RUS
On May 22 in the Palats Ukraina concert hall, one of the most popular modern metal bands Nightwish gave a concert in frames of the Endless Forms Most Beautiful tour to present the latest album that has been released a year ago. The Weekend was astonished by Nightwish fandom, had a chance to communicate with vocalists Floor Jansen and Marco Hietala and even hang out on the show.
Turn on the music and let’s go!
Floor Jansen became the new vocalist and Kai Hahto of Swallow the Sun has substituted Jukka Nevalainen as a session drummer for this tour, whereas Troy Donockley,a famous composer and gifted bag-piper turned to a full member of the band.
The band brought their eighth album to Kiev that is mainly focused on Charles Darwin’s theories. Even its title has been taken from Darwin’s book – “On the Origin of Species”.
Floor is smiling and I like it!
Nightwish Fandom has been thoroughly preparing for several months before the concert. We met fan club’s members while they were waiting for Meet&Greet session. They have proudly shown us gifts to the band: Tuomas Holopainen has received a traditional embroidered shirt “vyshyvanka” and a handmade bracelet, Floor – a wreath and earrings made of Scythian silver, Marco has got stylized smoking pipe and a tray, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen – a giant guitar pick made of vinyl with his silhouette in the middle, they presented a traditional Ukrainian Double Flute Dzholomyha to Troy Donockley. Both drummers – Jukka Nevalainen and Kai Hahto got timbrels with their graphic portraits. These images, so as arts with Floor and Tuomas in embroidered shirts with gifts were also depicted on the pack of cards. But the main surprise was only ahead.
[gallery:27390]The rest of the Nightwish fans (non-members of the fan club) also could visit Meet&Greet session where they had a chance to get a sign and make a quick photo with the band. They were entering in groups of 4-5 people after tickets and passports control. Fans were showing to each other freshly signed autographs on posters, scrolled photos and were emotionally discussing the event near the entrance.
– I was so anxious and didn’t know where to stand. – said a guy to his friend.
– Not the best photo – the girl checking her camera – Anyway, Floor is smiling and I like it!
Several photos and the crowd disappear since it’s only one and a half hour until the show. After a while, we’ve headed to the interview with Floor Jansen and Marco Hietala.
“Even the best democracies have their President.”
So, how are you doing tonight?
Marco and Flor: Pretty good, thanks!
Did you have a chance to see Kiev and look around?
Marco: Not this time. We had one or two days during our previous visit to see the downtown and the church area.
You are in a tour with this album for over a year. Is it hard and maybe you are getting a bit tired of the same set-lists?
*laughing*
Floor: No, not at all. We have a couple of songs that we always play, but the rest we try to vary. It’s a lot of fun to play these songs. No boredom there.
Marco: Actually, somehow we enjoy them ourselves. And of course when you are doing shows, it depends on what kind of vibes do you pick from the audience. You feed yourself with it and send the vibe back and it turns into a big snowball. Doing a show is a thing that we obviously all enjoy.
– Is it physically hard to travel so much?
Floor: Sometimes. If there is anything boring about preparations to the show it is definitely the traveling. I am tall and don’t fit in most of the vans. Same story is with airplanes. Knees are stuck between two seats or backs are inclined and it is very uncomfortable.
Both of you are vocalists. Do you have some sort of rivalry or competition spirit between you?
Floor: Yes, but we don’t want to talk about it.
Marco: You don’t want to see her kicking my ass.
Floor: *laughing* Just kidding. Rivalry? God no! It is such a pleasure to sing together!
Marco: It is a comfortable thing. Of course, we have our rules in the band and we follow them, but I think that the vocals are part of the whole package and there can be no rivalry. At least, this is my attitude.
Floor: I think our voices fit together in a very natural way and we haven’t decided which part to choose. It just went from the inside
Fans call your album flawless and perfect. Do you agree with that statement?
Floor: Yes, I mean…Perfect is such a difficult word. As a perfectionist I guess we can always find thing that might have been done better. I wish we could record song one more time after we’ve already toured with the album. There is a certain energy that comes on it can’t be reflect fully when you go for the first time. Unfortunately, we have been rehearsing for a lot of time and songs became a part of our system already. It is convenient, but still we would have added some things.
[gallery:27389]Marco: There are no perfect things in this world. I suppose, it is as perfect as we could make it at that time.
Floor: But my perfectionism was definitely satisfied and proud. We are supper happy with it.
Marco: But there always will be a desire to change something.
Floor: Always will, sure.
You meet your fans pretty often, what is the most frequently asked question you hear?
Marco: Will you sign a photo for me? Can we make a picture?
Maybe they ask about your music or even something more personal?
Floor: Most people don’t really want to ask, they want to talk. They want to tell us about their experience with our music. In most cases, they want to share their feelings and emotions.
Marco: Yes, to establish connection though that music with us, for instance, how did they hear the first song and how they live with it.
Floor: People are also interested in what we think about their city or country. Sometimes there are personal questions, but I am not too crazy about that.
Marco: Basically, we meet people on the streets and they tell us about their work, problems and needs. You can find good people in any country.
And maybe can recall something special about Ukrainian fans?
Floor: I’ve just came here and I only met a few people, but I can definitely say that this is the country of a proud people. They want to know what do we think about them and they are very excited. Musical market is less saturated here, than in the US, for example. You know, when we are in Michigan, people won’t ask what we think about Michigan, but here they will ask, because they are proud of their roots and I really like that pride. People want to share typical Ukrainian things with us.
Marco: Yeah, I still have that thing from the last visit. How to call it…a Morningstar?
A Club (Bulava). It is a symbol of power in Ukrainian history.
Marco: Oh, yes. I remember it. They have told me that time.
Rumor has it that Tuomas Holopainen is a perfectionist as well and he dictates each word and chord to the band. Is it truly so?
Marco: I’ve heard about it. Tuomas is not a tyrant, he is the leader of the band because he writes most of the things and the band’s success is mostly based on the visions that he has about it. But he is definitely not a tyrant. Tuomas sends his demos as well and we can make some arrangements as well. Me and Emmpu, we also write the music and if our materials go through his filter, our parts turn into full songs in the album. Everything can be discussed.
Floor: Even if he would try to say that we need to do something in exactly that way it would sound in a different way. He will find a personal approach to everybody and it will not be an order. And it happened a lot in our work. This way our demos got that Nightwish sound. It is our musical collaboration.
Marco: Even the best democracies have their President.
Floor: It is important to have a leader.
Floor and will you participate in writing the next album?
Marco: As I said, I record demos with my home equipment and given them over to Tuomas. If he thinks that it is good enough, we set it to the album.
Floor: I will make the same if I feel courage to do it. All in all, it would be fun to do. And I am really proud with this album and I don’t care who wrote it.
Marco: And coming back to my attitude towards Tuomas and his role. We all do our jobs and we don’t have to compete for the part in the album.
Floor: Music is our thoughts, not our Egos.
One more myth busted!
Floor: It’s pathetic that it became a myth. He is such a cool guy and he would never do things like that.
You have announced a break. What will you do in that period of time?
Floor: I don’t know yet. I would like to do something, but also want to be home with my nearest and dearest. If I do something with music, I don’t want to be tight with deadlines and be pressured. Just want to live in my own tempo and enjoy being at home and writing music. I have a band and I also have to make a decision about it, a lot of people are waiting for that. It will be announced pretty soon and it is a very hard decision. Having a band and a project in one time is very intense. I’ve lived a couple of years like that and now I need to choose one thing. And I really need some time home, that’s for sure.
Marco: I am planning to take some time for myself too. Of course there is an annual Christmas project and I am up to it for almost every year. Well, I can’t just sit and do nothing so I will probably write music and stuff like that.
Marco, you wrote a couple of lyrics recently, are they also connected to the science?
Marco: Yes, in many cases we share opinions and views of the world. Not in all, but most of it.
What is your favorite branch of science?
Marco: Obviously it is cosmology and astronomy. It is interesting to me since my childhood. All that processes, for example, why is the Sun shining and what nuclear reactions are there. I am up to it.
Floor, and what is yours?
Floor: I’ve never been in science like Tuomas or Marco. Probably Biology and Life Sciences. Because of this album, I read a lot about it, but science is such a huge thing.
You encourage people to learn more about science and make it popular, isn’t it?
Floor: It is normal and very important. Science is there in your everyday life and it is more fascinating for me, than some distant planets. Science is considered to be something geeky and it shouldn’t be so we encounter it all the time. Isn’t it interesting how we get light in our lamps and how the electricity generated or how pesticides affect bees and why we don’t do something with it. Everything in this world is connected.
Marco: Yes, what does constant sugar intake to our body and other things like that. All these answers can be found in popular scientific magazines and everyone is able to understand it. Cosmology is a miraculous thing. Just think about it: my body consists of atoms that were created billions of years ago in the heart of some distant ancient stars. It is a brilliant thought and science is very poetic.
Floor: Yes, amazing, so as the fact that we know all that. I grew up in the hint of religion in my background and it was always hard for me to understand it. However, later I realized that for many people, things that are written in an ancient book are still true, despite the fact that we can prove that things are working this way. People are willingly ignoring this because of the talking snake in the Garden and that it is truth for them. I found it the most astonishing. Everyone has a right to believe in what he wants, but you can’t just ignore facts. People just ignore hundreds years of development and miracles of our brain and what we are capable of.
Marco: Yes, for many people superstitions are more important.
Floor: And for this reason, I think that science should get out of that geeky intellects-only-corner.
It is around us and these are the facts, sorry. After you realize it you will see much more miracles in daily life than in the Bible or any other religious book that was written in the name of some God.
Floor, could you please tell more about Academy of rock? You were a student there.
Floor: Sure, it is a conservatory for rock and pop musicians. It is the first school that should have provided such an education. It was established in 1999 and I was one of the first students, however they’ve selected among thousands of people who wanted to be there. It was a unique establishment for that time and it has a lot of flaws. I was creating also the actual information and it was involving, but I have missed a kind of a guiding hand since I was only nineteen years old. I graduated from that school, however I also started taking vocals lessons at the conservatory and I did another year of music theatre and another year of opera there, just because I’ve missed out a decent vocal lessons. Interesting thing about vocal and musical education: opera exists for hundreds of years and the techniques how to sing it have been refined all the time. Pop singing is a very new phenomenon and it’s only decades old. People sang like this but without actual education. It was not necessary; people didn’t care and when I started there was almost nothing. And something that was, was not really good.
Marco: I did some vocal lessons when I was in the musical high school. And I remember when one of my friend told that teachers discuss that Hietala boy who goes out in winter with his coat opened, sings not much and smokes cigarettes. That boy will not sing for more than three years, since he is going to lose his voice. That was when? Thirty-something years ago?
Floor: Even normal pop singing was considered something bad for the voice. And how about growling, grunting, screaming and other techniques of the extreme vocal? Of course, you need to do it in the right way and you need to control your voice chords. There is a huge development in modern singing and vocal techniques. I wish I was younger, I would go back to school again. By the way, good musicians don’t need school. I don’t believe so. I have had vocal education for six years. I’ve been teaching for thirteen years. And I dare to say, when you are good, you don’t need it. If you are not that good, you won’t make it anyway. Even with education. There are only a few, who can do it and they are always the best or the best in some genre. A person can be a fantastic musician, but if he doesn’t have a skill to do what we do, for instance, if he doesn’t like traveling or can’t be with other people, he won’t make it. There are so many factors that make a musician successful, but education is just a tiny part of it.
Marco: Education can give some hints; you will reach some point faster and understand the process. Like I said, I took some vocal lessons but already at that time I’ve been singing for over three years in different school bands. I just learned how to breath and relax certain muscles on my classical singing lessons. But that’s it.
Floor: When you have a talent, you will find most of those basic techniques on your own. Yet, education indeed speeds up the process.
Marco: In addition, you need to have a passion for what you do. If you are on the borderline of being obsessed, you will succeed. At least it worked that way for me.
Floor, you have been teaching vocal courses, could you please tell more about it?
Floor: I’ve been teaching since 2003, but it was always a part-time thing since I travel a lot. Nowadays, I don’t do any individual lessons since I don’t have time for that. I don’t select people for that, it is impossible. I am glad to everyone who wants to come, preferably people who do come to sing. It is very annoying when you teach somebody, who just sit and look at you. That’s a waste of my time. It is very interesting to work with people who really came to sing and it is a pleasure. I will do it in Rome pretty soon. Usually I have two groups – for Beginners and Advanced.
How does it feel to be one of the most popular metal bands?
Marco: Absurd, mostly. It nice and flattering, but it is also weird. Some people really look up to you and pay too much attention. I am personally down to Earth and I will never understand people, who put me next to God on the pedestal, because I would never do that to anybody. It is a crappy place to be. But anyway, I respect it.
Maybe you can tell us when your drummer Jukka Nevalainen comes back?
Floor: I wish we knew. But overall he is doing fine.
We wish him the soonest recovery!
Floor and Marco: Thank you!
A Gifted Flag
The Nightwish show has started with the first song of the album – Shudder Before the Beautiful. Fans have planned a mass flash mob for this very song: the audience raised white and blue sheets of paper to create a giant flag of Finland.
The first one to see the flag was Kai, then Floor and Tuomas! They were smiling and seemed to like it, – shared one of the fans a bit later.
The set-list was mainly based on songs from the latest album. Floor several times said “Thank you” in Ukrainian and congratulated us on the victory in the Eurovision song contest.
Artists were full of emotions: Jansen’s facial expression changed with every chord, Marco pulled face all the time, Emppu thrown picks to the exultant crowd and synchronous Floor and Tuomas’ headbanging looked really astounding.
Musicians always glanced at their “President”, who watchfully followed them and looked rigorously or encouragingly at his team.
Yet, enough words – click on photos and open a full-screen mode to see it on your own.
[gallery:27377]Floor and Marco recorded exclusively for Weekend readership a video where promised to return with a concert! We will be eagerly waiting for the next show of the band we dare to call perfect.
