Here's an interview with Peter where he (among other things) comments on the terrible The Grand Conjuration video. I thought his comments were pretty funny and it's interesting to see that they have no problem with openly criticising Roadrunner and the circumstances surrounding this video.
Uh oh! (Laughs) Heres a little defence speech that we prepared earlier... We always said that were not really fans of doing videos, unless we do a full-length video of a full-length song. But obviously we realise that the idea of that ever working is never going to happen. Our songs are too long, and nobody is going to put the work in to doing a ten-minute video if nobody is going to show it. So we thought that the only way we could do it was to edit the song down. We dont like edits ourselves, but we still decided to go ahead and do it. Roadrunner Records told us that we only had one evening to shoot all of our performance footage, and that it would have to be done while we were on tour. We asked about who was going to direct it, and they told us it was going to be Bill Yukich. We asked what the storyline was going to be, and they sent us three or four distinctly different ideas. So we didnt know what was going on. The whole situation was so chaotic, in the end we just decided to go down to the shoot, get the footage of us all filmed and simply fuck off. And I think the final result is in accordance to that. We didnt have a clue as to what was going on, and I dont even like it how it turned out. It doesnt have anything to do with the music, or even the lyrics. We asked Yukich a couple of questions, and he didnt answer any of them. He was pissed off the whole time. I dont know what the story was there. They sent us the final result, and it was awful. We soon decided that there were some fucking changes that needed to be made, and then thats when our management and Roadrunner Records came back to us told us who this guy had worked with in the past (Foo Fighters, HIM, Probot) and all the work he put into this video. After having been in this band for all these years, we thought that the first time that we would do a video that it would turn out great, but instead it looks like my cat sat on it! (Laughs) So we were pissed off at the time, but at the end of the day, its just a video, so who gives a fuck. Having a video played on T.V. is probably a good idea. So any press is good press in a way. I think its going to fulfil its purpose. Then again, we have friends calling us saying, This is the worst video I have ever seen in my whole life! And we agree. I just wish it had been a great video, but it wasnt! (Laughs) I do like the ideas of doing videos. Even the Aphex Twin video for Come To Daddy by Chris Cunningham is a great example of what is possible. But hes also terribly expensive and semi retired, so we cant use him. But we would like to have something more interesting than what we were given next time. I think were going to do more videos, but next time well try and take control of things a little more.
http://www.themetalforge.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=260
Uh oh! (Laughs) Heres a little defence speech that we prepared earlier... We always said that were not really fans of doing videos, unless we do a full-length video of a full-length song. But obviously we realise that the idea of that ever working is never going to happen. Our songs are too long, and nobody is going to put the work in to doing a ten-minute video if nobody is going to show it. So we thought that the only way we could do it was to edit the song down. We dont like edits ourselves, but we still decided to go ahead and do it. Roadrunner Records told us that we only had one evening to shoot all of our performance footage, and that it would have to be done while we were on tour. We asked about who was going to direct it, and they told us it was going to be Bill Yukich. We asked what the storyline was going to be, and they sent us three or four distinctly different ideas. So we didnt know what was going on. The whole situation was so chaotic, in the end we just decided to go down to the shoot, get the footage of us all filmed and simply fuck off. And I think the final result is in accordance to that. We didnt have a clue as to what was going on, and I dont even like it how it turned out. It doesnt have anything to do with the music, or even the lyrics. We asked Yukich a couple of questions, and he didnt answer any of them. He was pissed off the whole time. I dont know what the story was there. They sent us the final result, and it was awful. We soon decided that there were some fucking changes that needed to be made, and then thats when our management and Roadrunner Records came back to us told us who this guy had worked with in the past (Foo Fighters, HIM, Probot) and all the work he put into this video. After having been in this band for all these years, we thought that the first time that we would do a video that it would turn out great, but instead it looks like my cat sat on it! (Laughs) So we were pissed off at the time, but at the end of the day, its just a video, so who gives a fuck. Having a video played on T.V. is probably a good idea. So any press is good press in a way. I think its going to fulfil its purpose. Then again, we have friends calling us saying, This is the worst video I have ever seen in my whole life! And we agree. I just wish it had been a great video, but it wasnt! (Laughs) I do like the ideas of doing videos. Even the Aphex Twin video for Come To Daddy by Chris Cunningham is a great example of what is possible. But hes also terribly expensive and semi retired, so we cant use him. But we would like to have something more interesting than what we were given next time. I think were going to do more videos, but next time well try and take control of things a little more.
http://www.themetalforge.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=260
. I think a bit more planning and less rushing the next time around would go a long way towards giving Opeth the treatment they deserve.
