by Steve Patrick
– Senior Columnist —
Finnish symphonic metal legends Nightwish are currently bringing the music from their recently released album Endless Forms Most Beautiful to the live stage in North America along with support from Sabaton and Delain. The subject matter of Nightwish’s brilliant new record centers on evolution and celebrating the diversity of life. The album is also the band’s first studio offering with new vocalist Floor Jansen.
Nightwish mastermind Tuomas Holopainen spoke with Hardrock Haven just before a sold out show at the Agora Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Holopainen was eager to speak about the making of Endless Forms, his continued use of old floppy disks, his favorite non-Nightwish Floor Jansen album, and his thoughts on widespread creationist beliefs in the United States:
Hardrock Haven: You have a new album out, Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Can you talk a little bit about how the tour has been going so far with Sabaton and Delain?
Tuomas Holopainen: Well, at least for me personally, it’s the perfect package, two of my favorite bands. We get a chance of touring with them. Such lovely people. Great bands. The beginning of the tour has been your average beginning of the tour. So it takes some time to get used to the routine and everything but all of the shows have been more or less fantastic so far.
Hardrock Haven: Richard Dawkins plays a very prominent role on the record with the narration. What would you have done if he had said “no” and declined to participate?
Tuomas: Probably read those same words with another person, if he would have allowed. But we were just lucky enough to have him. I mean, he said an immediate “yes.” It was kind of funny because he sent me an email saying “Thank you for the letter sir, but I’ve never heard of Nightwish before. I went into YouTube and enjoyed what I heard immensely. So I’m really looking forward to the collaboration.” Such a gentleman, a really nice guy and we’re really just happy to have him.
Hardrock Haven: I know Pink Floyd had Stephen Hawking on their last record.
Tuomas: Yeah.
Hardrock Haven: And obviously Nightwish has Dawkins.
Tuomas: I heard about [Stephen Hawking on Pink Floyd’s album] afterwards, actually.
Hardrock Haven: Any scientists left out there that you think should be on a rock album?
Tuomas: There are many superb guys. The late Carl Sagan is one of my biggest heroes. Dawkins, of course. Neil deGrasse Tyson is really cool. Brian Cox. There are many of those, but Dawkins for me personally is the ultimate.
Hardrock Haven: You mentioned Sagan, and I know that there’s going to be a new single coming out featuring the non-album track, “Sagan.”
Tuomas: Yeah, like the instrumental version.
Hardrock Haven: How did you make that call to not include that song on the record? Was it ever intended to be on the record?
Tuomas: Actually it was originally, and it fit the theme of the album perfectly, but the album stands at 79 minutes at the moment. And 80 minutes is the absolute limit you can have on CD. So you had to cut one song. So, we kind of like made votes within the band and Sagan was the one to be dropped off.
Hardrock Haven: The band made a lot of trailers leading up to the release of the record. 15 or 16, right?
Tuomas: Yeah, still a few more to come.
Hardrock Haven: Still yet to come, excellent. In one of those you mention you can hear the vocals in your head, what you intend them to be, or what they’re going to be. Do you coach the other vocalists towards your ultimate goal? How does that work.
Tuomas: What I do is what an album producer does. But yeah, I have a really clear vision of what the song and the vocals should sound like. But it happens often that the vocalists come up with much better ideas than what I have. In the beginning we, like, rehearse them in a way that I had it in my mind. And after that, start processing the thought. For example, for the first song on the album, “Shudder Before the Beautiful,” we had much operatic vocals, originally. That’s what I had in mind, but it just didn’t work. It sounded prog. And then Floor took a different approach. And it started to work.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely it worked. The album cover art…I know you worked with your long time art team Toxic Angel. Did you have any input in the whole double helix theme of it? Did you provide any ideas of what it should be?
Tuomas: Again, yep. We worked really closely together with Toxic Angel. Sometimes I have quite a clear vision of what the images look like. And then again, there were songs like “My Walden” and “Our Decades in the Sun” that I didn’t really have an idea [for] so I just told him, you know, listen to the song, listen to the demo, what it brings to your mind, and release the artist inside. And he came up with this beautiful image. The artwork of the album is really important.
Hardrock Haven: Troy, as a full member on this record – did that affect the sound or was there an increase in the use of pipes and whistles?
Tuomas: Well I think the amount of pipes and whistles on this album is about the same as on the previous albums, so I don’t think it really changed that much, but he does quite a bit of singing on the album as well, and also the bouzouki in a couple of songs, so a lot of cool stuff there.
Hardrock Haven: The epic track, “The Greatest Show on Earth,” I think I originally heard it was a longer song.
Tuomas: Yeah, it was about 35 to 40 minutes.
Hardrock Haven: Any idea of using parts that were recorded that maybe didn’t make it on the record in the future?
Tuomas: I have them somewhere, in the floppy disc of my keyboard. So maybe.
Hardrock Haven: [laughs] I love that part of the trailer where it shows you still use the old floppy discs.
Tuomas: Yeah, I still use [them].
Hardrock Haven: Is it just stubbornness or is it just familiar to you? Why do you still use the floppy discs?
Tuomas: It’s not really stubbornness. I mean, it works, so why change? And that’s something I learned 15 years ago. I really haven’t felt the need to upgrade to Pro Tools or anything because I’m still not like a professional technician. I would never record an album by myself. So, the technology is there only to record the demos, to get the ideas. And I’m fine with floppy discs.
Hardrock Haven: Well like you said, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
Tuomas: Yeah.
Hardrock Haven: What was the initial spark that inspired you to write about the diversity of life, evolution. Why is that the theme of this record? Where did it come from?
Tuomas: From books that I read. From the Cosmos series, bot the 80s Carl Sagan one, and the updated one with Neil deGrasse Tyson. I watched those and said, yeah, this is the thing for the next Nightwish album for sure.
Hardrock Haven: The animal sounds in “The Greatest Show on Earth” – were those record specially for the album?
Tuomas: They were made specially for the album by Mr. Jussi Tegelman, who works in Hollywood. And honestly, I really don’t know how he did those, whether he recorded those or used some old samples. They sound fantastic. My favorite part is the apes, before “The Toolmaker.” They sound fantastic.
Hardrock Haven: What’s the perception in Europe of creationism in the United States? Because I know it’s much more prominent here, the idea that a divine being created everything.
Tuomas: It’s rather funny, to be honest, because it’s not even debatable. I mean, creationism is such an absurd idea, that the planet is less than 10,000 years old. It’s just plain wrong, and we have all the evidence in the world to prove it like that. So yes, it’s a bit of a funny thing.
Hardrock Haven: How did you first get connected with Pip Williams?
Tuomas: Oh, that was through our mixing enginner, Mikko Karmilla, back in 2003, so we go back quite a long way already. We wanted to get the possible orchestra that you can have in Europe and he had a contact to Pip Williams. He had done a project with him earlier on, and he recommended him to us. That’s how we started. It immediately clicked, and ever since the Once album, I’ve done all the orchestra work with him.
Hardrock Haven: He was very complimentary of you in the trailer. Was that embarrassing at all? He called you a genius. He put you above Rick Wakeman.
Tuomas: It’s always embarrassing, yes. But thanks, Pip, anyway. Thank you. I love you.
Hardrock Haven: Ha. Ha. Why did you select Vancouver to film the next Nightwish DVD?
Tuomas: There will be some other venues as well, so it won’t be only Vancouver. There are certain reasons for it, but let’s keep it a secret for now.
Hardrock Haven: Excellent. Nothing beats the experience of seeing a band live, obviously, but do you have any favorite live concert videos of yours that stand out?
Tuomas: Well we’ve done three official ones, I think. From Wishes to Eternity; The End of an Era; and Showtime, Storytime. They’re all great.
Hardrock Haven: Well I mean of other bands.
Tuomas: Oh, other bands. I’m sorry.
Hardrock Haven: No, you’re fine.
Tuomas: Yeah, the Pulse concert by Pink Floyd. That would be my desert island concert DVD for sure. Incredible.
Hardrock Haven: What was your reaction to the news that Nightwish is going to be on a Finnish postage stamp?
Tuomas: [laughs] It’s an honor. It really is an honor.
Hardrock Haven: With some other peers of yours as well.
Tuomas: Exactly, yeah.
Hardrock Haven: You just recently did a solo album, The Life and Times of Scrooge, your first. Do you ever think you’ll do another one?
Tuomas: Uh, never say never. If there comes an idea for a project that I couldn’t realize with Nightwish, then maybe, but I have really no ambitions of going solo. I love working with these people. I love the idea of being in a band and doing things together.
Hardrock Haven: It seems like a lot of musicians are getting into the alcohol business and I know you’re a big fan of wine. Have you ever given any thought to owning or operating a vineyard?
Tuomas: Why not? There’s a romantic touch to the idea for sure. Just Nightwish red wine – somehow it fits. And we actually put a lot of effort into it. We tasted all the different brands and all the different grapes. We put a lot of effort into the logo and the text and everything so it would really look like a band thing and not just another commercial product.
Hardrock Haven: So to wrap up we just have kind of a lighting round so we’ll just ask some quick questions. What is your favorite non-Nightwish Floor Jansen album?
Tuomas: I remember hearing the debut album of After Forever [Prison of Desire], in the late ’90s I think it was. It totally blew me away, so I’ll go for that.
Hardrock Haven: You’re known for wearing a top hat, often on stage and in promo photos. Who is your favorite top hat wearer in pop culture?
Tuomas: Scrooge McDuck.
Hardrock Haven: Excellent. I should have anticipated that. What is your favorite Disney movie?
Tuomas: The original Fanstasia, 1940.
Hardrock Haven: You said in one of those trailers that you once wanted to be a marine biologist. What is your favorite sea animal and why?
Tuomas: Oh dear. There are so many. Is it too obvious to say dolphins? Dolphins and whales, for sure. And all those really weird looking deep sea creatures.
Hardrock Haven: [laughs} The ones with no eyes?
Tuomas: Yeah, right out of a sci-fi film. Octopi are awesome as well.
Hardrock Haven: Favorite food to eat on tour in the United States?
Tuomas: Curry. Indian food.
Hardrock Haven: Last thing for you, Tuomas. Anything you’d like to say to Nightwish fans that might be reading this.
Tuomas: Thank you for the sincere passion and support throughout the years, throughout all the turbulences, and ups and downs. I mean, there’s nothing more loyal in this world than a Metal fan.
Hardrock Haven: Thank you so much for taking the time.
Tuomas: Thank you.
Hardrock Haven: It has been a pleasure speaking with you.
Tuomas: You too.
For more information on Nightwish, please visit www.nightwish.com.
[Transcribed by Justin DelPrince]
