Only One Direction for Opeth

Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt will be among the crowd when One Direction play in Sweden tomorrow night – but only because his daughter wants to go.

He says he hasn’t managed to persuade his kids to start following heavier music. And he admits parenthood has taken some of the wind out of his sails when he’s on the road.

Akerfeldt tells TeamRock Radio: “Being a dad and being away so much is difficult. It’s not as fun to be away when you have kids.

“In the early days touring was partying, rocking out and having a good time. Now I kind of approach touring as work.”

He continues: “I’m sure sure it has changed the music. Things around you change when you have kids. I’m taking my daughter to see One Direction. Right now both of them are into Grease, the musical.”

Opeth are gearing up for the release of 11th album Pale Communion – but the mainman says there’s no big meaning behind the title.

“It’s kind of difficult to come up with album titles,” he reports. “I want them to sound cool and look cool and fit in with my lyrics. I was going through my lyrics and it felt like a fitting title for me, but it doesn’t really mean anything.”

Earlier today Anathema’s Daniel Cavanagh praised Akerfeldt for being there when he needed a friend while the bands toured together in 2012.

Opeth interview

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.