The Soundtrack Of My Life

on the special records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him.

The Opeth singer/guitarist on the special records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him.

This feature could have been tailor-made for Mikael Åkerfeldt. The Opeth frontman, metalhead-turned-progressive rocker and sometime Steven Wilson collaborator has a record collection the size of Brazil, cultivated with love and a deep level of super-nerdom. At 45 the Stockholm native still drinks in music with the thirst and passion of a 21-year-old discovering it all for the first time.

The FirsT Music i reMeMber hearing

It’s probably ABBA. I was born in the year seventy-four, when they won the Eurovision Song Contest, so it was inevitably on the radio at the time.

The greaTesT albuM OF all TiMe

Normally I say The Beatles’ White Album. Why? It’s the longest. And everything is in there, pretty much – heavy metal, blues, avant-garde stuff, electronic, psychedelic, piss-takes of rock’n’roll, folk… or music that doesn’t necessarily have a label, that was their own, like I’m So Tired.

The guiTar herO

Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow. He’s my guiding light in terms of all the great music that he’s done over the years, his stubbornness, his fearlessness, his humour, his dress code… I admire that guy to the point where it’s just below homosexuality.

The singer

Scott Walker. He’s one of my favourite singers of all time, and also one of my favourite composers. Scott 4 is often considered to be his masterpiece, but I always tend to go to for Scott 3. I also have a personal relationship with it, because that was a time in my life when there was a death in the family. I can’t even begin to explain it, but I was in a vulnerable state when I immersed myself in that album. So it has some personal meaning to me – more than any other album, I think.

The sOngwriTer

Joni Mitchell. Her lyrics are great. They’re just so direct and so vulnerable, while they are also poetic. One of her records that really stuck with me was Court And Spark. She’s a genius. I don’t use that word a lot, but with her it’s easy. How she evolved as a musician, her lyrics, her vocals, her fearlessness…

My FavOuriTe recenT DiscOvery

Can I have two? One of the best records I’ve heard in twenty years, I discovered only maybe a year or so ago. It’s a soundtrack to a Swedish film called The Chameleon. It was written by Lars Färnlöf and it’s basically melodic jazz. It’s quite proggy, but with jazz players very seductive. The other is also a soundtrack, this time for The Devil In Miss Jones, which was a slightly occultthemed pornographic film that I haven’t seen. You play it and you have to play it again and again. And when you stop playing it you go around singing it. It’s fantastic. I’m kind of intrigued to see how they could get this beautiful piece of music in a sex scene and make it work.

My biggesT DisappOinTMenT

The first that comes to mind is Porcupine Tree’s Stupid Dream. They’d put out Signify, which I thought was amazing, and along comes Stupid Dream. I was like: “Na, not my cup of tea.” But because I had this huge respect for Steven Wilson I kept listening, and it sailed up to being my favourite Porcupine Tree album.

The MOsT unDerraTeD banD ever

There’s so many, but one is Coroner. It’s early progressive thrash, you could say. I mean, Switzerland hasn’t delivered shitloads of music – it’s Celtic Frost and Coroner. I was in a documentary on Coroner. Everyone that was interviewed for it said the same thing: they should have been much bigger than they were. The second album, Punishment Through Decadence, is my favourite.

The besT recOrD i MaDe

The new one, of course [In Cauda Venenum]. Not because I have to, but because I think it is. If you exclude the new one, then it’s…. I like Watershed, and I love Heritage. Either of the two.

The wOrsT recOrD i MaDe

The first one. It’s basically how it goes. That’s how I see it. By no means do I think it’s bad, but that’s the record I’m most detached from, because I was nineteen then, and I’m forty-five now.

My saTurDay nighT/ parTy sOng

We have two: Still Of The Night by Whitesnake, and Look At Yourself by Uriah Heep. Look At Yourself you put on if you didn’t get drunk enough, cos you put that song on and the alcohol will go to your brain quicker. I’ve tested it, it works.

The sOng ThaT Makes Me cry

Joni Mitchell’s A Case Of You. I cried to Tarot Woman by Rainbow for some reason. You Take My Breath Away by Queen. Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush… I rarely cry, but I can feel overwhelmed to the point where I’m on the brink of crying.

My ‘in The MOOD FOr lOve’ sOng

Not to give too much away… I’m not sure if we have a go-to. We just moved houses, so we don’t have a turntable in the bedroom right now. But it would be Animals by Pink Floyd, a record called Sunset Waiting by John G Perry, who was in Caravan for a while… I tried Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. I think it was only played once. I played the section where Viv Stansall introduces the instruments, and my girlfriend went: “That’s fucking annoying!” And I was like: “It’s funny!” Needless to say nothing happened that night.

The sOng i wanT playeD aT My Funeral

Tubthumping (I Get Knocked Down), Chumbawamba.

In Cauda Venenum is out on September 27 via Moderbolaget/Nuclear Blast.

“Joni Mitchell is a genius. I don’t use that word a lot, but with her it’s easy.”