Opeth
Interview - Martin Lopez
6/27/05

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Sam: How's the tour going out there?
Martin Lopez: "Really well, really well, this is this is like the best date so far, it seems like, just 'cause we're headlining, so it's been more at home. Down in the festival...it's like an off-date gig."
Sam: Are you guys rotating the setlist at all? What songs are you playing?
Martin: "We're playing a new song tonight. First time ever, so, we'll see how it works out. It sounded good at rehersal..."
Sam: Is it strange playing with all those other bands on a tour?
Martin: "Yes and no, we have done some festivals before so, we're educated playing with bands that we don't know, but eh, it's a little bit...I mean just like, when there's 3 bands and that's it right? But we never went through a thing like that before, (SOTUG) but it's going like really well. All the bands are close, together, we have a great time you know? We haven't played for a year. We haven't played at all, we haven't been onstage for a year. It's our 2nd gig, so we just started to get...just starting to sound good."
Sam: You guys signed with Roadrunner, what headed you in that direction?
Martin: "They just gave us the best offer, so we took it. They gave us total freedom when it comes to the writing and so on, and that's what we want. And it's going well, we've never done tours like this, and I think we need it. We're not complaining at all, we just happen to be here. I mean it's 30 minutes, that's just 3 songs for us, a little bit weird 'cause it's just like we get onstage, warm up, and we have to get off. But at the same time you know, it's something new, and it's fun, just playing with the guys again and going on tour agin, that's the main reason of it."
Sam: The new album, how is it going to sound?
Martin: "It's definately our best record by far, I mean it's just...the record that defines Opeth. We're just so much better, all of us, musically, and as a band you know? It's really good, it's the first time I go out of the studio with the record without wondering if it's good or not. It's just it's good...if it isn't good, you don't like it there's something wrong with you, you know what I mean? We really love it, we think it's our best album, we're proud about it. It's the first time we're so proud and so willing to go on tour and show you something."
Sam: How did you come up with the title? Is there a special meaning behind it?
Martin: "Yeah, it has, but you've gotta go through the whole record, you've got to listen to it, hear some lyrics to get the whole thing."
Sam: Are you guys planning a headlining tour after this?
Martin: "Yeah, we're going back to Europe after this festival, and then hopefully we'll be back around...September doing our own headlining tour, a couple of months. This is just a warm-up of the set we haven't played in one year, we've just gotta know we can play what we did now. Just gotta make sure we can play the whole song."
Sam: The keyboard player, you just made an offical member, how's that working out?
Martin: "Awesome, he's just... after 'Deliverance' and 'Damnnation' we didn't know what way to go...to release an acoustic album after 7 death metal albums, you know, people don't know what to expect. But we had the keyboard player, and we started jamming here and there and feeling the vibe, and it was like, we can make this sound alot heavier than it is already with keyboards. We're not using keyboards like strings, you know, like normal just as background, we're using keyboards as guitars, like heavy and distorted, and in your face."