Nightwish

[Serena]

"Showtime, Storytime" = a great show and an interesting story!

Nightwish's 1,5-year-long Imaginaerum tour turned out to be quite an experience both to the band itself and to the endless fan masses. The secrets of this rollercoaster like world tour will be revealed once and for all at the end of November when Nightwish will release the extensive "Showtime, Storytime" dvd. In addition to the Wacken gig, that was recorded in front of tens of thousands of people, the package also includes a two-hour-long tour documentary, that was made earnestly.

Tuomas Holopainen, the Imaginaerum tour, that included over 100 shows and 34 countries, came to an end at M'era Luna festival at the end of the summer. How are you feeling about the world tour that started in January 2012 and ended in August this year?

Like the Imaginaerum album the tour was quite a circus. We experienced unbelievably wonderful moments on the road, and then at times the whole group hit rock bottom. But when I now think about the whole thing afterwards, the band survived the worst ordeals surprisingly elegantly. At the moment I can only hope that all the parties are now happier than in the fall 2012... Yes, surely we wanted to see all the possible cards with Anette (Olzon, the former singer of Nightwish) - already because we had parted ways with one singer before - but then we simply couldn't continue our cooperation anymore.

But every cloud has a silver lining. If we talk about, for example, Anette-era studio albums "Dark Passion Play" and "Imaginaerum", the vocalist does an excellent job. Would someone have interpreted those songs better? I don't think so. I stand behind every vocal and song 100%.

Let's stick to this topic. When you think about the beginning of October 2012 - that is when Anette was rapidly replaced by Floor Jansen in the middle of the tour in USA - what comes to your mind?

All the events of those moments will be shown on the "Showtime, Storytime" dvd, which includes a long "Please Learn the Setlist in 48 Hours" documentary. The incomprehensible thing here is that Ville Lipií¤inen, the person who is making the documentary, happened to be with us when we changed our vocalist - Ville wasn't with us all the time. Someone of course thinks that he arrived at the place to immortalize moments that were planned beforehand, but this certainly wasn't the case. Ville had booked his USA flight already months before, but to make the documentary succeed he showed up just at the right time. Thanks to this coincidence Nightwish fans are going to see what kind of emotional rollercoaster there was for the band because of the sudden change of the singer.

I still want to remind that at the gloomiest moments of all that uncertainty and misery the feeling in the band remained positive and confident in many ways. When we made the final decision on changing the singer, the group felt a certain peace. It was like "okay, the situation went like this and after this things are going to work out fine". Floor Jansen of course deserves a very deep bow. I can't believe that any other singer would have done better job than Floor in those extremely challenging moments she had as a new vocalist of Nightwish in the fall 2012. The Nightwish fans, who certainly didn't abandon the band at the difficult moments, also deserve a bow as deep.

Let's speculate a little: what would have happened if Floor had refused?

Honestly, we didn't have any plan b. If Floor had refused to join Nightwish, we would probably have tried to continue the tour with the singers of Kamelot who toured with us then.

I have to mention, by the way, that I have heard comments like "I wish this change of singers had happened earlier on... Where would the band be if Floor had been the singer of Nightwish all the time". This kind of talking is absurd. The different things have happened because of the certain reasons and every decision has been made according to the circumstances at the time. An unknown path has led Nightwish to this moment and to this situation - end of story. I recommend not to make any kind of speculations - this band would never have reached this day without everything that has happened in the past.

That's all about the past. Let's jump to this moment and to the world of "Showtime, Storytime" dvd which will be released in the end of November. Why did you decide to immortalize exactly the Wacken Open Air festival concert?

At first we were planning that the dvd would only include a long documentary about the Imaginaerum tour. We were thinking back then that we would shoot the long-planned "Nightwish featuring orchestra and choir" gig on the tour that would come after the next studio album. That is we would release an extensive live dvd not until then.

So, the thought about recording an Imaginaerum concert came really late - in other words, sometime around the beginning of last summer. The timetable had its limits, since we only had a few festival gigs left at that point when the decision on recording a concert was made for good. Admittedly, it would have been great to plan everything a little more and think about all kinds of special things for the gig that would be recorded...

The suggestion to shoot the gig came from Nuclear Blast and personally I was a bit skeptical towards this idea at first. Nuclear Blast then pointed out that the mere documentary dvd won't sell, and to make the package interesting to the public there should be a full-length concert included as well. Then we rapidly decided to make it a fifty-fifty release which will be called "Showtime, Storytime". So, there will be a great show and an interesting story. I emphasize once more that this isn't a live dvd which has a documentary as a bonus, or vice versa, but both parts are completely equal in this package.

How nervous were you about the Wacken concert?

We had played a lot of concerts with pretty much the same setlist earlier in the summer, so the routine level of the band was very high. In other words, I wasn't nervous almost at all. I just thought that let's do a normal gig and enjoy it - and if there are some mishaps on the stage, they will just look comical on the record. Floor surely was the most nervous of us, since she considered the Wacken gig to be some kind of last and biggest chance for her to show that she can do it.

Tell a bit more about the "Please Learn the Setlist in 48 Hours" documentary.

Ville Lipií¤inen was with us already when we started the tour at the Key Club in Los Angeles and he then filmed us all over the globe. I can assure that a lot has been invested in this documentary. It also dives pretty deep into the world of Nightwish and into the band members' heads. Surely, there are also familiar elements in the documentary: live, drama and crazyness.

I guess I should also mention that Anette won't be seen or heard at all in the whole documentary. Ville had actually edited the first version of the dvd already - I mean a version where the former singer was normally there with us in all the happenings. Then we got a message from Anette stating: "any video or audio material that's related to me can't be seen or heard in this dvd release"... Anette hadn't seen even one second of the material that was on the dvd, but she still wanted to remove everything that's related to herself.

We then had to think a few times what we are going to do with this thing. Finally we decided to cut her off from the documentary even though that took several weeks. Luckily Ville is extremely gifted editor and he made the story work without Anette. Someone might surely wonder in the beginning of the document where the vocalist is hiding, but hopefully this question is forgotten while watching.

Let's take a look into the future. How does the future look for Nightwish?

As it's known, I'm working on my own "Music Inspired by the Life And Times of Scrooge" album during this fall. When this album is finished, I will focus on writing material for the next Nightwish album. We'll start to rehearse the new songs next July and the album should be ready before the end of 2014. The album is probably coming out in March-April 2015.

How are you feeling about the new Nightwish material?

I have written four songs at the moment and they sound a bit... well, more relaxed. I truly feel right now that the next Nightwish album might sound a bit more down to earth. For the last ten years the direction of the band has been without exception like "bigger, greater, more massive" and I've been thinking recently like "how would it feel like to make at least one album with a bit more old-school touch". On the other hand, I can reveal that the next album will include the longest song in Nightwish history. The theme of this piece will be such that it will certainly take about 20 minutes to tell the story.

Can you say yet how refined demos you are going to write this time? Or will there be more room than before for other Nightwish musicians' arrangement suggestions?

I'm not sure if my psyche can ultimately take that, but I've truly been thinking of leaving the preliminary demos a bit more open. Surely, the songs have changed in the rehearsals also before, but with the next album I think the tracks could be refined in the hands of the band even more than before. We could now start working on some songs by thinking like "here's the riff and here's the chorus, let's start working on it". I think some new perspective would certainly be found from that!

The timetable of the Imaginaerum tour was clearly more humane than the Dark Passion Play tour. What will the next Nightwish tour be like?

These are things that the band and the management have to think through together, but personally I liked the pace of the Imaginaerum tour and the amount of gigs. The Dark Passion Play tour, that included about 200 gigs, went admittedly a bit overboard... But then again, the current plan is that the next Nightwish tour will start in April-May 2015 and it's still quite a long time to that. The band will certainly be full of energy then and will think like "just book as many gigs as possible", so we'll see...

The last question: in what countries would you like Nightwish to perform in the future?

I think Iceland is on top of this list. We had a gig booked there once, but it was cancelled unfortunately. It would be great to play in South Africa - and you could say that you have performed on the continent of Africa. I have also heard such a story that some bands have been able to play in Greenland. That would be quite wonderful!

[Serena]

Ghpst Love Score @ Wacken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47e_961OQWE

[Serena]

Marco Hietala - Nightwish (19/11/2013)
 
Marco Hietala of symphonic metal trope Nightwish is one of those people you could listen to talk for hours. The Finnish bassist recalls to me the many events leading up to the filming of their new documentary/live album Showtime, Storytime. Perhaps most notable of an event is the arrival of Floor Jansen as the group’s new lead vocalist after the departure of previous vocalist, Anette Olzon.

"When you look for somebody that can do these songs, you’ve got to find somebody who is serious about the quality. We’d already known Floor since 2002 when she was touring with After Forever and they were opening up for Nightwish in Europe for three and a half weeks, so we’ve known her for over ten years. When we had the situation that we were in we knew had to act fast. She was the first person who came to mind and she was perhaps the only one that could pull it off. So we gave her a call and asked if she could be onstage immediately, and she said yes."

Despite such a change within the line-up, Marco still feels that the quality of the groups work will remain as it always has.

"I don’t know if it’ll change that much. Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards) has always been the main man and he’d be writing stuff quite a lot but he’s also very open minded on whether someone’s got an idea for a song, like a riff or a melody or whatever, and it usually goes through his filter and then ends up on the album. It’s pretty much how we’d done it before, and it’s how we’ll still be doing it."

That being said, Marco most definitely believes the addition of Floor has elevated the bands live experience for the better, both for the band and their fans.

"As people can probably see from the live setting, it actually feels pretty good. I mean, with all the new energy and the new life in the band, it really works well with everything.  We would like to think that it shows at the shows."

Showtime, Storytime isn’t just a documentary on the current state of the band, as also attached is the band’s fifth performance at Germany’s legendary Wacken Open Air festival. Marco speaks with great pride as he describes the joy he felt for Nightwish’s fifth arrival at Waken to be immortalised on film. He tells of how Waken was chosen for the live album, and how the live album came to be at all.

"We already had the documentary in the works, and it was supposed to be released around this time, and (the people at) Nuclear Blast asked us if we’d be willing to shoot one of the Summer festivals. So we started setting up and we thought that Waken, being one of the big heavy metal festivals there is, might be a good place for it."

This live performance is a numerous amount of firsts for Nightwish, with it sharing the honour of their first documentary along with the first recorded instance of Floor playing with the band. To Marco, this seems like the ushering in of a new era to the band.

"When we think back, it was a really good decision to shoot the live show, because we’ve got a lot of back catalogue, a lot of stuff from the olden days and now we had a chance to present it to a lot more people with this line-up that we have now. It’s kind of like an introduction to Floors work with the band. So now we’ve got it out, next year we’ll be moving on to new stuff."

Marco, being not only the bassist in Nightwish, is also the front man of metal band Tarot, and this hint of new content is too much of a curiosity. I ask what the writing process is for a renowned musician.

"Well, the writing process is something that I’m sort of prepared to happen anywhere, anytime. Ideas and inspiration are actually things I’m quite open about. You can normally go pretty far with the whole structure of a song, but sometimes you may have some bits and pieces that sound good by themselves but you don’t know how they fit. So, you present these things to the people you work with and then see what they come up with. With a band like Nightwish or Tarot you’ve got to like the sound, and everybody’s got to raise something so that they’re comfortable with what they’re playing."

Lastly, the conversation turns again back to the Wacken festival. The festival is known throughout the world, with metal fans trekking from around the globe to Germany every year simply to claim attendance. To be placed amongst the line-up once would be an achievement, let alone five times. Marco is humble yet excited as he explains his experience onstage at this momentous event.

"It feels good, of course. It’s nice to just be yourself and matter to a lot of people and to matter to the people putting on the festival want you to play there and to be adored so much that you have 80,000 people watching. It feels rewarding most of all. After all, we’re doing music for the people while we do it for ourselves, and seeing it reach out to so many people is really goddamn rewarding."

Showtime, Storytime is out in Australia on the 29th of November.

Ben Spencer
(x)

[Serena]

The speculations remained until the end, but now it is official: FLOOR JANSEN is the new singer of NIGHTWISH! In a cloak-and-dagger operation, she threw herself into the breach, adopted the Finns' live repertoire in record time and, 48 hours after receiving the call from the states that would change everything for her, she took the stage, together with the possibly most successful symphonic metal band of all time. She came, she sang and she conquered, taking the hearts of the band and of all NIGHTWISH fans by storm. The brand new live package “Showtime, Storytime” is dedicated to her and contains the breathtaking headlining performance at this year's Wacken Open Air, as well as a brilliant two-hour documentary, aptly named “Please Learn The Setlist In 48 Hours”.
 
Additions to the family

“The decision was an obvious one for us,” begins mastermind and exceptional composer Tuomas Holopainen. “We deliberately left it open, but after the fantastic time with Floor, we had no reason to look for a new vocalist. We discussed this within the band after the US tour and all agreed on this matter. We did this again after we completed some festivals. Again, all were in favor, and finally, we asked Floor if she wanted to join the band as a permanent member. I admit, I knew how she would decide, because she was highly motivated from the get-go, noticably happy and did her job wholeheartedly. Originally, we wanted to wait with the public announcement till Christmas, yet, in the light of the »Showtime, Storytime« release, where Floor took the center stage, there was no reason anymore to keep word from getting out.” On tour, there was no plan B. From the beginning, the Dutchwoman was the preferred candidate and she proved to everyone that she was up to the role and that she wouldlead NIGHTWISH to a new dimension with her powerful soprano. Meanwhile, the keyboardist has already begun writing songs for a new CD, where the words “back to the roots” were also dropped – it was not, however, his intention to indicate a regression. “Together with Tarja, we made five wonderful, operatic metal albums, which we are unbelievably proud of and which will forever be a part of our history, but this is not where want to go back to. Floors voice is incredibly versatile, which will open up new possibilities. Time will tell, for we are currently only starting out with the songwriting process.” The NIGHTWISH family, however, gained another addition, because besides Floor, flute player Troy Donockley has been accepted into the band as a permanent member. “Troy spent the whole 18-month »Imaginaerum« tour cycle with us. He became such an important part of the band, thus making it natural to accept him as an official band member. Right now, he is not playing many songs live, but I expect that his share will increase significantly on the new tracks. He plays the most diverse sorts of flutes and he is a very good singer, so besides the backing vocals he can also take on one or two lead vocal passages. He also plays acoustic guitars and other, exotic instruments in an excellent way. Aside from all that, he has a great character and brings loads of warmth and light into the band. And he is a magician, who baffles us with his tricks again and again,” smirks the charismatic keyboardist, who is notably glad that the turbulent line up changes took a turn for the better.
 
Collegial love declaration

The now 32-year-old lead singer started her vocal career at the tender age of 16 with AFTER FOREVER, with whom she recorded five studio albums until the breakup in 2009. “I still remember the AFTER FOREVER debut album »Prison of Desire« well, especially the song 'Follow In The City', which appealed to me in an incredible way,” reminisces Tuomas. “Two years later, AFTER FOREVER joined us on our tour, so I could watch them live on every evening. Already back then, Floor was a confident, grandiose vocalist with charisma. Because of this, we knew her as a person as well – and when we came to the point to replace Anette, she was our first and, admittedly, only choice. I knew that she liked NIGHTWISH, that she was familiar with our material and that she even covered our number “She Is My Sin” with AFTER FOREVER. When we asked for her help in the middle of our US tour, she agreed immediately and flew over to us." For Floor, the decision didn't take even a second. “It was simply unbelievable. I got the call on the day of my sister Irene's wedding. So I also came to tie the knot, with the band.” It was an emotional decision. “Declining was out of the question. Yet, after my commitment, I started to think, and I realised what kind of big challenge the whole thing would become. However, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.” All these secrets will be revisited on the thrilling documentary “Please Learn The Setlist In 48 Hours”. “What a fitting title,” laughs the powerful-voiced chanteuse. “This DVD brings back all feelings and also shows the mental condition which everybody was in. I spent these 48 hours booking a flight, packing my bags, printing the lyrics and dragging the songs onto my mobile phone and computer. So, armed with my headphones and the lyrics, I drove to the airport and spent the time on the plane in a similar manner. I touched down in the states at 1 o'clock in the morning, it was impossible to think of sleeping. At 4AM, I was picked up by the nightliner, still too stressed to sleep. So I met the first band members who stayed awake to greet me. During the journey, we rehearsed non-stop until my head got heavy at some point. Yet, I couldn't sleep or eat. In my head, there was one thought: Do this show and don't mess it up! That is what I did – and I was never more nervous than in that moment."
 
The H-hour
 
Band leader Tuomas wasn't any less tense but tried to transfer his outward calm to Floor. “When we arrived at Seattle, we rehearsed for 2 hours before the lot of us had to take the stage. Despite being nervous, I was also optimistic enough to think that all would go well. Floor tried to hide her tension, but you could tell by looking at her just what was going on in her head. When we started the rehearsal with “I Want My Tears Back”, a weight was lifted off our minds, because from that moment we knew that we would make it. Maybe it didn't sound perfect, but the difference wasn't that great. After the rehearsal and the first show with her, everybody was totally happy and loved the prospect of how good we would sound after some weeks together with Floor. The thing that made me happy the most was that nobody returned their concert tickets and that all our fans gave Floor such a warm welcome. Right now, at this moment, one year later, when I think back to all these things, it all appears like a dream, with its fulfillment seeming unbelievable to me.” Floor has to take a deep breath when thinking back to that day. “A cold was advancing, then there was the jet lag and a bronchitis virus that was circulating in the tour bus. Because of this, my voice lost some of its power and I could only sing with my head voice, which increased the challenge even further. Additionally, I had to bring some of the lyrics with me on stage, because it was nearly impossible to learn them all in such a short time. Despite all the stress and the inevitable pressure, I think that, in hindsight, it was great show that progressed splendidly.” It all came how it should and they got off to a dream start, especially the power woman from Holland. “I had to plunge in at the deep end, but there are also many positives when you don't have the time to think about pleasing everyone, if you live up to all the expectations, how the fans would react or if you even fit in the band. Only over time I realized how I lucky I was that I was received so warmly by all sides. The encouragement gave me an extra push of energy and motivation.”
 
Holy grounds

The third to last show of the extraordinary »Imaginaerum« cycle took place at the world's biggest Heavy Metal festival; at the Wacken Open Air in Northern Germany. “It is the metal paradise – for the fans as well as the bands,” gushes the front lady. “It was not the size of the festival that made me nervous, but knowing that the show would be recorded for a DVD release. The gig itself just flew past me, but I enjoyed every single moment. During the show, I changed my outfit repeatedly, which is a thing I don't like to do normally, because it gives me the feeling that I lose the flow. So I was all the more happy that everything worked flawlessly. We stood in the midst of a thunderstorm of pyros, which, as a musician on stage, I can't see all, but you feel them, and this pushes your adrenaline levels upwards immensely.” The Wacken gig was the grandest show with the biggest audience and thus predestined for a live recording. “Originally, we only wanted to release the tour documentary, but our label made it palatable to top the package off with a big show, which we cottoned up to gradually. The first two days I was still against it, because I wanted an extraordinary show at a special location for a live release, with an orchestra, guests and a myriad of protagonists – which we couldn't do in the short of time, however. A 'normal' festival showed didn't seem enough to me, yet, when viewed in the whole package, it rounds off the documetary and shows where we stood – together with Floor – at the end of this particular journey. This is why the DVD is entitled »Showtime, Storytime« – because it is both: a story and a concert.” Most of all, it rounds off the exceptional total work of art »Imaginaerum«, which started with an effortful, time-consuming and expensive studio production and ended in a motion picture that, while consuming several millions, reflects visions so complex yet dreamlike. The film was accompanied by an innovative soundtrack and this history-charged tour that culminated in the engagement of Floor Jansen. “You want to know if I had the nerves to do this all again? I think yes, because actions like this are what distinguishes the band. There is drama and emotion, but we always follow our heart and instinct. If we planted it in our mindes that we want to do a movie, then we would do it. This also why it is hard for me to tell where the journey for the next CD is headed. At the moment, I have four songs done that have indeed an OldSchool feeling to them and are designed to be less orchestral. But there is so much that could happen, so many things that even I cannot anticipate. At any rate, I feel really good, my head is clear and it can focus fully on the music, without having to think about movies and soundtracks.” Before NIGHTWISH will please us with the next LP in the coming year, Tuomas Holopainen's first solo album will be released, where he devotes himself to Scrooge McDuck's story, the rich comic duck from Duckburg. Tuomas made no pretence of the fact that the comic books shaped his childhood and that he likes, to this day, to immerse himself in these stories – he always emphasizes that he is an advocate of the ducks, not the mice. “Right now while we are talking to each other, I'm in the control room of the studio, where we are recording the banjos and acoustic guitars. We progress beautifully. The orchestra and the choirs are already recorded and I have finished my piano parts, too. I expect that we are finished in, roughly, a month and that we release the disc possibly a the end of April, 2014. What I brought to reality with this is a dream that I carried with me since the »Oceanborn« tour in 1999. Whenever I read this special book titled »The Lift And Times Of Scrooge McDuck«, a music hovers in my head, a music that desperately desires to be brought out.” In Germany, the book was released under the title: Onkel Dagobert – Sein Leben, seine Milliarden. “I liked the idea of wrting a soundtrack for a book, instead of a movie. It isn't something that happened very frequently in music history. I was also very delighted that the book's author, Mr. Don Rosa, found the idea to be very welcome and that he will visit us in the studio in the coming week. I'm very excited about his reaction and what he has to say about the final version.” NIGHTWISH fans may also look forward to this; while the metal aspect may be missing for the most part, the composer's handwriting is unmistakable. “It is film music with folk and classical elements. There are no drums, bass or electric guitars – most parts are based on orchestra, acoustic guitars and piano. These are, however, also important parts of NIGHTWISH's sound cosmos. "When Pip Williams, who is writing the orchestra arrangements for NIGHTWISH, heard the songs for the first time, he described it as being different from NIGHTWISH but with the clear handwriting of me. He believed, that the composer is immediately recognizable. I take that as a compliment.” The album will be mostly instrumental, but there also some renowned guest singers. “All in all it is a great story that shaped me and that has so much to tell about life and the beauty of the world. Additionally, the character is incredibly interesting, because he doesn't just incorporate wealth, but also love for the family and many other stories.”
 
Leopold Lukas

[Serena]

Entrevista a Marco

In November 2011 Nightwish released their 7th studio album, Imaginaerum. Two months later they embarked on an 18-month, 104-concert world tour that would be a journey of ups and downs.  At its worst moment, the entire tour was under threat and the band parted ways with vocalist Anette Olzen.  Yet less than a year later the band brought the tour to a triumphant close in front of a massive crowd at Wacken 2013.

The music and the emotions of that year and a half have been recorded on the band’s new 2 DVD Showtime, Storytime release.  Their 85 minute live performance at Wacken makes up the musical “Showtime” DVD and captures the band at its highest point. Seventeen cameras bring all the action live into your living room. It’s a gig that Marco Hietala will never forget. “I think there were 82,000 people, probably the biggest audience that we’ve played for, it gives you a pretty powerful vibe”, he says. “As a Finnish country boy, when you lift your fist up into the air and you see that there are people stretching so far that they go to the horizon, you pretty much feel like a King for the day.”

The second part of the new DVD release is the “Storytime” documentary.  In many ways this is the heart of this release for Nightwish fans. It’s an emotional and very honest glimpse into a band in turmoil.  Hietala remembers the troubled times well, “The hole was deep and dark. When you are there in that moment and things are happening it’s really like a chaotic blur and a desperate struggle for survival – are we going to be able to do the show, is the whole tour going to fall over. It was a difficult time and you see people pretty raw and emotionally tired and worn out.  There’s no faking with the emotions or the attitudes or anything, that’s what it was.”

From the moment the notice appears on screen that former vocalist Olzen has requested her image and voice not appear in any part of the documentary, you know the split between band and singer still has at least some raw edges. Throughout, the band seem careful to not want to point fingers or lay blame. Hietala sums it up pretty simply, “We haven’t really been talking. Sometimes you get over things, sometimes it takes time. This much I know for sure, it was best for everyone. I don’t think she would disagree with that.”

The second part of the documentary focuses on the (initially) temporary recruitment of Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen.  The plan was simple – a phone call, a one way flight to Salt Lake City, and two days to learn and rehearse a set of 15 songs.  As Hietala explains “you also get to see how the whole thing lifts up and gets airborne again, and that to me is really a great thing to see. It reminds me of how good it felt to actually find the confidence and the joy in everything again.  Those were pretty amazing times to go through, I’m pretty proud of myself and my mates for having the will power and the collective attitude to do everything possible to make things happen, and then as a reward we really got it going.  It felt good.”

Jansen was an instant hit and following the tour’s conclusion the band announced she was joining as a full time member, reversing an earlier press release that no decisions would be made until at least 2014. At the same time they also ‘upgraded’ pipe player Troy Donockley from live session member to permanent member.  Hietala offers some thoughts on the timing, “We consciously tried to stay away from that decision during the tour because we wanted to be able to concentrate on doing the shows and forget about everything else.  But when we had done the US tour and South America and Australia, we started to feel as a band ‘do we really need to fix this thing because it doesn’t seem to be broken’.  We’d said we wouldn’t make a decision until 2014 but then the DVD and documentary were coming up so it made no sense to try and circle around the issue anymore, it would be better to deal with it right now.”

When original vocalist Tarja Turunen was fired in 2005 and replaced by Olzen there was a definite divide amongst fans.  In 2013 the response has been very different, with Floor being almost universally accepted.  “Of course she pretty much shines as a vocalist and a personality, so that affects people”, explains Hietala. “Tarja was the face and the voice back then, and this time around there wasn’t that kind of weight of the past. It’s the second time that it happened so it’s not such a big deal anymore.  All of these things are part of why it went so easily.”

In a further sign that the past is now firmly the past, Floor appeared on stage with Tarja in Belgium last month to perform a duet of Over The Hills, a track often played over the years by Nightwish.  It very much felt like ‘moving on’.  Hietala agrees, “Moving on is a good thing, you don’t want to live in the past and be bitter about things. I haven’t really been in that much of touch with Tarja but we happened to bump into each other at an airport here in Finland, she was asking how my kids where and I was asking where she was going and whatever.  It was totally friendly.”

After the trials and triumphs of 2012 and 2013 the band is now taking a well earned break. With studio time booked for the middle of next year it will most likely be 2015 before we see a new Nightwish album and tour. For now there’s “Showtime, Storytime” to fill the gap, and it’s essential viewing.

[Serena]

Otro trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai7HVm-mr84

[Serena]

Marco the Metal Man
 
The greatest love of Marco Hietala's childhood has remained.
 
 
The house is located on the shore of a lake in Kuopio. The kids have a short way to go to swim. It's peaceful and there's room. Marco Hietala and his family moved from Helsinki metropolitan area back to his roots, into Savonia three years ago.
 
- I like silence. I have so many situations which have constant noise, so absolutely the best moments are those when I can be at home reading on the couch.
 
 
From Rock Clubs into Concert Halls
 
Marco Hietala is known as the bassist and vocalist for the band Nightwish that is famous around the world.
 
- At the moment, I'm concentrating on the Raskasta Joulua [eng. Heavy Christmas] tour. During the winter we exchange demos with the members of Nightwish and in the summer we will rehearse together again.
 
This is the ninth time that the Raskasta Joulua tour is going to be arranged and this year it will move from rock clubs into concert halls. Traditional Christmas carols, which have been arranged into metal music, are going to be performed in the shows. Besides Hietala there will be a group of other metal men performing as well.
 
- On the tour there will be about ten Finnish heavy rock singers as vocalists, but of course all of us won't be performing every night.
 
Hietala will be performing in the concerts both in Vantaa and Helsinki.
 
 
Help for Disabled Children
 
This year you can donate money to the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission in the Raskasta Joulua concerts.
 
The idea was born when the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission asked Erkka Korhonen, the leader and guitarist of the Raskasta Joulua team, if they would be interested in a collaboration.
 
The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission has the Kauneimmat Joululaulut [eng. The Most Beautiful Christmas Carols] events and the metal men has the Raskasta Joulua tour. Korhonen asked opinions of his team. Would it be suitable to combine missionary work and metal men?
 
- Frankly, what is important in the collaboration is that money will be collected for disabled children who live in bad conditions abroad. It's the kind of helping we want to support, even though  we are not a confessional regiment per se, Hietala says.
 
The most important thing to the Raskasta Joulua team in making Christmas music is that the songs remind of Christmas. For Marco Hietala, Christmas is an opportunity to forget the absurd hassle and information flood of everyday routine.
 
- Christmas stirs something inside a human. When Christmas Eve is getting closer, I know I can now turn off the phone and shut the doors and be in peace with my family. I think it's great that once a year there is this kind of thing that is done in a ritualistic way and when you can shut the world outside.
 
Despite their popularity, the Raskasta Joulua albums and tours have also been criticized. There has been criticism from two different directions, but Hietala knows what he is doing.
 
- Some people who support more modern rock are saying that it would be okay to listen to our Christmas carols, but the hypocrisy is confusing and the religious message is too much. Then again, some religious people have thought that we have disgraced something sacred. To all this I would say that the world isn't just as small as your imagination.
 
 
Home Alone
 
When Marco Hietala was a child, a lot of music was listened to in his family. The father had old jazz, classical music, rock albums and Irish folk music in his collections.
 
- I have a strong celtic connection which probably led me to listen to a lot of progressive rock band Jethro Tull later. Then I got crazy about heavy guitar rock.
 
Heavier albums, that were borrowed from the big brother and a neighbor kid, started playing on the record player: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Rainbow. Punk Rock was listened to as well. Beatles has never stopped being good either, on Hietala's opinion.
 
- I have listened to all kinds of music, but the greatest love from the childhood, heavy rock, has remained.
 
Hietala's own articulacy was unleashed during lonely afternoons at home, when mother and father were at work.
 
- When I was about 11 years old, I developed a weird habit. I read the texts of the vinyls, listened to the songs and sang along them at full blast. I also started to play Dad's acoustic guitar.
 
In a couple of years time from that Marco Hietala was founding his first band with his friends and big brother. Marco became the singer like by accident, because the other teenage boys didn't have the guts for it.
 
- I sang, it worked out and I noticed that I like this.
 
 
Sturdy Layers of Guitars
 
Loud noise is usually linked to heavy rock: Guitars play at full and singers sing high and loud. Marco Hietala thinks that it's not so straightforward.
 
- There are many features to heavy rock. I don't want to limit my possibilities and chain myself. In my expression, an important thing is contrast which is how to go from more delicate levels to the maximum. But admittedly sturdy, big layers of guitars with distortion are an obvious sign that it's metal music.
 
Nowadays, there are many bands that play metal music. Hietala is tired of oversupply.
 
- Inside the genre there are guys who have only listened to one kind of music. When they then make their own music, it inevitably becomes a bit inbred, nuance-less and boring.
 
- Fortunately, there are also players who can combine and build their patterns and chords in an unprejudiced way so that they don't always go the same way.
 
With years, Hietala's taste in music has expanded.
 
- As a teenager the need for rock'n roll was big. Nowadays I can listen objectively and like musical things that wouldn't have crossed my mind as a teenager. For example, it would have been very shameful if one mistakenly said to their friends that there is a good arrangement for a bass in Kari Tapio's song.
 
 
Manly Music Making
 
In addition to the noisiness, there is certain manliness to the metal music. Hietala is smiling to that kind of statement. He may know what this is about.
 
- Well, of course there's easily some testosterone in that kind of amount of energy. Sometimes the approach of the metal music is also hideous and scabby, and that suits better for men.
 
- Then again, it's not any criterion. We have had women fronting in Nightwish for years. I do completely allow women the position they have taken in music. Especially in pop music, there are a lot of fronting women.
 
He gets excited to think about it more. Being in a band might be a thing that's more for men than for women, in Hietala's opinion.
 
- In the boyish groups of bands the humor is often low and stupid. Women want to be above that kind of humor. I understand them completely. And they can, of course, be above it!
 
- The equality of men and women is talked about a lot. Of course we should be as equal as possible, but we have differences too, which is only inevitable.
 
 
One Thing at a Time
 
Marco Hietala tries to focus on the essentials in the music and in his life. He thinks that you don't always need to be attuned to the times and you don't need to know everything about everything.
 
- It's enough that you know enough about your own things. One day at a time and one thing at a time.
 
- Nowadays there is a lot of everything that's trying to be both informative and entertaining at the same time. So let's forget about the unnecessities: checking out the ideals that Hollywood created for women, following the fashion magazines, reality tv and half of the information on newspapers.
 
Hietala appreciates the kind of traits in human like open-mindedness, fairness and justness. In his own life, he wishes to realize the things to learn and want to learn also.
 
- It's as simple as that, he says.
 
- And if one could also write a few good songs and put them on an album, then that would be a way to get some self-fulfilment.
 
For Hietala, self-fulfilment means that one's own spiritual side should be taken care of.
 
- The better you are feeling, the better you react to other people and the better they feel also. We all have an impact on each other.

[Serena]

Entrevista a Tuomas

[Serena]

The Nightwish rocker Marco Hietala can best let go of his work and the ideas spinning in his head by playing around with his 12-year-old sons.
The singer/bassist  Marco Hietala, known from the bands Nightwish and Tarot, is involved in many music projects.
Hietala admits, that for him making music is both an escape and an obsession at the same time.
 
-I cannot sit on the couch too long before a ticking starts in my head suggesting that this should be done and that should be done.
Nowadays I can afford to choose my projects quite carefully, whereas before I made music to commercials in order to put food on the table, Hietala tells to MTV.fi.
 
On Friday, November 15, Hietala and the other musicians behind the Heavy Christmas -album go on tour which lasts till the end of this year.
 
Hietala says he finds in everyday chores the best way to let go of work. 
 
-Home couch is holiday. Sometimes it feels like this music business destroys the joy of travelling, although we have done that too, the musician says.
-When we're laughing our heads off with my boys for something stupid, it really doesn't cross my mind whether I have gig tomorrow or not.
But on the other hand, it's such an in-built thing this matter of making music, that it inevitably takes you over every now and then, Hietala reflects on music business.

[Serena]

Trailer del documental

[Serena]

Floor Jansen is a well known name amongst Nightwish fans as the Dutch vocalist took over vocal duties on the Nightwish US tour and has been fronting them since then, and is now an official fulltime official member. Floor Jansen’s own band ReVamp recently made the visit to Finland, supporting Kamelot on the European tour. Metal-Rules.com had the pleasure to talk to Floor Jansen about the recent ReVamp album WILD CARD and of course Nightwish and her other musical adventures. Read on !


 

RETURN TO THE CLUB SCENE

After a crazy, crazy last year, and especially half of this year – How does it feel to be back in this size of a club?             

It’s like coming home. I have been playing smaller clubs for 14 years. So it takes more adjusting to the bigger size stages and the bigger everything than this. And I am not here for the ego; I’m here for the music. Whether it’s on a big stage or a small, you can make the music. So, that’s what counts as far as I’m concerned.

How do you prepare yourself for smaller places or big scale festivals when playing Nightwish or ReVamp as the difference is huge anyway?

Yeah. But it’s making music and it’s about singing and me wearing a stage outfit and getting makeup done, so the rituals are kind of the same. But the biggest difference for me is the length of the show, if it’s really full on, like a 100 men show or longer, like really long shows. They just take more energy. So then I don’t do so much journey today just to get all the energy I have really for the show, with the shorter shows there is more energy left for other things. And so, I can do more. Like today I was very busy with interviews, we went to the Dutch embassy and we were invited there very nicely here in Helsinki. So, then I have more energy left for that. It’s more like it.

On this tour, how has it been working with Kamelot? They are your old friends, right ?                     

Well, we toured a year ago together. I know then from that period and that was very great time. So, it’s nice to be here, to be back with them. The first time was in the States and they were supporting  Nightwish and now we are in Europe and we are working with them as a support band.

WILD CARD

Talking about the new ReVamp album, WILD CARD. I have listened to the album a couple of times by now. There are a few guests doing the vocals. How did you pick up those visitors for the album? Did they come by naturally or did you have the name on your mind, old friends?

A little made of everything actually, for like their solo singers like Mark Jansen from Epica, and Devin Townsend, they were on the” Wish list”. What would be cool people to have on the album, make the album extra rich with a different kind of vocals and we had a couple of ideas. But then you have to have the songs that fit to it. So, that’s kind of how it matched when we had “Misery’s No Crime”,  that was nice with Mark and “Neurasthenia” could have been a Devin Townsend song in a way. I don’t want to brag about it, because his music is so good, but it has a bit of that five that we fit to him and we have to hope that he actually says yes. Which he did. Another guest is the bass player from Stream of Passion. Our former bass player left very sudden before the recording. We were in need of someone professional good. And he is there to help us out. So that was spontaneous guest number one. And then his wife and singer of Stream of Passion Marcela and Daniel de Jongh from Textures another Dutch band. They came in when we realized that a traditional choir like we used to have on the first ReVamp and also what we used to use with, After Forever, wasn’t really necessary on this album.  We used good vocalists with a lot of experience in studios and harmonies and metal. And then came the choir with me, so that all together made a very long list of guests.

It’s funny actually, I just played new ReVamp album at home and my girlfriend asked, “Is that the new Nightwish album” – I was like “No”, how do you like that comment?

Some parts have the vibe of it, but a lot of it, it’s much roll I think and more aggressive style.

You have written your own music for years and years, first for After Forever and now for ReVamp. When you start working on songs, how do you decide which ones are suitable for ReVamp and how you decide as a band which ones will end up for the actual album?

It was a bit of a process of course, but what we did as a band is to make like a move board for what we wanted on the album. It was a bit of a shortlist of ingredients, like we wanted to be heavy guitar oriented, that more diverse vocal styles, more modern use of keyboards and sensitize our sounds, not necessarily super orchestral. Let’s play around with that and see what we can do. Then we just, every band member came with a list of songs. Like, I just like this band in general or that verse is cool because of the sound or listen to this for the guitar sound, or the way they write the songs structure wise, that’s cool. Everyone did that and became very long list of inspiring songs. They can just become your inspiration, and from there we started writing and that really worked, because it all kept us on the same level and we had a producer to keep us there to follow the path. Which is really good, especially because let’s say at 80% song writing process was made without me because I joined Nightwish and I was basically away all the time. So, I had to finish things in the few weeks that I was at home for the vocals, because I write the vocal lines and the lyrics but I didn’t write any of the music on this album.

If you think about the future, as nobody knows what’s going to happen, but it seems bright. But have you discussed with Tuomas about how much you will have the freedom to do things of your own with Nightwish,  I mean writing etc?

Well, I love being creative, but regardless of its Nightwish or ReVamp or any other thing that I will do or did. The song is the most important thing, and my ego wanting to write something. So, if Tuomas writes something that is great, like he’s always done, I don’t feel any need to come in and say, “Yeah. We’ve done a new single and I have to write because I can”. But if there’s space for it or I start doing something and there might be some space for that, sure I would love that. But only if it makes the song sound better.


LEAVING YOUR OWN MARK

The former vocalists of Nightwish never wrote anything for the band. So, this is going to be an interesting and new situation for Nightwish?

True. But you know, these things grow and I don’t think you can really predict it like Marco writes as well. And we will find our way there, but like I said the song is what matters the most for me.

But you still want to leave your own mark?

But I will anyway through my singing.With my voice, the interpretation, even if the songs that we all know with other singers it sounds different when I sing it.

How much do you have to change your vocal style depending on if you’re singing with ReVamp or with the Nightwish material. Do you have to change your key or something like that?

No. I don’t think you can sing with anything else than your own voice. Maybe for a cover song on a Karaoke night, you can pretend to sound the singer of AC/DC or something like that. But if you do this professionally like every time, you have to use your sound and see if it fits, and I can play with little more rock or little more pro or little whatever, you know the song I need and that has been a nice puzzle or a game to play. That is why my sound is different from other ladies, and just because like in the past.

When you joined Nightwish, what was the most challenging song for you to sing?

Actually at the beginning I found “Amaranth” the most challenging, because I’m not used to the more poppy vibe. I really had to find my way there to use my voice. Actually that was. So, it was not the high or the long notes or stuff like that. But some of the songs were just there immediately, slow off slow for some reason, I never sung in that style before but it was just “wow”, that song there. Go slow of score immediately there. But “Amaranth” took a little while for me to make my own.

What many critiques have said in recent Nighwish live reviews is that Marco Hietala has finally found a true challenger from you on stage. Do you challenge him in purpose? “Laughs”                   

Sure. We have some things, so we sing together. We started doing together or parts where on the album, there was no female’s voice with him. With life it’s just I pick a harmony and I can put on the rocky side too. So, that’s nice to play with actually. So, yeah, it’s a nice challenge but yeah. What an honor it is to sing with a guy like that, it is.

How do you set the priorities, because ReVamp is going really strong right now being on the tour and got a new album. Well Nightwish is on hold now, but in the future he said nobody knows what happens in the future but how are you going to set the priority between the bands, because you want to do both ReVamp and Nightwish in the future as well?

Well, I don’t think you can do it at the same time. The last year, there were periods where I had to do two things, not even a one day but sometimes in one week, that is already a lot because you want to focus on something and both is big, you want to go in all the way. So, I don’t see myself doing it at the same time. But usually Nightwish has a working cycle of two years. So, two years of touring and then there is one year of the period of rest and writing, recording. I think there is a possibility of doing both, and so now indeed to the last show with Nightwish was known, and in the summer will start with the recordings and the rehearsals for the new album. But then that gives me a lot of months to fully tour with ReVamp. And how that has to continue, I don’t know exactly and ReVamp is a band and I’m not the only one in it. So, everyone needs to be okay with this kind of rhythm. So we talked about it and it feels like the right thing to do, the whole Nightwish story helps ReVamp to grow too.

Of course it helps to to get the ReVamp name known better, right?                         

Absolutely. So, yeah. It would be wonderful to be able to do both.

Have you heard any of the solo stuff that Tuomas is working right now?                           

Yeah. It’s Scrooge McDuck. It’s the name. I’ve seen the artwork, I’ve seen some of the things they were working on. The great thing about Tuomas, I think is that he has a vision of, he has a dream, something that he wants to do. This is like a big childhood dream, and he just makes it happen and I think what I heard sounds unique. In a way recognizable for his writing style, you can hear that it’s him when it’s absolutely not Nightwish, it has nothing to do with it and he uses all kinds of instruments really. I haven’t heard the whole thing, but what I heard is like, “Okay. Where does it come from? Amazing.”

You were asked to fill in with Nightwish at the last minute, but I guess you used to know all the habits and the manners that Nightwish guys used to have, because you have toured with them with your old band After Forever?

Yeah. But that’s 10 years ago, so people do change over time a little bit. But at least we got to know each other back then, and we stay in touch but it’s not like I really knew them like I don’t today.


DUETS AND WORKING WITH OTHER MUSICIANS

What Nightwish fans are now talking about now is that “one duet” which you did with some certain person a couple of weeks ago. Tell something more about that?

Well, it was actually a spontaneous idea from Tarja. I mean the festival were to play is the epicenter of metal with female singers. We were both there. We have been knowing each other also for 10 years and we have never sung together. We get really tired of all the bullshit on the Internet, whose best and who should sing in Nightwish. And it is what it is today, we are both good singers, we both make our own music. So, hey! Now you have two bands. All the things we can say about it kind of was, this is our statement, we can make music together, we can have fun together. All these soap operas that people might just think have nothing to do with us. Whatever went down between Nightwish and her has nothing to do with me in Nightwish or me and Tarja, all of that. This is just about music, that is what we wanted to do and it was really fun.

Did you get any feedback from the Nightwish camp after doing that?

I already told them before hand, I’m going to do that and they were all like, “Really good, please send our regards.” I don’t know, if they’ve seen it, but I have heard that they were happy that I had done it.

Doing things like that clears some air for sure?

Yeah. Like it has nothing to do with whatever went down between them that was our statement. We are two singers and we can sing together, and have fun together and drinking a glass of wine and how many girls in the world do the same that we do. There are only a couple. So, it’s always really nice to sit down and talk with someone who knows.

Do you have plans to work more with Arjen Lucassen in the future?

Sure. He’s just finishing or just kind of those time, been so busy where he is with his new album. So, I won’t be on that one but on the new, you never know. I’ve always enjoyed working with him on both, the Ayreon projects or Star One.

How did you start working with Arjen in the first place?

We were both in the same label. So you got to introduce to me, I got introduced to him through the label and that was with the House of Mars back in 2001 or 2000 I think, yeah, 13 years ago. So, I was just a teenager.

Speaking of Holland, back in the day there were a lot of death metal bands coming out of Holland like Pestilence. Nowadays the Dutch metal is known for female vocalists. I have been wondering what you think, there are a lot of bands fronted by great female singers like Epica, Stream of Passion. Well maybe The Gathering started out…

My theory is that once there is a successful band, there is a platform. People in the audience have seen the band, they want to see that again or something similar, booking agencies I think that works, I want to have something like that, the record labels. So, a platform starts and it can grow if there is a second band that comes in and it’s good too and it starts to work. And then comes another band they’ve never seen.

I think that from your point of view,  there was kind of a huge metal invasion coming from Finland from like 15-20 years ago, but before that there was nothing..

The same for us, I mean that it didn’t grow as big as it did here in Finland nationally. Our biggest effort is the international. People outside, looking into the Netherlands are like its big export product. And we have so many female rock bands that are successful, but in the Netherlands, man! We have to fight for every stupid press release.

Before all these female bands, we only knew names Adrian Vandenberg, Vengeance and Pestilence.

Pestilence (Big Smile)

Okay our time is running out, thank you for your time Floor and see you later on!

You’re very welcome. Thanks for the interview

[Serena]

Nightwish are the pioneers of the female fronted metal scene, they've been through numerous lineup changes, but they still manage to stay on top of their game, selling out shows and making good music enjoyed all over the world. We had the pleasure to talk with Marco Hietala about all the things Nightwish, the new DVD coming soon, the transition to the new lineup, their plans for a new album, Tarot news, Marco's guest appearances and much more!
Hello Marco, how are you?
I'm doing good, just basically lying here at home on the couch.

That's good, are you in Finland?
Yeah I'm in Finland, overcoming (?) freezing times...

We're still waiting for the winter to come here, it's pretty hot still...
Well, you're in Greece, here it's cold already!

I guess it's even warmer than what we expected for November.
Sounds good to me! Can I come over? (laughs)

Of course, anytime you want just tell me when to expect you! I guess you won't be at home for too long, you are very busy as a musician and you travel a lot.
That's true, but I've been having quite a good time off from traveling and all that, I mean, I have some recordings and all that but, that doesn't really take me too far away from home because I do most of that in my home, at my workshop.

So it's kind of a relaxing and resting period for you, right?
Um, it has been but of course, now that you're mentioning it I'm actually leaving on Friday to do some of these heavy Christmas shows that we've been doing with some people already almost ten years here in Finland, so I'm going to be away from home for about a week.

So what are these Christmas songs you talked about? Are you playing Christmas songs?
Yeah, that's true! There's a band, actually the guy who started it who is playing in the band, he is a guitar player Mr. Erkka Korhonen who is also playing guitar in Northern Kings, so yeah, it's traditional Christmas songs ranging to symphonic epic heavy metal, and we're doing that and I'm one of the vocalists and there's gonna be four vocalists at least every night and in some places even more. I guess in the Helsinki shows we're having six or seven vocalists.

Nice, I'm aware of Northern Kings and I suppose I can get the style that you are making these covers, it should be interesting.
Yeah, that's a fun project, but we haven't been able to do anything for a while with it, as everyone has been having busy times with their bands and their projects, so it's a hard bunch to get together.

Ok, let's get to the actual questions of this interview. You are about to release your new live DVD, called “Showtime, Storytime” with Nightwish, can you tell us how the idea for the DVD came up, and why did you choose the Wacken Open Air show for a live release?
Well, the live show came actually pretty late for the release of this whole thing. At first, we were thinking about releasing a documentary that we already had in the works for some while, I mean we started shooting from the beginning of the "Imaginaerum" tour, so it was pretty far in the works already, but then at spring, I think it was at the end of May- start of June that the Nuclear Blast guys, the record company guys, they asked us "Hey it would be really good if we could have a live show to go with the documentary". And we were like "Oh, there only a bunch of shows to go, so it's going to be a pain in the ass to arrange everything at that time" but in the end we figured out that ok, it would be nice to have something with this lineup because we haven't released anything, so let's start and make it happen.  We actually figured out it should be Wacken, it's going to be the second to last show, and it's going to give us two months of time to arrange, and of course at Wacken you have plenty of metal people as an audience, and it was big already with thousands of people, and you're going to have good lights and screens and everything, so let's try and make it happen for that. In the end we did it, and now that you look back it was a really great thing to do, because now we've got a really good live show, where we have the new lineup and you see the back catalog of the band and how the new lineup does those songs, and then next summer we're going to be heading off to do new things, so the timing actually clicked.

There is a documentary included in the DVD, with the title “Please learn the setlist in 48 hours”.  Did Floor really have to learn the setlist in 48 hours?
Pretty much, yeah! (laughs)

Amazing, isn't it?
Yeah, it sounds impossible of course, and in a way it was. She knew some of the songs from before, because she's been listening to us and we've toured in some places and doing shows together in different places    , but mainly it was like when we called her "Ok, we've got a situation, you've got to jump on a plane as fast as you can, what do you think, can you handle these things? And here's the setlist". Α little bit shortened of course, so she gets on the first plane possible, starts to fly over to the States, listening to the songs from her iPod, reading lyrics and trying to learn them, then she comes over and we gave her a chance to kind of do the songs over at soundcheck, and then it was showtime. Of course, she couldn't learn all the lyrics at the time, so for the first few shows we had quite a lot of lyric sheets taped around the stage in different places, but gradually, within some shows, those sheets started to disappear, I mean she did this thing really fast and with such a professionalism and such determination that I couldn't believe it was possible. But she did it.

You have two new members in the band, Floor and Troy. Did you decide on keeping them as full time members after touring with them, or was it a consideration even before the tour?
Well, this was the thing, when Floor jumped on the tour bus with us, we tried to stay away from deciding anything, we were just like determined to try to do the rest of the shows, the rest of the tour, and do that as well as we can, and not think about the future at all. But already in the Spring it kind of started to become clear that we had something really good going on with the band, with the personal chemistries  and everything, so already at the start of the Summer, we ended up asking her if she would like to stay. And we figured that Troy has been a really nice guy as well, he's been around for the whole tour , and he's good company, he fits into the personal chemistry within the band, so we figured that we should ask him as well. And then, we just took ourselves to this little silent corner after the show in Tampere to ask "Would you guys like to make this permanent?" and they were all like "Yes!", so the next thing to figure out was that we promised we won't make any decision until 2014, so let's do the summer shows and then figure when we're going to be publishing this. The time came of course, now that we have the release of the DVD and all the promo and everything, it doesn't really make sense to try to circle around the issue anymore, it's better that we can talk about it now that we are already doing promotion for the live release and the documentary.

Did the acceptance of the fans for the new members and especially Floor have an influence on your decision? Did you feel a lot of pressure for having to present new members to your fans, after all the controversy that followed Tarja’s replacement?
Didn't really think about that. The only thing that made us conscious was that there are plenty of people with different opinions, and also, we didn't want to give any kind of "food" to the media who are very likely to abuse the information that you give to them. So that's why we kind of basically kept silent about all the hassle that went down.

Do you personally keep in touch with Tarja and Annette?
No, not really, I mean, not that way. I met Tarja just by luck for instance in an airport in Helsinki and we had a few minutes to talk, she was asking how are my boys and I was asking how was the tour going, and blablabla, it was fun, but we are not actively in touch.

In retrospect, do you think the difference between Tarja’s and Annette’s style was a bit too much for all your fans to accept?
I don't know, because we lost some but we gained some, there are plenty of people who actually like the band more with a little bit more down to earth vocals, some like the classical style, and I think personally I enjoy both eras, because at least we aimed to do the music as well as we could, which I think has been always the most important thing about Nightwish, that the music and the personality of the band comes across as a whole.

You have announced that you are going into writing mode for the next album in 2014. Are there any songs that have been already written? On the band’s website it says that the new album will contain the longest song in the history of the band. Can you tell us a little more about it?

Well, I don’t know about the song itself, because two of us are writing stuff, but if he (Tuomas) says something like that it appears that he's been writing, I've been writing myself some stuff and I think we are going to be swapping some demos soon. I'm going to send him some stuff, he is going to send his stuff to me, and Emppu has been doing that also in the past so let's see if he's got anything, but I imagine that at the moment he's in a moving home somewhere in Europe, drinking beer (laughs), so I haven't heard from him for a while, but anyway, it's true, we've got some writing in the process and let's see what's going to happen, by the next Summer we should have already made songs and should start rehearsing, arranging and recording.

"Imaginaerum" was quite a departure from Nightwish traditional sound and I’d really like to see you experimenting and exploring new musical territories. Is this possible or do you think you’ll revisit your older style now with Floor?
I have no idea! With this band, it's always been a question of doing things the way they feel the best at the time you're doing them, so when we start to hear what kind of songwriting ideas we have, and we start to arrange and rehearse, that's possibly the main thing that will decide what kind of album is in the making. At first, we always try to please ourselves, that we are doing something that sounds good and we don’t think about anything, about what kind of structures or what the mainstream demands would be, and it has worked before, because people seem to like the music when you do it that way, and that's a nice bonus.

You are probably the most 'metalhead' member of the band. How come you mostly write the ballads for Nightwish and not some more aggressive songs?
(Laughs) I don't think that mainly I'm just a metalhead! I mean I listen to a lot of music, a lot of different things, of course my first love was probably Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and bands like that so, I'm always going to be loving the heavy stuff, but I do listen to a lot of modern metal, and everything in between those old legends, lots of different things like Jethro Tull, and Irish folk songs, which you can probably hear from the ballads you mentioned.

Nightwish have gone way beyond the average metal band and have become kind of a benchmark for female fronted metal bands. I know you’ll claim that you don’t think in terms like that, but the business side of a band is very influenced, so how do you try to deal with it?

Success is good in the way that yeah, you sell albums and you do shows which are worth the money and are worth to show yourself to people, and seems to be also worthwhile for the people to come and see the band and everything, but of course success and how you deal with it is something that you unconsciously remind yourself about, that you've got to sit on a porcelain seat every morning like everybody else. It's just that I guess we're a bunch of people, who aim to do what we can, as well as we possibly can. So the music that we write and play matters to us and it's been a really great thing to see that it actually matters to way more people than just us.

Nuclear Blast is a big label, but how come Nightwish are not on the roster of a big multinational label. I guess you’ve been approached, so is it that the market has changed or is it that Nightwish prefer to be to a metal oriented label?

I think that so far Nuclear Blast has done a hell of a good job for us, in matters of promotion and publishing and all that, releasing the albums and arranging these interviews, and I think that the band and the record company are both at a size that fit to each other. If we would go to the big multinational labels, we would always have to deal with this, like I said the band doesn't want to cater to the mainstream or write music with a recipe, then we would have to deal with that, because when you go to the big companies, they always want that.

You’ve had a bad experience while playing in Greece in the past, due to organizational mistakes, is there any chance you’ll play here again? You have a big fanbase in Greece that would love to see you perform live...
Yeah, for sure, that was totally like some people were shooting their mouths! I had no problem playing in Greece, I had a good time, of course, at the last time, there were some issues, and there was a money issue with the promoter, but it still doesn't mean that there wouldn't be fans and people that we would like to play for, if there's a chance and if there's a good opportunity we'll be back.

There is a problem with bands like Nightwish that continue to become bigger and have a more expensive show, while Greece stills goes through a financial crisis. Do you think the gap is hard to overcome?
Hmm, to be honest, I don’t know. I mean sure, if you take your average rock &roll festival promoter, they're probably having a hard time in Greece, that much that they don't have funds to book bands that they would want to, but still, like in any place, in Europe or in any place or any country, there's bound to be people that are hoarding and are being successful in hoarding money, we should get those people to promote the festivals.

Moving from Nightwish for a bit, I would like to ask what is the status of Tarot? Any plans for a new album?
Yeah, actually there are, not like a real timetable but we have already started the writing process and demoed some stuff, so I'd imagine we'll do some serious recording already sometime in the winter.

Are you going to tour when the album comes out?
Yeah, probably, I think so, we're going to be touring when the album comes out, because we don't have a real timetable for that, like I said, I have a little workspace, a small studio, and Janne, the keyboard player also has one as well, so we've been recording the latest Tarot albums all by ourselves, and that's why we don't really have a timetable or schedule, because we use our own equipment so that we don't have to book studios.

You also participated on Arjen Lucassen's "The Theory Of Everything", contributing with vocals. How was that experience for you? In a recent interview we did with him, he spoke highly of you...
That's nice to hear, because I think highly of him as well! I've got the previous albums and I really liked the quality of the work, they were definitely something that doesn't cater to the mainstream, it really is as prog as you can get these days, so I admired his work and the backbone that he has when doing those concept things and everything. We've been doing some email correspondence during the last few years now and then, and now he just sent me an email that he's got an album in the works and that he's got a role for me, asking if I would be interested. I said yes immediately, just told him to send me some demos and lyrical parts, and let's get ourselves a timetable when I can get around and do it, and that's what happened.

He said that when he needed a bad guy, he immediately thought of you!
(Laughs) I guess I sound a little bit nasty now and then! (laughs)

(Laughs) Well, you fit the role like a glove, and you did an amazing job!
Oh, thank you!

You were also supposed to be the singer on his Guilt Machine project. Why didn’t that happen?
Oh man! I don't know! Was I supposed to do that? I guess when he's around ask him! (laughs)

Are you a fan of progressive rock and metal music?
Yeah, I am, because I've been listening to a lot of music like old Jethro Tull, and Yes and Genesis and these bands as well, alongside with the old metal bands and all that. Albums of the acoustic time of Jethro Tull have been affecting my writing as well.

Thanks for your time! Do you have any message for your Greek fans?
Thank you for your time!

[Serena]

Datos sobre el album de Tuomas

[Serena]

Samples Storytime Showtime

[Serena]

I Want my tears back @ Wacken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lraiAsCWu2w