Soundi Magazine - autor Timo Isoaho

Patty

A grave-looking Tuomas Holopainen is sitting in the kitchen of the Hästholmen country summer camp in the eastern Helsinki.
The closest ones of the band have rented a cozy location to celebrate the ending of the Once tour. One can hear merry, slightly drunken chattering from the other side of the house.
Holopainen -who prefers to stay in shadows even in normal situations- on the other hand is not in the mood for celebrating.
That's because only 18 hours have passed form the moment the Nightwish lads gave a letter announcing the end of their collaboration to their vocalist Tarja Turunen.

*A classic question: How does it feel now?

-"Fucking weird. I'm apparently suffering from a slight shock somehow.
I'm sure this thing will take a couple of weeks to really sink in. Mostly I feel like bursting into tears but I'm too embarrassed to do that. Well, maybe it's better to just try to laugh instead or something. Maybe there's this slight feeling of relief somewhere in the back of my mind but the topmost feelings are just utterly horrible. I still wish from the bottom of my heart that we could have solved this in a different way."

*Is there any specific thing or event that led to this?

-"Maybe the moment when Tarja snapped that legendary 'Remember, that I could leave this band at any time, giving you only one day's warning in advance.' sentence. It broke my heart and cracked my spine. On the other hand it also pumped into me this certain will to prove myself.
Last year I said many times that that if Tarja should leave, it would be the end of Nightwish. At the moment I however want to keep going more than ever!
Something as beautiful as this can't be torn apart only because of the sacking of our lead singer.
No way in hell I'm gonna give up."

*Did you inform Turunen at any point that she was moving on dangerous waters?

"We didn't dare to insinuate to Tarja that she might for example get fired.
We were afraid that she might hang up the gloves and cancel the rest of the tour immediately. We couldn't take that risk.
Tarja has often told us that Nightwish is wearing her down. According to her we don't even respect her. The truth, however, is very different; this year we did everything on her and her husband's conditions. I really can't think of anything else we could have done to make the touring easier for them.
She got to fly every time she wanted to, we surely would have even paid her a helicopter flight if necessary.
She could always stay in the finest hotels. No soundchecks, no obligations to do any interviews.
The passing year was just sheer John Lennon - Yoko Ono business. Someone who is not a part of the band butted in to the team and ruined everything.
-"It also hurt when Tarja was trumpeting around that she doesn't even sing with her real voice in this band.
So Turunen thinks she has wasted her own 'Karita Mattila career' by touring with a bunch of punks like us. So she has sacrificed herself for our sake... How can she think like that? Nightwish has given her a career.
She was the best and the most well-known female singer in a metal band there was. In certain circles she's considered a goddess to say the least.
How can she not appreciate these things?"

*Is there any way you can put yourself in the position of a Nightwish fan during these difficult times?

-"This must be an insanely tough pill to swallow, but... (long pause)
Nightwish will carry on with another vocalist and Tarja is going solo.
So people will still get new music from both Nightwish and Tarja in future.
Despite everything it should be kept in mind that Nightwish is just a band, not a religion or something like that.
I really hope that people will be able to take this sensibly after the surge of emotion has calmed down."

*So you're not going to take back the decision to fire Tarja under any circumstances?

-"I'm as sure about this as anyone can ever be. There's no going back.
I have seen now the opposite party's moral hierarchy and it doesn't match Nightwish's on any level.
A few moments we considered if we really have the right to do something like this.
After all even the City-lehti* said that 'Tarja Turunen will perform with her band on the Hartwall Arena.' Some people really do think that Nightwish is Tarja's band, even after all these years.
Well, she never came to rehearse with us and never took part in songwriting, making singing melodies or arranging.
We came to the conclusion that someone like that can be replaced."

(* City-lehti: An independent "cool" magazine that is published every other week and given to free distribution. It published an article about Tarja in the spring with a kind of "You don't need Nightwish." -tone. And now in the latest edition the editor called Tuomas a wussy and a lousy leader who doesn't realize he just destroyed the future of his band by sacking the only talented member in the band... )

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