“Nothing was too crazy; nothing was too outrageous,” said Opeth leader Mikael Akerfeldt of Storm Corrosion, his 2012 collaboration with old friend and Porcupine Tree counterpart Steven Wilson. Both musicians aimed to satisfy themselves rather than anyone else with the record – to the extent that Åkerfeldt more or less left Wilson to write the lyrics. As he told Prog in 2012, that meant he never worked out what the songs were actually about. And he explained why he’d never dare to ask Wilson.
Does Steven Wilson think that fans of Opeth, Porcupine Tree and his solo work will be surprised by Storm Corrosion, or does he think he’s trained them to expect the unexpected? “Well – and this is key – in terms of Radiohead’s public persona, they don’t seem to care whether people like what they do or not,” he replies.
“And that’s the best definition of an artist: someone who apparently doesn’t care that much if their fans like what they do. The problem with having fans sometimes is that you can think too much about what they want. The moment you start thinking like that, you’ve already compromised.
“Radiohead really don’t give a shit – and me and Mikael, with this record, we’re really only trying to be ourselves. I don’t believe there was ever a time during the making of this record where we thought, ‘Let’s piss people off!’ We were just making music to please ourselves and nothing more. Now, in retrospect, I can see that it’s going to piss people off!
“For me it’s very important, as an artist, to have a constant sense of motion and development. And Mike, of course, with Heritage and Damnation in the past, he definitely confronted the expectations of his audience.
![Storm Corrosion - Drag Ropes [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/manW5v-AR7U/maxresdefault.jpg)
“So I don’t think our audiences are averse to the idea that this might be something that they’re not expecting. If AC/DC had made this record then there would be trouble! I think people are expecting something weird and wonderful.”
In keeping with the music on Storm Corrosion, the lyrics offer very little in the way of signposts to indicate exactly what’s being expressed. A combination of hazy declarations of despair, ambiguous poetic invocations and dreamlike nursery rhymes from the other side of Alice’s cracked mirror, they throw up more questions than answers, and contribute greatly to the record’s overall air of rudderless exploration. Amusingly, Åkerfeldt hasn’t got the faintest clue what’s going on either.
“Steven wrote all the lyrics except for one little piece in the last song. I don’t really know what they’re about!” he admits. “I actually misheard a lot of the lyrics! I think he’s singing about ‘racing doors’ at one point and I thought he was singing about ‘racing dogs’ – like greyhounds or something.
“I honestly don’t know what these songs are about, and I haven’t asked! Even though we’re in the band together, if I asked Steven he’d react like I’m some fuckin’ journalist and say, ‘Oh, they’re personal. Fuck off!’ They’re his lyrics. My contribution is a few lines and the last song title, Ljudet Innan.”
“The lyrics are more painterly than specific, in a way,” Wilson says. “They’re not trying to be too meaningful. They’re trying to be part of the texture of the music, throwing out evocative words and images. That was very much part of the writing process.
“It was almost automatic, splurging out all these ideas. There wasn’t a great deal of intellect going into them. It’s more like someone putting paint onto a canvas and the lyrics become part of the fabric of the music.
“The titles were just random images that jumped out from the lyrics, except for Ljudet Innan. One day, I said to Mike, ‘Why don’t we have a Swedish title for one of the songs? How do you say “ancient music” in Swedish?’ and he said, ‘ljudet innan’ – and there it was, a great title. That was just something that popped out.”
I’ve already told Steven we’re gonna do another record! I want to do more
Mikael Åkerfeldt
Intuitive, organic and borne as much from friendship and shared passions as from any desire to make waves in the music world, Storm Corrosion will not be to everyone’s taste – but its significance to the concept of progressive music as a constantly evolving artform is beyond question.
“Part of this project that I loved was that it was so easy, effortless and we had a fucking good time doing it,” says Åkerfeldt. “I don’t feel boxed in with Opeth, but I’ve been doing that for such a long time that this is a bit of a release – you find other ways to express yourself.
“I’ve already told Steven we’re gonna do another record! It depends if we can find the time; we’re not gonna push for it and we don’t really know where to take it in the future, but right now – yes, I want to do more.
“The only worry is that we don’t want it to become too serious. We don’t want all the usual musical industry bullshit to spoil it, because it was great fun making this record. I’m really proud of it and I don’t care what anyone else thinks. As long as I have a copy of it, I’m happy!”
