Ezekiel RodofiliIf you’re into Opeth, then you know Martín Méndez and his tasteful bass playing. Near the end of 2024 I was afforded the opportunity to talk to Martín about Opeth stuff.
Opeth are currently on tour, and perform in New Zealand and Australia this November, from the 14th through to the 24th. Tickets for the Australian shows are available here and (including the NZ show) here.
The Last Will and Testament is available here.
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Ez: When you approached how you’d play bass for The Last Will and Testament, were you looking more to see what worked with the music, or the concept?
Martín: It was more about the music. The concept, we kind of got the whole picture afterwards. We knew it was going to happen – the concept album – but we didn’t know exactly the whole story until maybe the middle of the process. For me it’s more focusing on the music firstly. It doesn’t really affect the concept, for us to write our parts.
Ez: In that case, what were you looking to convey with your playing?
Martín: I always try to add something for the music and I like to play for the songs. My approach, when it comes to writing bass lines is not to show up or try to shine anywhere. It’s just, really I want to play for the songs the best I can. That’s my goal, always, as it should be, I guess *laughs*
Ez: Your playing is generally fairly more rhythmic and melodic over the years. Whilst some of its styling has changed, you’ve always maintained that sense of melody and rhythm.
Martín: I try to combine, really, a bit melodic but keeping the rhythm. Fundamentally with the drums, it’s important to be there. There’s a lot of things going on in Opeth music. You have melodies everywhere, like an orchestra, or guitars, or keyboards, or whatever so you need to be careful to never overplay and crash with those melodies. But yeah; I like to be melodic as well.
Ez: I noticed recently in seeing some footage… I know that Mikael Åkerfeldt mentioned that everyone has a vocal part on the album. You haven’t done backup vocals before, so how comfortable were you in doing so?
Martín: When he asked me in the studio, I [thought] it was a joke *laughs*. But it was fun. Me and Waltteri also. I think it’s in “§7” and “§6” we’re singing a little bit. You can’t really hear my voice, luckily *laughs*. But yeah. It was really fun. Something new, never done before in Opeth.
Ez: I guess also in a way, for you – and you seem like a musician who likes to grow and explore as well – do you see it a way forward to expand your sound palette in a sense?
Martín: I don’t know. If it needs more people singing I will try, of course. I thought it was really fun to do, but it depends if we need to add more voices. When we play live, Joakim and Frederick’s doing the backing vocals already, so it’s three harmonies which works really well as it is, but I am open to do it.
Ez: I guess you’re gonna say to Mikael that you might need a microphone for the stage.
Martín: *laughs* Yeah. That would be weird, but yeah.
Ez: Going back to your bass playing, in [doing] what the song needs, how do you go about doing that? ‘Cause my understanding is you have a fair bit of freedom in how you come up with your parts.
Do you throw yourself in, do a few runs? Do you listen the demos or what was already recorded and start working out how?
Martín: Usually Mikael sends us a demo. He makes really good demos. Then I get separate tracks and the bass track he’d done. Usually he does really good bass lines. Very simple bass lines in a way, but I think he does them on purpose a little bit to give me a little more freedom, so I start listening to his parts, and when I know the chords and the notes and everything I kind of mute the bass and then I start playing on the songs.
In this case I think I was training for a month, something like that. I record in my home studio different tracks on every song, with different ideas. Then I listen to them and pick up the best ones and then I build up the whole thing. Once I finish the things I’m doing I kind of forget what he was doing [on the demo]. I listen to it the first two days or something, just to hammer it in and then I mute it and then I never listen to it again. I forget it and go with my own ideas, so that’s the way I work.
Ez: Do you feel that – especially with your length of experience as a bass player and a musician at this point – your ability to find what works is more instinctual rather than consciously thought?
Martín: A little bit of both, really. I try to not think much about theory when I’m writing, but I think that’s something you have in the back of your head. I try to feel what gives the song something to keep [it] alive and to never overplay. So it’s more instinct, I think.
Ez: The Last Will and Testament is a pretty dense album, sound-wise. Do you feel in avoiding overplaying, you’re also sort of countering that density?
Martín: Yeah. I mean, that’s how I kind of felt when I listened to the songs, that I needed to play that way. This album is different to the past ones. The songs are shorter, they compress in different ways. A lot of things going on. I really appreciate when you listen to it, you don’t really get that feeling, you know? But there’s a lot of things going on, so it’s pretty busy as it is.
But what I mean to never overplay, I like to be present with the bass as well. I like to make some melodies, or do something that you can really hear the bassist doing; his part. I don’t try to make these fast fills or runs or whatever just because. [I’m] careful with that.
Ez: It is an album that is easy to listen to. I’m sure some people pick up on the density of it pretty early on, but when I was having to put on my reviewer cap, it really did become apparent. I imagine that you yourself would have to strike a pretty fine balance between the overplaying and underplaying, because even in playing for the song you have to keep it interesting for yourself. Who knows how many times you’re gonna have to play throughout the years.
As there’s quite a lot of shifts throughout each of the songs, does that help keep it interesting for you and help keep you on your toes, creativity-wise?
Martín: Yeah, it does. As I say, I try to be as creative as possible, but [also] as respectful as possible as well to the song. I always try to improve. I’m still starting, you know? I’m still practising a lot, and I like to improve my playing all the time. Every Opeth album is a bit of a challenge in a way, because I feel that everybody’s getting a bit better as a player every era, every album, so you have to be there, you know? You have to be ready to make that challenge work.
Ez: Mikael has said enough about what the concept is about. How do you feel about it?
Martín: It’s a good story. I like it. I think when he explained the whole thing, immediately it felt like a movie which is really cool. I like when you can almost picture the whole thing while you listen to the music and read the lyrics. I like it. It’s very artistic in a way.
Ez: And we probably both know the answer to this already *laughs* but do you feel that the sound of the music helps to convey that concept well?
Martín: Well I think that the music makes it… in a way [they] fit with each other. I don’t know if you get used to it, but I think musically following in a way the story… you can really feel it when it’s something strong in the lyrics you get these strong riffs behind, so it goes together in a way, which is fine.
Ez: Did the concept arise more form what was being recorded and how it sounded, or did it just kind of come after, and it happened to fit?
Martín: I think it happened to fit. I mean, he had that in mind, and the concept came in between the process when he was doing the demos.
Usually, back in the day we used to get the whole demo. When [Mikael] finished the demo we got all the songs together, but this time we got it track by track. He was done with the first track and then we got it, and so after a few tracks he started telling us the idea, the story behind it. But for us, the rest of the band, we concentrated on the music, but we were aware of the idea behind the concept and the lyrics. But of course he was the one who wrote everything, and I guess he had some ideas to fit the lyrics with the music.
Ez: Let’s talk a little bit about touring. Are you guys on a short break, or are you in the midst of a tour?
Martín: We’re on a break now. We’ve done a North American tour a month ago, something like that. We’re going back on tour in February in part of Europe. So we’re on break now, but the album is out now so the touring cycle starts now, so it will be a lot of touring next year.
Ez: How do you go about interweaving songs from The Last Will and Testament, into a setlist that draws from Opeth’s past?
Martín: When it comes to live shows we try to cover as much as we can of the whole discography. It’s not gonna happen that we’ll play the whole album; not now, at least. Maybe in the future we will do some special show, but we never talk about that.
I know a few songs are very difficult to get together because of the orchestra and all that stuff, but it would be fun to do. But the songs kinda work by themselves as well. We will try to play a few, but I don’t think it’s gonna be a sequence or a concept thing live.
Ez: Do you look to fit them in to fit with the flow of what’s already there, or vice versa?
Martín: We always try to make good dynamic on the setlist. Depending on what songs we play, there will be placed in the setlist because of the dynamic. We like to build this kind of V-shape dynamic; starting really hard, then going down a little bit, then finish really hard again. The decisions will be about how they fit dynamically in the setlist.
Ez: The other thing as well is, playing live is different to somebody listening to a record. You’re gonna have a fair bit more space, especially with these songs. Do you feel your role, in a sense, changes, when performing live as opposed to performing in a studio?
Martín: Not really. When I’m in the studio, when I’m writing the bass lines I try to [do] the same as what I’ll play on stage. It’s kind of the same approach as previous albums, really. I don’t see any difference to previous albums, previous songs, so it’s kind of the same.
Ez: You’ve spent a lot of time on the road at this point. What do you feel is the hardest thing about performing with all the time and experience you’ve spent doing it at this point?
Martín: Well, since we’re getting older some things change. I’ve always loved to play live. Recording in the studio and playing live are definitely the most fun parts of this job. But now I kind of… I don’t know. I really appreciate that I really like to play live. I always do 100% the best of my abilities, and everybody does, but now it’s kind of different. We got more professional in a way. Back in the day we partied more than now.
We never drink before a show. Not even in the past, but now days you’re really conscious about it. You don’t get too many drinks after a show because you know the next day you have a show and you have to be 100%. I take it as [it’s though] the last one. I want to make a really, really good show. It really affects me if I make some mistakes, and I’m kind of a perfectionist in that way, but also I want to have fun. Really enjoy the moment, and that’s pretty much what I feel now.
I love the energy with the audience when just on stage. You give energy and you get back, and that’s really a nice feeling.
Ez: Do you ever worry that your perfectionist tendencies could ever override your enjoyment of the show?
Martín: No. We are humans. We’re aware about that. If someone plays wrong, that’s fine, it’s no problem. The thing is you have to be in shape. Be in the best shape as possible to make it happen, but if something happens, we’re still human. We don’t have any click tracks or backing tracks, so you feel like it’s kind of dangerous. You have to be 100% to make it happen. The rest of the guys, they’re so good playing too, so you need to be the same level.
Ez: Does camaraderie among each member help get to that level?
Martín: Yeah, of course. We’re on the same path, so everybody respects each other, and everybody is on the same page.
Ez: IYou guys seemed a bit more relaxed about things earlier on, but these days you seem in a sense a bit more professional. There’s always concerns – from the fan side of things – everything’s just become business, but so long as you guys enjoy each other’s company, especially in a band like Opeth, I imagine that does help quite a lot.
Martín: Oh yeah. It does.
We’re friends. I don’t see the guys as working buddies. Of course this is our job and it’s business, but when it comes to us playing live, we’re just a bunch of guys, friends, playing. We are perfectionists; we’re music freaks. We love music and what we do, but we’re buddies.
We shake hands every time during the intro when going on stage. You feel the chemistry, and I feel the love from the five of us. We do what we do and we want to do it the best that we can, and business around it is a completely different story.
Ez: Obviously you’ve been playing bass for a while. What is about bass that you’re so fond of? What is it about bass that you enjoy, that you like, that keeps drawing you to the instrument?
Martín: I love the bass in so many ways.
I love music in general, really. I really appreciate jazz players a lot, and I like to listen to that kind of music.
Bass for me, is like… I try to be a bassist, especially [as] we’re in metal. Bass, many times, is not really bass. It’s more like a guitar behind the guitar.
Nowadays it’s kind of changing as well, you know? There’s a lot of good players and the new generation is getting really good on it. But for me, to be a bassist is one thing, to be a piano player is one thing. You need to know the role the instrument has. I’ve always been trying to play the bass as a bassist. I think that’s very important as it adds a lot to the music.
In every style of music; if you listen to funk or r&b or jazz, the bass is never behind the melody, just behind the guitar or whatever it is, you know? So, for me playing bass is being a bassist. That’s pretty obvious and a stupid answer maybe *laughs*, but that’s the way I see it.