ok guys, maybe this is quite epic, maybe not. you judge it 
i've got this paper fanzine called advent 'zine, it's exclusively written in italian language and the band - especially mikael, whom i gave copies to when i've met him at opeth concerts - knows about it. the link to the website is on my signature.
for the latest issue, which is about 'morningrise', i opened a thread here about the album's songs meaning, but everything ended as usual in sarcastic answers and confusion. i eventually found an old interview with some explanation from mike himself, so that was ok.
but in the meanwhile, anders nordin appeared here, so i contacted him for an e-mail interview. the italian translation is on paper now, the original is down here; i've asked anders if i can make it public, he said yes. so, take care of this material...
First of all, how did you met the rest of the band? You're from brazil, so, what were you doing in Sweden at that moment [you were in the band since 1990]?
My parents who are Swedish were working in Brazil in the 70´s and ended up adopting me and by the age of four years old we moved back to Sweden. We settled down in Sörskogen (you know Mikes side project?) which is the neighbourhood I`m grown up in and became neighbours with Mikael so that´s how I met him, we´re raised together since the early days.
Mike got into heavymetal/hardrock very early and it was he who gave me my first rock album, Deep Purple. Soon afterwards my music/piano teacher anounced that they were selling an old really crappy drum kit and I got interessted right away so we ended up jamming in my basement and around 1987 If I remember correctly we formed a death metal band, Eruption.
NB: mikael was 13 at the time... playing death metal!!!
What about the demos you recorded? Does it really exist a cassette with your very 1st recordings that you sent to labels? Do you have rehearsal tapes of your studio activities?
Hehe, yes it exists some tapes but I`m not sure where they are. We used my mum´s kitchen radio too record those so you can imagine what the sound is like lol
In those years you were all very young. Where/how did you learn to play drums, and also piano, since it's you playing silhouette on orchid?
I learnt how to play drums my self when I bought that drum kit from my music teacher who also were my piano teacher but I´m (we) are basically self tought. Another childhood friend from Sörskogen knew how too play Boogie Woogie so one day he showed me and that´s how I learnt too play píano.
You of course also Lee Barrett and Dan Swano impressions on these 2 guys? Some stories to tell about them?
Haha theese guys are crazy. Two of the funniest guys I´ve ever met in my hole life lol
I met Lee first time when they called us over for a couple of gigs in the UK. I´ve never had so much fun in my hole life than when we stayed at Lee´s place. He showed us a Video with two English comedians, you know that wierd sick English humour? We were litteraly on the floor laughing trying to get air!
I met Dan ofcourse in the studio during the Orchid/Morningrse sessions and we recorded Steel together which was also a moment that I thought I´d die from laughing when he recorded the vocals.
Both very nice guys.
What about this unreleased track just for piano and [acoustic?] guitar you recorded with Mikael? You have a copy of it? As far as I know, you recorded it, but there was no time in the studio so the track remained somewhere and no-one listened to it
We were supposed to have it on Morningrise but as you said we ran out of time, our studio time on both Orchid and Morningrise was extreamly tigh. Sometimes when I think back on this period I can barely understand how we managed to fullfill the two albums lol I know Mikael have parts from it in songs on the newer albums but we never recorded it on tape.
What was your contribute to the music of opeth? Do you remember some of your ideas which came out in the final versions of the songs?
Well I actually wrote some riffs on piano and then we transformed it too guitarr, the second opening riff in In Mist she was staning was mine for example! hehe
But I guess mine and the other guys main contribution was that we rehearsed alot, sometimes 4 - 5 times a week. Mikeal could either have riffs ready or we just sat in the rehearsal pad jamming and suddenly a new riff came up and added it too the songs. That´s basically how Orchid and Morningrise was made.
I can't avoid this question why one day you left the band, going back to brazil? I just know that the band kicked out the bassplayer, then you went away, and opeth was near the end just after 2 albums. Did you ever come back to Sweden and meet again mike and the rest of the band? And, what did you do in these 10 years/what are you doing now?
By the time when I left Opeth I had been thru kind of a tough period in my life, we had worked really hard to get Opeth too that point, having two CD´s ready but I didnt really see any value of my contributions anylonger. So I went for a two month´s vacation in Brazil and decided that I wanna live here, so I called Mikael from Brazil and got chocked when he told me about Johan!
But it took me around 10 years too move because I had too move back too sweden, do some University and move back.
I moved 2004 too Brazil and now I´m trying to get a place in Brazil´s cycling team combining that with studies. Kind of a carrer chage there haha!
What do you think about opeth now? Do you sometimes feel you should have never left the band, seeing they're still playing very good music and touring everywhere?
I can´t put words on how happy I am too hear it´s going great and I think they deserv too be were they are today! On top of that it´s pretty god damn good music too!
But I dont have any regrets that I left the band.
Do you ever realized that morningrise is one of the best metal albums ever for so many people around?
Haha well I senced it was different but when I read or hear peoples reaction on the album I didn´t realized it would come this far!
But it´s cool two have been playing on it, something to brag about too grandkids later on haha
bonus question (made some days later):
I saw the pictures from the Morningrise photo session, where you run in the fields or walk on the rocks and other obscure pics that I guess were taken in the woods so, do you remember anything about those moments, the place they were shot, who was the photographer and so on ? I just know that the cover is a bridge located in England, at prior park, some kilometres from London.
All I remember from those photo sessions that we took a day off to spend in a forest alittle bit outside Stockholm for taking photo shots to Morningrise cover. In fact...one of those pics is in the morningrise cover! We were actually just walking around with the photographer randomly in the forst while he kept taking pics, but I dont remember who he was.
I also remember that it wasn´t funny because I was jetlagged like hell from another Brazil trip and basically just wanted to go home haha
that´s about it from what I remember...
i've got this paper fanzine called advent 'zine, it's exclusively written in italian language and the band - especially mikael, whom i gave copies to when i've met him at opeth concerts - knows about it. the link to the website is on my signature.
for the latest issue, which is about 'morningrise', i opened a thread here about the album's songs meaning, but everything ended as usual in sarcastic answers and confusion. i eventually found an old interview with some explanation from mike himself, so that was ok.
but in the meanwhile, anders nordin appeared here, so i contacted him for an e-mail interview. the italian translation is on paper now, the original is down here; i've asked anders if i can make it public, he said yes. so, take care of this material...
First of all, how did you met the rest of the band? You're from brazil, so, what were you doing in Sweden at that moment [you were in the band since 1990]?
My parents who are Swedish were working in Brazil in the 70´s and ended up adopting me and by the age of four years old we moved back to Sweden. We settled down in Sörskogen (you know Mikes side project?) which is the neighbourhood I`m grown up in and became neighbours with Mikael so that´s how I met him, we´re raised together since the early days.
Mike got into heavymetal/hardrock very early and it was he who gave me my first rock album, Deep Purple. Soon afterwards my music/piano teacher anounced that they were selling an old really crappy drum kit and I got interessted right away so we ended up jamming in my basement and around 1987 If I remember correctly we formed a death metal band, Eruption.
NB: mikael was 13 at the time... playing death metal!!!
What about the demos you recorded? Does it really exist a cassette with your very 1st recordings that you sent to labels? Do you have rehearsal tapes of your studio activities?
Hehe, yes it exists some tapes but I`m not sure where they are. We used my mum´s kitchen radio too record those so you can imagine what the sound is like lol
In those years you were all very young. Where/how did you learn to play drums, and also piano, since it's you playing silhouette on orchid?
I learnt how to play drums my self when I bought that drum kit from my music teacher who also were my piano teacher but I´m (we) are basically self tought. Another childhood friend from Sörskogen knew how too play Boogie Woogie so one day he showed me and that´s how I learnt too play píano.
You of course also Lee Barrett and Dan Swano impressions on these 2 guys? Some stories to tell about them?
Haha theese guys are crazy. Two of the funniest guys I´ve ever met in my hole life lol
I met Lee first time when they called us over for a couple of gigs in the UK. I´ve never had so much fun in my hole life than when we stayed at Lee´s place. He showed us a Video with two English comedians, you know that wierd sick English humour? We were litteraly on the floor laughing trying to get air!
I met Dan ofcourse in the studio during the Orchid/Morningrse sessions and we recorded Steel together which was also a moment that I thought I´d die from laughing when he recorded the vocals.
Both very nice guys.
What about this unreleased track just for piano and [acoustic?] guitar you recorded with Mikael? You have a copy of it? As far as I know, you recorded it, but there was no time in the studio so the track remained somewhere and no-one listened to it
We were supposed to have it on Morningrise but as you said we ran out of time, our studio time on both Orchid and Morningrise was extreamly tigh. Sometimes when I think back on this period I can barely understand how we managed to fullfill the two albums lol I know Mikael have parts from it in songs on the newer albums but we never recorded it on tape.
What was your contribute to the music of opeth? Do you remember some of your ideas which came out in the final versions of the songs?
Well I actually wrote some riffs on piano and then we transformed it too guitarr, the second opening riff in In Mist she was staning was mine for example! hehe
But I guess mine and the other guys main contribution was that we rehearsed alot, sometimes 4 - 5 times a week. Mikeal could either have riffs ready or we just sat in the rehearsal pad jamming and suddenly a new riff came up and added it too the songs. That´s basically how Orchid and Morningrise was made.
I can't avoid this question
why one day you left the band, going back to brazil? I just know that the band kicked out the bassplayer, then you went away, and opeth was near the end just after 2 albums. Did you ever come back to Sweden and meet again mike and the rest of the band? And, what did you do in these 10 years/what are you doing now?By the time when I left Opeth I had been thru kind of a tough period in my life, we had worked really hard to get Opeth too that point, having two CD´s ready but I didnt really see any value of my contributions anylonger. So I went for a two month´s vacation in Brazil and decided that I wanna live here, so I called Mikael from Brazil and got chocked when he told me about Johan!
But it took me around 10 years too move because I had too move back too sweden, do some University and move back.
I moved 2004 too Brazil and now I´m trying to get a place in Brazil´s cycling team combining that with studies. Kind of a carrer chage there haha!
What do you think about opeth now? Do you sometimes feel you should have never left the band, seeing they're still playing very good music and touring everywhere?
I can´t put words on how happy I am too hear it´s going great and I think they deserv too be were they are today! On top of that it´s pretty god damn good music too!
But I dont have any regrets that I left the band.
Do you ever realized that morningrise is one of the best metal albums ever for so many people around?
Haha well I senced it was different but when I read or hear peoples reaction on the album I didn´t realized it would come this far!
But it´s cool two have been playing on it, something to brag about too grandkids later on haha
bonus question (made some days later):
I saw the pictures from the Morningrise photo session, where you run in the fields or walk on the rocks and other obscure pics that I guess were taken in the woods so, do you remember anything about those moments, the place they were shot, who was the photographer and so on ? I just know that the cover is a bridge located in England, at prior park, some kilometres from London.
All I remember from those photo sessions that we took a day off to spend in a forest alittle bit outside Stockholm for taking photo shots to Morningrise cover. In fact...one of those pics is in the morningrise cover! We were actually just walking around with the photographer randomly in the forst while he kept taking pics, but I dont remember who he was.
I also remember that it wasn´t funny because I was jetlagged like hell from another Brazil trip and basically just wanted to go home haha
that´s about it from what I remember...
