rok 1999 dla Mystic Art nr 6

czarnycharakter

Good music can always defend itself and it can be a success even if the promotion leaves a lot to be desired. Nightwish, a finnish band making its debut with the album called 'Angels Fall First' proved it in a beautiful way. The first step has been done and I suggest you all followed the lot of Nightwish because it will be great band very soon, I'm sure of that.

The release of your debut album was pretty strangely divided in time - it didn't come out at the same time in different countries.

That's correct. It was all connected with the promotion. Spinefarm decided to divide it for few stages and what follows they divided the world for few parts and they picked up those that they had most influence in. For example the premiere in Finland was already in last year whereas in Europe it happened only in this year's April. I think that was a good thing to do because we could have focused on and apllied ourselves on the promotion in our homeland. I guess that if the record comapny is as small as Spinefarm is that kind of procedures are necessary.

Already after the first hearing of the 'Angels Fall First ' one has the impression that the album should achieve a great comercial success. Yet I have a feeling that it caused a great confusion only in Finland.

Unfortunately it's true but on the other hand it is a good starting point for us. If we managed to achieve such a success in Finland we may be able to achieve it in other parts of the world. I'm afraid that Spinefarm relished the success they achieved in Finland and they disregarded the promotion in Europe. You know our single stayed on the best selling album charts for almost eight weeks reaching even the eighth place. And then the album itself stayed on the same charts for another couple of weeks so it was a great achievement which surprised both us and the record company. Before releasing the single and the album we didn't play any concerts so for the debuting band we achieved something that seemed to be impossible. It could've been the same in Germany but apart from the grat support of German press we had no promotional support in there so actually these flattering reviews were all we got in Germany.

Maybe the fact that you haven't played many gigs also influenced the low sale of the album?

It was, for sure, one of the negative factors, but we're planning to change that in the nearest future. You know, two of our musicians were on military service and it was impossible to have them playing at the gigs. And also Nightwish vocalist, Tarja was studying so she was also unable to give concerts.

Just for the record - how long does the military service take in Finland?

Depending on what schools you'd finished it varies from eight to eleven months. And unfortunately there's no way to avoid it, unless you want to got to jail, of course.

Ok, let's get back to your music which - fortunately or unfortunately - it very hard to define. But still it's pretty clear that you draw your inspiration from gothic metal but also from classical and even symphonic music. Am I right?

I think you are but personally I prefer to call our music 'fantasy metal' although, of course, it's no an official name. Of course, we draw a lot from symphonic music but we were also inspired by the heavy metal bands from the 80s. We don't hide our fascination in gothic music - you can the elements of this genre in music just as you can hear some elements of classical music. Those are the effect of Tarja's studies. Our vocalist has a very beautiful, operatic voice. You know, when I started this project in 1996, I would never suppose that our band would develope in metal direction. At first we played instrumental, acoustic music - our first demo achieved no success. On the contrary - people considered our songs as damn boring. Later on we decided to add the drums and the electris guitars to our music. We recorded 7 new songs thanks to which we signed a 3-album conract with Spinefarm.

The record label compares your music to The Gathering and Tiamat works. Do you like that kind of comparisons?

You know, I truly don't mind any kind of comparisons but I truly think that people sometime go too far with them. Some time ago we read - for example - that we're the finnish Gathering and the only thing that we have in common with this band is that we have a female vocalist. Nightwish plays faster, we vary our music more and Tarja has completely different range of voice, she operates with much greater scale.

As you're playing the kind of music that has ecome very popular lately, I'd like to ask what's your opinion about bands like Arcturus, Covenant or Therion?

I like all of them very much. For this example, the album 'Theli' is - to me - one of the five best metal publications. Both Arcturus' albums are wonderful and the second cd of Covenant is also great. Hmm... you actually picked up only my favourite band so I can only praise them.

Hundreds of band with female voices have appeared on metal-scene lately. Nightwish is one of them. What singles out your band?

I think it's the level of the music that single us out. Tarja is a proffesional vocalist. At the moment she's studying at the most famous music academy in Finalnd, at Sibelius Academy. The musicians from the Apocalyptica - among others - were learning there. Tarja has an enormous vocal abilities, her talent is priceless and I think we had a great luck when she agreed to sing with us.

Have you already thought about the new album?

Yes, actually two weeks ago we went to the studio and at the moment we're recording the new album. I think it should be released at the beginning of next year.

Ok, let's talk about new compositions then.

Ok.

Well?

Oh, right. Well, I think that we've developed our style pretty much. The new album will be more impetuous, there will be fewer stoppages, fewer acoustic guitar parts. The music will be heavier but still very atmospheric. This is going to be a very dynamic metal symphony!