rok 2002 wywiad dla Gothic World

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It's Cologne, 3pm. We're near the Palladium Hall, where soon Nightwish will play their gig. But before it happens we manage to do a short inteview with Tuomas Holopainen, the keyboarder and the mastermind of the band. Unfortunately Tarja couldn't come up. She has a flu and a runny nose and so she had to stay behind the stage and spare her voice before the show. As I could see Tuomas is pretty tired and a bit bored - he's been answering journalists' question for hours before me - so I did my best to keep the interview short.

Hello and thanks for taking you time to do this interview.

No problem. There's this soundcheck going on now, probably the most boring part of the tour. So I just prefer to do the interviews in peace than take part in all this chaos.

Ok, let's start with your new album 'Century Child'. Some critics and fans say that it's a bit too hard for Nightwish, that there are too few ballads. Can you tell us something about the development of Nightwish's style?

Yes, it is definitely the heaviest and darkest album we've ever done. Yet I still think that the usual Nightwish style has been retained, it's only somehow rougher than before - the guitars and the basses are more violent. As for me, I knew that Nightwish would go this way before I even wrote the first song for the album. It was a very conscious desicion. The truth is, I'd like to find something brand new with every next album, I don't want to compose the same stuff all the time. And for 'Century Child' I felt like writing some heavy music, with many male vocals, orchestras and choirs. The next album may be even heavier but also it can get very calm and easy. I don't that yet.

How do the fans react to the new songs at the live shows?

Well, I must say they react in a very positive way. People are not as moved as when we play, for example, 'Wishmaster' but still there are few songs like 'Dead to the World' or 'Slaying the Dreamer' and they work really great for the live gigs.

You're doing your tour with two support bands. How do the fans react to their music?

Actually, again, fans' reacttion to their music is better than I could ever imagined. I guess our thre bands make up a good 'package'. After Forever was my choice - I respect their music very much and I think it makes a great combination with Nightwish music. We play the same kind of metal but still we diverse pretty much. And Charon is just a marvelous group. It's sort of a Finnish Rednex. Our fans got to like them very much. And also we get along with the members of AF and C very well, the chemistry between us works just perfectly so it's nice turing with them.

Back to the tour. How many old songs do you play?

Since this is 'Century Child'tour we play a lot of new songs. But of course we mix them with songs from the previous albums. We play one song from 'Angels Fall First', two songs from the 'Oceanborn', four from the 'Wishmaster' and of course we play 'Over the Hills and Far Away'.

Last question - what are Nightwish plans for the future?

As you may know we take a break next year. It'll last only a a year and still we're gonna play at some festivals during that time, for example at the Wacken 2003. We take a break but we're not going to dissapear. I will be writing songs for the new album and soon after the break we'll go back in the studio again.

Thank you so much again. Wish Tarja recovering soon and have a great fun with the show!

We'll surely have. Thanks a lot!