Lilith Bloodshed
Master's Apprentices
+1 for me! It's Wayne's World, of course,
but I don't think it's a prize contest 
About the interview, the question is: is it for a magazine or the net?!
Your questions for Peter!
- Thread starter ingi_bingi
- Start date
+1 for me! It's Wayne's World, of course,
but I don't think it's a prize contest About the interview, the question is: is it for a magazine or the net?!
The interview is for the net and as the homepage has a new release and we´re busy working on the new layout without publishing concert reviews or anything on the old one anymore, I was able to take more time for the transkript. I still have to translate it - usually I put it down directly in German, so this is a plus for you here. This is the first part. Second part follows tomorrow... Happy New Year, everyone!
When I was introduced to Peter by a Road Runner staff, we were looking for a quite place for the interview. We didn´t really find it as it was noisy everywhere so we sat back on the sofa where I was waiting for him while the band had dinner. It was right in front of the dressing room where Mikael was getting a tattoo on his left arm so we had that buzzing noise in the background.
That´s life on the road, I guess
First, he filled out a "Shortcut" with his personal information, favourite food, drinks, guilty pleasure and stuff. We´ll put it up together with the Interview probably.
I erased almost every "you know"-words by him, he often re-started a sentence, thought about what he was going to say. You probably already now this from other interviews. Places where I put down dots like "....", he was pausing.
Here´s the interview, as mentioned: 1st part:
MHQ: How was yesterdays gig in Berlin?
Peter: Good! It was sold out I think. We didn´t play like shit so it was good.
MHQ: Here in Cologne, you have moved into a bigger venue since last time you have played here. Is it all thanks to Roadrunner?
Peter: Don´t know. They probably have a helping hand but we also have been touring heavily for five years. We have played this place with Type-O-Negative some years ago.
MHQ: You are signed to a bigger record label, you have gained new fans. Do you see negative aspects about it?
Peter: I don´t see any negative aspects. What we don´t want is probably, no, there is no what we don´t want . If you get more fans, there is always a chance that some of those fans are not real fans. There might be people who see you in the magazine that think the drummer looks cool or whatever. Before, our fans were pretty die hard fans.
MHQ: You mean it was more Underground?
Peter: More Underground, you had to search to find us, I suppose. Now you can open up the magazine and we´re there. It´s easy. I don´t think we´re easy to listen to. You have to concentrate a little bit to like us. If we do get more fans from being signed to a bigger record label, I still hope that we have the loyal fans. All our old fans are still there, I think. I want everybody who´s a new fan to be loyal. I rather have 1.000 loyal fans than 500.000 dis-loyal fans. Even though 500.000 dis-loyal fans are good for my bank account. (laughs)
MHQ: Amplifier is your support-act. Are there any other bands you´d like to have as your support act? Some fans on the internet forum suggested Enslaved, Disillusion, Infinity and Isis.
Peter: Is that what they want to see?
MHQ: Yeah. What band would YOU like to tour with?
Peter: Amplifier is one of those bands that we wanted to have because we want to tour with bands that we like. We have actually done tours with a lot of the bands that we like, like Madder Mortem, great band! We´ve done a tour with Katatonia. We want to bring them out again because it´s been five years since we checked them out.
MHQ: Do you as a band decide on the bands or the record label?
Peter: We decide to a certain degree. For each tour we have suggestions. They have to deal with the management, they have to be available. Sometimes they are probably doing a support. We want to have bands that we can truly say that we like this band. So now it´s easy, we like Amplifier. If people ask us about them, we can answer the questions. (laughs)
Sometimes there are bands that we don´t really like musically but they turn out to be nice guys. It´s still hard sometimes because their music is shit. It´s easy to promote the package if you like the band.
MHQ: I know that some of you are married with children. Do you have the possibility do drag your family along on tour?
Peter: Only Mikael has a child. I´m working on it but I´m never home (laughs). She´s been out I can only speak for her - Melinda has been out once. She came to Paris with his wife.
MHQ: So you don´t want to separate touring from your private life?
Peter: I can pretend, if I had a child I wouldn´t want to separate her or him from this life. It´s not so convenient to have a child on the tour bus. It´s not the fact that there´s a party going on and all but it´s so tight with space and it´s also loud. This environment is not so good. For a couple of days it would work. But even though when I bring my wife out she gets bored after three days because we still work. We do the soundcheck, we do interviews, the show. During that time she has got nothing to do. She takes off anyway going to Cologne or wherever.
MHQ: Go shopping and spend your money.
Peter: Yeah, here´s my card! (laughs)
MHQ: It´s half a year now that Lopez left the band. Do you feel the band is more stable now with a drummer you can rely on?
Peter: Yes! Before Lopez had these problems, he was a stable drummer. But he had a lot of issues, he had the blood disorder thing, he had panic attacks and all that made him he wasn´t solid anymore. His drumming went like this (shows into one direction) and the band followed with that (shows into the other direction). The drum is the most important in that sense, that the band is never better than the drummer. But we gave him a lot of time to sort of think about his situation. It took him like more than half a year to figure out to get back on track, to figure out whether he wanted to be in the band or not and I think he sort of wanted to but realized that he couldn´t cope with it. It was a mutual decision, there wasn´t any bad feelings, he decided that. We´re gonna be touring for 18 months for every album and he couldn´t cope with it and so the situation right now is a lot more solid. Axe is we call him Axe, his name is also Martin he hasn´t been in a touring band before. He had done tours obviously but his life has changed totally I think from being home and doing tours here and there with different bands and all the sudden he is on tour all the time. But he is really solid. Every night he is delivering exactly what we expect from him and more sometimes, too. But his low-level is pretty high. The band looks good every night because of him.
MHQ: There are fans that say his style does not fit to Opeth.
Peter: Well, he is a different drummer from Lopez obviously. Lopez is really technical and he had this South American influence that maybe Axe doesn´t have. But Axe is more solid. Fans sometimes see the flashy stuff but they don´t see that the pace goes like this (shows with hands) and he could fuck up things. Axe is a lot more solid, maybe he´s not as flashy as Lopez sometimes was. But this is also a fact that Axe is now playing Lopez´ stuff. If there is a song that Lopez recorded, he doesn´t want to change it too much because people gonna complain about that, too. So I think from the next album that we´re going to record with Axe, he is going to do his own drumming. This is going to be a totally different thing.
MHQ: Yeah, then fans don´t have the possibility to compare both.
Peter: No, well, at least they will be listening to his drumming. Now he is doing other people´s drumming. From the next album on he´s going to do this own drumming. It´s going to be a different thing.
MHQ: Do you still have contact with Lopez? Is he musically active?
Peter: He´s got a new band together but I´m not sure what he´s doing. It´s also the fact that we´re never home, you know. So I don´t get to see many people at all. But I haven´t spoken to him in a while but last time I did, he was doing fine. He has got this band together but I don´t think they are going to be touring right now.
MHQ: Why did the band or the record company decide to put the limited edition of Ghost Reveries on the market after a year the album was released? What for?
Peter: (laughs hard) Well, I think Roadrunner has the reputation putting out these re-issues. I don´t know if they´re always doing this.
(turns to Road Runner staff) Do you always put out re-issues the same time? It´s always after, isn´t it?
RR: It´s always after. Sometimes it´s different. It´s not just our idea but sometimes bands like Cradle (of Filth) they come up with this oooh, we have some special new stuff that they have recorded while being on tour so they say ooh, let´s put this special edition out.
I think it´s a decision that is not only taken by us but also taken by the band AND the record company.
Peter: To me, I can say that I don´t like the idea at all. If we wanted a flashy package, I would want it to be on the original issue. Because I think if you´re a fan and you´re out the first day you should get the perfect edition. If I buy an album and I see six months later a nicer issue, I just get pissed off.
RR: It IS pissing everyone off. Me being a fan, it would piss me off, too.
MHQ: But you would buy it nevertheless.
Peter: Sometimes. I would probably sell my original copy. Since this is a thing that was about to happen basically, we wanted to add stuff on it, so it made sense to buy it, especially if you don´t have it, then you can buy that. But if you are a really die-hard fan and you want both then it should be worth it, too. But it also should be that if you have the original copy you shouldn´t have to buy the other one. If you have the original copy you should be able to download it later or whatever. But if you are a die hard fan you can buy the package. To me it should be all released the same time.
MHQ: I thought it was released to give you more time to be on tour now so that fans don´t have to wait too long for the next album.
Peter: That would not make any difference for us because an album is recouped after two years. So by the time this recoups, it´s going to be 2009 anyway. So it doesn´t really matter for us. It could help in that sense since this is coming out now, we can do a little bit more of touring. But we´re back in Germany now and this is probably because the re-issue is out so in THAT sense it helps, yeah.
MHQ: In the booklet, Mikael writes about the writing process. Do you feel the band is more mature now? You prepare more for your song-writing?
Peter: Mikael is writing basically everything nowadays. Everybody participates in that sense that everybody has got ideas, are welcome to present them and sometimes those ideas are used. Everybody has got parts in the album. But he is writing most of it and it has just come to a point where everybody realized that he is the best song-writer. So I think the main difference in song writing and the process that has changed is him. Because he has changed. Grown up probably, he probably knows exactly what he wants now, I suppose, to before we tried this and tried that. That didn´t work. You can feel when he presents ideas, you know they gonna work sort of. Especially now that we actually did rehearse on the album, so we could try out all the ideas, change a little bit here and there. Sometimes in the past it was just the case that we recorded stuff and then we see if it comes out good or not. But by the time we check it out it´s too late anyway so we have to release it.
MHQ: But still, there are fans that want you to participate more in the writing process.
Peter: Who? Me? Well you know, it´s not the case where ..
MHQ: Kind of writing your own songs.
Peter: Well, Mikael is the best song-writer, there is no point for me coming up with I have a song, I want to have it on the album. I prefer to have a situation where if I have ideas, I just give it to him and he puts it in the context. Well, I see your point in a way (laughs in a shy way). But it has never been the case where when we started we wrote everything together.
It was still, you know, the band thing that made the songs. There wasn´t like this is my song, this is your song. We had different kind of ideas probably. Mikael is writing a lot nowadays, back for years. If I have ideas, I give them to him and he puts them in the context. It suits Opeth better that way. To be honest, I think Ghost Reveries is a lot better album than Morningrise.
This is the first part. Second part follows tomorrow... Happy New Year, everyone! When I was introduced to Peter by a Road Runner staff, we were looking for a quite place for the interview. We didn´t really find it as it was noisy everywhere so we sat back on the sofa where I was waiting for him while the band had dinner. It was right in front of the dressing room where Mikael was getting a tattoo on his left arm so we had that buzzing noise in the background.
That´s life on the road, I guess First, he filled out a "Shortcut" with his personal information, favourite food, drinks, guilty pleasure and stuff. We´ll put it up together with the Interview probably.
I erased almost every "you know"-words by him, he often re-started a sentence, thought about what he was going to say. You probably already now this from other interviews. Places where I put down dots like "....", he was pausing.
Here´s the interview, as mentioned: 1st part:
MHQ: How was yesterdays gig in Berlin?
Peter: Good! It was sold out I think. We didn´t play like shit so it was good.
MHQ: Here in Cologne, you have moved into a bigger venue since last time you have played here. Is it all thanks to Roadrunner?
Peter: Don´t know. They probably have a helping hand but we also have been touring heavily for five years. We have played this place with Type-O-Negative some years ago.
MHQ: You are signed to a bigger record label, you have gained new fans. Do you see negative aspects about it?
Peter: I don´t see any negative aspects. What we don´t want is probably, no, there is no what we don´t want . If you get more fans, there is always a chance that some of those fans are not real fans. There might be people who see you in the magazine that think the drummer looks cool or whatever. Before, our fans were pretty die hard fans.
MHQ: You mean it was more Underground?
Peter: More Underground, you had to search to find us, I suppose. Now you can open up the magazine and we´re there. It´s easy. I don´t think we´re easy to listen to. You have to concentrate a little bit to like us. If we do get more fans from being signed to a bigger record label, I still hope that we have the loyal fans. All our old fans are still there, I think. I want everybody who´s a new fan to be loyal. I rather have 1.000 loyal fans than 500.000 dis-loyal fans. Even though 500.000 dis-loyal fans are good for my bank account. (laughs)
MHQ: Amplifier is your support-act. Are there any other bands you´d like to have as your support act? Some fans on the internet forum suggested Enslaved, Disillusion, Infinity and Isis.
Peter: Is that what they want to see?
MHQ: Yeah. What band would YOU like to tour with?
Peter: Amplifier is one of those bands that we wanted to have because we want to tour with bands that we like. We have actually done tours with a lot of the bands that we like, like Madder Mortem, great band! We´ve done a tour with Katatonia. We want to bring them out again because it´s been five years since we checked them out.
MHQ: Do you as a band decide on the bands or the record label?
Peter: We decide to a certain degree. For each tour we have suggestions. They have to deal with the management, they have to be available. Sometimes they are probably doing a support. We want to have bands that we can truly say that we like this band. So now it´s easy, we like Amplifier. If people ask us about them, we can answer the questions. (laughs)
Sometimes there are bands that we don´t really like musically but they turn out to be nice guys. It´s still hard sometimes because their music is shit. It´s easy to promote the package if you like the band.
MHQ: I know that some of you are married with children. Do you have the possibility do drag your family along on tour?
Peter: Only Mikael has a child. I´m working on it but I´m never home (laughs). She´s been out I can only speak for her - Melinda has been out once. She came to Paris with his wife.
MHQ: So you don´t want to separate touring from your private life?
Peter: I can pretend, if I had a child I wouldn´t want to separate her or him from this life. It´s not so convenient to have a child on the tour bus. It´s not the fact that there´s a party going on and all but it´s so tight with space and it´s also loud. This environment is not so good. For a couple of days it would work. But even though when I bring my wife out she gets bored after three days because we still work. We do the soundcheck, we do interviews, the show. During that time she has got nothing to do. She takes off anyway going to Cologne or wherever.
MHQ: Go shopping and spend your money.
Peter: Yeah, here´s my card! (laughs)
MHQ: It´s half a year now that Lopez left the band. Do you feel the band is more stable now with a drummer you can rely on?
Peter: Yes! Before Lopez had these problems, he was a stable drummer. But he had a lot of issues, he had the blood disorder thing, he had panic attacks and all that made him he wasn´t solid anymore. His drumming went like this (shows into one direction) and the band followed with that (shows into the other direction). The drum is the most important in that sense, that the band is never better than the drummer. But we gave him a lot of time to sort of think about his situation. It took him like more than half a year to figure out to get back on track, to figure out whether he wanted to be in the band or not and I think he sort of wanted to but realized that he couldn´t cope with it. It was a mutual decision, there wasn´t any bad feelings, he decided that. We´re gonna be touring for 18 months for every album and he couldn´t cope with it and so the situation right now is a lot more solid. Axe is we call him Axe, his name is also Martin he hasn´t been in a touring band before. He had done tours obviously but his life has changed totally I think from being home and doing tours here and there with different bands and all the sudden he is on tour all the time. But he is really solid. Every night he is delivering exactly what we expect from him and more sometimes, too. But his low-level is pretty high. The band looks good every night because of him.
MHQ: There are fans that say his style does not fit to Opeth.
Peter: Well, he is a different drummer from Lopez obviously. Lopez is really technical and he had this South American influence that maybe Axe doesn´t have. But Axe is more solid. Fans sometimes see the flashy stuff but they don´t see that the pace goes like this (shows with hands) and he could fuck up things. Axe is a lot more solid, maybe he´s not as flashy as Lopez sometimes was. But this is also a fact that Axe is now playing Lopez´ stuff. If there is a song that Lopez recorded, he doesn´t want to change it too much because people gonna complain about that, too. So I think from the next album that we´re going to record with Axe, he is going to do his own drumming. This is going to be a totally different thing.
MHQ: Yeah, then fans don´t have the possibility to compare both.
Peter: No, well, at least they will be listening to his drumming. Now he is doing other people´s drumming. From the next album on he´s going to do this own drumming. It´s going to be a different thing.
MHQ: Do you still have contact with Lopez? Is he musically active?
Peter: He´s got a new band together but I´m not sure what he´s doing. It´s also the fact that we´re never home, you know. So I don´t get to see many people at all. But I haven´t spoken to him in a while but last time I did, he was doing fine. He has got this band together but I don´t think they are going to be touring right now.
MHQ: Why did the band or the record company decide to put the limited edition of Ghost Reveries on the market after a year the album was released? What for?
Peter: (laughs hard) Well, I think Roadrunner has the reputation putting out these re-issues. I don´t know if they´re always doing this.
(turns to Road Runner staff) Do you always put out re-issues the same time? It´s always after, isn´t it?
RR: It´s always after. Sometimes it´s different. It´s not just our idea but sometimes bands like Cradle (of Filth) they come up with this oooh, we have some special new stuff that they have recorded while being on tour so they say ooh, let´s put this special edition out.
I think it´s a decision that is not only taken by us but also taken by the band AND the record company.
Peter: To me, I can say that I don´t like the idea at all. If we wanted a flashy package, I would want it to be on the original issue. Because I think if you´re a fan and you´re out the first day you should get the perfect edition. If I buy an album and I see six months later a nicer issue, I just get pissed off.
RR: It IS pissing everyone off. Me being a fan, it would piss me off, too.
MHQ: But you would buy it nevertheless.
Peter: Sometimes. I would probably sell my original copy. Since this is a thing that was about to happen basically, we wanted to add stuff on it, so it made sense to buy it, especially if you don´t have it, then you can buy that. But if you are a really die-hard fan and you want both then it should be worth it, too. But it also should be that if you have the original copy you shouldn´t have to buy the other one. If you have the original copy you should be able to download it later or whatever. But if you are a die hard fan you can buy the package. To me it should be all released the same time.
MHQ: I thought it was released to give you more time to be on tour now so that fans don´t have to wait too long for the next album.
Peter: That would not make any difference for us because an album is recouped after two years. So by the time this recoups, it´s going to be 2009 anyway. So it doesn´t really matter for us. It could help in that sense since this is coming out now, we can do a little bit more of touring. But we´re back in Germany now and this is probably because the re-issue is out so in THAT sense it helps, yeah.
MHQ: In the booklet, Mikael writes about the writing process. Do you feel the band is more mature now? You prepare more for your song-writing?
Peter: Mikael is writing basically everything nowadays. Everybody participates in that sense that everybody has got ideas, are welcome to present them and sometimes those ideas are used. Everybody has got parts in the album. But he is writing most of it and it has just come to a point where everybody realized that he is the best song-writer. So I think the main difference in song writing and the process that has changed is him. Because he has changed. Grown up probably, he probably knows exactly what he wants now, I suppose, to before we tried this and tried that. That didn´t work. You can feel when he presents ideas, you know they gonna work sort of. Especially now that we actually did rehearse on the album, so we could try out all the ideas, change a little bit here and there. Sometimes in the past it was just the case that we recorded stuff and then we see if it comes out good or not. But by the time we check it out it´s too late anyway so we have to release it.
MHQ: But still, there are fans that want you to participate more in the writing process.
Peter: Who? Me? Well you know, it´s not the case where ..
MHQ: Kind of writing your own songs.
Peter: Well, Mikael is the best song-writer, there is no point for me coming up with I have a song, I want to have it on the album. I prefer to have a situation where if I have ideas, I just give it to him and he puts it in the context. Well, I see your point in a way (laughs in a shy way). But it has never been the case where when we started we wrote everything together.
It was still, you know, the band thing that made the songs. There wasn´t like this is my song, this is your song. We had different kind of ideas probably. Mikael is writing a lot nowadays, back for years. If I have ideas, I give them to him and he puts them in the context. It suits Opeth better that way. To be honest, I think Ghost Reveries is a lot better album than Morningrise.
metal_wrath
I dip my forefinger...
all_sins_undone
New Metal Member
- Oct 5, 2005
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waz416c
New Metal Member
- Apr 19, 2005
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Good read
I will be anticipating the Part 2
+1....@@......good read......Keep tockin....PEAC EOUT
NubianGoddess
Cream Queen
Alex78
Fretbuzz Virtuoso
tchocky
the evil pirate bloodnose
Serhan_pnr
Member
who is your guitar hero? your style(left hand) is very interesting. i've seen nobody playing like you.
billyneverdies
belovedfraternitytoanend
- Aug 26, 2006
- 190
- 2
- 18
no need to be sarcastic...
Here´s part 2 though I have the feeling that Peter was more rambling here and didn´t really answer the questions
would have preferred to have some more time for other questions like feelings about overall state of metal or inspiration to pick up the guitar. Hopefully next time MHQ: I know you don´t have time for it but would you like to have your own musical project?
Peter: Well, like you say now we don´t really have time. It´s like when we have time off, that would be the time to have projects. The good thing about this band is that it´s so diverse, so dynamic. If you wanna get the jazz out of you, you can do that in the band, too. There is not really an urge to have a project unless you want to do it regular, of course. When we have the breaks, I actually prefer sitting back home and record. I´m not itching to go out and do other shows like Per is doing. He is playing with other bands when we have six months off. He goes off on other tours. I wouldn´t want to do that. I just want to be home and reacquaint myself at home with my friends and family. But I DO play and record stuff when I´m back home.
MHQ: What kind of break were you talking about? What do you mean? Are you planning a longer break?
Peter: Yeah, this is the last tour we do probably for Ghost Reveries. By Christmas (2006) we´ll be out for 19 months touring and prior to that it was the recording three months and rehearsal. So the cycle has been two years basically. And we´re gonna take a break of at least six months which is the break, I say holiday break or whatever. We don´t want to see each other ever day (laughs) - for a while. Writing process we´re going to start and we´re gonna be rehearsing eventually. After some we´re going to be recording again. But we know that the next cycle is still going to be two years again. So we want to make sure that by the time we enter the studio we´re going to be hungered. We´re going to have a break by Christmas and then it´s going to last for at least half a year. But that break means basically that there are not going to be tours.
MHQ: Soldier of Fortune is once again a cover song. What´s the story behind recording that one? Will other covers follow?
Peter: It´s the 3rd song that we have recorded. Two songs let me think we´ve recorded Remember tomorrow by Iron Maiden in 1997. That was Martin Lopez´s first recording with us. Before that, we have recorded a song called Circle Of The Tyrant by Celtic Frost. That was probably back in 1996. Those two were for compilation albums and back then we had two albums out and it was great just to record something and to promote us. Now we are a little bit more careful. We never had, we never HAVE been a cover band in that sense. Some bands do have earlier on in their carrier, they do a lot of covers and sometimes they do it live. We´ve only done Circle Of The Tyrant once and that was because Cradle Of Filth begged us for it on the whole tour. And then we did Soldier Of Fortune. I think we were supposed to record a BBC Live Session a year ago and they wanted two of our own songs live in the studio but also a cover. That was the only song that we knew on the top of our heads. So we did that.
MHQ: Why isn´t Mikael covering Whitesnake songs (laughing)?
Peter: Well, everybody´s got, well, you play your favourite riffs but we haven´t played a cover song in its entirety for a very long time. It´s been years so that would be the only song that we know actually (laughs).
MHQ: Which other bands or artists have you been inspired by for Ghost Reveries other than Scott Walker?
Peter: Scott Walker obviously but there´s plenty. I think it´s hard to say exactly we have so many influences and it has just been building up and the more over the years and all of a sudden it´s hard to say what´s inspiration and what´s not. (RR staff is approaching me to finish the interview) Basically we have been inspired by all these bands and we don´t really know anymore what is inspiration. But a band that is always going to be inspiring for us is more of a danger for some reason.
MHQ: You´re very pleasant to talk to, Peter.
Peter: Well, thank you.
(we took the pic together, talked about the number of tickets sold, did some last chit-chat before I left and the next person interviewed him)
dcat
Member
Mr Samsara
Misanthropic Moderator
Great interview, worth the wait.
^ Thanks for doing this.
Happy new year Opeth / Opethians.
.
Cheers!
billyneverdies
belovedfraternitytoanend
- Aug 26, 2006
- 190
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Esplendor
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FRUGiHOYi
"Since 1981"
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