Opeth mastermind Mikael Akerfeldt was asked by Overdrive about his recent comments on touring becoming increasingly difficult to him and whether he could see Opeth become “a band that releases music with the occasional live show,” to which he replied:
“Honestly? I would love that.
“I’ve been touring a lot of the last few decades and I have to say that I’ve lost my a desire for attention.
“The attention wh*re in me has reached its quota and I’m just more interested in creating music in the studio.
“If I could survive by just writing and creating music, with a little bit of feedback, I would probably be very happy indeed.”
Mikael added:
“I just like to write in a controlled environment, I’m not an improvised type of player and like to be in control of everything.
“So I really love the studio environment because it’s a place where you can create something from nothing and that concept is really fascinating to me and it makes me feel like I’m actually good at something.
“When I’m on stage, I spend most of my time thinking about how sh*t I am, so I really need that studio time to make me feel like I’m actually doing something. I need to feel like I’m creating something and not just shaking my a*s up on stage cracking jokes.”