The time has come soon to wrap up the magical & memorable one-and-a-half year `Imaginaerum World Tour´ 2012-2013! We still have three shows left, one of them being at the legendary Wacken Open Air Metal Festival on the 3rd of August. This show will be something extra special, since it will be released later this year on DvD/Blu-ray, together with a massive `Imaginaerum World Tour´ 2012-2013 documentary. Our darling flying Dutchwoman, Floor Jansen, has been nothing but incredible during her time in Nightwish on this tour, so this is a perfect opportunity to immortalize the current vibe of the band on film!
Thanks to Benátska Noc festival and Ivana Bernáthová we got the opportunity to be the one of the three interviewers with Tuomas Holopainen, the heart and the soul of popular symphonic metal band Nightwish, the headliners of this year's Benátska Noc. He answered questions not only about the band and the new singer but also about his personal projects. So enjoy!How do you feel about performing at Benátska Noc for the first time? Because it's not a typical rock/metal festival like Masters of Rock or Wacken Open Air. Did you prepared something special?The thing is that I don't ever, like, personally think about what kind of the festival, or the venue, or the club or anything is. It's just always the same thing. You just go on stage and enjoy. But the overall vibing seems to be really nice and I really like the environment, for when we drove here it looked really nice. And it's also the first time that we are on this festival and a new experience is always something special.The weather is really hot now. Is it good for you or not?Well, I have this Scandinavian Viking blood running in my veins so I prefer the cooler air, so this is quite an ordeal for me, but there's a good air con' here (smile - there was only a fan standing in the corner). And it should get a bit cooler later on.Did you think about the responses to your new singer Floor Jansen who is a little bit different to Anette Olzon?Well the response has been overwhelming, phenomenal, just unbelievably good in every way.Do you have a plan to record a new album with her or it's only a matter of the concerts? Right now we're just concentrating on doing this shows and enjoying the moment. Then we'll take a few months off and think what the future brings. But we are gonna go on record a next album next summer, aiming for an early 2015 release. So we need to get this singer issue out of the way pretty quick as well. But I'm sure that the beginning of next year at the latest we'll bring all the news.Do you already have an idea about making a new movie?No way (laugh), no.Why? Was it hard for you or why?It was pretty hard, yeah. It was really big pile of shit that we stepped up on when we started to do the film. It ended up being really good and we are really proud of the product, but it was much more work than we ever thought of. I think we were a bit naive approaching this whole movie business. But it was a big truth for us that we got the whole thing made and it ended up looking like what we wanted it to look like, so I'm really proud of it. But I truly think that it was just a onetime deal.Are you working on some side projects? Making something for other bands or music for movies?Nothing like that. I have this solo thing going on that I have been doing for the past year, which is kind of a soundtrack to a comic book from Don Rosa called The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and it should be finished in about two month and we are looking for the release in early 2014, in about six months for that. It's nothing to do with metal or rock, it's pure film music, classical chamber music.So it's only yours project, not project of Nightwish...No, no, just it's personal thing.Scandinavian rock and metal bands are really famous and successful here in the Czech Republic. Why do you think it's like this? Or is it like this anywhere else or it's only a thing of the Czech Republic?Well, the metal people they seem to be pretty much alike, no matter where do you go on this planet. They always think the same, they have the same loyalty and the same passion. So, I have seen it in Czech Republic, I have seen it in Finland, I have seen it in US. I've definitely seen it in South America. So it's not so much imprisoned in the location where we are. It's just personality of these people, it's always the same no matter where you go. Which is an unbelievable thing to experience even after all these years.Interviewer: Bexrt for www.theinspiration.euCredits to Ivana Bernáthová.Photo: Jana Rabova
