FAQ

Where does the name 'Nightwish' come from?

Tuomas - "This is a cliché, but I love the night and its magic and I love to wander around at nightime and let my thoughts fly. Often I dream and send wishes to the stars...Originally it was the title of one from our very first demo, which included 3 acoustic songs ("Nightwish", "The Forever Moments" and "Etiäinen"), and because of that, our demo was called "Nightwish-demo". I liked the name and thought that this name describes what our music is all about so that is why it also became the band's name"

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Who are the members of Nightwish?

Anette Olzon - Vocals
Tuomas Holopainen - Keyboards, synths
Erno ‘Emppu' Vuorinen - Guitar
Jukka Nevalainen - Drums
Marco Hietala - Bass

Previous Members:
Sami Vänskä – Bass (1998 – 2002)
Tarja Turunen - Vocals(1996-2005)

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Why is Emppu's name often listed as Erno?

Erno was actually his birth name. However, he has said that as this name can be very hard to pronounce for Finnish people, he was given the nickname ‘Emppu' which has stuck to this day.

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Why did Sami leave the band?

Sami (Vänskä) was the bassist for Nightwish from 1998 to early 2002, at which point Marco (Hietala) joined. There were personal reasons which only the band knows, but we know that Tuomas and Sami had problems agreeing on things. Tuomas speaks about this on the ‘End of Innocence' DVD.

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Who plays bass on Angels Fall First?

On many of the songs on Angels Fall First, there is no bass. However, where there is, Emppu plays bass aswell as guitar.

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Have Nightwish ever broken up?

Technically, no, although they nearly did when Sami left the band. It is said that Tuomas had had enough by then and told the members to call it off, that Nightwish was coming to an end. He took some time off, walking the hills and hiking. However, after a year, the band regrouped with new bassist Marco Hietala. Since then, the band has been stronger than ever.

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What equipment do the band members use?

Emppu - ESP Guitars.

Jukka - Tama Starclassic drums, Paiste cymbals, Pro Mark sticks and Remo drumheads. Full details of Jukka's drum setup can be found here.

Marco - Warwick Infinity bass, Kramer Forum 1 bass, Warwick Pro-tube IX amp.

Tarja - Not known.

Tuomas - Korg Triton Classic, Korg N354, Korg Karma.

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Why is Tarja the 'face' of the band, if Tuomas writes the songs?

Each band has a 'face', someone who immediately comes to mind when a band is mentioned. Tarja is the singer of the band, and is at the front of the stage for the majority of the time during performances; when you listen to a piece of music, usually the vocals are one of the first things you pay most attention to (if the music has vocals).

Tarja has a strong voice that demands attention in the songs; Tuomas has the power to write the words she sings albeit he is still the keyboard player. Also, with Tarja being the only female of the band, she is often singled out; even more so for being one of few females in a male-lead 'metal' world.

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What other projects do members of Nightwish work on?

Tarja has done vocals for Beto Vazquez Infinity, on their album 'Infinity', she has also been a part of Noche Escandinavia, an opera that has taken place in Chile and Argentina since June 2002.

Emppu has written music for a track on Beto Vazquez Infinity - Infinity. Until recently, he also played guitar for Altaria.

Tuomas plays keyboards for For My Pain, although has said he will not join the band for any live shows. In 2002 he also played keyboards at several live shows in Finland for Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus. You can also hear Tuomas playing keyboards on the debut Sethian album

Jukka plays drums for Sethian.

Marco still sings and plays bass in his original band, Tarot. He has also sung backing vocals for Altaria and played bass in Sinergy.

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Are any Nightwish members married?

Tarja is married to Argentinian entrepreneur Marcelo Cabuli. They became engaged at the end of 2002 and were married in the summer of 2003.

Jukka is in a long term relationship with his girlfriend, Satu. In March 2003 they had a baby together, a girl named Luna.

Marco is married with children

Tuomas is believed to have a girlfriend, although he prefers to keep this information private.

There is currently no information about Emppu.

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What kind of music do Nightwish play?

Everyone has a different opinion as to what genre of music Nightwish play. However, in an interview, Tuomas Holopainen once described their music as "Melodic heavy metal with a female voice".

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What are the meanings behind Nightwish's songs?

All songs (music and lyrics), aside from the covers, are written by Tuomas and many of them have very personal meanings for him. No one will ever know the full meanings of all the songs, apart from Tuomas. Some songs are more 'obvious' than others, but each person has their own interpretation of each song and they are entitled to that. Tuomas may have reasons for not saying the meanings of his songs, and he of course, has the right to that.

You can however read Tuomas' notes on the meanings behind the songs on ‘Wishmaster' on this page of the official website.

Tuomas and Tarja also spoke about the meanings behind the songs on ‘Century Child' in a German goth magazine. You can read the transcription (in English) at on the Nightwish Fansite.

The Russian fansite (in English) also provides some explanations as to the meanings of many Nightwish songs.

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What are Nightwish's influences?

Tuomas once said that he was highly inspired by metal bands such as Stratovarius. He has also been inspired by fantasy, especially Lord Of The Rings and the Dragonlance series. Disney is also a big part of Tuomas's life.

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Who sings the male vocal parts for Nightwish?

From Century Child onwards (including ‘Once') the male vocal duties in Nightwish have been handled by Marco Hietala, the bands bassist. A number of different vocalists have featured on earlier recordings however. The following is a list of all Nightwish tracks featuring male vocals and who performs them.

Angels Fall First – 1997
Beauty And The Beast - Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish)
The Carpenter - Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish)
Astral Romance - Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish)

Oceanborn – 1998
Devil And The Deep Dark Ocean - Wilska (Sethian, Finntroll)
The Pharaoh Sails To Orion - Wilska (Sethian, Finntroll)

Wishmaster – 2000
The Kinslayer - Ike Vil (from 'Babylon Whores' – appearing thanks to Necropolis Records)
Dead Boy's Poem - Sam Hardwick

Over The Hills And Far Away - 2001
Over The Hills And Far Away - Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica)
10th Man Down - Wilska (Sethian, Finntroll)
Astral Romance (Remake 2001) - Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica)

Century Child – 2002
Bless the Child - Sam Hardwick
Beauty of the Beast – Sam Hardwick

All other male vocals on Century Child by Marco Hietala.

You may also see Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica) performing Beauty and the Beast with Nightwish on the ‘From Wishes to Eternity' DVD. On this DVD and at most Nightwish shows, Wilska performs on the live version of ‘Pharaoh Sails to Orion'.

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Why does each album sound so different?

Every band progresses through different sounds, as do songwriters. Experimenting with different effects and sounds, trying new things with the instruments. If you listen to each album in order they were made, you can hear how Nightwish have progressed through, from having some acoustic tracks on 'Angels Fall First' to having heavier tracks as on 'Oceanborn' and 'Century Child'.

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Why don't Nightwish play "Ocean Soul" live?

Nightwish have agreed as a band never to play this song live because this song is very personal to Tuomas and he would prefer not to play it live.

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Have Nightwish ever made a soundtrack or had songs used on a soundtrack?

'End Of All Hope' and 'Slaying The Dreamer' are used in a Finnish movie called 'Kohtalon Kirja' (The Book Of Fate).

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How many Nightwish videos have been made?

Videos have been made for:

- The Carpenter
- Sacrament of Wilderness
- Sleeping Sun
- Over The Hills And Far Away
- Bless The Child
- End Of All Hope
- Nemo
- Wish I Had An Angel

You can see all pre-Once videos split between the two DVDs ('From Wishes to Eternity' and 'End Of Innocence') and on the Drakkar version of 'Over The Hills And Far Away'.

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Which album should I buy first?

Any Nightwish album can be bought first, but it has been recommended on the official message board to buy them in chronological order, that way you can listen to the progression the band have made over the years. Many fans also recommend ‘Wishmaster' as a good starting point.

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Will Nightwish ever play in my country?

It's always best to check out the tour page on the Official Nightwish Homepage, or the tours section of our site. If it's not there, then Nightwish aren't coming at this time.

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Where can I buy official Nightwish merchandise?

Official merchandise for the band is available from the Nightwish Shop. All merchandise sold here is official and goes directly towards supporting the band. You can also visit our merchandise page for a list and further details of online stores stocking Nightwish merchandise.

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Where can I find the fonts used for the Nightwish logo and Once logo and tracklist?

The font used for the Nightwish logo is Shelley Volante Script. The font used on Once and also Nemo is Tension. In order to use either font, you must first purchase a license. You can do this by visiting the links provided, the fonts are priced at $25.99 and $29 respectively.

The Crew

The Band - The Crew

	Ewo Pohjola Manager NW Bartender		Toni Peiju NW Agent Business Manager Accounts		Kimmo Ahola Sound engineer
	Markku Aalto Pyrotechnician		Tero Kinnunen Bass Tech Backgrounds		Andy Toiviainen Guitar Tech
	"Ulsch" Weitz Drum Tech		Jarmo Lautamäki Webmaster Programmer (shops)		Christian Lessner Webmaster
	Benedikt Deicke Programmer Administrator		Jessica Lehto Swedish translations		Estevão Camargo Portuguese translations

The Band - Biography(The history of Nightwish)

1996

The idea of Nightwish was "born" in July 1996 at midnight when Tuomas was spending a night with his friends around a campfire. The first three songs, which were acoustic mood music, were recorded between October and December 1996. At that time, the band had three members: Tuomas, Tarja and Emppu.

1997

The band wanted to see what the music would sound like if drums were added (Jukka joined the band). Also at this time, the acoustic guitar was replaced with an electric. After a couple of weeks of training, the band went to the studio this was in April 1997. At that time seven songs were recorded. These songs can be found on the limited edition of the album Angels Fall First.
In May 1997, Nightwish signed a recording contract with Spinefarm for two records. That August, the band went to the studio and recorded four new songs. Before the release of Angels Fall First, a single called The Carpenter was released, and made it to number eight on the official singles chart in Finland. Angels Fall First was released in early November and went number 31 on the official album chart in Finland. Nightwish played their first gig in Kitee on the 31st December 1997. After that Nightwish played only seven gigs in the following winter because Jukka and Emppu were in the army and Tarja was busy with her studies. Nightwish and at this time, Spinefarm extended the contract to include three records instead of two.

1998

In April 1998, they started filming the first video, The Carpenter. It was ready in early May and was first played on Jyrki. In late May, Tuomas and Tarja interviewed on that show. In the following summer, the bassist Sami Vänskä joined the band.
During the summer, songs for the new record were rehearsed and the band went to the studio in early August; the recordings were finished in late October. On November 13th, Nightwish played a gig in Kitee during which, a video for Sacrament of Wilderness was filmed. That song's single was released on November 26th and the new record called Oceanborn was released on December 7th.
Everybody was surprised by the success of Oceanborn. It went up to fifth place on the official Finnish album chart and the single Sacrament of Wilderness was the number one on the singles chart for weeks.

1999

In winter 1999, Nightwish played a lot of gigs all around the country for three months which included a gig on the Lista chart show program. In spring Oceanborn was first released outside of Finland. In May, the band started to play gigs again and toured the country for two and a half months, playing in almost all of the big rock festivals. At the same time the single Sleeping Sun was recorded, which was written for the eclipse in Germany. In August, the single was released in Germany and it also included the songs Walking in the Air, Swanheart, and Angels Fall First. In Germany alone the single sold 15,000 copies in just one month. In August, Nightwish learned that Oceanborn and Sacrament of Wilderness had sold gold. At the same time it was confirmed that Nightwish would be touring Europe for 26 gigs with the German band Rage.

2000

In early 2000 the band entered the studio again for the recording of their third album. A welcome interruption came to the repetitive studio work when they took part in the Finnish qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Sleepwalker. Nightwish cleared the first round of the qualification, but the final position was second despite an overwhelming win in the public televoting.
The new album, Wishmaster, was released in May and the Wishmaster Tour started from Kitee, the home town of the band. After the show, the band received gold discs for the album Oceanborn and the singles Sacrament of Wilderness, Walking in the Air, and Sleeping Sun. Wishmaster went straight to number 1 on the Finnish album charts and stayed in that position for three weeks, during that time, it also reached the gold disc mark. Wishmaster was approved by both the fans and the media and it was named the album of the month by the German magazine Rock Hard in their issue 6/2000, past the long-awaited new releases by Bon Jovi and Iron Maiden.
Wishmaster also debuted in the National German Charts at No. 21 and No. 66 in France! The "Wishmaster World Tour", which started from Kitee, continued first to the big festivals in Finland and then to South America in July 2000. The three-week tour in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Panama and Mexico turned out to be one of the band's greatest experiences so far. This was followed by successful shows at Wacken Open Air, Biebop Metal Fest and the first headliner European tour with Sinergy and Eternal Tears Of Sorrow. In November, Nightwish also played two shows in Montreal, Canada.
The next project of Nightwish included the making of a full-length concert DVD & VHS with a limited live album (only for Finland). The concert was performed in Tampere on the 29th of December 2000. The material was released in April 2001 in Finland and worldwide during the summer of 2001. At the end of the show, Nightwish were given platinum discs for "Wishmaster" and gold discs for the single "Deep Silent Complete".

2001

In March 2001 Nightwish entered the studio again to record their version of Gary Moore's classic Over The Hills And Far Away, with 2 new songs and a remake of Angels Fall First's "Astral Romance". The Finnish release for this EP was in June 2001. The German version of "Over The Hills And Far Away" (released by Drakkar) includes 6 live tracks in addition to the 4 unreleased songs. Nightwish has also extended the record deal with Spinefarm Records with one full-length album, which was set to be released in Summer 2002.
The video for the track "Over the Hills and Far Away", which had rapidly sold platinum in Finland as a mini-CD, was shot in August 2001 in Finland. The tour in Finland the same year ended in Nivala, and the band was close to disbanding. Tuomas went hiking and gathering his thoughts in Lappland; some changes had to be done in order for Nightwish to be able to continue. According to his own words, Tuomas wanted to end the band due to prolonged disagreements within the band. Luckily, that didn't happen. But something happened, a lot in fact. Sami Vänskä, who had been with them since Oceanborn, had to leave. Marco Hietala, known from Tarot and Sinergy, promised to step in as a replacement for the next album and tour. King Foo Entertainment became their new booking agency, and long-time friend and colleague, Ewo Rytkönen, was to become their manager. To celebrate the "new beginning", the first official shop for fan-products, Nightwish-Shop, was opened on the band's homepage on November 24th 2001, a month before Christmas. The recording of the next album Century Child started in January 2002.

2002

The beginning of 2002 brought Nightwish good news, in comparison to previous rough times. As a band and as individual musicians they were voted to the top on many domestic and foreign magazines reader's polls. The fans had not abandoned them after the changes, on the contrary. Ever Dream, the first single from the forthcoming album, went gold in Finland within 2 days. At the same time Nightwish announced they would take a break as soon as the "Century Child World Tour 2002" would be over, Tarja would finish her educations in Germany during the break. That announcement brought up all kinds of speculations among fans. Sami leaving the previous Fall, now a break that would last a year...
Century Child came out in May 2002 and made a sales record, selling gold in Finland within 2 hours! Within two weeks it sold platinum (30,000 copies) and continued selling rapidly. At the same time Nightwish held the top-position in both singles-and album charts, for their first time ever. Foreign countries responded, too: in Germany, Century Child went straight to number 5 and in Austria, number 15, those two being the band's highest positions abroad so far. In July, Nightwish toured successfully in South America, where nearly all gigs sold out. In Brazil, the first edition of Century Child was sold out in one day, and the successful European tour that year didn't go unnoticed by booking agencies. Many European gigs were broadcasted live on the internet, needless to say the connections were often jammed. At its most, nearly 10,000 fans were trying to follow the live feed. Having sold an astonishing 59,000 copies in Finland, Century Child was the country's 2nd best selling album in 2002. The first visit to Sweden took place on 16th November 2002, in Fryshuset, Stockholm. The break started in late 2002, and sure enough there was no rest for the guys. Jukka played with Sethian and Bitch Driven, Tuomas with Sethian, For My Pain..., and Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus, Emppu played with Altaria, and Marco with Tarot. All in all the break wasn't to last nearly a year, back on the road...

2003

The beginning of 2003 saw more good results in reader's polls of various magazines, and a studio was booked in order to start recording the next album, planned to be released the next year. Happenings also at the home-front: Jukka and his girlfriend Satu had a daughter, Luna, on March 11, 2003. Nightwish received their first double-platinum award for Century Child, having sold 60,000. The band performed mostly abroad in 2003, the only gig in Finland was at RMJ 2003 on June 20th. The second visit to Sweden took place at the sold out "Gates of Metal"-festival in Hultsfred. During 2003, the forthcoming DVD-documentary End of Innocence was being put together, and it's release was postponed a few times due to huge amount of material.
In May 2003, Tarja Turunen announced that she had secretly gotten married a few months earlier, and would be moving back to Finland. The DVD "End of Innocence" was finally released on October 6th 2003, and at that point, Nightwish had already started recording the next album. Their fifth album "Once" would be the most important release in the history of Nightwish. Meanwhile, Finland's President, Tarja Halonen, had also taken note of Nightwish's achievements and invited Tarja Turunen and her husband Marcelo Cabuli to the annual independence-day party held at the presidential residence. Tarja's dress was voted as the most beautiful dress that evening.
Before the Christmas of 2003 Nightwish auctioned their "Century Child World Tour"-backdrop, and donated all the money to charity. The outcome was 1,750 EUR, and was given to Parikanniemi's Children's home in Ristiina on December 2003. The funds were handed out by Tarja Turunen, Michael "Big Tini" Leipold from Germany became the new proud owner of the backdrop.

2004

The year 2004 was eagerly expected by both the fans and the band. Exhausting studio-sessions took their toll both physically and mentally. The actual recording took place at the Phoenix-studios in London, the same studio and with the same orchestra (The Academy of St. Martins in the Field) that Howard Shore used for writing the score for "The Lord of the Rings"-trilogy. Orchestral-and choral arrangements were written by Pip Williams, who has produced "Status Quo"and "riah Heep" Big time, great expectations!
Nemo was the first single released off the forthcoming album, and a big-budget video was made. The director was Antti Jokinen, who had previously worked with Shania Twain and Eminem.
With the new album, Nightwish had some changes with the recording contract, and the new material was released by Nuclear Blast. Good old Spinefarm Records would still handle the distribution in Finland. Nuclear Blast spent a considerable amount of money marketing Once, especially in Germany. Pictures of Nightwish and Once were splattered all over the television-channels, subways, buses and streets, and the press wasn't forgotten either. Every German will know Nightwish by now.
Once went gold in Finland on its day of release, as did the single "Nemo". Nightwish started a world Tour of 150 concerts in all continents, the tour lasted until the end of 2005. This tour was be the biggest in the history of Nightwish so far. The album "Once" sold gold in Finland immediately on its release day, as did the single "Nemo". In May 2004, Nightwish started the Once World Tour. The Once World Tour lasted until the end of October 2005. There were about 130 gigs all over the world, including new countries such as Japan, Australia, Colombia, Ecuador, Poland, Slovenia, Portugal, Denmark, and Greece. The tour was the biggest in Nightwish's history. From month to month the venues grew bigger and the news told about success.
The second single, Wish I Had An Angel, was released in Autumn 2004. The song's video was directed by Uwe Boll, director of the movie "Alone In The Dark", in which the song was also played. The second single was again a great success and boosted the sales of the Once album.
In August, Nightwish finally made it to the USA! The tour was very successful and they planned to come back for a bigger tour in 2005. After the tours in Europe and South America in the Autumn of 2004, and some separate gigs in December, the band had some time off in January 2005.

2005

In February 2005, Nightwish won five awards in Emma-Gala (Finnish Grammy). Among the others they won awards for "The Band of the Year" and "The Best Selling Album of the Year". Tuomas and Marco flew from European tour to Helsinki to receive the awards. The last show in the European tour was so far the biggest gig of their own, in Stuttgart there were 10,001 people watching the show!
In March, Nightwish performed the first time in Japan and Australia; in April and May, they had to have a break because of Tarja's other interests, but at the end of May the band started the tour again by playing with Iron Maiden in Poland and with Mötley Crüe in Norway.
In July, the 3rd single, a new version of Sleeping Sun, was released since the record label had decided to use it to promote the forthcoming collection Highest Hopes. The new version of the video for "Sleeping Sun" was directed by Joern Heitmann and shot in August 2005 in Prague. During the Autumn 2005, Nightwish played several shows and performed in the legendary Hammersmith Apollo Venue for sold out seats. After a short festival tour in South America (in October), the Once World Tour was coming to an end. The final concert was played on 21 October for 11,500 people in Hartwall-Arena in Helsinki. The concert was also recorded to be released as an End of an Era live DVD.
After the last concert, Tuomas, Emppu, Marco and Jukka fired Tarja Turunen, and her manager Marcelo Cabuli. The reason for this was because during the Once Tour their attitude and actions had turned out to be against almost all that Nightwish represents. As one may guess, the news of the firing was followed by an incredible sensation and hullabaloo. Once the nearly ridiculous fuss was finally starting to calm down in the end of 2005, Nightwish was able to look to the future and wait for an adequate singer to be found.
By the end of 2005, "Once" has sold approx. 1,000 000 copies worldwide as well, it has sold triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany, and gold in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, and Austria. The "Highest Hopes" collection has sold double platinum in Finland and gold in Norway by the end of the year 2005.

2006

The year 2006 began with good news for Nightwish: Their "Highest Hopes" Best-Of compilation had not only crossed the Finnish Double Platinum mark of 60,000 sold copies, it was also Finland's best-selling album of 2005, having sold more than 65,000 times. With the media frenzy finally slowing down, the band members found time to concentrate on the important things again. Tuomas had already written the majority of the new songs, Emppu recorded some new tunes with the Finnish hard rock band Brother Firetribe, Marco returned to the Tarot camp to record the eagerly awaited album "Crows Fly Black" and Jukka had his own business projects going on.

In March, Nightwish brought home two prizes from the Emma Gaala. The band was awarded an Emma as "Best Finnish Artist 2005" and one for "Most Sold Album 2005". In the same month, the band officially started to look for a new vocalist through an open call for auditions on their website. In April, the Finnish music video awards, the Muuvi, brought more happy news to Nightwish. The jury awarded the band a Silver Muuvi for their "Sleeping Sun" video, shot in 2005. The video also made it to the second place in the public voting. May finally brought two long-expected releases. The Nightwish book, written by Mape Ollila, was released in Finland. Shortly after, Nightwish's second full-length live DVD "End Of An Era" was released and reached gold status in Finland after just one day. It was later certified gold in Germany and France as well. In the following weeks, the band retreated to their summer camp to rehearse the new songs and have a good summer. Meanwhile, the media kept themselves busy with unending speculations about the new singer.

In September, Nightwish went to the studio to begin recording the next album.

2007

The auditions for the position as new lead singer ended in mid-January. All in all, the band had received and listened to more than 2,000 demos from singers from all over the world. Exciting news that was followed by the announcement of the first new live shows, scheduled to happen in the USA and Canada in October and November.

On May 24th, all speculating and waiting was put to an end when Nightwish introduced their new lead singer, Anette Olzon. Within minutes, the news was all over websites and news stations around the world. One day later, the first single "Eva" was released as an internet-only single. The single's entire revenue was donated to a children's charity.

In June, the band went to Los Angeles to shoot two videos for their upcoming singles "Amaranth" and "Bye Bye Beautiful". Both were directed by the renown Finnish director Antti Jokinen, who had already worked with Nightwish for their "Nemo" video. "Amaranth" was released in August and sold gold in just two days in Finland. It made good charts positions all across Europe and went straight to the top of the single charts in Finland, Hungary and Spain.

The new album "Dark Passion Play" was released in late September and had a very successful start all across the world. It was awarded double platinum in Finland after just two days and received four more gold awards so far. The album entered the charts at the top position in several countries. The world tour is booked, first shows already sold out, the new era has begun...

Nightwish Diary #2

The Band - Diary
Nightwish's diary


25.02.2004

Cheers guys `n gals!

On January 29.-30. we went to London for the first orchestra/choir/percussion recording session. The result of these days was beyond my wildest expectations. The musicians were incredible, playing their parts beautifully, passionately, and without any rehearsals. Their musicianship was something I will never be able to comprehend. Pip Williams did a superb job with the arrangements, too. Out of the album`s 11 songs, the London gang will play in 9 altogether!!! The next session will take place next Sunday and then the album is pretty much ready for the mixing process.

Both Tarja`s and Marco`s vocals were done at Finnvox during the first part of February. This process went very smoothly and both of them, again, exceeded themselves. We experimented a bit with Tarja`s voice and the result is fantastic. Except for one bonustrack which is the worst shit I`ve ever done.

Now I`m playing my remaining parts of the keys and pianos. We found it makes more sense to do this after the orchestras and vocals.

Nemo-video editing is going fine, the cover artwork is ready, new photos are on the way, so the whole package is coming out fine.

In between the recordings we`ve been enjoying an overdose of Chinese food, alcohol, Hellsinki nightlife, and each other`s overwhelming company. (Waking up next to Tero every morning for a couple of months is beginning to make my groin itch). I also found out (in a blessed state of mind & body) what Marco truly thinks about the coversong we made... To a certain amount, I must agree with him, Haha!

Nighttime wishes,

Tuomas

Written by Tuomas on February 24, 2004

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23.01.2004

morjens!

Last recording session in Kitee were over at midnight 23.1. Then it was legendary GME choir´s turn to put some sweet and actually very melodic voices to the forthcoming album. Check how sweet and melodic their voice was from this video-clip. (Thanks again to Tohmajärvi!!!) Three songs have now that kind of sweet icing :) After very successful session we had "after-recording" -party in Kitee´s Karhu -bar. The hit of that night was absolutely "whisky-banana-cola"!!!

TeeCee

Written by TeeCee on January 22, 2004

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19.-20.01.2004

In a very relaxed athmosphere I started practising vocals with Tero and Tuomas. In a very beginning we took a brand new song to work with and I was very suprised in a positive way. Even though everything was a quite chaotic... this should get everyones attention! =) Totally we went through eight songs during two days and the basic idea for this session was to get some kind of idea of how melodies, harmony and lyrics work together. This was a good thing to do before entering Finnvox studios. (It's not a very good idea to go there without knowing what to do. !) Anyway, I believe that what I've heard/learned during these days Mikko Karmila will have many shocks during the recordings. There's still some unprepared material and some very "risky" choices so we'll definately will have a lot of fun in a studio. I almost laughed myself to death yesterday.

Well, as a summary of all this I could say that as long as singing rockmusic is this much fun we might even succeed it. At least sometimes...not very often...not often enough at all...hardly never well enough...forget it.

Tarja

Written by Tarja on January 19, 2004

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29.12.2003

For the upcoming album we will have an honor to work with Mr. Pip Williams, who has agreed to do the orchestral and choral arrangements for the album. Mr. Williams has been working with bands like Uriah Heep and Status Quo since the 70`s, and his career includes countless rock / soul / film score projects since the 60`s. The actual recordings will take place at Phoenix Studios, in London. This studio and the orchestra (The Academy of St. Martins in the Field) was e.g. used by Howard Shore while recording the music for the "Lord Of The Rings" –trilogy...!!!

I met Mr. Williams 3 weeks ago in London and our musical visions and ambitions joined instantly, both sharing passion for film music. This guy is incredible and really enthuastic about working with us. I truly believe this is going to kick ass big time. I`m already counting the nights.

There will be also one finnish-language song on new album!

Tuomas / Nightwish

Written by Tuomas on December 28, 2003




29.12.2003

Good evening from the southern seacoast of Finland. In this case "southern" is just the geological location compared to the rest of the country. The wind is at the speed of storm, and the sea swells with the melting snow and rain. I stay inside. In here there´s warmth and a twinkling christmastree. Our twins are playing with their present toycars and I, at least, have a bloated belly from all the senseless eating during the holidays.
A week before Christmas I was in Kitee playing my bassparts for the upcoming album. We had a quite nice session over there. One afternoon of soundcheck and after that three days of intensive playing and recording. We usually had a break in the afternoon to eat and to have a couple of rounds of worms at the playstation. I got my ass kicked way too many times, so I´ll take my revenge on you dear fans. The basslines and the sound will come to
kick your ass. I hope you´ll appreciate the fairness of it. The album seems to be coming together nicely. Emppu had lots of rhythmguitar stuff done already and from what I heard, he still has a very good connection between his brains and hands. Via that massive torso of his, of course.

For the new year: EVERYONE SHOULD PROMISE TO ROCK!!!!!!

29.12.2003 Helsinki, Finland
Marco Hietala

Written by Marco on December 28, 2003

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17.11.-23.11. - Jukka's week

Drums_DayOne

Trip from Joensuu to Helsinki was pure torture like it always is. There are two things you can do in a train... Drink or sleep. We didn't feel like sleeping...

In Helsinki Ewo picked us up and took us to the hotel Helka which is our home for a next week. At this point everything looks good. Tomorrow we've planned starting at 10 a clock. First we'll pick up new heads for the drums and then take mr. Gas (HIM drummer) with us since he is supposed to help us with the drum sounds. We haven't heard anything about him for a week but he'll show up... We guess...


Drums_DayTwo

Sounds are great!!! We've planned of getting the drum sounds of the new album a little bit more like "natural". Put the samples a little bit to the background just to give real sounds a little bit back up. So this time we took much more time to create the wanted sound. Gas was a HUGE help. However we started to get a little bit worried because we didn't reached him until afternoon and we didn't know if he was coming at all. But finally he showed up and did a great job. Tomorrow we've planned of starting the recording by recording 3 "bunch"-songs. The style could be described Rammstein goes Kotiteollisuus (great Finnish band). This might be a little bit misleading but that's the best I can do right now!!!


Drums_DayThree

One day of drumming behind. First thing in the morning we needed to hunt down the secret weapon to get the sounds to the final level... Dictaphone!!! We almost gave up because only thing shops were able to give was "WeDon'tHaveIt" but luckily we found out that those inventions of the devil are sold in the Anttila(supermarket). So mr. E Rytkönen went there sent the machine in a taxi to Finnvox. Then just plug in and machine inside the bass drum. Now this is what I'd call distortion...

I have to be very satisfied because even though we had some delay we reached our goal and great sounds make right for the Rammstein-beat... Or what ever it should be called...


Drums_DayFour

The result of the day was various amount of some worse and some better takes. It's surprisingly difficult to get hand and foot to hit the drumhead at the same time... Result was 3 songs so we're in the middle of the session.

It's quite depressive to find out that the four Hi-Hat cymbals which you bought just for the session were replaced by cymbals which were found from the corner of the B-studio(Finnvox) and which were manufactured about 1 AD and which looked pretty close like lid of the kettle. =) Luckily my new best friend small ThinChina -cymbal turned out to be very nice and it's slashing-sound will be heard in many songs. It's nice to find out that not all of your purchased were for vain.


Drums_DayFive

It seems that disease which has been bugging Tero for a two months now has got into be. Head feel like empty barrel and I have difficulties to concentrate to anything. I hope it's better tomorrow. We got 3 songs today but it was total torture, We took takes after takes and it just doesn't worked like it should have. GOD DAMN!!!


Drums_DaySix

A little bit better than yesterday and 3 more songs done. Only one song for tomorrow and it's the cover-song. Can't tell yet what it is but it will mostly be done for our own pleasure. It probably won't be even on the actual album. Today we should drag ourselves in the SpineFeast to listen to some heavy music but we'll see. If I'll start to feel more confused it's probably better to stay at the hotel. Confused and drunken drummer won't be a very good company to anyone... But we'll see what happens after an hour or two goes by.


Drums_DaySeven

First take and that's it with the cover song. I don't know if the reason was hang-over (yes in the late night we found ourselves from the SpineFeast) or something else. Or maybe the aim wasn't as high as the days before and we didn't let the little unaccurate playing bother us. Now pack the cases and back home.

Written by Jukka on November 22, 2003

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5.11.-10.11.2003

Howdy ho!!!
Greeting from our new studio! It has been a month full of work and fun since we started to work with the new Nightwish album in these facilities. As a result of the demo recordings we now have twelve new songs and Tuomas still has couple of new songs on the way.
Everything went on as scheduled and everybody did their part as a good ole "MetalHead" should. Some of the takes were so good that they will propably end up being on the final album as they are. (Especially Tarja and Marco did their vocal parts so well that such a spontanious performances can hardly be expected again...). Despite all this there is still plenty of work to be done. That's why we ended up postponing the drum recordings for a week. Lucky for us it was ok both for Karmila and Finnvox schedules. So even at the moment Yucca and Tuomas are rehearsing and giving the songs and arrangements their final touch.
The songs are the best Nightwish has ever had so we all have plenty of expectations!!! Also the guys know this and the enthusiasm in NW-camp is easily sensed and smelled...
So the demo did its job and left everybody really hungry and anxious to get to do the final perforance for the actual album!!!

Yours, Tero "TeeCee" Kinnunen

P.S. Studio still not named, proposals accepted with graditude!!!

Written by TeeCee on November 9, 2003

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20.10.2003-4.11.2003

Well, demo is ready and it turned out to be quite a package... Some songs
are already ready to be recorded but some will still take a lot of work
and tears and sleepless nights until they can be released. All the songs
more or less work but some songs seem to lack that "thing" that
others seem to have naturally... Creating art can be difficult.=) But never
loose the faith!!! One thing I've noticed is that tempo-scale is much wider
than never before. Before recording the demo I didn't even noticed that
but almost all of the 12 songs go from different tempo.

Mr. TeeCee KInnunen was supposed to write this update in diary but he was
too busy with the final mixing of the demo so I desided to give a few comments
before we'll get the great creation of Mr. TeeCee.


Jukka

Written by Jukka on November 3, 2003




14.10.-19.10.2003

Cheers!

I just arrived here at Kitee and headed straight to the studio. The boys
have been recording some demo drums, synths and basses while I was spending
time in Southern Finland last week. There was an instant stench of shit
and hangover in the studio, which was an indication that the guys really
have been working hard... After first listening
the stuff recorded so far sounded fine...which has to do with the fact that
there`s not a note of guitar recorded yet. So
now I have a few days to get my parts recorded. From experience I know that
this will at least take a week. But to make it all easier I begin with tuning
my axes now, even though it`s an overrated thing in rock `n roll.
We`ll keep in touch and let you all know how we are doing!

Eli AAARRRGGG ROK DIE DIE!!

Emppu Vuorinen

Written by Emppu on October 18, 2003




11.10.-13.10.2003

It seems the basic rehearsals are pretty much
done now. We spent the last two days just going over the songs again and
again, giving them a final touch at this point and now we try to feel ready
for demo recordings. I really think we would have needed more time for this
process but on the other hand, I`m quite fed up with the songs already,
having worked with them by myself for ages and some time with the band,
too. It`s nice to have something recorded, finally. As always, I feel very
prejudice about the new material. 2 of the songs sounded like total crap
today and the rest didn`t exactly bring shivers on my back, either. And
nobody`s into that Kake Randelin - wannabe song except me... Haha! But it`s
been the same with every album so far, so I hope it`ll turn out fine again.

Time to finish the night with some lyrical frustration. Cheers.



Tuomas

Written by Tuomas on October 12, 2003

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6.10-10.10.2003

It's my turn to reveal something from the depths of the studio and so it will be. I have worked with the songs for three days now with Tuomas and Emppu and now we have 10 songs more or less ready to be recorded for the demo. Tomorrow we'll have an day off and we'll let our brains recover from the information-flood until we'll continue on sunday. Working the songs seems a bit easier than with Century Child even though songs are more complicated and there's much more hooks included. It must be that our skills are improved or our standards of judgement are totally wrong. You can decide after the album is released.

Today I also got back my snare which was left in Switzerland (READ: Which was left in Switzerland by my dear friend... =) ) on our shows in August. We almost had to pay customs for getting it back because when Ewo went to pick it up some guy told him we'd have to pay customs because snare is coming outside EU. Luckily Ewo talked things through and we didn't need to pay because
I've already payed once for this piece or metal...

Just don't give up and keep the humor along and add some shit in your pants.. =)


Jukka

Written by Jukka on October 9, 2003




3.10.-5.10.2003

Hello from wet and windy town of Kitee! We´ve got four days of intensive rehearsals behind now and so far, so good. Eight songs are quite finished for the demo recordings. Everybody has been really enthusiastic with the new stuff. Little arrangements and hooks have been added by everyone and all the songs seem to be getting better. As Tarja already wrote I´ve had a bad case of flu and raw garlic has been consumed in huge quantities. Only thing not so positive happened Friday night. We had a few drinks then and later that night I was sleeping in Tero´s living room. A friend from Tohmajärvi had passed out in the kitchen. He woke up, broke a flower pot, puked in the dirt which was all over the place. Then he came to the living room with his feet covered in the stuff and stepped on my face. I was pissed. The guy passed out again and me and Tuomas had to clean up the place. Tuomas was also pissed. Luckily, we´ve recovered and things are fine again. Some of the other bastards will probably be giving you some news later on this week. Until then… Stay clean!

Marco Hietala

Written by Marco on October 4, 2003

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First message from studio!

Kitee Monttu

The Pizza on the table has a very strong smell of garlic. Luckily today the smell of beer doesn't make the smell any stronger. Marco's flu and bacteria need something stronger anyway... We have rehearsed 3 new songs in one hour and they sound very good. I sense positive energy, we all have strong desire to learn new songs. It was good to take a break from touring for a while to have a "clean table" before going to the studio. New songs are changing all the time and learning them is not always so easy, but we made at least two songs sound as we all want and they ROCK LIKE AN ELK! I haven't sung any vocals yet because that will happen in a couple of weeks. We will go back to "Oceanborn"-time at least with one song and I think that's a positive thing. Couple of hours and couple of new songs, after that we're off to sauna and relaxing. Autumn's coldness makes fingers freezing and that's not so good for heavy musicians!

Tarja

Written by Tarja on October 1, 2003