know.
I definitely will. How did Ian Anderson get involved?
M: Well I did try to get him on a record a long time ago for the “Heritage” record. I emailed him because I had a kind of generic loose, heavy riff and I figured it might be cool to have a flute solo over it. So, I made a list of the flute players that I admired and there were more than you might think. I had a list of everyone from Ian to Björn J:son Lindh who worked with Abba, to another Swedish guy to Thijs van Leer from the band Focus. I can’t remember if I emailed all of them but I emailed Ian and Björn, and never got a response from either of them in the beginning. And then after a while Björn responded. And it’s like, “what do you want me to do?” “Uh, play a flute solo.” And he played on the record and then he passed. So it was his last recording ever actually and he used to work with Abba, and he was a music icon in Sweden but Ian never responded then. And over the years I’ve done interviews, and I think it was Amoeba Records, a record shop did a segment called “What’s in my Bag” where I go record shopping, and they film you, and you talk about each record. I had a Jethro Tull record, which I already had back home. But anyways, I had the record and I told a story that I tried to get in touch with Ian but that fucker didn’t respond. Something along those lines. It had great reach, this interview, because soon after that I got an email from Jethro Tull management. “Ian would love to play with you. Just tell him, tell us when, where, how, and he will appear.” And I was like, “Got it!”, and of course this album comes along and I asked him, but it’s not what he expected, which is probably a flute solo, but I asked him to do narration. I think that’s one of the reasons why he said yes. Even if he promised he would say yes, he did say yes based on the fact that he never had that request before.
Something original.
M: Yeah. And then he asked – “Do you need a flute?” And I was like, “Yes! Yes!”
Ah, so he initiated that idea…
M: So then he played on track 4, Paragraph 4.
Nicely done. Your daughter Mirjam, she’s the disembodied voice in one of the tracks. I was talking to Ricky Warwick and he had his daughter on an album as well, but he was joking about how she thinks it’s really uncool. She’s a teenager. In the future it’s something she will be glad she’s done but right now, she’s thinking it’s not cool. Did you have a similar experience?
M: Yeah. I did, exactly like Ricky Warwick. I asked her between bites during dinner. “Like, I have this… you know, maybe you can help me out…” She’s casually says “Maybe” and then I have to go get her. Alba [Fredrik’s daughter, sitting nearby] has been on a record. She was on the last record. We had all the kids gather up on the previous record.
F: On “In Cauda Venenum”. You know that intro, there’s the voice “if you stop thinking you end up dead” – that’s something Alba said, she came up with it.
[To Alba] Ah, that was you? It’s beautifully done. You pronounce everything really well.
Alba: Thank you!
F: How old were you then?
Alba: Five.
F: Five years old.
M: So with Mirjam, I had to go get her in her room, sitting around TikTok. So she reluctantly came down, because the studio’s in the basement of the house and I was like “Okay. This is what you’re gonna say.” So she just read it and she was really embarrassed and she didn’t want to do it. But it took her maybe three minutes and then she went up to her room. I pieced it together. And then when she heard it, I think she was bit – I could tell in her face, that facial expression, that she was like –
Yeah, she’s happy!
M: yeah. I’m a bit happy, Dad.
What kind of experience did you have watching Waltteri Väyrynen play the drums for the first time on one of your records? I know you’ve played live with him for a while.
M: Just the type where you are blown away, genuinely blown away. We heard him play because we played shows with him, we knew he was awesome.
F: Yeah, we rehearsed.
M: Yeah, you played before. But he nailed everything in the first take.
F: Yeah. Was it Paragraph three, he started with?
M: Yeah, it was.
F: And he just first nailed it first take.
M: “I’m just warming up”, he said.
F: But there it is, first take!
And you really didn’t take any others?
F: Oh no. He probably was stubborn. But you know when you’re a musician, he probably knows the kind of stuff that we don’t know.
Yeah, he wants to get it just right.
F: I can understand that. I’m the same with solos and stuff. Yeah, could be a little tiny micro bend or something like that.
I am the same with photography, I understand. The cover is really striking. When I first saw it I thought it was a dark reference to Sergeant Pepper, but apparently it’s Kubrick?
M: Yeah. There’s no famous people in there, apart from us!
F: I actually thought about Sergeant Pepper when Mike presented the idea.
M: No, I love Sergeant Pepper of course, and of course it was tempting once we had a crowd of people – maybe we should put in a few famous people – but the reference is a bit too obvious. I thought the other reference to Kubrick was a bit more veiled but no, people got it right away like “Oh you like The Shining”, “Yeah, yes I do.” But that was the ending frame of that film. I guess that set the tone for what I wanted to do with the cover. But it was a bit of a hassle to get it done, because I wanted it to look like an authentic photograph, basically, and I was also reluctant to move away from the last couple of covers that we had done, the style, which had been more like oil painting, which I love. But I didn’t want the photograph looking like an oil painting. It had to be either-or. So, Travis, who we’ve worked with since the ‘90s designed that from nothing, basically, and I was sitting around with a magnifying glass just looking at it “oh, that head’s too big in relation to the person next to him,” just really going into those details and it’s like, “That chin is weird”, “The neck is angled…”, so it was a lot of work for him to get that done.
F: I haven’t seen the vinyl yet. It’s not printed but I had a problem seeing you, finding your face.
M: I’m in there.
He’s there’s, I’ve seen it! What was the very first record you each bought and what was the last one?
M: I have said in the past, “The Number of the Beast”, when it came out. Because I remember I had got some money for my birthday present and bought it. But then I found an old school thing from maybe third grade or something like that, where I was asking myself questions, like the first record I bought and it says “Lick it up” by Kiss. That’s 1983. So I’m not sure I wouldn’t call myself, the younger me, a complete liar. But it’s either of the two.
How about your last one? Most recent.
M: I rarely buy just one record. One is a Swedish band called Nationalteatern which has their first record “Ta det som ett löfte”. Take it as a promise. Nationalteatern – “national theatre” is the translation. I buy so many records it’s hard to keep track.
F: The first one I bought was “For Those About To Rock” by AC/DC. But the first single I bought it was actually “Number of the Beast”, but that was not your question.
But that’s interesting!
F: I still remember that day when I got my weekly pocket money from my parents and I went to buy “For Those About To Rock”, and I still think, that album, the sound quality is fantastic – the mix, and everything. The last one was just now when we were in Germany at our label and did promo and we went to a record store and I found a Blue Oyster Cult album that I hadn’t noticed before – “Imaginos”.
Ah, 1988.
F: Yeah, late ‘80s, ‘88. I had to listen to it the other day. It’s kind of eighties production but I found one track – “The Seige and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein”. That was a really good track, heavier. I’m not sure about the other ones. And along with that was “Thick as a Brick” by Jethro Tull as well. Because I didn’t have that one, shame on me!
M: Here’s my last one [holds up his phone].
Ah, Donovan! “What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid?” I love “Sunshine «Superman”.
M: It’s not even three euros, it cost. Donovan.
His stuff’s going for three euros? That’s a crime.
M: Maybe I was lucky.
Do you have any Norwegian records in your collection?
M: Of course!
F: Yeah!
Any examples?
F: Artch.
M: Artch, TNT, Dark Throne. Enslaved. Mayhem
F: Mayhem, yes.
M: Emperor.
F: Ihsahn’s solo albums. I played on one once.
You did? I’ve got to check that out.
M: I sang on one, on one song. We also mustn’t forget the old bands, like Høst, which means Autumn, which are playing Saturday, reforming and playing apparently, in Norway. I’ve just got a text from Grutle from Enslaved saying he’s gonna go to the show.
In Oslo?
M: Yes, maybe Bergen.
He lives in Bergen. Yeah, I went to see Enslaved’s last release show in Bergen.
M: Yeah, they’re great. There’s Junipher Greene, great band. Oriental Sunshine, also a good band. Aunt Mary, that’s a great band. Lovely band.
F: Terje Rypdal.
M: Jan Garbarek.
F: He did an album with Ronnie Le Tekrø.
M: Yeah, and a tour. When we toured, that government financed tour we did in Norway, they were kind of following us or we were following then.
F: Really?
M: I think so, I saw a poster.
F: Let’s not forget a-ha.
M: a-ha, of course.
“Scoundrel Days”, I prefer, though they’re better known for “Hunting High and Low”.
M: And the later ones are not bad, either. “Lifelines”.
Yes, 2002, I think that one. “Minor Earth, Major Sky” as well.
M: I saw Morten Harket just standing in the street here on the south side, he’s just standing there and I was like [sings in a deep voice] “Hunting high, and …..”
F: Weird you mentioned that because when I grew up, when they were super popular, I grew up in Upplands Väsby, a suburb of Stockholm. He had a girlfriend or something – not something! [all laugh]. He had a girlfriend! That came out strange. In this town. So he was walking around here. It was surreal because he was at his peak of fame, you know, for the hit songs. Bloody hell, it’s Morten Harket!
Just completely free, walking around.
F: I didn’t stalk him.
Yeah. Just around a couple of corners! [both laugh]
Interview originally published in Norway Rock Magazine 2024 Issue #3 – SUBSCRIBE HERE