review from the Sauna Open Air festival, published in Helsingin Sanomat on June 10, 2013.Fire, Fierceness and Basics of FinnishNightÂwish in Tampere in SauÂna Open AiÂr.The difference between a regular, entertaining show and a thrilling musical experience depends on small moments and details. On the Nightwish gig in the Sauna Open Air it happened during the song Nemo.Floor Jansen, who was invited to be the band's vocalist during the Imaginaerum tour, demonstrates in this song how exquisitely the voice comes from her lungs, and the chorus of the song, combining heavy with sensibility which used to crystallize the band's entire sound, sounds as magnificent as it ever could.Key board player Tuomas Holopainen and basist Marco Hietala chuckled to each other knowingly when Jansen was singing the highest notes of the bridge, and it's not hard to guess why.Jansen combines strength with sensibility in a way that makes her probably the best Nightwish vocalist so far. Not to mention her stage presence.Whereas Tarja Turunen's and Anette Olzon's stage presence was attractive for being somewhat unrelated to the entire heavy context, Jansen dressed in leather makes herself at home on stage.It can be said that the Imaginaerum movie of the band was a flop in Finland. However the band itself has nothing to worry about, as the gig at the Ratina stadium with 7 000 spectators showed.The band surprised already at the start with Emppu Vuorinen's rough guitar sound in Dark Chest of Wonders standing out even more than Tuomas' keyboard. Among epic movie sounds it is easy to forget that Nightwish is, essentially, a heavy band. Also the second one on the set list, Wish I Had an Angel, advanced even aggressively. With all the flame effects, the start of the gig was successfully fiery and fierce. It was heartwarming to see the team spirit the band shared on stage. It also managed to forgive some subtle stumbling e.g. in Over the Hills and Far Away. It is only refreshing to see there is true humaneness behind the imaginative grandeur.Of course the flames, explosions, and the fireworks at the end pertain to the show and they brought some special kick to the sunny night, difficult to obtain through a simple light show when outdoors.It was extremely pleasant to hear some of the basics of Finnish Jansen had learnt. It is an old trick to learn some expressions in local language, but in this case it might refer to her staying in the band for a longer time.
Our summer tour ends in Germany on August 11, after that we are going to take a couple of months' break to think about the selection of the vocalist. The decision will be made before the end of the year and it will be made public at the beginning of 2014, Holopainen explains.-So far, we have not wanted to think about it practically at all.In any case, is Jansen one of your candidates?-She is, absolutely. Jansen has fit in the band excellently. The atmosphere in the whole band is great right now, a relaxed and cheerful Holopainen says.-Sometimes it's nice just to date, you don't have to be getting married right away, he refers to the vocalist situation in the band.
Emptying the hard drive with Scrooge McDuckNightwish’s keyboards player and main composer Tuomas Holopainen confirms Floor’s words. They still haven’t decided if Jansen will continue as Nightwish’s singer after the summer festivals.At the time of the interview Nightwish is preparing to leave for Japan. Behind them is an intensive training period in the Helsinki metropolis area and Holopainen, interviewed in the lobby of a hotel in Helsinki, seems relaxed and content.- We are dating and having fun while we are still high. We are not in hurry to get married. It’s doing a world on good to every one of us, to get to play gigs without having to worry about the future. Last couple of years have been a quite rollercoaster [he uses the word zigzag here] ride and now it’s a really good situation when everything works splendidly.- At least I will need a clean break after the last show in August. I’m sure that in the early 2014 we will start thinking what we are going to do next.As an always doubtful reporter I’ve learned that they always know more behind the scenes than are letting the public know.- Of course I would be lying if I’d say that we have not though at all about Nightwish’s future. Nothing has been decided, though. We are in no hurry. It’s just that we could not think of a reason to make a public announcement about the issue. Or even decide between ourselves.- I must, however, that I have nothing negative to say about Floor not on any field. I’m talking on the behalf of the entire band. Her enthusiasm is a pleasure to view and it gives energy to you as well. I’m sure it’s reflecting to the audience as well. I have not been smiling this much on stage for a long time.- It was bewildering how smoothly the transition went. Naturally the media was all over the case at first, but after just a couple of day everyone seemed content in the singer change. This is how it’s supposed to go, we thought.Has the setlist changed after Jansen came on board?- At first we were just fighting to survive, we didn’t want to complicate thing by trying out new stuff. Further down the road, on her wishes, we included couple new songs, like 7 Days to The Wolves. First couple of sets were already decided well ahead.- We will include couple new songs for the summer shows. We asked Floor her favourite songs, what she would like to sing. Based on those wishes we’ve already included She Is My Sin, which was covered already by After Forever. It felt natural to include that now, with couple more wishes from Floor.Lifting the veil of secrets As the interview progresses it becomes clear that some plans have already been made for Nightwish- We have booked a training place for July-September 2014. During those three months the next album will be made. Now I have a whole year to compose new material.- Last few albums have been bigger and bigger and the projects have bloated. I have a feeling that things will be a bit different this time around. We took a year to make Imagenaerum (2011) and it was re-mixed for about ten times and mastered four times. If we can get rid of that, it’s good.- I can assure you that there will not be a movie included with the album. I think the new material will more simpler overall, although I don’t think we will ever let go of the orchestra. I also have pretty clear vision about the lyrical themes, but I think it’s too early to reveal those.In the end Nightwish had to invest their own funds to the movie that illustrated the Imagenaerum-album last year.- We have not broken even yet, simply because the numbers are not in yet. In project of this size it will take years to find out what’s the bottom line.- I spoke with our finance chief yesterday and (s)he told me the he didn’t have any numbers yet. The distributors or Solar Films have no information for us just yet if it’s a commercial success of a flop. What we know that in Germany 10 000 tickets were sold for the first day. I’m told that that is really good.Episodi-magazine, by the same publisher Pop Media that publishes Inferno as well, revealed earlier this year that during the first month of its release Imagenaerum was only seen by 7400 people in Finland, which makes it nationally a commercial flop.- We always knew that the movie will be in the marginal. But it would be nice to get some of the money back, if only to be used in the making of the next album.Art about copyrightsRecently Holopainen has focused on preparing his upcoming solo project. It a kind of a soundtrack, based on an illustrated novel, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, by Don Rosa. - I started working on this soon after that the illustrated novel was published in 1997. Whenever I read it, mu brains are filled with music. I started to think that it would be fun to make a soundtrack for a book. There are not many examples of something like that. Some dude has apparently made similar thing to the Lord of The Rings back in the 70’ (editor’s note: Holopainen probably refers to the Saga om ringer –album by Swedish Bo Hansson). - There will 10 songs on the album. Pip Williams, who has co-worked with us on the last three albums, will do the orchestration. Arrangements for the orchestra and the choir will be made during the summer and on August 29th we will begin to record the orchestra in London. After that it’s time for singers, piano, organ, guitars and the like in Petrax studios. I am aiming for early 2014 release. - With Nightwish the only thing common is the composer. Electric guitar or rock drums will not be heard. I’d compare it with Mike Oldfield, Enya, Michael Nyman and the like. 60 percent will be instrumental and four songs will have vocals. I’ll tell more about the singer during the autumn, when we really start promoting the album. For now, we’ll keep quiet about that.Music inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa is an independent project by Holopainen, not connect to the publishers of the illustrated novel.- Don Rosa will make the album artwork. He has completely fallen out with Disney himself. I fell sympathetic for the guy. He has openly confessed that he suffers from depression because of the actions by Disney.- On his latest email he told me to be careful with Disney. Now I do have a lawyer and we are in constant connection with (editors note: Disney’s partner) Danish Egmont on what we can and cannot do.- Originally the names of the songs were supposed to be named after the chapters of the illustrated novel, but we don’t dare to do that. We cannot show the face of Scrooge McDuck on the cover, because Disney owns the rights to that. But young Scrooge can be shown from behind. We checked that out. The lyrics don’t mention Scrooge McDuck or anything like that. We’re being very careful, not get in trouble with copyrights.- Now it’s the time to really get on with throwing ideas for the next Nightwish-album. The hard drive has be purged and the composing for the Scrooge-project is out of the way. Just before I left for this I had finished a half of a song. It’s been delightful to notice the terrible urge to make something more heavy for the change.
