opeth-interview (mikael)

hey, illidurit! what's up with the opethforum.net? I tried to register there but it says you need to have a special invitation there :erk:

EDIT: 0h, nevermind, I found out myself :lol:
 
thanks guys, glad you like it.

generally, interviews are a lot more fun, when they happen to become «chats», if you know what i mean. the best one i did so far was definitley with pete, the singer from the haunted. we were supposed to talk for the usual 20 minutes, but because i did the interview after their show, we talked for almost an hour… he just told me about anything, drugs, illness, music - that guy really showed me that there are still people in that business that actually do it because of the fun. i love pete!!!
anyway, a bad example was the interview with speed from soilwork. the room was really small and had too much light, so it was just impossible to create a good mood. the interview turned out ok, but it was not what i expected it to be…

anyway, here's a pic of me with mikael:
http://www.metalfactory.ch/images/interviewpics/opeth05b.jpg

he's a really cool guy, loves what he's doing…
 
eughhh said:
please post the haunted interview
Click to expand...

ok, here we go:
(btw, sorry for the bad english, it was one of my first interviews…:Smug: )
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
itially the interview should've happenend before the show, but the tourmanager told me, that pete was sleeping. we then decided that i should come to the backstage-area after their concert. so i watched the show which was pretty cool (setlist: no compromise, d.o.a., dark intentions, bury your dead, 99, burnt to a shell, liquid burns, fire alive, hate song), though the audience was pretty lame. also, the mix was terrible, i could barely hear the snare and the bassdrum, leaving no room for the rest of the drumkit. so after the show i went again to the backstage-area, where the tour-manager told me, that i should come back after the moonspell-show, because pete was about to take his famous ice-cold shower. so finally after the moonspell-show (they got a groovy drummer!) pete already waited for me, escorting me to their tourbus. we sat down inside, i prepared my recording-stuff, and then off we went.
so first i asked him to introduce himself...

peter dolving (pd): hy, my name is peter dolving. i'm the singer of a band called "the haunted". we're on tour - we've been on tour for eight weeks now. i'm a bit tired, a bit sore and i have a cold, which is horrible - makes me just wanna lay down and sleep but i can't sleep at night. but tonight i grabbed my hands on some sleeping pills, so i'll sleep tonight (thank god).

el muerte (em): which bands should i listen to, to understand your music/what are the main influences for this band?
pd: wow, that's a long list. i think you should probably start with "bonded by blood" by a band called exodus. one of the first real thrash-records, one of the records that really kind of stepped over the line between punkrock and metal...

em: sorry if i interrupt you, but especially on the new record «revolver» there's a lot of stuff that isn't typically thrash metal, more open chords, up-tempo songs, so this is where it comes from?

pd: yeah. back then it seemed that the whole thrash-scene was a bit more open. it wasn't all about being the heavy metal guy...
em: the evil though guy.
pd: no, fuck that shit, it's about having fun. yes, we deal with really dark subjects and stuff, that's what we sing about. but we don't want our audience to come out and try to be though. we want to have a good time, to dance, go crazy, 'cause that's for what the music is for, that's why the music sounds the way it does, why it's built that way. it's music about getting your energy out.

em: regarding the fact that the haunted have switched line-up numerous times - how do you feel about the current constellation?
pd: sssweet. it's probably the best ever. i love adrian in every which way. but i think for this type of music per is the much better drummer. and as far as me coming back into the band, i think that's good. i know that might upset a lof of marcos fans - once again, no disrespect, i really love what marco did on the two other albums - but i think i give the band a wider spectrum, and that's what the other guys also wanted to do. they wanted to have the options and the possibilities to work more with vocals, and kinda open it up a bit more. i think...this is THE line-up.

em: weren't you sceptical, when they called you?
pd: no, no. that happend to come in a time of my life when i was finally ready for it. i wasn't ready for it back when we did the first album and that's why i left. so when i got the opportunity to come back into the band, it just happened to be a time in my life when i got myself back together. it couldn't have come at a better time, really.

em: has the there been a lightened moment at the rebeginning with the band, or were you sceptical?
pd: it was right at there. we knew exactly what we were going to do, we know exactley what we're gonna do. we're gonna try to archieve something really, really cool, that we think is cool and really energetic and intense. because that's what we think that this type of music should be like. we just went straight to work. we had to sit down and discuss first, so we made sure that everything was square between us and there was no bad blood, and it just seemed that it was perfect, it just clicked like that. which is pretty natural, because there was never bad blood, we've kept contact through friends. i am really happy to be back in the band and i'm really enjoying it and the other guys also.

em: did you have a different writing attitude, regarding the fact that you were back in the band?
pd: well, initially we started the band to make really piley, energetic songs. songs, not stacks of riffs. we wanted to make songs between three and four and a half-minutes songs, because we grew up listening to everything from exodus to slayer to d.r.i., the cure, kraftwerk...we had such a diverse musical background and we grew up listening to band who were about the songs. they had incredible riffs, but these were there to fit the songs, it was about the songs. of course you need cool riffs in there as well, but it has to be about the songs. and that changed a little bit when i left. because marco has a different approach, and he comes from a different background and he doesn't live in gothenburg. so when they worked to make a record, he wasn't there in the process. he lives in stockholm, and that's 50 kilometers away.

em: so he didn't have that much input on the songs itself, he just showed up to record the vocals?
pd: yes, whereas with me...i'm the bickering, bitching, nagging, pretty complex person, and i make people talk because i demand it...when i talk too much, they tell me to shut up, but most of the time they are really happy that i do it, because i get discussions going around the songs. i kind of take it as my job, to stir around in the pot. and for some reason we make better songs that way. i don't know if we make better riffs, i know we make better songs. so yes, it's a completley different approach of how to do stuff. this time i'm getting to write all the lyrics, which is something i really, really like and i'm really enjoying that. it's something i'm really happy they ask me to do. because i've always wanted to do that for the band. even when i wasn't in the band, i thought "they should ask me, i would so like to write lyrics for them" because they are great songwriters, and they make incredible stuff, and i missed them a lot.

em: so it's not anymore the björler-songs and the jensen-songs?
pd: it used to be that way. with this records it really changed, we're more open to each other, we're more trusting. so we allow everyone to have a stronger input, we're not so worried about watching the integrity, which makes it also so much mure fun. for example a night like tonight, were everyone is really sick, we're really cold, we're really worn out from touring because we played every day for weeks and we still managed to have a good time, and that's good thing, it feels good.

em: has there been a red thread, which you followed through the songwriting?
pd: not musically. musically we've tried everything and just kinda put it together. and then we sat down, and picked out the best we had. lyrically, for me it's just the same old peter dolving-lyrical-theme. you know, i deal with really strong emotional themes and sometimes i deal with very simplified politics of the world. i try not to get too complex, because then it get's preachy and that's like trying to tell people what to do, and i don't want to do that because that's not my point. but that world and how it's shaped...well, enough is enough.

em: i'd like to come back to that in a few moments, and continue now with some song-related questions, ok? so how did you approach the marco aro-songs, did you change anything?
pd: no. i sing them the way i sing them. they are still the same songs, and i use the same vocal structures. i think i have a different relation to the beat than he does. he sings more staccato, i flow more. i think i listen more to blues than he does. (laughs) i don't think he listens to blues at all. i think that's just a question about what kind of music you listen to. i listen to everything from russian folk music to opera to reggae and metal and hardcore, punkrock. i listen to music, all kinds of music. he has a more traditional kinda hardcore-metal approach, i have a musician's attitude towards it. that's my way about looking at it. i'm a musician, it's my job and i really love to do this more thant anything else in the world.

em: how did you hook up with lou koller from sick of it all?
pd: one of my friends works for the distributor in sweden/scandinavia, and i played him a rehearsal-room-copy of that song ("who will decide"), and it was me and jonas who did the singing, and i told him "check this out, the two of us singing", and he's like "you should ask lou koller!" and i said "no, he doesn't even know who we are, no way!" but my friend got in touch with him 'cause they're friends, so she sent a copy of it to him, and he loved it. he loves the band apparently, which is incredible. so he just came up to the studio when they came to gothenburg and played a show. it took a hour and a half, and we're really, really lucky, because they were on tour in that area. he's a very positive, laid back guy, and i can't tell enough of how much i like that guy and the band. sick of it all is a truly inspirational and great band.

em: the haunted have been around pretty long, but right now it seems that you got the most popularity since the beginning...
pd: yeah, i think so...
em: ...is this only because of the new label/cd, or did you approach the whole thing different this time?
pd: the unmentionable label (earache) didn't really market our albums. and as far as touring goes, they really didn't want to touch it, they were not interested in selling records. i don't know why that record-label is a record-label, they are not. i don't know what they are about, it's really disfunctional. now the things are...it's just an explosion of activity around the band. but so many things played in, i got back in, we changed the approach of the songwriting. that and the fact that what it did to us, it kinda restarted the band, for all of us. we really enjoy it, we really want to do this completley to the fullest. it's like we've been waiting, we were back on the track. and i also think, the new record company (century media) is really dedicated when it comes to making sure that they get information out about us, and they've really been supportive.
and we have a new management. we finally have a management, we didn't use to have one. initially the band has been for god's sake. ever since the first record, we've done everything by ourself. mostly anders, jonas and jensen, they've been working their fucking bollocks off. they deserve so much credit, because they are the ones that have done all that fucking work. and per also, and marco, for just hanging in there, touring through the worst fucking tours, touring, touring, touring. and that has to be done. and they've done that up to now, and now we're finally getting to the point where we have the possibility to concentrate on performing, that's our job, so thank god.

em: you've done this all for about ten years, was there ever a point where you decided to quit making music, because it looked so impossible to reach anything?
pd: actually we're turning ten next year. next year we're ten years old. wow, that's cool.
em: i know you had some issues, that was why you left the band...
pd: ...that was about me! me and me! ehm...i have «add», which i didn't know, which makes life very complicated. i get very stressed out, when i get too much information, too much emotional input. thank god i got medication for that! i am also manic depressive, which is a bit hard to deal with it. but i'm really changing my life a lot, working with therapy, taking my medicine, thank god. that has made it all work for me.
so when people say i'm crazy, it's really true, i am (laughing)!

em: as you said, you like to share a few political views from time to time. did you ever feel like it would be better to shut up for the band? because there was this heavy «discussion» going on on your messageboard, where this american guy...
pd: oh, he didn't read the post. (stands up, searches for something to drink in a bunk behind me) the guy didn't read the post, which turned him into a dork, unfortunatley, it made him seem really stupid. and i don't think he wanted to seem stupid. (returns with empty hands) i am not anti-america, half of my family is american. what i am is anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal, pro-humanist. i'm an anarchist, an for christ's sake i'm not gonna shut up, the band is not an anarchist band, we're not about changing the world in two seconds. the band is about a group of five people trying to make cool music and have a good time. sometimes i open my mouth and talk about my personal views, but when i do it's not about the band as such. i think that our band acknowledge that, and they understand that. (per comes in, sits down and starts to eat pizza - pizza hawaii, if i remember right - very noisy, so pete shares a few words in swedish with him, and i think he tells him, that there's an interview going on) if i do open my mouth, it's about my personal belief, and i say so as well. but as long as were in europe and the us it's my right to open my mouth. the uk and sweden do not count, they don't have freedom of speach, but the rest of the europa and the us has. and as long as we're acting in those countries i will open my trap, as anyone else in the band, if they're adressed to certain issues. and when it comes to certain things we don't agree. that's ok, we don't have to. come on, we're five adult human beings, we don't have to agree on everything, that would be kid-like. fuck that shit. we respect each other, we love each other, and together we make really cool music that we like and we love and we have a good time with. but if we'd agree on everything, it wouldn't be any fun. we probably wouldn't come up with any cool stuff.

em: it seems that the people find the connection to your music through soilwork- and in flames-inspired bands, such as lamb of god, chimaira and shadows fall. what do you think about these bands?
pd: fuck 'em all. eh...fuck 'em all, and let 'em burn in hell, let 'em rot.
i have nothing against any of these bands on a personal level, i really love them all. actually they are nice, easy-going people, but i don't like their music. i think it's bullshit. i don't think they write good songs, it doesn't do it for me. i don't think they can write good songs. they probably could, if they weren't so fucking horny to fucking show their chops all the time, because that's kinda what they're music is all about. "look at me, look at me, look what i can do!" fuck that, write a good song! strip you ego out of the music and make good music for people to enjoy. it's not about the individual musician, fuck that. it's about the music. it's about the audience, their experience, and your experience on stage. and that's why you leave yourself behind and let the music do it for you. and if you can't do that you're just a fucking poser. when it comes to music, that's my personal view. i think they're great bands, and i think they create incredible stuff, but i think it's very much about other things. about being rockstars, beeing all these other things. for me it's about making music, getting straight to the point, getting in there, digging in. it's like a fight. if you're gonna go into a fight, you're gonna win it. and if you're going in it, to fucking show off, then you're gonna get beat. end of story. you know, to me it's not about who sells the most records, fuck that. it's about getting in to it, getting into the music. that's were it's at.
you know, we toured with some of these bands, and we will tour with them. because they're really cool people to tour with. they're really laid back as people, fuck man, some of these are the greatest people we met!

em: i've seen the official statement for the ozzfest slot - aren't you afraid of this big, money making machine?
pd: it's not my job, fuck it. i play music. that's what we have a management for. what we do, is between us and our audience. if there's money in there - great. as as i don't have to take executive command on things, 'cause I'm not that man. i'm not that person who can do that and feel good about things. i can make music together with other people, and i can perform. i have fairly ok social skills, so i can enjoy that and have a good life with that. it's one of those things, it's a capitalist-construction. i don't like that, but i have to have food on the table. i'm no business man, i can't make that work by myself, so i'm really glad that we have a good management. they make that work, they make sure that the rent is payed, that my kids get clothes and so forth. and i'll do what i am really good at, and enjoying it.

em: what are the touring plans for the near future?
pd: before ozzfest we do a month in the us with machine head and devildriver, and then we come back to europe to some festivals, and do machine head on all the off-dates. we'll play hopefully with in flames and soilwork, that'd be really, really cool. and after that we will do a world tour, right away after the other tours. no rest for the wicked. and no much sleep at all. (laughs)

em: you've shard the stage with mighty dimebag, any thoughts you'd like to share about that?
pd: number one: it's a very sad thing, what happened. it is a thing that keeps you aware of the fact that we're mortal, which is a good thing to understand.
number two: i don't think any musician should allow that, to make them paranoid, or not trust the audience or themselves. it was a freak accident, like getting hit by a car, or getting a safe in the head, a piano falling from nowhere in the sky on your head. no one saw it coming, there was nothing no one could do about it. it just affected everyone. you have to understand, that it was not just one person that died.
i think why should take it as inspiration more than anything else, because dime wouldn't have anyone want to kinda go «ha, it's so scary», or «bad», dime would've said «well fuck, this is a goddamn shame!», and then he would went back in there and play! (lowers his voice) because it's our job, we should do that, it's kinda our mission. to fuckin' get down with the rock. (raises this voice) i know it sounds pathetic!!! (laughs).

em: there have been numerous rumours about a possible at the gates-reunion...
pd: there will never be an at the gates-reunion, unless someone comes up with mad cash. and not probably even then. and the reason for that is, i think most of the guys think, it's behind them. i gotta tell you straight: you're watching the haunted, right now, we're that band. it's in the past. we're here, we're now.

(one of the björler-twins walks by, and as he passes under the (vorhang) which separates the eating-zone from the sleeping-zone, and accidentially pulls it down with his shoulder, without noticing it. so pete calls him back to fix it up, and observes the whole process.)

em: you've written in the tour-report on the messageboard, that the stuttgart-show was really hard...
pd: yeah, it was fuckin' drag. but then munchen and hamburg made up for that. i can understand that, this whole tour is like an experiment. we went on a tour together with a band called funeral for a friend in the uk, about a year ago. and we really didn't have any clue, what it would be like. they are almost an emo-hardcore-pop-band. but they asked us to come on tour, because they really love us. and we had no idea what it was gonna be like. so we said «let's try it!», let's see if our music works for those kids. and it did went out really well. sometimes, they didn't understand at all what we were doing. but it worked really cool, because it gave a really big diversity to the bill. and this is kinda the same thing, cradle asked us, to come on tour with them.
em: was there some contact with adrian before?
pd: no, nothing. their managment talked to them, and they considered a few bands, and they asked us. so we said, if we can do our headline-tours and come along in the middle of the tour, then it would work for us. first they said no, but they got back to us after a couple of weeks and said «well, let's do it, we'd really like to do that». so it's...it's different every night, unfortunatley we can only play short sets, but it's still cool, that we get to see an audience, that we otherwise wouldn't have seen. so it's cool.

em: why did you decide to play more songs from the new record, then the older stuff?
pd: we have four albums, which is a lot of music. on the headline-shows we've been playing for an hour and a half, i think we played twenty-seven or twenty-eight songs. on these short dates we only play like nine or ten songs, so we tried to make a condensed version of the full show, which is not easy. it's like picking up the goodies. but it's hard, we try to switch around the set every night, so we keep the songs ready. 'cause on all the off-dates we play the whole shows.

em: how come that you didn't sell any merchandise at this show?
pd: we weren't allowed to! the local promoter didn't allow us! cradle of filth have some deal with 'em, wo we weren't allowed to. there you go, that's the downside of opening for someone. there's a lot of ridiculous politics involved.

em: does the band (cradle) know about it?
pd: yeah, they know about it. we have different attitudes about it, i guess. they have a british crew, which changes everything. english production manager, english tour manager, they got this authority thing going. it's ok, we go like «yeah, whatever.», and we let them having their fun, we don't care.

em: so that's why i could barely hear per's drums? they mixed it down?
pd: we weren't allowed to. what can i say? they turned down the main amps. there's nothing we can do about it. it's ok, because we'll come back this fall, we'll be doing our headline tour this fall.

em: will you play small or big venues?
pd: i think we're going to try to do bigger ones. instead of doing a lot of small venues, we're going to try to do maybe one show in switzerland, and like four shows in germany, a couple in the uk, only like the bigger cities. because we'll need to have some breaks. we'll be on tour for about a year, when these shows will happen. i have a familly, i have kids, i really miss them. and the other guys have familly as well. you know, we have lifes outside of this. so we will play a couple of bigger shows. i hope we can make people come to us. so, please come out to the shows, i'm fucking asking you guys, because we'll be fucking touring into the grave, if you don't.

em: anything left to say?
pd: yeah. keep it straight. keep it honest. and before all, keep rocking.

em: thank you very much!
pd: thank you!

i then took a picture of him, and asked him to sign a shirt for a friend of mine. so he took the pencil and started drawing. he made this big "the haunted"-title, in big letters, draw his name, a little head, and then stood up and went to the back of the bus, to catch the others guys. so while i waited inside, i looked around and suddenly noticed two guys standing outside, waving to me! so i stuck my head through the door and they asked me to sign a few things...they were pretty surprised, when i responded in swiss-german . anyway, pete came back with the shirt, which was all covered in little drawings and signatures, and gave it to me. we went out, he signed the stuff for the guys who waited outside, i took a picture for them, and asked them to take one of me with pete. so he said he got an idea, and he told me to put my nose against his and put on an angry face, as he did. nice shot!
i then asked him to get me back inside, because i didn't have a special press-passport or something. so he came back inside with me, and before i went through the backstage door, i shook once again his hand, and he followed me and stayed at the side of the stage.

here's our pic:
thehaunted05b.jpg

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[KOTNO]Narrot said:
good interview. great that things about lopez are cleared up a bit now!
Click to expand...
I wonder how that will play out in the DVD portion of the GR special edition? Will we see Lopez being like, "Okay, now I'm ready to play." He's gonna look like serious shit, that's for sure. Even in the promo pictures, when you figure he'd have people to help him look his best, he looks like death warmed over.
 
I trully enjoyed reading this interveiw more than any other poeth interveiw i have ever read. 2 reasons
1st is it wasnt about anything depressing like lopez leaving (the whole time)
2ndas someone earlier said. it was just like two guys chatting about great music, with the general interest of mikael brilliance (haha).
top interveiw.. and i hope you post again soon.
 
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