Wywiad z Tuo: Once - Track by Track

Patty

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Having invited Tuomas to talk about the new songs he was very forthcoming in describing the contents of the album and the inspirations behind each of the tunes, as follows:

Dark Chest Of Wonders
"The first song, Dark Chest Of Wonders is one of our favourites on the album. It's really weird because the mood changes, like every 20 seconds in the song but it goes pretty much close to all the styles in metal. It starts with the hardest riff that we've ever done, then the orchestra comes in with a really funny melody, almost like a 'folkish' melody, then comes the choir and the chorus is real traditional Power Metal. Then comes the 'sea' part with a real Pantera patch in it. So it's a weird combination of everything, but it still holds together amazingly good and it works really well, as an introduction for the whole album.

Yeah this song turned out really well. Its one of those songs where you can hear the real fun of playing in a band. It doesn't make any sense as a song, but it still sounds good as an artist ... the joy of playing."

Wish I Had An Angel
"Then Wish I Had An Angel is going to be our next single. It's something that we haven't really done before, with all the machines and a real 'industrial' touch. It's a song that's there for a purpose, it was also an experiment because we haven't done anything like that before. It was just and experiment, because the name of the song, the danceable beat kind of fits into the song really well and its definitely going to divide opinions among the fans." Artwork for the Nemo single

Nemo
"So the third one is Nemo, which is the first single track and a very obvious choice to be one, with a very simple structure, catchy chorus, its short enough for radio play ... and so its the easiest choice we ever made. Its not among the very best tracks on the album in my opinion, but it still makes a perfect single track. 'Nemo' is the Latin word for 'nobody', so the song has nothing to do with a fish."

This was Tuomas's way of once again denying any connection with the Disney Film 'Finding Nemo' - a subject which has produced some animated exchanges on the band's internet message board.

Planet Hell
"Then the fourth one will be Planet Hell. It's one of those real straight rockers on the album.

My personal opinion is that it's a little bit boring to my taste, but it has a real great intro and an outro and it's just like real rocking, hard punching, in between. Yeah, definite live hit, One of the best lyrics actually that is on this album. I'm really satisfied with the lyrics and all that but the song is a good one."

Since the song appeared to be about the state of the world today, I asked if the song was to do with the state of the environment. Tuomas said "Oh, its about everything that's going on in the world today" "9/11?", I suggested. "Not just that, pretty much everything", he replied.

Creek Mary's Blood
"The fifth one is Creek Mary�s Blood. It's like this epic half ballad about this American Indian, their culture and especially the genocide of the Indians in the 19th century. Highly inspired by a book called "Creek Mary's Blood". So the title is a total rip-off of this Book. The author is Dee Brown. The same guy who wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". Also there is this Native American Indian (Mr John Two-Hawks) performing some cedar flutes, Native American chanting, oration in the Lakota language. Exotic song and my personal favourite on the album."

"Its got a lot of the orchestra on it", I pointed out.

"Yeah, its throughout the whole song. If you take the drums and guitar and the keyboards out of that song, it fits to the soundtrack of "Dances With Wolves". That was what I wanted it to sound like and I'm very, very satisfied with the result."

The Siren
"Sixth one is called The Siren. Introduces an electric violin solo that we haven't heard before. The whole orchestra and especially the choir parts in this song is really, really good. You really hear the Sirens calling for you and tempting you when the choir does their part. I mean, its really awesome, it's one of the artistic songs on the album. Its not the 'straight rocker' as you call it so you really have to get into it. It really paints some nice sceneries before your eyes when you listen to this song."

Dead Gardens
"The next one is Dead Gardens. This is one of the two songs on the album that doesn't include the orchestra or the choir. This was the first song that I wrote for the whole album actually and the song is about the pain of creation, like artists block, which I sometimes have. Your wanna create something, create music but nothing comes up and you feel extremely pissed and frustrated. I think that we really got that feeling into that song, especially the last minute of that song its exactly what goes through in your head. Very hard riffing and a 'straight rocker'."

Romanticide
"Number eight is Romanticide, which is the other song of the album which doesn't involve any orchestra or choirs. So these are the two songs. This introduces something like Thrash metal riffs of the late 80s or something, so its one of the hardest song on the album as well. "

Ghost Love Score
"Ninth one is Ghost Love Score and as you can tell from the title of the song it's very much like a soundtrack to a movie. Its 10 minutes long and the most ambitious piece of work that we have ever done. The orchestra plays throughout the whole song, there is a lot of choirs and er, yeah its just something that I don't think that we will ever be able to play live without the orchestra."

Tuomas's answer appeared to be hinting that playing live with an orchestra might be something he would like to do, so I had to enquire if this indeed was the case. "Yeah, maybe" was his reply, so I guess that is something to possibly look forward to, in the future.

Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan
"Number ten is Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan, the Finish song and the 'ballad' of the album with just the orchestra and choir and vocals. It gives a nice little, exotic touch to the album to have one song in Finnish. Its one of the most... one of the best ballads, actually we ever did."

Up to this point Tuomas had been speaking most of the time, while drummer Jukka had remained silent. However he interrupted at this point to back up Tuomas's point "Yeah, Definitely", he concurred.

"We had lots of doubts about it in the beginning when it was just a demo made about that. It was almost going to be included as the B-side of a single at one point but when we heard the vocal performance we thought, "yeah", it's really cool."

Higher Than Hope
"The last one is called Higher Than Hope which is a song, mainly done by Marco, the bass player. Definite ending for the album, so it was the only place to put this on the album. Like a half-ballad, witha real hard and light touch to it ... and a lot of meaning behind the lyrics to it."