Shadowwolf embraces the universe

Finnvox-Studios, Easter 2004. Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards) and Marco Hietala (bass/vocals) do not even try to hide their extremely broad grins. The new album ‘Once’ has just been mastered and sounds extremely massive, catchy and bewitching. The first listen gives you a real shock like an UFO would land at the beach of Tuomas’ peaceful family-cabin where the biggest part of the album has been written. The album starts with the words ‘Once I had a dream and this is it!’ and it is Nightwish’s ultimate masterpiece.

The crazy people from the small town Kitee spent more than 400.000 € to produce ‘Once’ and the first clip ‘Nemo’. Half of it was expended for the studio costs (once more the album was recorded, mixed and mastered in Tempputupa in Kitee and in the famous Finnvox-Studios in Helsinki). The rest of the money was invested in the perhaps best Finnish music video of all times. Since Nightwish only wanted the best they asked their fellow countryman Antti Jokinen who already worked for megastars like Eminem, Shania Twain and Celine Dion to realize the clip.
“From a Finnish paper we learnt that Jokinen wanted to produce a domestic metal-video”, Nightwish-Manager Ewo Rytkönen tells who sits with the two musicians at the Finnvox-cafeteria and slurps longdrinks. “I tried to find out his mobile-number right away because I didn’t want that Suburban Tribe or HIM would have him on the phone before me. But fortunately I was the first one who contacted him. Back then he worked with the world-famous Finnish director Renny Harlin for ‘The Exorcist 4’ in Rome, but he was able to take a flight to Finland in between for one weekend”.
“We just needed ten minutes for the basic idea of the clip”, Tuomas adds. “In the beginning we planned that the little gothic girl commits suicide and rises from the dead in the end and meets the band. Jokinen changed the script because he didn’t want the girl to die and in retrospect this was the right decision. The final version is a real killer and worth every single penny.”
The costs for the studio work exploded as well when Nightwish engaged the 52 people orchestra of the London Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields – the same orchestra that recorded soundtracks for movies like the ‘Lord Of The Rings’-Trilogy or ‘From Hell’. According to Nightwish Manager Rytkönen the ensemble which can be heard at nine out of eleven songs cost the same amount of money that the last Nightwish album ‘Century Child’ from which almost 500.000 copies were sold so far yielded as a profit.
“We know that combining Rock ‘n’ Roll with a classical orchestra is nothing new”, Marco confesses. “Metallica tried it and Deep Purple already did it in the sixties.” “The difference is that we did it better than all the others”, Tuomas grins and both musicians burst out laughing.
But even though Tuomas statement was meant as a joke: It is correct. Just listen to for example ‘Ghost Love Score’, an impressive ten minutes long masterpiece which lets every (and I really mean every!) other metal/orchestra-song sound like a piecemeal-song. Or let’s take the second single ‘Wish I Had An Angel’. The song irons out everything with its disco-drum-beat, hard metallic, Rammstein-like guitars and thundering, distorted bass-lines. In addition to that there are Tarja’s melodic vocals and Marco’s masculine singing; the lyrics were written in Kitee’s only bar Karhu.
“Even though metal and classic have been combined quite often ‘Once’ is a unique album”, Marco points out. “In my opinion we used the old elements in a way which created something completely new in the metal-universe.”
“’Once’ sounds like a movie-soundtrack in a strong metal-corset”, Tuomas adds. “This started to show already at the very beginning when I set myself the goal to compose music for eleven short-movies. I had a story inside my head and started to write songs to these pictures. Hopefully other people will be able to enter this world as well when they listen to ‘Once’.”
Nightwish took a big risk when they decided to record the orchestra-parts in London with the producer Pip Williams. And this doesn’t hint at the fact that Yes-keyboarder Rick Wakeman opened the door when Tuomas visited the studio for the first time…
“Pip is a veteran who already worked with bands like Status Quo and Uriah Heep in the sixties and seventies”, Tuomas tells. “He doesn’t use computers but notes down all the scores by hand. So we were only able to listen to the final versions when we visited London. I don’t want to imagine what had happened if we wouldn’t have liked his worked. After all we already spent a huge sum of money. But there were no problems with Williams; he is a real genius. In addition we got to know that he already knew Nightwish before and that he likes our old albums.
When the orchestra recorded its parts I was absolutely astonished. The musicians got their sheet music and started with the recordings immediately. No rehearsals, nothing! It’s unbelievable how some people can control their instrument!
In a certain part ‘Once’ is movie metal with references to Hans Zimmer, Walt Disney and Tim Burton; at the same time its basis is only a work from us five Nightwish musicians. Even though a few passages sound as massive as hell is coming up I always paid attention that the work as a whole doesn’t sound like a strange farce. When you look at the basic conditions you could start thinking that we are totally cracked up and recorded some psychedelic top-heavy shit. But this is absolutely not correct, damn it! ‘Once’ is riff-orientated and catchy metal played by Marco, Tarja, Jukka, Emppu and me. All the other elements are just there to re-colour the songs.”
One of the highlights on the album is the song ‘Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan’ (‘The artist dies’) with its Finnish lyrics, a wonderful emotional ballad with typical Nightwish trademarks. The longtime band-roadie and current Finntroll-singer Tapio Wiska is not the only one who had tears in his eyes when he listened to the song for the first time.
“I want to include some surprises on every record and this time I thought it was time to record a Finnish track. During the sessions we agreed on just putting the song on a single if it wouldn’t sound good enough but in the end we succeed in recording a very moving song which fits to the album perfectly.”
“By now I got used to Tuomas’ crazy ideas”, Marco grins. “When he told me that I should do some rapping for ‘Romanticide’ I really started to worry and thought: Damn I cannot do that shit; I do not have any credibility for this kind of singing. But it worked out quite fine. I just sang a lot of words in a very short time and it doesn’t really sound like hiphop”.
Have the tons of money, endless shifts and long nights full of work, the extermination auf cubic metres of beer and cigarettes really been worth it? Did ‘Once’ come out to be the album you hoped for?
“Definitely!” Tuomas calls. “One year ago I started writing the songs and since October 2003 we have been sitting in the studios without interruption. If you hear the final version of ‘Once’ you will share my point of view. I rarely felt as good in my life as I’m doing at the moment.”
“’Once’ is a very ambitious album”, Marco adds. “Although it sounds complicated at the beginning it is basically simpler than ‘Century Child’. The basic elements – guitars, bass and drums – are straighter and more focused on the riffs. They are supported by the orchestra, a choir, parts of Native American music and of course Tarja’s and my vocals. The atmosphere of the album is so intense that it embraces the whole universe.”
“Sixty minutes and six seconds of big art”, Tuomas laughs.
The expenditure was also big when it was time to mix the record. Apart from ‘Kuolema…’ 110 to 180 tracks were used for every song. Mikko Karmila (Stratovarius, Children Of Bodom, Edguy, Sonata Arctica among others) was responsible for this job again.
“In Finnvox you can only mix 128 tracks”, Karmila remembers the mixing agony. “We were forced to do a few pre-mixes to include everything. At the moment we are working on a 5.1-surround-version of the album which will perhaps come out in fall already. In 5.1 a few songs sound that huge that I almost couldn’t believe my ears. By the way, both ‘Elements’-albums of Stratovarius have been mixed as surround-versions in the meantime as well.”
Does one really need 180 tracks?
“Believe me or not”, Tuomas answers, “but we just realized that there are so many tracks when everything was recorded completely.”
“Of course you could record a symphonic orchestra with only one single microphone and it would still sound good”, Marco tries to explain. “But we wanted more; we wanted the best possible result. If a human being only had one ear we could put everything in one single track. But unfortunately most people run around with two ears, so the possibilities where the sound is positioned in a room are endless. When you listen to an orchestra playing live you may realize that the basses are on the left site, for example. That is why we record every instrument with a microphone of its own. So when we do the mix we can move the basses to the left where they belong.”
When you add up all musicians who are featured on ‘Once’ you get a number of three digits – even the list of guest musicians of the biggest hiphop-productions would become dull compared to this huge contingent.
“Perhaps we ought to put a sticker with all the names on the cover”, Marco laughs.
“The London orchestra and the choir already consist of about 90 people”, Tuomas sums up. “Then there is the choir from my home which consists of Sami Yli-Sirniö (Kreator, Waltari), John Two-Hawks, Jouni Hynynen (from the Finnish Band Kotiteollisuus) and Olli Halonen (from the band Disco which is from Suomi as well) among others.”
One of the most unusual guests on the album is the Lakota-Indian John Two-Hawks which can be heard in the song ‘Creek Mary’s Blood’, an epic about the Native American culture. For Tuomas who is a big fan of Native Americans and a follower of movies like ‘Dancing With Wolves’ a dream came true when he integrated him into the album.
“I had this idea to do a song about the Native Americans’ way of life but at heart I knew that this song would only be perfect if a Native American read the lyrics and played his own flute parts. That is why I searched the internet for a Native American and came across John. I sent our music to him and he consented to come to us although he doesn’t like planes and cold climate. John told me later that he had a dream where one of his ancestors told him that our collaboration is a good thing. ‘Creek Mary’s Blood’ is one of my absolutely favourite songs on the new record. John and I had a great time and became very good friends. He gave me a real Native American name and a present. The ancestor from his dream said that I deserve a Native American name. I was completely gobsmacked when he told me about it. We held a mystic ceremony where John burned all kinds of herbs around me and played hypnotic percussion-rhythms. In the beginning I feared that my Native American name would be something like ‘Laughing cow’ but John finally revealed to me that my new name should be ‘Shadowwolf’. It was a bit of a frightening ceremony where some strange things happened.
In John’s culture the wolf represents a teacher or an artist who sets out from dark places now and then to bring new enjoyment of life to the people. The wolf is no evil character; it just loves the solitude at calm places. But with this the whole thing wasn’t finished for John He surprised me for a second time when he wanted to give me a present. You have to know that a Native American always gives away the most precious thing they own. John gave me the scallop-casket of is grandfather which is covered with a rabbit’s fur. I felt unbelievably honoured.”
Let’s come back to ‘Once’ again. ‘Nemo’ is the first single; the second one will be ‘Wish I Had An Angel’.
“It has never been easier with any other album before to choose the single-tracks”, Tuomas remembers. “’Nemo’ is the perfect appetizer although it doesn’t reveal a lot of what happens in the course of the album; most of the songs are longer and more complicated.
At our message board somebody compared ‘Nemo’ to HIM and a Finnish journalist alluded: ‘The record sounds brilliant but I just cannot stand these HIM-Rip-offs.’ Especially ‘Dark Chest Of Wonders’ reminded him of a song by Ville Valo. I thought that this was absolutely ridiculous. The song has doublebass-drums, merciless guitar riffs and a flute solo – all these are things which you won’t find in a HIM-song. Probably this writer drank a bit too much of our beer supply during the listening session…”
“Status Quo and Creedence Clearwater Revival steal from HIM as well”, Marco jokes. “Both of them use straight bass-lines as well”. And chuckling he adds: “I love the conspiracy theories the most. After our last tour in South America somebody wrote at our message-board that I just smoke cigarettes on stage to ruin Tarja’s voice and take over her position as a lead singer. Goddamn shit, how could this perfect plan leak out…”
“Tarja is always good for wild speculations”, Tuomas laughs. “On one of our new promo pictures she is wearing a cowboy hat – and immediately some users guessed that we want to conquer the American market with all our might. Actually this is not a bad idea when I think about it…”
The next postings will already be bound to occur when the ‘Wish I Had An Angel’-Single will come out in late summer. The decision about the B-side-tracks hasn’t been made so far but many fans expect Nightwish’s versions of Ankie Backker’s hit ‘Where Were You Last Night’ from the eighties.
“Marco doesn’t like this cover-version at all and I am not that happy about the idea as well”, Tuomas appeases.
“Swedish adult-pop from the eighties is just not my cup of tea”, Marco excuses himself. “Furthermore the lyrics are atrocious.”
“Originally I had this idea because the song has so many similarities with Nightwish”, Tuomas justifies himself. “But the main reason why the winner was such an unusual song was that we wanted to make clear to the people that they shouldn’t take us so deadly serious all the time. I often have the feeling that all our compositions are analyzed much too accurately.”
“There seem to be quite a few people who think that we constantly roam over snowy fields dressed in black having suicidal thoughts and work them up in our lyrics”, Marco supposes. “Sometimes this may be true indeed but we can also laugh about ourselves. Live is not unbearably awful all the time.”
“Music is the love of my life and I write songs about things which are really important to me”, Tuomas says. “But eventually it is just my music, a few small voices in the universe which you shouldn’t take to serious.”
According to Tuomas it was clear quite quickly after the expiring of the last record-contract that the band was going to sign at one independent company specializing in metal.
“We met with the big bosses of the biggest record companies in the world. They promised us almost everything between heaven and earth but I didn’t like the vibes of these meetings. Something essential didn’t feel correct. Additionally they wanted a contract over four albums and this is simply too much for us. For four records we need ten years! And then there was the fact that the multinationals like Sony have never been interested in us before. All of a sudden and surprisingly they wanted to sign us but that was basically because of the success of Evanescence who have a female singer as well. They were just interested in maximizing their profit.”
“We send round a demo tape with two songs and some labels wanted to change a few parts or lyrics right away. Those were completely finished versions but miscellaneous companies thought they had unfinished demos in front of them. I just thought back then: “If this business bullshit is that annoying in this early stage what will it be like in the long term?”
“Sure, when you have a contract with a major company and sell ten million albums you are the best friend of the bosses”, Marco adds to the discussion. “But if your next record didn’t sell that good nobody would take care of you anymore. In Mötley Crüe’s ‘The Dirt’ you can read a lot about this stuff. For us it is just important that there is a human level in the business part as well. At the end of the day money has no meaning. Of course Nuclear Blast is a big company which generates revenues but after all it is a good and save feeling to work with them. I like it more to be a relatively big band at Nuclear Blast than being a mediocrity at Sony.”
Nightwish will be hyped up constantly until the late summer of 2005. The ‘Once Upon A Tour 2004-2005’ will be gigantic in all respects and it will bring the band to almost every corner of the earth. So the release of a live-recording is bound to occur of course.
“We will start with Festival-performances in Europe, followed by our first headliner-tour in North American with our label-mates Lullacry as a support act and a one or two weeks long Finland-tour in September/October”, Marco lists.
“Afterwards we will tour the rest of Scandinavia, continental Europe and South America”, Tuomas adds. “Perhaps we will lose our way also to Japan, Australia, Russia and North America. But we also have offers from other countries. The Israelis want us to perform over there but I am not sure if we will dare to perform there because of the tense situation.
I hate live-albums but still we managed to decide that we will record an EP if we should play in Hong Kong. Of course the record will be called ‘Made in Hong Kong’ than…”
The question may sound foolish but how do you ever want to overtop ‘Once’?
“I have no clue”, Tuomas says with a shrug. “But honestly said I do not want to know it.”
“It will be no problem to create new music again one day”, Marco shows himself full of confidence. “When you sit down and start new songs come up sooner or later. But at the moment we enjoy the emptiness inside of us. Do you know the feeling after you just took a real official shit? That’s exactly the way we feel right now.”
“Yeah that’s it”, Tuomas agrees laughingly. “Like after a damn good shit.”
But Tuomas has another unfulfilled dream next to Nightwish.
“It is no secret that I would love to compose movie soundtracks, perhaps even for a Hollywood movie. At the moment I concentrate on Nightwish completely but one day when I will be old and tired… Who knows?”
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The magic in the mountains – An interview with John Two-Hawks

The Native American singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist John Two-Hawks took a plane to Finland in March for six days to collaborate in ‘Once’. Two-Hawks who is nominated for a Nammy released a couple of albums and books and sang in folk-, hardrock and thrash-metal-bands in the past and creates mystic relaxing music now.

„At the age of fourteen I played the guitar in my first band; a few years later I toured the USA as a singer with the hard rockers of Embraced Wisdom and finally I changed to the Thrash-metal-guys of Kingdom Glory. I had a good voice for this kind of music and almost sounded like Metallica’s James Hetfield. Today I write music which is totally the opposite of metal and with whom I want to heal. I have always been opened for experiments and already wanted to play the flute on a metal album for years. I just waited for somebody like Tuomas and now I’m sitting here in a hotel-lobby in Helsinki and I work with Nightwish.”
Two-Hawks chooses his projects very carefully.
“I didn’t accept Tuomas offer right away because I didn’t know Nightwish. But he sent ‘Century Child’ to me and I liked the album so much that it is one of my most favourite records from the rock-genre by now. What I like about Nightwish is that they do not confine themselves to metal. I played ‘Creek Mary’s Blood’ to a seventy-two year old catholic priest and he loved the song. Nightwish’s music breaks up cultural limits and age limits. In their songs the strings sit enthroned above everything else and give a soundtrack-like touch to the compositions. And their message is very spiritual. Tuomas and I are tuned to a similar wavelength; we have common ideas and try to reach the same spiritual level. He is a child of the night; he loves the shadows and the storms as much as I do. He writes his songs in the secluded island-hut of his family. I work in a similar way. When I want to compose something I climb up into the mountains, turn off the light, light some candles and stay up there until I’ve managed to create something magical.”
John also speaks the poem in ‘Creek Mary’s Blood’.
“I translated it into Lakota-language. That was quite difficult because there are a lot of English words which do not exist in my language. I had to adapt some things and in the end my versions is a bit longer than the original. Tuomas expresses the feelings of the Native American people with his words. Our land was stolen; our culture was destroyed in many aspects. When I read the poem I knew that Tuomas understands the perception of the Native Americans. There is a book called ‘Creek Mary’s Blood’ written by Dee Brown who also wrote ‘Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee’, one of the most honest and most unpleasant works about the relation between Indians and Americans. Tuomas read it and I think it helped him to compose ‘Creek Mary’s Blood’”.
Are you going to be on stage with Nightwish at the next gigs in the USA?
“I’m only waiting for Tuomas to ask me about it. The crowd would like it for sure. I always perform dressed in full Native American robes and believe me, it looks quite spectacular”.