Have you ever tried another instrument besides percussion? Not really. Well, except if singing back in the elementary schoold counts… I haven’t really had any urge to go for any other instrument. What has been your most common injury because of drumming during the last 20 years? At one point I started to get really sore right wrist after every show. I started to do certain excercises and changed the setting a bit, and luckily it helped. Who are your favourite drummers and your inspirations? I still have to mention the ones back from when it all started, so that would be Mike Portnoy and Jí¶rg Michael. During the last years, focus has been in the music as a whole, so I’m not really following any particular player(s) anymore. Do people recognise you as Nightwish's drummer when you aren't wearing the bandana? Have you ever used that advantage? Probably not, but I haven’t had any need to test that, so can’t say for sure. How many times have you watched the band this tour? How strange did it feel? That would be five shows, the first one being the tour kick off in New York in April 2015. I have to admit, that night was as strange as it gets… But then again, the latest one at the Himos Park last month was already a much better. Is there any EFMB song where you think “wow I’d love to have a go at that one?†The album is full of fantastic songs, but if just one has to be mentioned let’s make it "Shudder Before The Beautifulâ€. Just a perfect start for the album and a KO live song. What was it like to be back on the throne once more at Himos? It was pretty out there... Fantasticly strange homecoming! It had been three years since the previous show, so routines were all gone, but still it somehow felt like it would have been just yesterday. What is your favourite thing to eat/cook? That would be some kind of Indian curry. There’s nothing like going wild with all those spices and seeing what you come up with. Not two dishes are the same. What is the funnest song to play live, and which is the most difficult? "Last Ride Of The Day†and â€Ghost Love Score†are probably the ones on the top of the fun list, and â€She Is My Sin†keeps you nicely busy. Being a drummer, do you feel that you have far less interaction with the audience? If so, how do you feel about it? Not really. It’s your own decision how you want to interact with the audience, and if you’re up for it, you’ll find a way. I've read that you are a fan of Eckhart Tolle. How have his teachings influenced your life? I happened to come across with his book â€Power of Now†some years ago, and I was surprised how big part of it was more or less equal to how I had come to understand life and reality myself. Reading and listening more has expanded this understanding, so needless to say, I highly appreciate his work. What is your current daily routine with looking after the band’s administration? There’s a lot to do, but not much routines. Things come and go, and you deal with them as they appear. What do you value the most in your life? I would say, the life itself. â€Life†meaning everything that happens, in good and in bad. I don’t find any reason to pick just one aspect of it and make that the most valuable. How did the collaboration between you and Kai start? I can’t remember where we met the first time, but most likely it was in some after party back in the day. But I do remember that we needed someone to help us out tuning the drums for the Dark Passion Play album. We asked the guy and there he was! What was your most ridiculous impulse buy? I don’t do impulse purchases (or at least I want to think I don’t…), but I usually do make purchase decisions pretty fast. For example, if I think it’s time to change our car, I check the related issues immediately and make the decision. I do not spend weeks going forth and back with the topic. Have you ever attempted to learn other styles of percussion (djembe, hand drums, timpani etc)? I’ve got into percussions during last year or two just for the interest, but haven’t yet dived deeper in it. Do you have some new tattoos? It’s been in the planning for couple of years already to get a new one, but haven’t find the right moment to do it yet. But it will come, sooner or later. What is the funniest/weirdest/craziest thing that ever happened to you on stage? Not really answering the original question, but the most odd stage moment for me has, for sure, been the visit on stage at the Himos Park last month. I can’t remember anything from the past that would top that. Has being a spectator of recent shows given you chance to look at things from a different perspective, to help make any changes or improvements to the music or the shows that you perhaps may not have done normally. Even though I would rather be seeing the show from the stage angle, it’s been utterly fantastic to be able to experience how it all looks and sounds from the audience point of view. No changes or improvements come in mind, but the overall understanding of the big picture has improved. Some matters that you think are major issues are actually more or less irrelevant, and some supposedly insignificant things might have a big impact.
It seems the release date has further been postoned - NB states that it will be 9 December 2016: http://www.nuclearbl...-of-spirit.html
With Vehicle of Spirit coming out at the end of this year, Tuomas Holopainen, Marco Hietala, and Floor Jansen traveled to Helsinki on September 29th to promote the upcoming DVD to the Finnish medias, of which we are one. After the screening, we were given the opportunity to chat with Floor about the DVD, life as Nightwish’s vocalist, and a few other personal experiences. Well, we’ve just watched the new DVD, Vehicle of Spirit – how do you like it compared to Showtime, Storytime?There are a couple of years between these two shows. These were our own shows, unlike a festival… of course that is also ‘our’ show, but this is our stage, our setup, everything. I don’t want to really compare too much, because I think it’s nice that both DVDs [show] a different kind of work, a different kind of vibe, a different moment in our history. This is a documentation of this world tour, so we have two shows and [quite a bit of] footage from other places as well, which is also really different from the concept of Showtime, Storytime. That had a show, but it also had a large story part with hours of documentary. This is only live footage, so it’s really different.What’s your favorite moment from the DVD, or do you have a favorite memory from either of the shows?For me, one of the highlights from the Tampere show was doing “Sleeping Sun†out on that catwalk that we had into the audience. It was really scary. I had the most… challenging shoes [laughs]. They’re awesome! Just like every woman, you want to wear something that’s really great but it’s really not practical, especially when you have to go down a slope and it’s slippery. A song such as “Sleeping Sun†is only beautiful when it’s sang perfectly. You can’t be off with it. The dynamics, everything needs to be there, and to do that while walking on a catwalk in the midst of 23,000 people was a challenge [laughs] but I was very happy with how it turned out.For the Wembley show, I think the moment that Richard Dawkins spoke and when he had that little break at the end, “Where endless forms most beautiful… … … and most wonderful…†I remember how nervous I was! “Is he forgetting his words? What’s happening now?†Then he continued and then the reaction from the audience, which we now saw on film, got to see even more than when I was standing there. It was breathtaking. When I watched it at home for the first time, I had tears rolling down my face, like man! And the reaction that came from the audience! People with tears on their face and having their hands like this [see photo] listening to him. It was unbelievably cool that they felt what we felt, what we hoped we could share.On the Endless Forms Most Beautiful Tour, you’ve had quite minimalistic stage props as compared to, for example, the giant organ prop from Imaginaerum or the boat from Dark Passion Play. Who designs the props and how did they end up a bit more simple this time around?We come up with a lot of ideas ourselves. I think a lot of physical things on stage got replaced with screens and the setup of the screens, which I can tell you are not minimalistic [laughs]. Also, in Tampere we had these big lights that came down during the show. In general with lights we’ve done way more, so the setup in a sense is really not more minimalistic, it’s more advanced but in another way. We do have our stage props. There is a big thing built around Tuomas’ stand, and a special setup for Troy, Marco has his tree thing, and so do I. So I don’t see it as less in a sense like that.I know that Nightwish has a break planned after the next couple of shows in Asia for about a year. What are the band’s plans after the break? Will you just be heading back to the studio?We have plans but we’re not going to tell anybody. We have something really special coming up and I’ve seen some interpretations of interviews we’ve done on the subject where we say, “We won’t do anything in 2017, then we’ll do something special but we’re not saying anything until 2018.†People do write, “We think they’re going to go into the studio or 2017,†or not even think, they just write as if it’s the truth, and I’m like… we didn’t say that. We actually are going to take a whole year off in order to charge the batteries to their full max; a band like Nightwish simply deserves it. After 20 years non-stop, I don’t think it’s that weird. But! Then there’s something happening that we can’t tell yet, or won’t tell. All I can say is that I think it’s very special and people will really like it.Are you and any of the other guys thinking at all about working on your other projects, like Brother Firetribe or Tarot or ReVamp?I know that Emppu will spend time with Brother Firetribe and I think Kaitsu is considering, or can do some stuff with Wintersun. He’ll do teaching. Marco is working on a solo album, and so is Troy. I realized that having a band such as Nightwish… it isn’t very easy to have a second band. I’ve been doubting what to do with ReVamp, because my Dutch band deserves as much attention as any other band, but it’s been hard to have that and I’m going to be a mom, so it’s very difficult to do that full-force. So I decided to let ReVamp go. So for me, it will be mainly focusing on having a baby and being a mom. But, in 2008 I wrote a rock album with a Norwegian guitar player, Jorn Viggo Lovstad, from Pagan’s Mind. For both of us, different music, and we never were able to release it. So, without too intense planning, we do have the ambition to work on this when time allows it.Regarding the Nightwish material, which song is most challenging for you to sing?I can’t really say that one song in particular is more challenging than others. There are parts in songs that don’t come as naturally. For instance, “Amaranth†for me, in the beginning was more challenging because it has this poppy vibe that I’m not used to, really, so in that sense it’s more challenging. “Sleeping Sun†is challenging for the reason mentioned before. It really needs to be exactly correct. Not too operatic, not too light, building up the dynamics… that’s a challenge. Of course, the high notes in “Ghost Love Score†are a challenge. So it’s more parts of songs.Did you have to learn any new vocal techniques to sing any of Nightwish’s songs, or did your skill set already have it covered?They did, but there are – especially more in the lighter and softer singing – I discovered… not new techniques, but I never used it that much. To really play with that was something I rarely did before.Of the older Nightwish songs, is there anything that you haven’t sang live yet that you’d like to?[laughs] Many, many! There are a lot [of songs] in the back catalogue that we can’t play in one show, just because we have eight albums to choose from. This has been the Endless Forms Most Beautiful World Tour, so you focus on the material from the new album, but there are songs like “The End of All Hope†– I always thought it was such a rush. I’m terrible with names, but “Gethsemaneâ€, and so on and so forth.You’ve been loaning your voice to a lot of other bands’ projects lately – do you have any particular favorites from those that really stood out?No, but I recently joined with Evergrey, a Swedish band, whom I’ve listened to since I was a teen. My husband-to-be used to drum in Evergrey, so when I moved to Sweden, I got to meet the singer and again actually we knew each other from back in the day, but not really like this. When he asked me to sing on the album, that felt very special because it’s out of friendship, but also out of a long love for that band, so I thought that was super cool. But apart from one or two projects, everything I’ve done, I’ve done with my full heart, because I really like the bands, so I only do things that I like nowadays.You’ve been traveling a great deal – what are some of your favorite places that you’ve visited, and is there anywhere that you haven’t been yet that you’d like to see?New for me on this world tour was China. I didn’t think I would like it somehow. There are a few things about the Chinese ways of doing things that don’t really match with my view of the world – fair enough – but I really, really liked it. People were so awesome and the food was fantastic and everything was really… it was a big surprise for me.I am a big fan of Japan. I think it’s fantastic. I love Canada. Especially Vancouver, as a city. It has this fantastic park and nice areas.Places where I haven’t been… I’ve been to Brazil now many times, but I’ve never seen the Amazon. I would really, really love to see that. I’ve been to Australia now a few times, but I’ve never seen anything more than the cities. I didn’t make it into the outback. And on a private bucket list I would love to see Iceland.On a similar line of thought, what’s the best new food that you’ve tried on tour?We had catering traveling with us – very fancy – and they made this seitan. I’m vegetarian, so it’s sometimes challenging [to find something] to eat that actually tastes nice. It’s not that difficult, but apparently it’s very difficult for catering services. The amount of dull food I sometimes need to eat just because there’s no dead animal involved… but they managed to make the most amazing vegetarian dishes. Even though my body didn’t always approve, I loved the taste of it immensely.We heard that you’re a fan of the Kalevala – have you read it?I’ve read some of the stuff. I got introduced to it mainly through the jewelry brand, actually. I joined in on this project for children where one of the Kalevala stories is told. They are lovely tales. Are there any parts that are particularly memorable, or that you particularly like?I’m not that familiar with it. The one that I did was the story of Leminkainen. That was beautiful. It’s dark, but it’s often dark, the Kalevala.Lastly, I noticed that on the last ReVamp album, Wild Card, you managed to get Devin Townsend to sing on “The Anatomy of a Nervous Breakdown: Neurastheniaâ€, and he’s somewhat notorious for not liking to sing in other people’s projects – how did you meet him and how did you convince him to sing in that song?Yeah! God, we met somewhere backstage, at a festival I think. I approached him with that question and he said, “Indeed, I usually don’t do this. It depends on the material and I want to be able to write the stuff I’m going to sing.†“Cool!†So I sent him the instrumental and the song again with my ideas for the vocals on it, with all freedom for him to do whatever he wanted, but then he got super busy and I was afraid he was then not going to do it. Eventually he was like, “I really like what you wrote, so I’ll sing what you wrote,†which is unique indeed, I know! And then of course he gave it the Devin Townsend sauce that made it sound just like him. It’s not 100% copy, but of course it is my lyrics and it is the basic melody that I wrote and it was a massive honor because he’s doing [something] with his voice that I try to do in ReVamp as well, and the massive diversity and to have a voice like that coming in with mine was a dream come true.That’s a fantastic story! That’s all of my questions. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!
1: I wonder do you have any hilarious stories involving your beard such as has it got stuck in things or difficult to maintain?-If I stick the ends behind my ears, I look like a Captain Ahab wannabe with weird sideburns. I´ve sometimes done it to see, if I look strange enough to not to be recognized. It has even worked a few times. All kinds of maintenance in male appearance is somewhat metrosexual and useless in my opinion. Especially when a guy is already getting grey and even more charismatic (I hope). The left side of my beard grows a bit faster so I occasionally burn the ends with a lighter. Scissors would be too much of a barbershop thing and therefore metrosexual. I´m a masculine beast!2: Any advice to someone who wants to dedicate himself to music?-Go ahead. Give it all! Expect nothing!3: I heard that you wanted to write a book one day. If you didn’t change your mind, so, in what genre-The ideas and snippets I have put down are somewhere in the fantastical. Grimdark most likely. Now I just need a hell of load of patience, if I want to finish them one day.4: Tuomas always says, that all the music he writes is about him, it’s very much like “a diary of his soulâ€. What is your attitude to stuff like this? Do your songs reflect your condition or state of mind, or you prefer not to share your personal life with wide audience?-All that I write is personal too. Everything you read, hear, see, etc. comes out there in the music and lyrics in some ways. The times that we live in as well. I might be more of a metaphor and allegory user and a storyteller. It´s a bit hard to make objective comparisons about the work of your close friend and yourself though. 5: I've always thought that your singing voice is quite unique (in a cool way), especially the higher notes. Is it something that came naturally to you or did you work towards that kinda of a sound?-I have to say that most of my sound is natural and very much a result of the albums and songs I listened to and sung along with as a kid and a teenager. They became the basics I unknowingly built for my voice. The lessons I took in my high school years helped me to take hold of more relaxed ways of producing the voice though.6: If you had to choose a song to send it to outer space as a message for any alien civilization, which one would it be and why?-Beatles: “I am the walrusâ€. Let´s see what they make out of it…7: Any opinions on fan culture? Meaning the dedication, time spent creating art, money invested into merch, etc?-I had heroes when I was a teenager. I had a hell of a respect towards the players, vocalists and the writers. With writers I also mean the novelists. I collected books. I got my hands on singles with obscure b-sides and bootlegs of live shows from certain artists. I drew album covers and weird instruments. So I do understand the point of view where it starts and where it can go. Those heroes also inspired me to play and write music, lyrics and short stories. And this is where growing up with these things have taken me. To some people me and my mates are those heroes now. It´s an absurd feeling with a lot of gratitude. Gratitude to both my heroes and the people who´ve enjoyed our music. The fans have bought the albums and the tickets for our shows. The fans are also directly responsible of the fact that we can continue writing and recording our music. They are the people we do the shows for. And we all can get that massive kick out of the mutual feedback between the audience and the band standing together in a musical and visual rapture. There´s nothing better to my opinion. Thank you!8: f you could switch place with another member of the band for one day, who would it be and why?-Floor. It would be interesting to see how it felt like to be a woman. She´s also the youngest in the band and probably the one in the best condition. I´d skip the current pregnancy though. I want to party like a maniac again!9: Do you have any advice for beginner bass players?-Playing straight eights with tightness and groove is the most important thing you can ever learn.10: Are you considering playing covers in Nightwish shows again? Your cover of Planet Caravan is amazing, and it could really work live!-There´s so much back catalog for Nightwish to play these days that we haven´t done covers for a while. It´s not written in stone, so without promising anything, we could probably do something in the future. Nice of you to remind me of Planet Caravan. Such a simple little song would be open for a lot of different arrangements.11: While traveling comes with the job, do you like leisure travelling with your family? Or do you prefer to spend that time at home?-I do like both leisure travelling and just being lazy at home too. If I´m coming off a tour, I would rather spend some time on the couch of my own.12: Was it fun to watch the band play when Sami was onstage earlier on this tour?-Indeed!!! It was a priceless opportunity to see the band with all the screens etc. from the side of the audience.13: If you were living in a different century, what would it be?-Any century where and when we finally find extra terrestrial life we can call sentient. I´m not sure if they would return the courtesy though…14: You’ve said before you like video games. What’s your go to game at this moment?-At home it´s Witcher 3. I´ve mostly been entertaining myself with books on the road.15: Do you still have any dreams/desires you want to achieve?-Meeting with the extra terrestrials. I´ve met you humans already.16: You co-composed a few Nightwish songs, does it feel a little more special when these songs get chosen as a single and/or to play live because you were more involved in the writing of them, or just the same as any other song?-It´s a nice thing of course, but considering the set list or the singles, it´s best to try to be objective and choose the ones that work. No matter who wrote what. And I´m mostly happy to just play any of the songs live. There it´s a matter of the best possible feedback between the band and the audience again.17: Do you suffer stage fright?-No. Excitement is not suffering.18: What old song would you like to bring back that Floor hasn't sang yet?-Devil And The Deep Dark Ocean.19: Considering all Nightwish albums, which is your favourite bonus track?-Lagoon, because of it´s vibe that differs quite a lot from our other material.20: Why do you play in Dropped C tuning and not in Standard D tuning like Emppu?-Actually I play both. I have a standard D tuning also, but I use a hipshot tuner which I can drop to C in some of the songs. You can easily find how the thing itself looks like on web. Just write “hipshot tuner†into your browser21: I don´t know if you´re following the Song of Ice and Fire book series (or the TV series) but if so, which house would you like to be a part of? And is the iron throne yours in the end?-I´ve read the books and I´ve seen the series. I´d start my own house of nordic white walkers. I´d get rid of the human pestilence by eating them and I´d replace the throne with a porcelain one. 22: Are you more interested in the past history or curious about what the world will look like in 150 years?-Learn from history, but the future is the way to go. 99% of all the good news today come from the world of science. Check it out and you´ll see I´m right. Alternative energy, nanotechnologies, medicine, surgical implants and health, chemistry, whatever… Our western values of human life and dignity are relatively new things here still. We talk about refugees, islam and dangerous political ideas and we´re afraid of them. Let´s go back a couple of hundred years and we western christians killed and enslaved countless numbers of africans, native americans, etc. Not to mention the crusades and the burning, the drowning and the mutilation of our own dissidents, scientists and healers just a little further back in time. Are we helping any of these modern day medievals to find their way into enlightement?Economic policies of our own western civilization are also directly responsible for much of the persistent ignorance in the third world. Ignorant people and corrupt governments produce cheap labor and cheap materials. Ignorant people and corrupt theocracies produce fanatics without a clue. And by corrupt theocratic governments I also mean all of ours. They just got better at selling stuff than just policing it these days. The western democracy has failed. The political structures these days are no longer there to ensure that an individual is heard and taken care of. They´ve been made to serve the structures themselves and their soulless fight to get and keep the money and the power.So I am way more interested to see how everything would look like in 150 years. Will we have a better place for all of us here or just a smoking hole? Both will be better for the planet itself. 23: If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?-With purely selfish purposes it would be the ability to stretch and squeeze time. I´d get a full night of sleep every time I´m traveling. I wouldn´t have to wait in hotels, buses, backstages etc. The lines at the airports would be over in a second. The flights themselves would be over in a second. I could finish a book or a movie at my leisure. I´d get the vocal edits for our live dvd done without breaking deadlines. And sex would be slooooowwww…After those I might start humiliating and exposing corporate psychopaths. Now there´s a noble cause!
Big thanks to Emppu for forwarding the answers to the following questions. Nice rare gift from him to join in 1: You always read awesome books. Can you recommend something? * The best of Kama Sutra, The Quran and The Bible. 2: What is your favorite song to play live and which one is the most difficult? * Jambalaya by Hank Williams. We always do it in soundchecks. Vocals by Troy. It`s also the most difficult one. 3: Favorite guitar solo of all time? (Doesn’t have to be a NW song) * The one in Jambalaya. 4: How many different guitars do you have? * I don`t know. I really don`t. 5: How do you feel the guitar sections have evolved in Nightwish’s music? * They haven`t changed much. More style, less speed maybe? 6: Any idea how many picks you get by in one year? * Antti (my guitar tech) knows. Thousands of them. 7: Do you still practice Judo? * Only when drunk. 8: What do you like doing in your spare time? * Doing judo. 9: Compare this Nightwish and Nightwish before 10-15 years ago and tell us what do you miss, and what do you enjoy more now. * I miss the special atmosphere of small clubs. What I enjoy more now is the fact that I can just play, no more driving, loading in or changing the guitar strings, haha. Also, there`s always beer backstage. That was not so back in the days.. 10: If you could no longer live in Finland, where in the world would you choose? * Anywhere except Sweden. 11: How many ways can you open a beer? * One. That`s enough. 12: Any advice for beginner guitar players? * Buy a trumpet. 13: Can you cook? If so, what’s your favorite dish to make? * Yes, I like to cook. My favorite is lasagna, with the pasta made by myself. Tastes like shit but it`s fun to make. 14: What was your absolute worst meal / drink on this tour? * Something called "salad". 15: Why did you stop using your amplifier on stage and started using the kemper instead? * No, I didn`t, actually. 16: Do you write your guitar solos or is it Tuomas? * They have always been mine to write. 17: If you could turn into any mythical creature of your choice, what would you like to be? * Garfield.
Nightwish leader Tuomas Holopainen has predicted that the band’s ninth album will continue the themes explored in last year’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful.But he’s revealed he hasn’t written anything for the record yet, even though he’d normally be several songs into the project by this time.Endless Forms Most Beautiful is the result of research on evolution and religion – the title is a quote by Charles Darwin, which he used to describe the environment we live in, and the record features a guest appearance by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.The band will take a break during 2017 – but the mainman has confirmed that plans are in the diary for 2018, 2019 and 2020.Holopainen tells Uber Rock: “I think we got about half way there. There will be more. We didn’t yet say all we have to say. It’s such a vast world of inspiration and we’ve only just touched the surface.“I’d discovered authors like Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Brian Cox, and for a couple of years I didn’t read anything else.“I found it so inspiring, and I saw it as a good way to connect all the people in the band. I knew they had also become interested in this.“Not everyone in Nightwish is keen on fairy tales and Tolkien – but we all had a mutual respect for this subject matter, and everyone played their parts with big smiles on their faces.â€Holopainen describes himself as “completely empty†after several years of hard creative work. “Usually by now I’ve have five or six songs,†he says. “I haven’t felt like doing any, but maybe it will come next year.“If it does, that’s great – but if it doesn’t we’re not in any hurry. I will be surprised if inspiration didn’t come next year.“I’m not taking any pressure, though. That’s the whole idea of having the year off.â€
