Monster Magazine nr. 5, 2005.

czarnycharakter

Translation made by Wolfess of Northern Paths
Interview taken from Monster Magazine, issue no. 5, 2005.

Nightwish
Tuomas Holopainen about the fans and the future

I introduced myself and welcomed Tuomas to hell.
T: Hehe, it’s nice to be in hell.

This is your third visit in Norway in a very short time, something the fans appreciate a lot. This is a question you receive quite often, but I feel like it has to be asked. How does it feel to be here?
T: I like it very much to be here. It is the common Scandinavian mentality so whether you are in Sweden, Norway or Denmark it feels like being at home in Finland, and it feels very good. And just look around, isn’t it simply beautiful?

What are the Norwegian fans like compared to those in other countries?
T: That’s what so strange, because in many ways, Nightwish-fans are very much alike, no matter in the world you are. They way they treat you and look up to you as a band is very much the same all around the world. It’s the same loyalty, the same passion to be found everywhere, which is very flattering.

This is the biggest tour in Nightwish’s history. Is it tiresome? Can it be compared to the Wishmaster-tour which completely exhausted you all?
T: No, the Wishmaster-tour was neither as hard nor as long as this one, but it really exhausted me mentally, and there were many reasons to that. Now, we have toured for about 15 months, and we still have about two months left, but still, there hasn’t been a single day I have felt exhausted and thought I can’t do this any longer. Of course, there are good days and there are bad days, but that’s when it’s important to remember that you have to do your job despite it’s not that fun all the time. In the end, it has been a very well-organized tour and everything has gone smoothly.

Is it hard to be away from your friends and family when you’re touring?
Well, the band is my friends.

How about your family, don’t you miss them?
T: Yes, of course I miss them, but as soon I get the chance, I visit my parents.

So you do have breaks during the tour?
T: Yes, we have. We are never away from home more than a month in a row, and then we stay in Finland for about a week, so it’s enough. On the other hand, it’s a lot easier for me because I don’t have kids or a girlfriend unlike the other bandmembers. I can believe it’s a lot harder for them what’s it is for me.

What are your plans after this tour? Are you planning a break?
T: Well, by “break” we mean that we won’t tour again at once, but that doesn’t mean the band will take a break. We are going back to Finland and the autumn 2006 we are entering studio to work on new material. Some of the members wish to do some sideprojects as well during this break so we’ll be pretty busy all of is in the nearest future.

Earlier, you have told that after the release of Oceanborn you felt totally drained for ideas, while after the release of Wishmaster you were packed with new ideas. What is it like, now?
T: I don’t like to use the word inspiration, to be honest; I think it sounds kinda cheesy. If I’m going to be totally honest, I must say I’ve never felt so “inspired” in a very long time. When I’m back in Finland, I work on new material continuously. Now, as I don’t have so much time pressure it’s pretty amusing to be working and I’ve already a good deal of finished material which I’m pretty happy with.

Some people say this is your most complex album by far. Do you agree?
T: Yeah, I can totally agree on that. There are many different elements on this album and every single song is something of its own. If you for instance take “Ghost Love Score”, it’s pretty ethnically inspired. “Creek Mary’s Blood” is ethnic as well including the appearance of a Native American Indian. Then there are also a few traditional thrash metal songs, like Dark Chest of Wonders”, but there are even a few ballads. There’s a lot of diversity, the album doesn’t follow a thread, something we have been criticized for.

Personally, I think it’s a good thing.
T: Yeah, so do I, I don’t like to repeat myself.

You receive this question all the time, but I hope that this time you have a more specific answer. When can we experience you onstage featuring a symphonic orchestra?
T: I think about it all the time and I feel this is something we have to fulfil. It should be the next step for Nightwish to take since there are so many symphonic elements in our music. We have had serious plans about doing it during this tour, but it’s unbelievable how much it is going to cost us. That is not the greatest problem, however, the biggest problem is the organization and to find a suiting place for this. We thought about Royal Albert Hall in London, but when we contacted them the spring 2004, they told us it was fully booked for two years. You simply have to do it in good time.

Tuomas lights himself a cigarette followed by another Jägermeister and continues. In an old interview, you have stated that none of the bandmembers consider themselves stars and couldn’t live from making music. That must have changed a bit considering the huge success you have experienced as a band.
T: Yeah, we can do that now. I quitted my former profession in 2001.

What was your former work, anyway?
T: I was a substitute teacher at a secondary school. I was called in every time one of the teachers got ill. It was an amusing job. Now, all the bandmembers live from being in Nightwish, and that is a blessing to us. No matter what people say, money plays a certain part of our lives and now we don’t need to count the cents any more (really bad translation of a Norwegian expression). That is very practical since I no longer need to worry about things that aren’t really important. The money rolls in, I can pay my rent, my food and I can concentrate on my music instead.

Do you feel that money and the success you have received through Nightwish have changed you as a person?
T: It has changed me in the sense that I don’t need to count the money any more because me salary is quite good nowadays.

So it hasn’t changed you as a person?
T: No, definitely not, and I can assure you that the same goes for the others as well.

Do you feel you have reached the top of your career, or do you feel there are still things you want to do with the band?
T: There are still a lot of things I would like to do with the band. What do you mean by “reached the top”, by the way?

Well, do you think it still can get any better?
T: Yes, of course it can be better musically, but there are ups and downs, so even if we make an album that doesn’t sell that well, it doesn’t mean it will be the end of Nightwish. It’s all about luck and the way I see it, our best album is yet to come.

How do you picture your future ten years from now, both your private life and the band? Do you still see Nightwish? Do you see a father with children?
T: I have problems imagining myself as married, hehe. I don’t know, anything might happen, but what I have found out is that music is my life and something I will continue with until my dying day whether it would be with Nightwish or something else. Time will show, because honestly, I don’t know.

Why are your lyrics so personal? What makes you share your life with the entire world in this way; do you feel it helps you in a way?
T: I’m a very complex person in many ways, and I carry many emotions within myself. I’m a very emotional person, but on the opposite, I’m really crappy at showing what I really feel. The music is a way for me to spread both my positive and negative emotions. This is a question I receive quite often, that’s why I open myself this way. To be honest, I get a pervy satisfaction from sharing my emotions with the entire and then hear ten thousand Brazilians sing along during a gig. I simply feel good during moments like those.

What is the Finnish song on Once about?
T: “Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan” can be translated with “Death makes an artist.” It sounds very silly in English, but a lot better in Finnish. The song is very personal and explains why I do the things I do today, why I’m an artist. The death of certain things makes me do what I do today and that is the concept behind the whole song.

Is there a particular reason for the song to be in Finnish and not in English?
T: No, not really. It was some sort of experiment. I love to experiment, to push the limits and shock people. It’s also a way to honour our Finnish fans that have been faithful since the beginning, and to show that we are proud of being Finnish.

What has the most extreme fans done for you both positively and negatively?
T: Many fans come home to me. I don’t say it’s a bad thing because there has never happened anything serious, but it is still my house where I want to feel safe. Many people come and take pictures of my mailbox…
Well, they come, knock on the door, give me a rose and say “hi” and leave again. It is very confusing, but very flattering. I think it’s quite extreme that people come from all around the world to Finland, where I live, say “hi” and leaves.

Have you ever had any bad experiences with the fans?
T: Yeah, this night I was sleeping at a hotel in Helsinki and about half past three in the morning, I was awoken by someone hammering on my door. I thought something was very wrong, so I opened the door and was met by a Goth-girl who went totally mad. She called for her friends who came running. I was so pissed that I told them to go to hell. I had to struggle to get the door closed and when I finally managed to do so, they kept on hammering for about half an hour before they gave up. This is the difficult part of the job. I love the fans. They are incredible, at least 99% of them, but there is a limit for everything – something many of them don’t understand. Sometimes you’re in a hurry and others times you are ill and then you simply don’t have the time to stop and have a chat. The fans should understand that you shouldn’t turn up on somebody’s front door without notice and at least not hammer on your door in the middle of the night. Your home should be a place where you feel safe. That becomes very hard when people just come and knock on your door, even if they have good intentions.

Tuomas encourages the fans to not come visit him in Finland. On the other hand, he greatly appreciates fan-mail; something he reads on a regular basis. What kind of positive experiences has he had with the fans?
T: All the gifts they send me! For instance, I’ve received handcrafted “Beauty and the Beast”-dolls from a girl in South America. You could see on the dolls that she had put a lot of time and effort into making them, so that was very flattering. Some Norwegian fans bought a star and christened it “Nightwish”, and later, they gave us binoculars so that we could see it. That must be called a fabulous gift indeed, or what?

Obviously, I had no more questions this time, so to Tuomas’ great excitement, I turned off the taperecorder and thanked for the time I had spent with him. Eventually, I want to thank the people at Monster Magazine for giving me this opportunity.

Original text by Paulina Gmachowska.