NIGHTWISH Founder TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN -

NIGHTWISH Founder TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN - "By The End Of The (US) Tour Anette Was Dancing On Stage And She Owned The Whole Audience"

Back in December 2007, www.OnceThereWas.com caught up with NIGHTWISH founder/keyboardist Tuomas Holpianen in Sweden. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Even though Anette (Olzon/vocals) is not here let’s first talk a bit about Nightwish's US tour. How was it for you guys?

Tuomas: "It was much better than we ever hoped for and during the tour we got what we went there for which was basically to get some self-esteem for Anette. And you could really see that during the first two weeks she was a bit scared and a bit more reserved on stage and not that convincing, which is only natural but at the end of the tour she was dancing on stage and she owned the whole audience."

Q: But when I saw the gigs from the beginning of the tour I already thought she was quite good…

Tuomas: "Yes, it was OK of course, but you could still see that she was not yet so naturally into it. But she definitely was at the end."

Q: And how did it go with the voice?

Tuomas: "She had her bad days, but that was to be expected as it will have to be in the future as well. And we had this little three minute discussion after the show in Portland where we basically just said 'Stop whining! And stop being such a perfectionist!' Because even though perfectionism is a virtue in a way it also poisons the whole atmosphere when it goes over the top. So that was like really the breaking point of the whole tour I would say. We just told her to stop complaining about not being able to do everything perfectly every night. That’s not the idea. But it was also a lot of fun of course. We had some off-days and we went to Disneyland and to Universal Studios in Orlando. And I even got to go to Disneyland with my Mom and Dad, which was like a once-in-a-lifetime treat. The whole tour was a lot of fun. Well, the beginning was actually a little bit of a hassle because of sickness and so. The funny thing was that we asked Anette a million times: 'Do you have any idea what you are getting yourself into?' and she was always like 'Yeah, yeah…I know.' And after two weeks in the US she admitted 'I had no idea.' It was kinda funny."

Go to this location for the complete interview.