Interview Exclusive: Opeth’s Fredrik Akesson

So before the Opeth show I had a chance to sit down with Fredrik Akesson currently of Opeth and formerly of Arch Enemy. Really cool guy and a great guitar player. My interview was scheduled for 5:30 to 5:45 so I left the hosue about 4:30 because it takes about a half hour to get to the venue. I didn’t take in to account that it was Friday and traffic along the 440 belt-line in central NC was going to be busy. I called Jimmy, the tour manager about 10 minutes before my interview and told him I was on my way and would probably make it right on time. While talking to him I missed my turn but I still made it on time and got to talk to Fredrick in the back lounge of their tour bus.

MM: You have quite a resume as a guitar player with bands such as Arch Enemy, Tiamat, Human Clay, Krux and now Opeth.

FA: I never played in Human Clay, that’s actually wrong. I think I may have played a guitar solo on one of their albums as a guest solo, but I was never in their band.

MM: So obviously you can’t trust everything on Wikipedia?

FA: Exactly. Maybe they put that in there because I may be credited in one of their albums for a solo.

MM: Now that you’re with Opeth, is this a temporary thing or is it a permanent gig?

FA: It’s a permanent gig, it’s been like that for a long time.

MM: You’ve know the band for quite some time?

FA: Yeah, when I played in Arch Enemy we were on Gigantour together, so we hang out a lot. I used to hang out a lot with Ax (Martin Axenrot) and Mikael. I knew Mikael before and I’ve known him for about five years and we’d meet at festivals in   and Stockholm.

MM: Back to Arch Enemy real quick. When you signed on for that gig, was there anything in the back of your mind thinking that Chris (Amott) might be coming back at some time?

FA: Yeah, I did think about that because you have the fact that they’re brothers and Chris was there from the beginning, but when I joined Mike Amott told me that he (Chris) wasn’t coming back, so I was like the permanent member. But he was away from the band for those two years and maybe he realized it wasn’t so fun, maybe he realized that he wanted to be back in the band so. It was cool for me because their brother so I understood. I still have good contact with both of them, Mike and Chris.

MM: How long have you guys been touring the US now on this leg?

FA: we’re right at the end of  a six week US tour.

MM: Was there any time for you to catch the Carcass reunion?

FA: yeah last summer we played a bunch of European festivals together and we actually played a couple of gigs with Carcass, so we actually went out in the crowd and watched them, in Greece actually. It was really good.

MM: What’s the major difference between playing with Opeth and playing in Arch Enemy?

FA: Playing in Arch Enemy was good for me because there’s a lot of thrashy, faster type of riffing. It was more…high adrenaline all the time in the live sets. And the Opeth song are more complex, longer songs and more diverse type of guitar playing. In Arch Enemy its more of a metal thing. A lot of solos in Arch Enemy. I don’t play as much solos in Opeth but I do play some

MM: Do you play any of the melodic acoustic parts?

FA: Oh yeah, I play like melody solos and acoustic parts and everything. That’s another difference with Arch Enemy because the Opeth type of rhythm guitar playing that Mikael does, the way he puts his riffs together is very odd, if you say?

MM: So he has his own unique style.

FA: Yeah, I think and it makes the gig even more fun to play and also there are a lot of acoustic parts with finger style picking that I put a lot of time in to. So it’s very cool and very different. It took me a couple of months to adjust to the sound but I was a big Opeth fan before so it made it east because I got to play with one of my favorite bands.

MM: was it difficult to learn some of the back catalog?

FA: Yeah, not so hard but more challenging but I like challenges which hopefully drives me to better guitar playing. In the beginning I was like ‘Oh shit, there’s so much material I have to learn’ but I took one riff at a time, one song at a time and Mikael showed me the riffs so that made it easier too.

MM: Any plans in the future for Krux?

FA: Yeah, I still play with Krux. It’s the only band I play with apart from Opeth, which is my main priority. Leif  who is the founder of Krux, Leif Edling (Krux Bass player) from Candlemass, he’s quite busy with Candlemass and the other guys have families. They used to be in Entombed, the drummer (Peter Stjärnvind) , the rhythm guitar player used to play bass in Entombed…

MM: Jorgen

FA: Yeah, Jorgen Sanstrom

MM: he used to also play in Grave

FA: Exactly, he used to sing in Grave.

MM: I liked Grave better when he was singing, but that’s just my personal preference.

FA: He’s cool, he has some other bands now and Peter, the drummer has Nifelheim. So everyone in Krux is busy with other bands but we will do a new record, it’s planned for the end of next year.

MM: How many tours have you been through North America?

FA: This is the fifth. Three times with Arch Enemy and this is the second time with Opeth.

MM: What’s the best thing about touring North America.

FA: I like it. I like also being on the bus and not having to go in to hotels with your bags and stuff all the time. It’s cool to always have a place to stay. It’s different, it’s a cool variation going to the east coast and the west coast…

MM: You catch it at the right time you get all four seasons. Does that ever become a problem going from hot to cold and maybe getting sick with different climates?

FA: I got a cold for about a week but it’s bound to happen with everyone on a  tour bus. It kind of gets passed around.

MM: What’s maybe the worse thing about touring North America?

FA: Some venues don’t have showers, but we can deal with that and sometimes you’re just dirty for a few days.  Another problem is that you really don’t get to see that much. I never got to see the grand canyon and you miss out on a lot of stuff. It’s not like being a tourist.

MM: Are you still playing ESP guitars?

FA: I played ESP when I was with Arch Enemy, but I went over to PRS after I joined Opeth. I still have a couple of ESP’s that I might play on the road but now I mainly play a single cut PRS guitar. They’re really good sounding guitars and they stay in tune.

MM: What are some of your favored guitars?

FA: I used to play a Les Paul custom but I don’t bring that out on the road anymore. In the late 90’s I played some Floyd Rose style guitars…

MM: something with a nice fast neck?

FA: I always like to fast guitar but I also like a guitar that makes you fight for the tone a little bit

MM: That’s all I have for you. What time do you guys go on?

FA: 10:00 I think. It’s like a two hour set.

MM: Wow. Well thanks again and I’ll see you out there.

FA: Thanks. Take care.

So there you have it. I also kind of tried to get some inside info on the reason Nachmystium got booted from the tour, but Fredrik is a professional dude and didn’t think he should talk about that and he said they’re a good bunch of guys and wishes them well.

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