Jukka dla Paranoid-zine 31.05.2006 Slovenia

czarnycharakter

Q: After the once tour and firing Tarja from the band did u have any vacation?
It may have looked like we were on Vacation, but we had a lot of work with the release of the DVD, looking for a new vocalist, rehearsing, and prepraing new material for the next album…we may not tour around in a bus and we are home with our family's, but still we have a lot of work to do.

Q: About who will replace Tarja…
Right now we are most busy with looking for a replacement for Tarja. Since we published that we are looking for a new singer we have gotten about 450 demos. Most of them are from Finnland and other scandinavian country's and also Germany but we got letters from all over the world. We take the time to listen to each and every one of them and we are excpetcing to get at least a 100 more, so when we get home we will listen to those too. Quality range of demos is very wide, we have gotten a few really good ones and some not so good. It's a very important decision and we will take all the time we need to find a good replacement

Q: Do you really listen to all the demos?
Yes, every demo is being listened too, by at least one band member, so every one has a say in finding the right one

Q: And then everyone gives their suggestions in who will go in the next round?
Demos of all the candidates that seem interessting will be put together and then each one in the band will listen to those demos and express their opinion about the individual singer. In the end it will be a democratic decision.

Q: What kind of singer are u even looking for?
It doesnt have to neccesary be a trained classical singer. We are not looking for the same vocal as Tarja had. We are open too various vocals as long as it still fit's our style of music. So we may choose a typical rock singer or even one with a pop vocal. Well see what will choose and if it will work with our style of music.

Q: U sayd u were working on some new material for the album. How far will u go with that before u choose ur new singer…hard to translate it's actually if the will finnish all the songs or wait until they have a new singer and then finnish them completely.
All the song for the album are already written and composed. In the beggining of june we will start to rehearse new material and start recording in september.

Q: When can we excpect decison about the new singer?
It depends. If we find a new singer soon we will publish her name imediatly…were taking all the time we need….but im sure we will find it this year.

Q: Did any famous singers appllied?
Yes some but i can't give u names. There was a lot of speculation in the media but i have to say we have not talked to any of them yet. Still waiting for the demos and after that we will talk personally to some of them.

Q: How do you look at your last concert in Helsinki today?
We all agree that it was definetly the best concert we ever played. It all fitted, the enviroment was perfect and there was a special feeling to it. It was the last concert of the tour and besides we all knew it was our last concert with Tarja, which gave that special feeling. The tour was long it lasted over a year and a half, we played over 130 concerts. You can see on the dvd that we played really good and it was a great ending.

Q: How did it affect u emotionally, knowing it was the last concert with Tarja?
Very much, but when we were on stage, we forgot about what we have to do after the concert. It sounds like a cliche but when ur playing the music u love, and u see that ppl are enjoying it, u just give in to that and enjoy it. As soon as we left the stage it hit us that we have to give the letter to her. We knew it was the end of an era.

Q: After that has happened most of the public aperances were done by Toumas? Were u behind him 100% and behind what he was saying?
Yes it was weird that in the media the letter was represented like it was written by Tuomas only. They were acusing him like it was only his decision about firing Tarja. But it was signed by all four of us and it was our joined decision to continue withour her. Media always picks on one person and this time it was Tuomas.

Q: Were u thinking about it for a long time?
The decision to fire here was made months before. We have no regrets about firing her it was the only logical decision and we are still confident that it was the right one.

Q: What was your relationship with Tarja like?
We hardly talked for the last year, so i can't talk about a relationship when there was none. We played together on a stage and had fun but outside of that there was no comunication.

Q: Once Tuomas sayd that there is no Nihtwish without Tarja. After all the talking, did it became clear to you that u can continue without her?
We used to thought that without Tarja there is no Nightwish. She was the frontwoman, a great singer and withut her we would definetly not be what we are today. But in the end all she ever contribued was the singing. I don't need to point out that the head of the band was and it will be Tuomas and then there's the 3 of us who are also actively involved with the band. All that Tarja did in the last years for the band was singing in concerts and recording in the studio. She never rehearsed with the band or ever showed the desire to do so, and she was never involved with the band. So that's why i don't think we will have any problems working withour her it might be even better. At least i think it will be better for all of us. It wont be easy for the new singer. For some it wont matter how good she is they will never accept her as the new singer just beacuse it's not Tarja. But it doesnt matter to us. If someone doesnt wanna listen to Nightwish wihout Tarja then that's their own problem. The most important thing to us is that we choose a quality singer and that we all get along with her.

Q: This dvd is the end of an era for you, how do u look at that past now?
It is the end of an era but not the end of Nightwish. It's the end of an era with Tarja that lasted for 9 years and now it's the time to start something new. But i will remember that past with joy cause it brought us so much.

Q: About the complications of releasing the dvd…
Both sides have come to an agrement, so yesterday we signed the contract for other regions where the dvd was not supposed to be released. So now everyone will be able to buy it.

Q: Can u tell me anything about the direction the new album is going?
Tuomas has his vision about the direction the Nightwish music is going into and he will not let anyone influence that. He has 15 new songs that we will start to work on in the summer. I can't say anything specific, but it will be something like once, with orchestra, but we will try to add some new elements. We will try to do something interessting for our fans. We'll se how it will be accepted.

Q: When can we expect the release?
It depends on when we choose the new singer. If it's necesary maybe even in 2 years. But we plan to release it next year in the fall.

Q: Message to the fans..
Things were were crazy for us in the past 6 month's. but things are getting normal now, we are optimistic about the future. Right now we are focusing in the release of the dvd, we have to choose a new singer and hopefully we will see u next year with the new album.