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Nightwish

Mon 22 May 2006

New DVD and singer

Nightwish have become somewhat a musical phenomenon since the release of their hugely successful album, ‘Once’. To celebrate part of the career and also to close a chapter on the unravelling events that led to lead vocalist Tarja Tarunnen being removed from the line-up, Nightwish have released a DVD showcasing 18 operatic metal wonders that will be sure to leave all fans old and new wiping the crusted drool from their lips.

Drummer, Jukka spared a few comments on the current situation with Nightwish now all the dramatic hullabaloo has died down, oh and a little about the new DVD aswell.

Lee - So, I believe you have a Live CD/DVD coming out called ‘End Of An Era’.

Nightwish
Jukka - Yeah, I believe it’s June 2nd.

Lee - So obviously it’s got the last show you played with Tarja, but what other features are included?

Jukka - Well it’s got the 18 songs played on our last show in Helsinki, there is also a photo gallery which includes pictures taken from that show. There is also a 55min documentary, which follows the band in the last two weeks of the Once Tour, when we were touring South America.

Lee - How was that tour then?

Jukka - Well, the actual tour was really good but the documentary was a bit strange to watch because you can clearly see that something’s going on in the band and the atmosphere on the documentary is quite gloomy and depressing. You can clearly see the band was in two camps, you had Tarja and her management (her husband) and on the other side you had us, the rest of the band and our crew.

Lee - Did you guys know in advance that she had to go?

Jukka - Well the decision had been made weeks before, we find it hard to think she had no clue, which is what Tarja has been saying in the press, because for the last year we never even spoke and we haven’t spoke since last October.

Lee - Is there going to be any limited pressings of the DVD?

Nightwish
Jukka - Well, yeah labels always have this urge to release something limited and I guess it’s a nice thing for the fans. I believe there is going to be a three LP package thing and a special 1000 copy pressing of it for Nuclear Blast mail order only. I suppose there will be all kinds of digi-packs and everything.

Lee - The name ‘End Of An Era’, it doesn’t leave much to the imagination does it?

Jukka - Yeah, it’s obviously not about an end of Nightwish but more so about the end of the fact that it’s the last time with a female singer we’ve had in the band since the beginning and for many years and now its time for a new great era to begin.

Lee - So it’s definitely a female singer you’ll be looking for?

Jukka - It’s quite strange because a lot of the interviewers have been asking ‘why are you just looking for a female singer?’ But I think Nightwish make music that needs a female voice to do justice to Tomas’ songs.

Lee - So, how is the vocal search going?

Jukka - It’s going real well, it’s a huge job to do. We’ve already got like 400 to 500 demos that have been sent to us, and at least one band member will listen to a demo, everyone is getting a fair go. Then all the potential demos are listened to by all the band, the final audition will be sometime later this year. We are currently still receiving demos everyday, it needs to be perfect and everyone in the band needs to feel the same about the potential new singer, then we’ll invite her over and have a rehearsal with her to see how it goes. Besides having a great voice she also needs a great personality, huge charisma and some experience on the road or in the industry is certainly helpful.

Lee - So with all the time spent working on the DVD and searching for a new singer, have you had any time to write some new material?

Jukka - Tomas has been writing some new material and we got a demo from him the other week and we’ve been playing around with some ideas but nothing much. But the studio where we’ll be doing the vocal parts is already booked for September so we’ll be doing

Nightwish
that. Hopefully the album will be released in the fall of 2007.

Lee - Full piece orchestra?

Jukka - Yeah, of course, conducted by the same guy as before.

Lee - What is it about ‘Once’ that seemingly sky rocketed your career?

Jukka - The songs on the ‘Once’ album are definitely the strongest we’ve done so far. The whole package, if I may say so, is close to perfect and the label worked really hard promoting ‘Once’ which I think helped us get noticed by people who might not have heard us before.

Lee - So what do you think about Lordi representing Finland in Eurovision?

Jukka - I think it’s great that the Finnish people finally had some courage to send a band like Lordi to a conservative music environment such as Eurovision. In a way Lordi have already won because they have gained a lot of publicity all around Europe from this. I definitely hope they win.